June
25
Top 100 Film Lists: AFI, Time, AWFJ and Mine
I filled out the AFI Top 100 ballot. And I realized that I was being a total auteurist. I'd check anything by Keaton, Welles, Hawks, Ford, Huston, Wilder. Other directors--even the great Hitchcock, whose classics are dating fast-- were hit or miss. I realized that some movies had slipped in my estimation over the ten years since I last filled out the same list.
But one director had come up in my estimation considerably, which surprised me: Capra. His oeuvre is holding up really well. Is it the political tenor of the times? My liberal bias against the establishment? Capra rocks. When I took Nora to a double feature of It Happened One Night and Holiday, the Capra was fresh as a daisy; the Philip Barry/George Cukor was still terrific--and would make a great remake--but it was very much a product of its time. (On the other hand The Philadelphia Story, with many of the same collaborators, is still perfect.) Movies are supposed to be snapshots of a moment. But the great ones last, become timeless, universal.
Here are some other reactions to the AFI List.
Glenn Kenny has an alternative list.
Here's Time's Top 100.
Here's Edward Copeland's Top 100. And Bad for Glass.
The Media Center has a list of 100 films all directed by women.
And the 27-member Alliance of Women Film Journalists finally announced their top 100, a few days later than they should have to catch the crest of the AFI wave.
Sasha Stone (formerly of Oscarwatch, now called Awards Daily) noticed that Vertigo has actually risen on the new AFI list, while I think that the long-lauded Hitchcock classic is suffering as time goes by. Rear Window isn't as strong as I remember it either. North by Northwest is holding up better, as is Psycho. And Carrie Rickey applauds the rise of John Ford's The Searchers.
Spout's Karina Longworth rounds up some AFI reactions and has some of her own.
My own Top 100 is on the jump--in no particular order, btw, I just numbered the list to make sure I picked 100. OK, tell me what horrible omissions I've made! I decided not to have more than two films by any one director. Also, this list includes foreign films, which the AFI does not. Given a choice among films by my favorite directors, I have purposely not picked more obscure titles because I'm submitting the list to an alternative critics' poll. (So I substituted My Darling Clementine for Rio Grande, and Some Like It Hot for Ace in the Hole.) Any movies that earn just one vote won't make the cut. So it makes more sense to pick a better-known film from a director, or two.
I'll let you know when that list goes up.
1. The General
2. Sherlock, Jr.
3. Touch of Evil
4. Citizen Kane
5. My Darling Clementine
6. The Searchers
7. Ball of Fire
8. Bringing Up Baby
9. Notorious
10. Psycho
11. Gone with the Wind
12. Rules of the Game
13.Dr. Zhivago
14. Lawrence of Arabia
15. High Tide
16. The Piano
17. Reds
18. Fanny & Alexander
19. Swing Time
20. The Philadelphia Story
21. The Earrings of Madame De
22. Casablanca
23. 2001: A Space Odyssey
24. Dr. Strangelove
25. For Whom the Bell Tolls
26. It Happened One Night
27. It’s a Wonderful Life
28. The Apartment
29. Some Like it Hot
30. Ninotchka
31. Trouble in Paradise
32. Sunrise
33. La Strada
34. The African Queen
35. The Man Who Would be King
36. All About Eve
37. Meshes of the Afternoon
38. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
39. Annie Hall
40. The Conformist
41. Battleship Potemkin
42. Secrets and Lies
43. Napoleon
44. War and Peace
45. The Bicycle Thief
46. Way Down East
47. Bonnie & Clyde
48. The Last Laugh
49. The Third Man
50. The Last Detail
51. Meet Me in St. Louis
52. The Bad and the Beautiful
53. Goodfellas
54. Shanghai Express
55. Chinatown
56. The Wind
57. The Sweet Smell of Success
58. The Gold Rush
59. The 400 Blows
60. Jules et Jim
61. Duck Soup
62. Au Hazard Balthazar
63. E.T. -- The Extra-Terrestrial
64. West Side Story
65. I Know Where I’m Going
66. Pinocchio
67. Finding Nemo
68. Raise the Red Lantern
69. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgoisie
70. The Seven Samurai
71. The Marriage of Maria Braun
72. Fargo
73. The Road Warrior
74. From Here to Eternity
75. The Godfather trilogy
76. The Lord of the Rings trilogy
77. The Lady Eve
78. Frankenstein
79. Titanic
80. Terminator 2
81. Master and Commander
82. The Graduate
83. Do the Right Thing
84. Breaking the Waves
85. East of Eden
86. King Kong
87. Once Upon a Time in the West
88. The Wild Bunch
89. Blow Up
90. Midnight Cowboy
91. Mon Oncle
92. Nashville
93. Network
94. To Kill A Mockingbird
95. 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her
96. Platoon
97. Pulp Fiction
98. Unforgiven
99. All About My Mother
100. Pickup on South Street
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Groundhog Day
His Girl Friday
The Awful Truth (both hold up better than Bringing Up Baby, I think)
Posted by: chris lee | June 26, 2007 at 09:31 AM
Looks like you listed REDS twice (17 and 48). It wasn't *that* good...
Posted by: Steve | June 26, 2007 at 10:10 AM
I have two Howard Hawks films already--much as I LOVE His Girl Friday--I prefer Bringing Up Baby!
Posted by: Anne Thompson | June 26, 2007 at 01:24 PM
Thanks. I replaced the second Reds with a second F.W. Murnau, from the silent era, The Last Laugh.
Posted by: Anne.Thompson | June 26, 2007 at 01:25 PM
Wow, "The General" and "Sherlock, Jr.," at numbers one and two. Nice to see others still remember Buster, a true American original.
But I see no Fritz Lang, and no "Jaws." Not sure we'd have much of a film industry today in this country without the example set by those two.
Posted by: Kit Stolz | June 27, 2007 at 09:48 AM
Well, was the influence of Jaws ultimately a good thing or a bad thing? I chose E.T. as the ultimate Spielberg, and if I had my druthers I'd add A.I. or Empire of the Sun as my other fave raves. You're right, I should have included Metropolis, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, M or perhaps my favorite, Dr. Mabuse. Huge oversight. OK, I'll replace The Last Laugh with Metropolis, as the one that had the most lasting impact on other films.
Posted by: Anne.Thompson | June 27, 2007 at 12:35 PM
Singin' in the Rain ??????
Posted by: BG | June 27, 2007 at 09:33 PM