film

ENTERTAINMENT

| The finest idle diversions this side of the Styx

The time has come to do some updating, so here's where I begin. It took me some time to decide how to reorganize things, but I think the results are pleasing. New additions include some lists from Ryan Busse (who is currently getting Marine-icized) and the invaluable Sight & Sound list of greatest films ever. Comments are always welcome.

The Films I Most Appreciate

The absolute best source of film information on the Internet,
bar none:
                                                    The Internet Movie Database
                                                                                 (IMDB)

The American Film Institute

I don't always agree with him, but Roger Ebert consistently writes intelligent reviews of films for the Chicago Sun-Times that are
always worth reading.
                                                    Roger Ebert in the Sun-Times

The Academy Awards

Ryan Busse's website dedicated to the discussion of the art of film
                                                                    (link forthcoming)

home . entertainment

1.   The Godfather (Parts I & II)
2.   The Royal Tennenbaums
3.   The Big Sleep
4.   Pulp Fiction
5.   Rear Window
6.   Quiz Show
7.   Shawshank Redemption
8.   American Beauty
9.   The Sixth Sense
10. Chicago
11. The Shining
12. Silence of the Lambs
13. The Searchers
14. Modern Times
15. West Side Story

Film Links

Citizen Kane
(Orson Welles)

Psycho

The Sixth Sense
(Shyamalan)

Taxi Driver
(Scorsese)

(Tarantino)

Chinatown
(Polanski)

The Godfather
(Coppola)

AFI's Top 10 Films

1.   Citizen Kane
2.   Casablanca
3.   The Godfather
4.   Gone With the Wind
5.   Lawrence of Arabia
6.   The Wizard of Oz
7.   The Graduate
8.   On the Waterfront
9.   Schindler's List
10. Singin' In the Rain

The complete list:
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (PDF)
100 Years...100 Movies (HTML)

The complete AFI "100 Years..." series

(The archived Film Page can be found here.)

Many of my lists have been relegated to the archived page (see link above), but the theme of the day is film education, so I'll start off with my most appreciated films list, where we have some movement up-top:

                                  These movies are very enjoyable,
                                   but still have some great art in
                                   the mix. Each is accessible to
                                   the general viewership, and can
                                   lay in-roads to film as an artform
                                   even for people who haven't                                            undergone any film scholarship.

                                   I was very tempted to put Peter
                                   Jackson's Lord of the Rings series (treated as one whole entry) on this list, but I think I am still too engaged in the post-film euphoria I experienced after seeing it to objectively judge the film(s).

If you're interested in embracing a little film history and want to see great film-making in action, watch any of the films on the American Film Institute's list of Top 100 (American) films.

(Warning: there is a lot of
black and white in that
list. So deal with it.)

If you can stomach what much of mainstream America cannot, and enjoyed all four hours of Lawrence of Arabia, or the careful pacing of Citizen Kane, educate yourself with what are considered the best films of all-time according to both critics and directors. No discrimination by nationality here, so yes, there may be some subtitles involved. But rest assured, the top two films on each list are in English because they're American. As they should be. Because we're the best at everything. And if you don't like it you can get out.

Sight & Sound's Top 10 Films

Critic's List

Directors' List

1. Citizen Kane
2. The Godfather (Parts I and II)
3. 8 1/2
4. Lawrence of Arabia
5. Dr. Strangelove
6. Bicycle Thieves
6. Raging Bull
6. Vertigo
9. Rashomon
9. La Regle de jeu
9. Seven Samurai

1. Citizen Kane
2. Vertigo
3. La Regle de jeu
4. The Godfather (Parts I and II)
5. Tokyo Story
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
7. Battleship Potemkin
7. Sunrise
9. 8 1/2
10. Singin' in the Rain

brief commentary on each film

For those brave souls who are interested in exposing themselves to some foreign film, Ryan Busse has put together a Beginners' Guide to Foreign Film. These are films that he says are a little less "weird" and a little more palatable for American audiences than standard foreign fare. (It's really just another list, though.)

1. 400 Blows/Stolen Kisses - Two Truffuat films from the Antoine
                                          Doinel series to which any teenager
                                          can respond.

2. Bicycle Thieves       -        A classic Neorealist drama: a simple
                                          story told so well I can't imagine
                                          anyone not being moved.

3. La Belle et La Bette     -     The original Beauty and the Beast.
                                          Cocteau's film is maybe the most
                                          beautiful black and white film ever
                                          made.

4. The Seven Samurai     -    Often credited with being the first
                                          modern action film.

5. The Exterminating Angel - This is a good first foray into the
                                          weird side of foreign films. A
                                          bizarre and hilarious movie.

Ryan Busse's Beginners' Guide to Foreign Film

8 1/2
(Fellini)

Bicycle Thieves
(De Sica)

Roger Ebert