FILM: THE CRITICS' CHOICE
By: Kenji

W.R: Mysteries of the Organism
Film: The Critics’ Choice is a book from 2001, edited by Geoff Andrew, with a selection of 150 films, 10 (well 11, with a pair) distinguished critics each picking 15 films to cover a different era or aspect of cinema
David Bordwell: The Silent Era (#1-15)
David Thomson: America: The Studio Years (16-30)
Philip French: America: Years of Change (31-45)
Amy Taubin and Kent Jones: America: The Modern Era (46-60)
Gilbert Adair: Europe: The Golden Age (61-75)
Jonathan Rosenbaum: Europe: New Waves (76-90)
Jonathan Romney: Europe: A New Fin de Siecle (91-105)
Peter Wollen: British Cinema (106-120)
Tony Rayns: International Cinema (121-135)
Paul Wells: the Art of the Impossible (136-149)
Not on this site:
Pleasures of War (Lingford)-Wells
A few observations:
- Latin America is neglected in the book (and the book’s use of the term America is problematic)
- Where is India?
- World Cinema generally could have done with more extensive coverage, an extra chapter could have done wonders, and so Africa would have been better served too
- In our Auteurs Film World Cup, the semi-finalists were China, India, Japan and Africa- hardly strongly represented here.
- Female directors are poorly represented. Only 1 of the critics is female
- I would have liked more from Japan
- The book has a British editor, who is an excellent writer and programmer, and the critics are from UK and US, hence the full chapter of 15 films on UK
- Good to find a couple of early Chinese classics, and 2 by Oliveira (3 from Portugal)
- There are some refreshing unexpected selections, and the missing major masterpieces and usual suspects don’t need promotion
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01Auguste Lumière
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02Georges Méliès
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03Victor Sjöström
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04D.W. Griffith
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05Louis Feuillade
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06Robert Wiene
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07F.W. Murnau
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08Sergei Eisenstein
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09Charlie Chaplin
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10Ernst Lubitsch
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11Buster Keaton
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12Fritz Lang
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13Vsevolod Pudovkin
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14Carl Theodor Dreyer
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15Yasujirô Ozu
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16Josef von Sternberg
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17Merian C. Cooper
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18Leo McCarey
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19Victor Fleming
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20Ernst Lubitsch
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21Howard Hawks
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22Orson Welles
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23Fritz Lang
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24Vincente Minnelli
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25Frank Capra
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26Nicholas Ray
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27Alfred Hitchcock
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28Elia Kazan
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29Anthony Mann
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30Otto Preminger
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31Alfred Hitchcock
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32Robert Rossen
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33John Frankenheimer
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34Arthur Penn
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35Sam Peckinpah
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36Bob Rafelson
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37Peter Bogdanovich
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38Francis Ford Coppola
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39Martin Scorsese
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40Steven Spielberg
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41Robert Altman
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42Clint Eastwood
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43Woody Allen
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44George Lucas
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45Michael Cimino
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46Martin Scorsese
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47Amy Heckerling
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48David Cronenberg
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49Jim Jarmusch
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50James Cameron
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51David Lynch
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52Spike Lee
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53Steven Soderbergh
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54Gus Van Sant
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55Ridley Scott
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56Kevin Smith
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57Steve James
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58Quentin Tarantino
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59Todd Haynes
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60Stanley Kubrick
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61Fritz Lang
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62Carl Theodor Dreyer
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63Jean Renoir
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64Sacha Guitry
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65Boris Barnet
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66Abel Gance
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67Manoel de Oliveira
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68Roberto Rossellini
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69Marcel Carné
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70Max Ophüls
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71Jean-Pierre Melville
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72Robert Bresson
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73Federico Fellini
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74Luis Buñuel
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75Yuliya Solntseva
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76Andrzej Wajda
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77Edgar Morin
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78François Truffaut
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79Claude Chabrol
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80Alain Resnais
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81Michelangelo Antonioni
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82Bernardo Bertolucci
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83Jean-Luc Godard
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84Jacques Demy
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85Věra Chytilová
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86Pier Paolo Pasolini
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87Dušan Makavejev
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88Miklós Jancsó
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89Jacques Rivette
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90Éric Rohmer
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91Werner Herzog
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92Theodoros Angelopoulos
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93Andrei Tarkovsky
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94Jean-Luc Godard
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95Raúl Ruiz
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96Éric Rohmer
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97João César Monteiro
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98Manoel de Oliveira
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99Lars von Trier
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100Víctor Erice
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101Krzysztof Kieślowski
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102Tony Gatlif
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103Aki Kaurismäki
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104Julio Medem
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105Claire Denis
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106Alexander Korda
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107Alfred Hitchcock
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108David Lean
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109Alberto Cavalcanti
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110Michael Powell
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111Carol Reed
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112Charles Crichton
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113Joseph Losey
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114Richard Lester
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115Donald Cammell
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116Peter Greenaway
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117Terry Gilliam
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118Alan Clarke
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119Derek Jarman
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120Mike Leigh
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121Sun Yu
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122Sadao Yamanaka
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123Kenji Mizoguchi
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124Fei Mu
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125Luis Buñuel
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126Lino Brocka
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127Nagisa Ôshima
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128Im Kwon-taek
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129Şerif Gören
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130Tian Zhuangzhuang
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131Souleymane Cissé
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132Abbas Kiarostami
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133Takeshi Kitano
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134Hong Sang-soo
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135Wong Kar-wai
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136Wladyslaw Starewicz
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137Winsor McCay
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138Dave Fleischer
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139Lotte Reiniger
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140Ben Sharpsteen
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141Tex Avery
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142Norman McLaren
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143Chuck Jones
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144Yuriy Norshteyn
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145Frédéric Back
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146Jan Švankmajer
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147Hayao Miyazaki
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148Nick Park
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149John Lasseter