this is excellent work. thanks for compiling and charting all this information.
now, i’ve been waiting for this so we can start the overall debate!
Well that’s a very standard sort of list of the expected and established classics, so far- not that different from Sight and Sound, Senses of Cinema etc. I wasn’t expecting Mizoguchi to feature very strongly, but hopefully Sansho (and Ugetsu) may make the 100! They ought to, ha. Perhaps the lower reaches will throw up some intriguing surprises? Fellini, Bergman and Kurosawa were the expected top 3 “foreign” directors too; i must admit i’ll be glad when that trio’s standing gets shaken up a little, but in saying that obviously i’ll be touching plenty of admirers’ nerves
very standard indeed. but godard only barely made the top 10 directors, and none of his films made the top ten list at all? wow.
Adam, a million thanks from the whole team at The Auteurs for putting together this epic project!
Adam: A nod to you — first for the idea, and then for all the work you had to have done. Thanks.
And there stands old Rosebud, still looming over us all …
You’re welcome. I had a wonderful time doing it.
I wish I had caught this before it was to late!
thank you. Adam.
The list is sadly generic, but to each his own. Very happy to have participated in such a poll.
Coppola’s a director who always does well in these sorts of polls, but taking his career as a whole i’d say he’s fortunate to place so high. I suppose such polls promote some erratic directors through a few points of greatness rather than rewarding consistent excellence and overall achievement.
I am sure Wells is up there grinning sheepishly at us all. Rosebud indeed.
The results kind of sort of baffled me, to start with, I had my qualms about Godard, Bergman movies missing in Top10, then I started cringing about Kane at #1, finally found myself crying that a very few films from my own list made it to the Top10 ( narcissistic me ), that apart, just goes to show its the collective choice that counts and different people come with different opinions and reasons on why they vote for a certain movie.
The list is eclectic which is good and generic which borders on OK, nevertheless TheAuteur’s Top10 – fantastic. (How about flashing this on the home page, can we?)
..and Adam, right from conception to execution – great work – thanks for that!
dp
Thanks Adam. Too bad after all of that hard work we still didn’t get a definitive top ten but a top twelve. Does anyone think their should be some sort of a tiebreaker for the four films which tied for ninth place?
more detailed results are forthcoming
this would make for a good auteurs festival since there is a nice selection of criterion films in the mix. (thanks for all your work, adam!)
This is AWESOME thanks soooo much Adam, you really went above and beyond! While I disagree with parts of the list I guess that’s what makes the world go round, I’m also really excited to look through the different lists and see where people had the films that made the tops, ie how many people had Kane at #1…
Adam thats fukken awesome, but its somewhat intriguing how conservative the list seems to be. not that this is a bad thing since my own list was as well, but its interesting and refreshing to see a similarity between our tastes and that or the original poll.
i was also surprised that the list would be so conservative. “2001” from kubrick was a surprise, considering how many people on this site champion his other films.
well, the canon is the canon. classics are classics for a reason, i guess. hard to argue against them. maybe boring to see the same names over and over again, but it reminds you that they’re there for a reason.
adam you did excellent work here. the results surprise me although they are all worthy choices.
brace yourself, bob stutsman.
By conservative do you mean the vast majority of films listed were ones you’d expect to be listed? I’m fairly confident the films each person listed truly were the ten they feel are best. I was tempted not to list Rabbit Proof Fence or The Crying Game as I knew they probably wouldn’t receive another vote and instead go with 2001 and Seven Samurai but I didn’t.
Concurrence all the way!
I’m having the most fun looking over everyone’s lists. Some observations:
1. some surprise that neither LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD nor any Bergman made the tops. I really expected them to do so.
2. surprise that LAWRENCE OF ARABIA doesn’t factor much into anybody’s lists.
3. I expected RAGING BULL to top TAXI DRIVER, although I’m perfectly fine with both
4. I did not expect STALKER or THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC to place. Bravo to both!
5. I really must make the time to watch SATANTANGO.
6. Look at all the love for Bresson, Dryer, and Tati, and THE THIN RED LINE, PIERROT LE FOU, MULHOLLAND DR., and A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE !!! Yes !!! That is enough to make all hearts sing! Just to see those on so many lists makes this exercise the worthiest venture we’ve yet taken.
It is a genuine honor to be among all of you in this little net community, and allow me, Adam, to throw in my profound thanks for undertaking the project.
Thanks again Adam for all the fine work in compilation of this list.
Kenji
I agree with you on Coppola. While it seemed to have conflicted with the rules of this list compilation,—it was dropped from my published list—I compiled a list of the best directors (and a small selection of favorites) to be enumerated. For example, I placed a vote for Alain Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad but I do not believe that his whole body of work measures among the greatest of all directors; by like token I did not include a film by Sergei Eisenstein, but I placed him on my list of best directors.
Good work here, the results are pretty good…except that Roman Polanski is missing from the director’s top 10. I’ll go with filmy andy on this..
I pretty much voted for my 10 favourite films, they just happen to include Kane, 2001, 8 1/2, and Seven Samurai. There are only two of my most favourite films omitted, Chasing Amy and Serenity. My love for those films is very personal, and I have reservations about their worth on this scale. The 10 films on my list had to be entirely without reservations.
What i find most interesting in these polls is seeing the individual films in each top 10- rather than the (not very surprising) overall result, this can throw up some fascinating choices to explore- i like working through all the individual lists in Sight and Sound, Senses of Cinema, John Kobal polls. They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They is an excellent resource, as they’ve gathered together so many critics’ top 10s and other selections.
My list had 3 in common – 2001, 8 1/2, and Seven Samurai, like many other participants, more evidence for the fact that they are the towering giants of Cinema in every which way. same holds with the film makers who made them – Fellini, Kubrick and Kurosawa
Orson Welles, undeniably comes next in the directors list, but Citizen kane despite being a great movie does not hold a place in my Top 10.
Justin: Brace myself indeed…
The result are in, thanks to Adam’s hard work. Interesting that the result closely mirrors BFI’s with Citizen Kane in top spot in the 2002 Critic’s poll, followed by Vertigo #2, Rules of the Game #3, Godfather #4, 2001 #6, 8 /12 #9. Well, at least the auteurs are keeping in good company. It is inevitable that so many recognized classic films would show up on our own list. Here was my initial prediction done about a month ago, when the autuers poll started:
“In any case, what would make it more interesting is for some of us (more cynical types) to see if we could ‘predict’ the outcome from what has already been posted and our own guesses as to what is bound to be on this list. Here is my prediction (off the top of my head): 2001, Third Man, 8 1/2, Rashomon, Vertigo, The Godfather 1, Fargo, Fanny & Alexander, Solaris, Citizen Kane (close: The Searchers, Taxi Driver, 400 Blows, Blade Runner, Psycho) – you get the idea. Does such a list prove anything? In any case, we’ll never know until somebody does it – so by all means…Place your bets here.’ You can see for yourself just how this prediction worked. I have done a ‘canon’ and Citizen Kane thread, and explored several top ten postings all over the internet.
I am happy with the results, but will be much more interested in the complete lists, as there true undiscovered gems will emerge. It is also interesting to see the directors posted in the top ten. Going by what is there, Coppola, Scorcese, and Coppola are the only living directors, so how does this relate to the ‘greatest living director’ thread?
In any case, I am happy to see Stalker getting recognition and Dreyer, which were the surprises for me. I was also surprised that The Third Man did NOT make the list! Also, I guess Bergman had too many great films for us to limit it to one – that is the only explanation for his absence on our top top film list. Now, should we go back and re-examine the whole ‘canon’ issue? There is now a lot we can talk about, as we are now doing, re who is on and who is off the list. Thanks again, Adam.
Adam thanks for all the work you put in on this project, I’m really surprised Rules of the Game finished 4th.
Adam Cook
First off I must mention my gratitude for all those participating. I don’t think there is any other site where this poll would really work. There is no community of film lovers as diverse and intelligent. That shows in the results. The movies voted for span from 1900-2008, and come from over 30 nations of cinema. Each top ten list submitted is worth looking at so I will be posting the individual lists in the thread that this started in http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/1179/comments?page=11
Here are the results of The Auteurs Poll…
The Top Ten Films
1. Citizen Kane – Orson Welles (1941) USA
2. 2001 A Space Odyssey – Stanley Kubrick (1968) USA
3. 8 ½ – Federico Fellini (1963) Italy
4. The Rules of the Game – Jean Renoir (1939) France
Seven Samurai – Akira Kurosawa (1954) Japan
6. The 400 Blows – Francois Truffaut (1959) France
Vertigo – Alfred Hitchcock (1958) USA/UK
8. The Passion of Joan of Arc – Carl Theodre Dreyer (1928) France
9. The Godfather – Francis Ford Coppola (1972) USA
Rashomon – Akira Kurosawa (1950) Japan
Stalker – Andrei Tarkovsky (1979) Russia
Taxi Driver- Martin Scorsese (1976) USA
The Top Ten Directors
1. Stanley Kubrick
2. Federico Fellini
3. Alfred Hitchcock
4. Ingmar Bergman
Akira Kurosawa
Orson Welles
7. Francis Ford Coppola
8. Andrei Tarkovsky
9. Martin Scorsese
10. Jean-Luc Godard
The Top Ten Nations of Cinema
USA – 415 Votes
France – 219 Votes
Italy – 120 Votes
UK – 94 Votes
Japan – 77 Votes
Germany – 59 Votes
Sweden – 40 Votes
Russia – 38 Votes
Poland – 16 Votes
Spain – 15 Votes
A chronological look at votes by year
The 00s (1 Vote)
1900 – 1
The 10s (1 Vote)
1915 – 1
The 20s (37 Votes)
1922 – 1
1924 – 3
1925 – 5
1926 – 1
1927 – 7
1928 – 17
1929 – 3
The 30s (45 Votes)
1930 – 2
1931 – 11
1932 – 4
1933 – 3
1934 – 1
1936 – 1
1937 – 2
1938 – 1
1939 – 20
The 40s (93 Votes)
1940 – 5
1941 – 30
1942 – 14
1943 – 1
1944 – 7
1945 – 3
1946 – 9
1947 – 1
1948 – 12
1949 – 11
The 50s (159 Votes)
1950 – 20
1951 – 4
1952 – 8
1953 – 13
1954 – 30
1955 – 11
1956 – 12
1957 – 20
1958 – 17
1959 – 24
The 60s (226 Votes, strongest decade)
1960 – 37 (Tied for strongest year)
1961 – 13
1962 – 14
1963 – 35
1964 – 19
1965 – 12
1966 – 33
1967 – 16
1968 – 37 (Tied for strongest year)
1969 – 10
The 70s (163 Votes)
1970 – 7
1971 – 13
1972 – 28
1973 – 12
1974 – 25
1975 – 18
1976 – 19
1977 – 11
1978 – 2
1979 – 28
The 80s (82 Votes)
1980 – 19
1981 – 2
1982 – 19
1983 – 5
1984 – 4
1985 – 6
1986 – 12
1987 – 6
1988 – 3
1989 – 6
The 90s (78 Votes)
1990 – 4
1991 – 12
1992 – 3
1993 – 13
1994 – 15
1995 – 10
1996 – 4
1997 – 3
1998 – 9
1999 – 5
The 2000s (60 Votes)
2000 – 12
2001 – 9
2002 – 9
2003 – 10
2004 – 2
2005 – 5
2006 – 6
2007 – 4
2008 – 3*
Once this sinks in a bit, I’ll post all films and directors with 3 votes or more.