I think there are 3 main levels of greatness for movies. There are the most successfully great, the historically greatest, and then the personal greatest. Here they are for me:
Most Successfully Great: Gone with the Wind
Historically Greatest: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Personal Greatest: Pan’s Labyrinth
Eternal Sunshine is perfect to me also.
2001
What’s the most average movie of all time?
very hard question, cause every movie has its own style. also there are a lot of types of movies…
but If I have to say just 1 movie, I would say A Clockwork Orange. And my second choice is Fellini’s movie Eight And A Half. And my third choice can be Sunset Boulevard maybe… I can make this list longer :)
If not Citizen Kane, then definitely 2001: A Space Odyssey.
To those of you who disagree with my remarks about Citizen Kane:
a. I worked for William Randolf Hearst for 2 years, at the beginning of my career.
I believe that a lifelong, professional journalist might suggest to you that Citizen Kane provides a fraudulent view of journalism, newspapers and journalistic practice.c. This is Grade B film, by any reckoning.
d. If you are challenging my credentials, rather don’t – I reviewed films for a major weekly newsmagazine for some years, from Paris.
Cheers
I don’t challenge your credentials, but I do challenge you contention that an innacurate portrait of the workings of a daily newspaper lessens CITIZEN KANE in any way, shape and form. It’s not a documentary or a biography; it’s a work of fiction… and one which spends probably less than 5% of its running time even marginally interested in newspaper procedure.
(And by the way, if I created a fictional film based with strict accuracy on the daily newspaper where I once worked I’m sure the audience would drift into a deep profound slumber after a very short while.)
I doubt the courtroom procedures in WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION or ANATOMY OF A MURDER are strictly accurate, for instance, or that we are treated to accurate views of the Old West in the films of John Ford, etc. etc.
Impossible to name just one “greatest movie” because there are just too many criteria for judgment.
I, too, share the belief that CITIZEN KANE, whilst seminal, can also be dreary and pompous at times.
I think THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY would be in my top 5.
Also LA DOLCE VITA.
TOKYO STORY is amazing.
MULHOLLAND DRIVE is pretty amazxing….
Interestingly, I find SPOTLESS MIND to be a snorefest. I found PULP FICTION to be cruel and in in bad taste. Just me, I guess.
Blow-Up would be my choice.
I can never really disagree with THE GODFATHER taking top spot. But for me personally PULP FICTION is the greatest film of all time because unlike Godfather 100% credit can go to the film (unless you count all of tarantinos influences) because its not based on previous material. Admitadly I am a bit in love with Tarantino as a filmaker though.
Another of my all time favs is HEAT. which despite not being the greatest of all time, I can never understand how its rarely considered to be amongst the, say top 20. The only film to get near its quality since its release would be FIGHT CLUB in my opinion
I’m surprised not more people are saying 2001: A Space Odyssey
I’m surprised not more people are saying Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana.
I’m surprised not more people have said Rob Schneider Is A Stapler.
Hi, “D:”
I have no doubt that there is much more to Citizen Kane than greed, but I seem insensitive to it.
I have seen it 3-4 times, trying to find what the film’s admirers find.
OK, it’s about political corruption and childhood psychiatric trauma, and it’s enduring consequences.
Let me ask you this………
I don’t know your calling , but let’s assume you are a skilled, experienced brick-layer.
One day Hollywood makes a film set in a “brick-laying environment.” (As opposed to Kane’s journalism environment.)
I bet you’d walk out of the film before the end. You’d be thinking, “These guys know nothing about brick-laying so the whole thing loses its significance and currency for me.”
I’m a journalist, and that was my feeling about Kane.
I don’t believe European audiences and reviewers share American enthusiasm for Kane. I don’t believe it turns up on “Top Ten” lists in Europe. I may be mistaken.
Cheers
Jalsaghar – Satyajit Ray
THE GODFATHER, PART II
(THE GODFATHER is the greatest overture to the greatest film ever made ..)
The Passion of Joan of Arc
nuff said!
Well as seen so far,
Almost, in the current market scenario, comedy and actions films are running on as compared to romantic movies….
Still, please update us, if any fantastic movie is about to release.
Thanks Bret, for creating awesome forum.
Well as seen so far,
Almost, in the current market scenario, comedy and actions films are running on as compared to romantic movies….
Still, please update us, if any fantastic movie is about to release.
Thanks Bret, for creating awesome forum.
Buckeroo Bonzai obviously!
HARRY LONG and BENEEZY:
I think you’re both 100% on target.
I had trouble choosing between Joan (my favorite historical figure, bar none) and The Third Man.
No, I supose Kane wasn’t intended as a documentary about news practice, which is peripheral to the story.
Nor, I guess, was the Maltese Falcon about ornithological statuary.
Thre have been many, many films about Joan, in seven languages. A very difficult young lady (child, really) to capture on film. Dreyer came closest, I think. Luc Besson missed the mark, so did Otto Premiger, but Miss Jovavitch (sp?) may have gotten the personality right. Nobody knows.
I am a student of Joan and her life. (No, she wasn’t a cross-dresser or gay.)
Unfortunately, the print I saw (in Paris, in the 50s) of the Dreyer version was pretty poor.
Albest
GA
Not just one but several.
Cinema Paradiso
I’m surprised not more people have said Marketa Lazarová
Dude, Where’s My Car?
You Got Served, or maybe Bring It On :)
…according to…
Positif Magazine – Rules of the Game 1939
Rob Lowing, Sydney Sun-Herald – Blade Runner 1982
San Francisco Bay Guardian – Fox and his Friends 1975
Sisqua – Shawshank Redemption 1994
Time Out – Citizen Kane 1941
Time Out, Readers – The Godfather 1972
AFI 1997 – Citizen Kane 1941
Sky Premier, 1999 – Star Wars
They Shoot Pictures Don’t They – Citizen Kane 1941
International Federation of Film Archives – Citizen Kane 1941
Kinovedcheskie, Russia – Citizen Kane 1941
German Poll of International Critics – The Searchers 1956
Romanian Critics, 1995 – Citizen Kane 1941
Cinemateca Portuguesa, 1994 – Nosferatu 1922
Entertainment Weekly – The Godfather 1972
IMDB – Shawshank Redemption 1994
James Berardinelli – Patton 1970
Aamulehti – Amadeus 1984
Cinepad – Citizen Kane 1941
John Kobal – Citizen Kane 1941
Movie Compound – Pulp Fiction 1994
Editorial Jaguar, Spain – Citizen Kane 1941
Movie Mail, UK – Seven Samurai 1954
Senses of Cinema – Vertigo 1958
Sight and Sound 1952 Critics – Bicycle Thief 1949
Sight and Sound 1962 Critics – Citizen Kane 1941
Sight and Sound 1972 Critics – Citizen Kane 1941
Sight and Sound 1982 Critics – Citizen Kane 1941
Sight and Sound 1992 Critics – Citizen Kane 1941
Sight and Sound 1992 Directors – Citizen Kane 1941
Sight and Sound 2002 Critics – Citizen Kane 1941
Sight and Sound 2002 Directors – Citizen Kane 1941
Empire Magazine, Readers – Star Wars 1977
Ingmar Bergman – The Circus 1928
Andrei Tarkovsky – Diary of a Country Priest 1951
Being out of step with Sight & Sound and the entire rest of the world, I say that ‘Dr. Strangelove: How to stop worrying and love the Bomb’ is the greatest film ever made. Kubrick’s been criticized for making too few movies. He actually made too many! After Strangelove, nothing else matters.
Forget love, forget loyalty, forget big business, Forget logic, forget trust, forget planting peanuts. The everlasting key to the world’s success does not lie in God or family, it’s face is absurdity. This is what makes Dr. Strangelove the one and only contender for the honor of ‘best’ film.
We’ll meet again.
Dorothée
I don’t care if I’m a sellout. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is perfect to me.