Cahiers du Cinemas 100 Greatest films

The influential French film magaziune Cahiers du Cinema has released its list of the 100 greatest list of films ever made. The list was drawn up by over 70 people involved in the French film industry. The List is as follows:-

1. Citizen Kane - Orson Welles
2. The Night of the Hunter - Charles Laughton
3. The Rules of the Game (La Règle du jeu) - Jean Renoir
4. Sunrise - Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
5. L’Atalante - Jean Vigo
6. M - Fritz Lang
7. Singin’ in the Rain - Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
8. Vertigo - Alfred Hitchcock
9. Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis) - Marcel Carné
10. The Searchers - John Ford
11. Greed - Erich von Stroheim
12. Rio Bravo - Howard Hawkes
13. To Be or Not to Be - Ernst Lubitsch
14. Tokyo Story - Yasujiro Ozu
15. Contempt (Le Mépris) - Jean-Luc Godard
16. Tales of Ugetsu (Ugetsu monogatari) - Kenji Mizoguchi
17. City Lights - Charlie Chaplin
18. The General - Buster Keaton
19. Nosferatu the Vampire - Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
20. The Music Room - Satyajit Ray
21. Freaks - Tod Browning
22. Johnny Guitar - Nicholas Ray
23. The Mother and the Whore (La Maman et la Putain) - Jean Eustache
24. The Great Dictator - Charlie Chaplin
25. The Leopard (Le Guépard) - Luchino Visconti
26. Hiroshima, My Love - Alain Resnais
27. The Box of Pandora (Loulou) - Georg Wilhelm Pabst
28. North by Northwest - Alfred Hitchcock
29. Pickpocket - Robert Bresson
30. Golden Helmet (Casque d’or) - Jacques Becker
31. The Barefoot Contessa - Joseph Mankiewitz
32. Moonfleet - Fritz Lang
33. Diamond Earrings (Madame de…) - Max Ophüls
34. Pleasure - Max Ophüls
35. The Deer Hunter - Michael Cimino
36. The Adventure - Michelangelo Antonioni
37. Battleship Potemkin - Sergei M. Eisenstein
38. Notorious - Alfred Hitchcock
39. Ivan the Terrible - Sergei M. Eisenstein
40. The Godfather - Francis Ford Coppola
41. Touch of Evil - Orson Welles
42. The Wind - Victor Sjöström
43. 2001: A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick
44. Fanny and Alexander - Ingmar Bergman
45. The Crowd - King Vidor
46. 8 1/2 - Federico Fellini
47. La Jetée - Chris Marker
48. Pierrot le Fou - Jean-Luc Godard
49. Confessions of a Cheat (Le Roman d’un tricheur) - Sacha Guitry
50. Amarcord - Federico Fellini
51. Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête) - Jean Cocteau
52. Some Like It Hot - Billy Wilder
53. Some Came Running - Vincente Minnelli
54. Gertrud - Carl Theodor Dreyer
55. King Kong - Ernst Shoedsack & Merian J. Cooper
56. Laura - Otto Preminger
57. The Seven Samurai - Akira Kurosawa
58. The 400 Blows - François Truffaut
59. La Dolce Vita - Federico Fellini
60. The Dead - John Huston
61. Trouble in Paradise - Ernst Lubitsch
62. It’s a Wonderful Life - Frank Capra
63. Monsieur Verdoux - Charlie Chaplin
64. The Passion of Joan of Arc - Carl Theodor Dreyer
65. À bout de souffle - Jean-Luc Godard
66. Apocalypse Now - Francis Ford Coppola
67. Barry Lyndon - Stanley Kubrick
68. La Grande Illusion - Jean Renoir
69. Intolerance - David Wark Griffith
70. A Day in the Country (Partie de campagne) - Jean Renoir
71. Playtime - Jacques Tati
72. Rome, Open City - Roberto Rossellini
73. Livia (Senso) - Luchino Visconti
74. Modern Times - Charlie Chaplin
75. Van Gogh - Maurice Pialat
76. An Affair to Remember - Leo McCarey
77. Andrei Rublev - Andrei Tarkovsky
78. The Scarlet Empress - Joseph von Sternberg
79. Sansho the Bailiff - Kenji Mizoguchi
80. Talk to Her - Pedro Almodóvar
81. The Party - Blake Edwards
82. Tabu - Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
83. The Bandwagon - Vincente Minnelli
84. A Star Is Born - George Cukor
85. Mr. Hulot’s Holiday - Jacques Tati
86. America, America - Elia Kazan
87. El - Luis Buñuel
88. Kiss Me Deadly - Robert Aldrich
89. Once Upon a Time in America - Sergio Leone
90. Daybreak (Le Jour se lève) - Marcel Carné
91. Letter from an Unknown Woman - Max Ophüls
92. Lola - Jacques Demy
93. Manhattan - Woody Allen
94. Mulholland Dr. - David Lynch
95. My Night at Maud’s (Ma nuit chez Maud) - Eric Rohmer
96. Night and Fog (Nuit et Brouillard) - Alain Resnais
97. The Gold Rush - Charlie Chaplin
98. Scarface - Howard Hawks
99. Bicycle Thieves - Vittorio de Sica
100. Napoléon - Abel Gance

No Irish films in the top 100 although John Huston the Director of The Dead at Number 60 is of irish stock and the Film is from a Joyce short story, set in Dublin and features many Irish actors like if my memory is correct Donal McCann.

The British Were very annoyed that not one purely British film made it into the Top 100 although many of the films mentioned have British actors, directors, scriptwriters and locations but not production companies which seems to be the deciding factor in nationality.

The Following was taken from the Telegraph.

The Telegraph say:

The list in the publication Les Cahiers du Cinema features films from the USA, Germany, Russia, Italy and Sweden but there is no place for some of the biggest British directors including David Lean, Ken Loach and Peter Greenaway.
British-born Alfred Hitchcock and Charlie Chaplin are both mentioned but only for the movies that they made in Hollywood.
The nearest the British cinema industry comes to a mention is the 17th (equal) place given to 2001: A Space Odyssey, made in 1968, by the American director, Stanley Kubrick, partly with British money and with British technicians.
The 1962 classic Lawrence of Arabia came seventh in a recent list of the best 100 movies drawn up by the American Film Institute in Hollywood but is perhaps the highest profile omission.

Jean-Michel Frodon, the editor of Les Cahiers du Cinema, has pointed out that the lack of British-made films was “striking” but not part of any Gallic conspiracy:

“It does not reflect an anti-British bias. It is simply the result of the individual choices of 76 people in the French industry. Each was asked to name their 100 best films and this was the result.
Yes, it is surprising, maybe, that there is no Lawrence of Arabia, or no film by Ken Loach or Stephen Frears (The Queen).
But there are many other national film industries which are also missing. There are no Brazilian films, for instance.”

Some British films that should have made the list would surely include:

• The Third Man
• A Matter of Life and Death
• Blowup
• Don’t Look Now

That said, if you were to ask me what are the truly great British films of the last 20 years, then I would struggle to come up with one

No Jaws? What a film. Must have watched it 20+ time.

Also, no Psycho? I know Hitchcock has other films in there, that was my favourite.

And you just know that they all sit around watching Old School on DVD half the time...

Interesting list alright. I think Manhatten is the most modern?

EDIT; Talk to her is the most modern

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Originally Posted by Dodge

And you just know that they all sit around watching Old School on DVD half the time...

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Its very hard to think of a true classic that has been released recently though. I wonder what film(s) from now or the last few years will be remembered in twenty years time? It wont be any of the special effects films as they will be old hat, films like harry potter or The Lord of the Rings are in my opinion just fads.

I'd to do a double take when I saw "The General" at number 18 :D

I wonder has it a sub-title "This has nothing to do with Martin Cahill. Rien"

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Originally Posted by Heliodorus

Its very hard to think of a true classic that has been released recently though. I wonder what film(s) from now or the last few years will be remembered in twenty years time? It wont be any of the special effects films as they will be old hat, films like harry potter or The Lord of the Rings are in my opinion just fads.

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There's a couple of gems from the last 10 or so years that will be viewed as classics in the decades to come in my opinion. The Thin Red Line, 21 Grams, Usual Suspects, Cache, La Vita è Bella, Pan's Labyrinth, are some that come straight to mind, there's also movies that will be remember fondly and will be revisited by future generations I think, movies like Little Miss Sunshine, City Of God, Lost In Translation, Being John Malkovich, and Eternal Sunshine, and then there's often overlooked gems like Love Liza, Bamboozled, Dancer In The Dark and Sexy Beast that you would hope would find a new audience as the years go on.

Plus I wouldn't be so sure that blockbusters like Saving Private Ryan, the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, and the Bourne Trilogy won't be regarded as classics in 20 years time.

Harry Potter won't be, solely because the movies have been disappointing to date, and given that they 5 movies in I fail to see how they can recover any level of reputation. Same with the new Star Wars trilogy, I think opinion of that will drop even lower in time

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Originally Posted by jebus

There's a couple of gems from the last 10 or so years that will be viewed as classics in the decades to come in my opinion. The Thin Red Line, 21 Grams, Usual Suspects, Cache, La Vita è Bella, Pan's Labyrinth, are some that come straight to mind

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Hmm, Havent seen two of these films (21 Grams and La Vita è Bella). I just wonder will they stand the test of time. For me Cache wont - I found the film totally unengaging. I'm not sure either if the the Usual suspects stands up to repeated viewing, excellent film though it is. The Thin Red Line is Haunting but is it too similar in structure and tone to Badlands? Pans Labyrinth was one of my favourite films of recent years. I must watch it again.

I couldnt believe that A Matter of Life and Death didnt make the top 100 films of all time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsXRx...eature=related

Think I have only seen 11 from that list.

Can understand how our neighbours a bit miffed they don't have any entries. Of thise mentioned would have thought Laurance of Arabia would be included. As mentioned already no British classics in the modern era.

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Originally Posted by pete

Think I have only seen 11 from that list.

Can understand how our neighbours a bit miffed they don't have any entries. Of thise mentioned would have thought Laurance of Arabia would be included. As mentioned already no British classics in the modern era.

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The Night of the Hunter which came second was directed by Charles Laughton. Hes english. Thats one hell of a film.

Laughably, Ive never seen The Deer Hunter. I think Ive seen 24 from that list.

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Originally Posted by jebus

, Lost In Translation,

Plus I wouldn't be so sure that blockbusters like Saving Private Ryan, the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, and the Bourne Trilogy won't be regarded as classics in 20 years time.
e

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ha ha
all a matter of opinion , but this list is better than what Channel four and the British progs and mags come up with

by the way - has anyone see the movie Freaks - on the list?

Phew, that's a pretty pretentous list.

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Originally Posted by Heliodorus

...I wonder what film(s) from now or the last few years will be remembered in twenty years time? It wont be any of the special effects films as they will be old hat, films like harry potter or The Lord of the Rings are in my opinion just fads.

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Yes, the Lord of the Rings is a pretty poor story all told. Certainly, the novelisation is hardly considered any good.

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Originally Posted by bennocelt

ha ha
all a matter of opinion , but this list is better than what Channel four and the British progs and mags come up with

by the way - has anyone see the movie Freaks - on the list?

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Not saying they'll be considered the greatest, but they certainly won't be forgotten.

Plus when it comes to movies who's to say whats a classic? I think a movie like 21 Grams is, but I could find you more people that think Saving Private Ryan is, I gaurantee you that.

Can we dismiss the by far and away biggest grossing movie of all time (Titanic)so easily? I'm not so sure

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Originally Posted by jebus

Can we dismiss the by far and away biggest grossing movie of all time (Titanic)so easily?

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Yes, absolutely. Its cack. Complete and utter cack. In no way should 14 year old girls get to choose the greatest films of all time.

And I'm no cine-snob (I would have Old School in my top 100 for example), but come on...

I've seen Freaks. Bizarre, bizarre stuff.

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Originally Posted by jebus

Can we dismiss the by far and away biggest grossing movie of all time (Titanic)so easily? I'm not so sure

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Movies that make a lot of money shouldn't necessarily be excluded but suggesting Titanic be added it laughable. If you can't watch something at least twice then cannot be considered.

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Originally Posted by pete

Movies that make a lot of money shouldn't necessarily be excluded but suggesting Titanic be added it laughable. If you can't watch something at least twice then cannot be considered.

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I'm not saying it should be added cause personally I find it sentimental drivel. What I'm saying is that if you took a poll of 100,000 people as to what the greatest movie is of all time and 14,000 said Titanic, whilst 3,000 said Citizen Kane then can we dismiss Titanic as a completely inferior movie?

As some of you may have realised I'm a lot more democratic when it comes to movies than music or football teams :)

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Originally Posted by Dodge

Yes, absolutely. Its cack. Complete and utter cack. In no way should 14 year old girls get to choose the greatest films of all time.

And I'm no cine-snob (I would have Old School in my top 100 for example), but come on...

I've seen Freaks. Bizarre, bizarre stuff.

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You're my boy Blue!

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Originally Posted by jebus

Not saying they'll be considered the greatest, but they certainly won't be forgotten.

Plus when it comes to movies who's to say whats a classic? I think a movie like 21 Grams is, but I could find you more people that think Saving Private Ryan is, I gaurantee you that.

Can we dismiss the by far and away biggest grossing movie of all time (Titanic)so easily? I'm not so sure

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I never go with the public - i mean wouldnt westlife then be considered one of the best of all time - not bad for a tribute band!

No- listen to the critics, etc

Saving Private Ryan has amazing action sequences, and a ready made story but the acting is woeful in it (only Sizemore comes out of it with any credit IMHO), and there is no real bounding amongst the soldiers that all war movies should have (think kellys heroes!)
nah Apocalypse Now is the best war movie:)

and Titanic - ha ha, man i found it impossible to watch all of that movie - turned it off after half an hour

by the way strange that Kes didnt make the list

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Originally Posted by bennocelt

by the way strange that Kes didnt make the list

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Not strange at all. ****e film. Nice little book but generally speaking british kitchen sink dramas are dpressingly boring. One paced throughout.

Oh, and don't listen to critics either bennocelt. Watch films and make up your own mind.

As Jebus rightly points out there have been a lot of excellent films released over the last 20 years or so. To name just 5 of my favourites.....

Memento
Amores Perros
City of God
Being John Malkovich
Goodfellas

I'd consider myself a bit of a film geek but have to admit I've probably seen only 20 of the films listed. I might try and track some of them down on lovefilm.

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Originally Posted by Dodge

Not strange at all. ****e film. Nice little book but generally speaking british kitchen sink dramas are dpressingly boring. One paced throughout.

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must disagree, loved it. certainly bleak but had a documentary-like realism that other films flail about trying to attain. tracy ullman was a guest on Turner Classic Movies in the spring and debuted Kes on that station. have to admit that some of the school scenes made me quite emotional thinking of growing up and going to school in donacarney! that said, best 100 movies of all time... well these lists are so subjective as to be futile if not outright ridiculous (i mean WHERE'S THE BLOODY SHINING!?) ;)

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Originally Posted by Dodge

Not strange at all. ****e film. Nice little book but generally speaking british kitchen sink dramas are dpressingly boring. One paced throughout.

Oh, and don't listen to critics either bennocelt. Watch films and make up your own mind.

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ah come on Dodge its an ace of a movie - That scene with the PE teacher is a classic

as for critics - well i do follow a few since if i was to follow TotalFilm etc i would be wasting a lot of time watching rubbish
Ross on BBC is another awful critic

yeah, right enough you do get a feel for certain critics and usually find 1 or 2 that have similar tastes to yourself

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Originally Posted by bennocelt

ah come on Dodge its an ace of a movie - That scene with the PE teacher is a classic

as for critics - well i do follow a few since if i was to follow TotalFilm etc i would be wasting a lot of time watching rubbish
Ross on BBC is another awful critic

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When Ross praises a movie you generally have to look at things like who's financing the movie, are his friends in it, because he has genuinely bumped the box office takings for some duds in recent years.

To be honest I haven't found a critic that I would consider to have the same taste as me. Cosmo Landesman (sp?) is far too cynical for his own good, the staff at Empire are far too up Spielberg and Lucas's holes and some of the rest will throw 4 stars at anything. Any names you could point me towards to check out?

What do you make of Roger Ebert?

I find him quite good but he does have a tendency to reveal quite a lot about the plot in his reviews

emmanuel levy i've read a few times and agreed with. american critic.

failing that, try mr. cranky who operates on the assumption that ALL movies are crap with the least crap earning 1 bomb and going worse from there, through dynamite (godawful), and finally ending up at the worst form of cinematic drivel which earns the distinction of the mushroom cloud. he tears apart art-house pretension and hollowood blockbuster alike. quite funny, and a bit of commentary on some of the sillier aspects of criticism at the same time.

I'm a big fan of Walter Chaw. He doesn't pull his punches and his taste is similar enough to mine that I take his opinons seriously.

Peter Bradshaw is usually spot on in my experience.

Empire's reviews are a joke at times and this is coming from a subscriber to the mag!

Donald Clarke (free on The Irish Times website every friday as "The Ticket") is quite good and Michael Dwyer for the same publication has more esoteric tastes but is also worth checking out. The good thing about these two is that they review every movie released on screen or on dvd in Ireland.

Yeah, they're not bad. I've seen Dwyer make some abominable errors though. I asked him about one of them once - he wrote something in his Dark Knight review which suggested he'd fallen asleep for some of it - and he claimed he'd already been told about it by a proof reader, but chose to keep it anyway for a complicated set of nonsensical reasons.

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Originally Posted by jebus

When Ross praises a movie you generally have to look at things like who's financing the movie, are his friends in it, because he has genuinely bumped the box office takings for some duds in recent years.

To be honest I haven't found a critic that I would consider to have the same taste as me. Cosmo Landesman (sp?) is far too cynical for his own good, the staff at Empire are far too up Spielberg and Lucas's holes and some of the rest will throw 4 stars at anything. Any names you could point me towards to check out?

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yeah there was that guy on the Daily Mirror that got into a lot of trouble over that - i cant think of his name but you always see him on C4 when they have their 1 to a 100 shows - he lost all creditablity over it

I like Mark Kermode, the guy who writes for the Daily mail is good, Ebert isn't bad, and what about the Shams fan Byrne in the Herald!:)

(someone mentioned Bradshaw!!! man the Guardian are great for football but rubbish for music and movie reviews - too up there own arse) - IMHO

Bennocelt - I'd agree with you on the guardian with respect to their music reviews but on the whole I'd say they are spot on with films. They won't go OTT if it's a big name director/film franchise unlike certain movie magazines.

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Originally Posted by jebus

What I'm saying is that if you took a poll of 100,000 people as to what the greatest movie is of all time and 14,000 said Titanic, whilst 3,000 said Citizen Kane then can we dismiss Titanic as a completely inferior movie?

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A NIGHT TO REMEMBER was a far better "Titanic" film than the dross with Leonardo and company.

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Originally Posted by jebus

To be honest I haven't found a critic that I would consider to have the same taste as me. Cosmo Landesman (sp?) is far too cynical for his own good, the staff at Empire are far too up Spielberg and Lucas's holes and some of the rest will throw 4 stars at anything. Any names you could point me towards to check out?

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I hate critics from the Cosmo 'Say the opposite of what other critics are saying for the sake of it it' Landesman school.