New Greatest Film of All Time

[Gori the Grey]

I think explaining to people the "greatest film of all time" is a 3.5-hr, slow-moving Belgian film about a housewife/part-time prostitute is going to alienate most people.

Precisely how one establishes one's credentials as a film critic is to claim to appreciate something the hoi polloi never would.

 

[Kyriakos]

Precisely how one establishes one's credentials as a film critic is to claim to appreciate something the hoi polloi never would.

It should be "something hoi polloi"; "hoi" is an article (would mean "the" in English) /monocle

 

[schlaufuchs]

Not enough West African, Iranian, Chinese, or pre-code films for my taste. The omission of Cocteau and Satoshi Kon is also downright criminal imo.

 

[Gori the Grey]

It should be "something hoi polloi"; "hoi" is an article (would mean "the" in English) /monocle

Despite its derivation from two Greek words, in English, the two word phrase hoi polloi has become a unit of thought meaning essentially "commoners" and is regularly preceded by the English article "the." You're not wrong that that is a macaronic pleonasm, but you are wrong about English usage.

 

[9gkj548hkm20vk79dj689bnj4]

- Never heard of Jeanne Dielman but I don't follow mainland Europe films too closely.

- To this day I don't get the love for Vertigo. Maybe because it's Hitchcock's most "stylistic" and "artsy" film even though I think the story is lousy.
[Like, the main antagonist is on the screen for like 2 minutes in the beginning and *poof* never seen again. iirc.]

- Personally I think Citizen Kane gets all the praise it gets if only because its style is so different compared to every other film of the era.
Although brand new viewers to it nowadays might not be very impressed by it if they already haven't seen like a million 1930s-40s films like me. I can easily understand why.

 

[r16]

count 24 as movies ı have heard about , 18 as ı might have seen at least parts of . So , like , huh ?

 

[Kyriakos]

I like the story in Vertigo
Well, the double-related main story, not really the usual Hitchcockian obsession with good-looking people.

 

[Fippy]

The Fellowship of the Ring should also be on, everybody was waiting for that movie and imo it didn't disappoint.
2 Towers and Rotk were full of kitsch (but still somewhat epic) and can be out, but the first one was A+

 

[innonimatu]

Still too many old people films

7 samurai made the list but not hidden fortress ?
Totoro made the list but where is graveyard of fireflies ?
If you going to cheat and have like so many ties might as well cheat some more to add in a few more films

Why do people rate Graveyard of the flies so high? The protagonist was unlikable - acting selfish in a desperate situation, he caused his sister's death. Stresses of the war and so on sure, it's an anti-were movie, but I never liked silly characters. Does not feel realistic at all. Surely there are better animated japanese dramas on war's effects?

And Seven Samurais was better imo, the genre was getting kind of repetitive by the time of Hideen Fortress. IF I had to name another Kurosawa move on the same samurai theme, Yojimbo would be a better runner-up. It's a good think he did different movies, I'd instead put Dreams on the list.

There's an absence of Kusturica too, eg Time of the Gypsies.

Kustorica did some great movies but there's two Fellini there, the style is covered

Those two Charlie Chaplin movies aren't something many people would watch either.

Heresy! I'm put the gold rush instead, but modern times is very enjoyable also.

The Fellowship of the Ring should also be on, everybody was waiting for that movie and imo it didn't disappoint.
2 Towers and Rotk were full of kitsch (but still somewhat epic) and can be out, but the first one was A+

Yeah it deserved to make it, both on rehabilitating the epic fantasy genre, and in being an excellent adaptation of a good fantasy book.

 

[lymond]

My missing film here is The Virgin Spring(1960 Swedish) with Max Von Sydow. Perfect film. If you've not seen it, please do. (Also, inspiration for The Last House on the Left)

Glad to see the directors rate Barry Lyndon much much higher. My favorite Kubrick, and really favorite film in general.

 

[Fippy]

(Also, inspiration for The Last House on the Left)

That terrible movie by Wes?
Biggest pile of sadistic junk i have seen in my life..

 

[lymond]

That terrible movie by Wes?
Biggest pile of sadistic junk i have seen in my life..

Oh yeah..LHOTL is an exploitation film but mentioned it due to its cult status. Trust me, Virgin Spring is a far different film - won Oscar for best foreign film. It's a Bergman.

 

[Kyriakos]

Oh yeah..LHOTL is an exploitation film but mentioned it due to its cult status. Trust me, Virgin Spring is a far different film - won Oscar for best foreign film. It's a Bergman.

7 min fast-forward on youtube tells me otherwise ^^
Not all Bergman films were great. I already mentioned that the existence of Persona - let alone so high - in the list did surprise me.
Maybe the plot was more original/believable in 1960, though maybe not? It did remind me of a sarcastic comment by Nietzsche against german(ic) literature juxtaposed to french.

 

[FriendlyFire]

The Fellowship of the Ring should also be on, everybody was waiting for that movie and imo it didn't disappoint.
2 Towers and Rotk were full of kitsch (but still somewhat epic) and can be out, but the first one was A+

Thats why I said it was too many old people films
Where StarWars ? where Aliens ? where New Dune movie ?

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Neither Pulp Fiction nor a single movie by the Cohen brothers? Nobody should take such list seriously.

 

[João III]

My missing film here is The Virgin Spring(1960 Swedish) with Max Von Sydow. Perfect film. If you've not seen it, please do. (Also, inspiration for The Last House on the Left)

Glad to see the directors rate Barry Lyndon much much higher. My favorite Kubrick, and really favorite film in general.

Virgin Spring is incredible, and I own a copy, but man is that scene tough to watch (understandably so). The film holds up though, its themes still resonant. Honestly, I think it's actually drifting into underrated territory nowadays

And Seven Samurais was better imo, the genre was getting kind of repetitive by the time of Hideen Fortress. IF I had to name another Kurosawa move on the same samurai theme, Yojimbo would be a better runner-up. It's a good think he did different movies, I'd instead put Dreams on the list.

It's Throne of Blood for me. Feels like another bizarre exclusion from the critics' list but at least the directors included it

Thats why I said it was too many old people films
Where StarWars ? where Aliens ? where New Dune movie ?

Not to be controversial but I don't think I'd include any of these

(maybe Dune though, given time)

 

[Gori the Grey]

If there is a new greatest film of all time, doesn't that mean that the previous "greatest film of all time" wasn't the greatest film of all time?

 

[Ajidica]

Looking over the list, three thoughts.

-Fritz Lang is on there twice, with Metropolis and M. As much as I love Metropolis, apart from its astounding technical effects, I don't think it is a particularly good film. Any scene where Lang isn't using special effects looks pretty bland. If Metropolis is on there, I see no reason Star Wars or any other astounding effects picture shouldn't be on there.
-Surprised Star Wars isn't on there given how influential it was in terms of reviving the big budget fantastical action-adventure genre that had basically disappeared.
-I'm a bit surprised Tarkovsky is on there twice, but Eisenstein is only on there once for Battleship Potemkin. I felt his montage work in October was better and more thought provoking. Alexander Nevsky, especially in how the climactic Battle on the Ice is shot and combines with the score by Prokofiev, feels very modern.

 

[João III]

Looking over the list, three thoughts.

-Fritz Lang is on there twice, with Metropolis and M. As much as I love Metropolis, apart from its astounding technical effects, I don't think it is a particularly good film. Any scene where Lang isn't using special effects looks pretty bland. If Metropolis is on there, I see no reason Star Wars or any other astounding effects picture shouldn't be on there.
-Surprised Star Wars isn't on there given how influential it was in terms of reviving the big budget fantastical action-adventure genre that had basically disappeared.
-I'm a bit surprised Tarkovsky is on there twice, but Eisenstein is only on there once for Battleship Potemkin. I felt his montage work in October was better and more thought provoking. Alexander Nevsky, especially in how the climactic Battle on the Ice is shot and combines with the score by Prokofiev, feels very modern.

I think Metropolis is there not necessarily for the quality of its effects but for its design incorporating expressionism and futurism in a dystopian environment. For example, you can see influences of Metropolis in Blade Runner, and then Blade Runner proceeded to influence the movies that come after it. Probably just about every dystopian film owes a little to Metropolis in some way. While the effects don't necessarily hold up well, their influence remains.

And speaking of Star Wars, C-3PO is basically a rip off of the Maschinenmensch from Metropolis. As to why Star Wars is not on the list though, I suspect a lot of the voters in the polls see Star Wars as contributing to the era of film in which we are currently, i.e., one dominated by IP and franchises. Like you say, it was influential in big budget action-adventure, but how often do those play well with critics and the more auteur-driven directors?

Considering the plot of the original Star Wars also lifts heavily from Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress (so much so that George Lucas originally wanted to cast Toshiro Mifune as Vader), I could see that being held against it as well. Wouldn't be surprised to see it on the top 250 list though

 

[Ajidica]

And speaking of Star Wars, C-3PO is basically a rip off of the Maschinenmensch from Metropolis.

There are visual similarities, but in terms of the character, they are completely different.