(in random order)

Journal d'un curé de campagne        (Robert Bresson, 1950)
The ultimate “religious movie”, being also perhaps the best literary adaptation ever made and a showcase of Bresson's minimalism.

Mirror        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974)
Or how the strictly personal can be sheer poetry. A very “difficult” film which is at the same time as transparent as can be, as long as you don't search for meaning.

L'Albero Degli Zoccoli        (Ermanno Olmi, 1978)
Poetry once again. A breath of sheer humanism.

The Searchers        (John Ford, 1956)
I hate to admit that I love John Wayne, but that is not the main point. The first and final scenes speak volumes.

Le Samourai        (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)
Never before have we been inside a mind in like fashion, from a distance so near.

Il Grido        (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1957)
The main themes of the famous trilogy which was to come are there, only better.

Winter Light        (Ingmar Bergman, 1963)
Inside minds once again. Mental turmoil in a tranquil style.

'Round Midnight        (Bertrand Tavernier, 1986)
Even though I'm not a sucker for jazz. Leaves moving in the wind outside a window. We actually see them!

El Sur        (Víctor Erice, 1983)
Sheer mystery with a perfectly timed ending.

Meet Me in St. Louis        (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)
Heart-warming song and dance, and Judy Garland... oh boy!

Directors who had to be left out: Resnais, Vigo, Renoir, Sirk, Kazan, Ozu (what? Ozu not in the list? shame on me!), Dreyer, Visconti, etc. etc.

Frank Blaakmeer lives in the Netherlands, and has had a keen interest in cinema since he was 14 (1974). He wrote a Masters thesis on Tarkovsky's Stalker and wrote a few hundred reviews for the University Newspaper of the State University of Groningen. That was some time ago, but he still occasionally does some writing on film theory, all published in The Netherlands.

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(in alphabetical order)

Dog Star Man        (Stan Brakhage, 1962–64)
Hour of the Furnaces        (Fernando Solanas & Octavio Getino, 1968)
The Man with a Movie Camera        (Dziga Vertov, 1928)
Manila by Night        (Ishmael Bernal, 1980)
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg        (Jacques Demy, 1964)
Pather Panchali        (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
Pyaasa        (Guru Dutt, 1957)
La Règle du jeu        (Jean Renoir, 1939)
Salò        (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975)
The Travelling Players        (Theo Angelopoulos, 1975)

Other films I'd like to mention: La Battaglia di Algeri (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1965); Ivan the Terrible, Parts I & II (Sergei Eisenstein, 1945 and 1958); Lucía (Humberto Solás, 1968); 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966); Wavelength (Michael Snow, 1966–7).

Ryan Canlas is a graduate student in Cornell University's English Department.

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It would be torture to try and rank these.

(in no particular order)

The Apu Trilogy        (Satyajit Ray, 1955–59)
Do Bigha Zamin        (Bimal Roy, 1953)
Ladri di Biciclette        (Vittorio de Sica, 1948)
White Balloon        (Jafar Panahi, 1995)
The Son        (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2002)
Tokyo Story        (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
Maborosi        (Hirokazu Koreeda, 1995)
In the Mood for Love        (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
Chungking Express        (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)
Raise the Red Lantern        (Zhang Yimou, 1991)

My list includes the Apu Trilogy and I suppose that makes it a top 12. This list is very personal. Classics such as 8½, Wild Strawberries and Citizen Kane might be conspicuous by their absence, but then what would be the point if everyone listed the same films. The films listed are those that have most inspired the love of cinema in me.

Surajit Chakravarty is a graduate student at the University of Southern California (not at the Cinema School though), and would trade a place in heaven for a chance to meet Maggie Cheung (Man-Yuk).

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(in preferential order)

1.  Field of Dreams        (Phil Alden Robinson, 1989)
2.  Days of Heaven        (Terrence Malick, 1978)
3.  The Last Picture Show        (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971)
4.  A.I. Artificial Intelligence        (Steven Spielberg, 2001)
5.  Jules et Jim        (François Truffaut, 1962)
6.  The Sweet Hereafter        (Atom Egoyan, 1997)
7.  Le Mépris        (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)
8.  Tokyo Story        (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
9.  Autumn Sonata        (Ingmar Begrman, 1978)
10. Close-Up        (Abbas Kiarostami, 1989)

In a different place and state of mind, my list could just as well have included Fargo (Joel Coen, 1995), Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975), The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies, 1992), Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001) or I Was Born, But... (Yasujiro Ozu, 1932).

Stephen Cone is a 23 year old playwright/actor/aspiring filmmaker currently spending time in Charleston, SC before relocating to Chicago later in the year. He holds a BA in Theatre from the University of South Carolina.

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(first is my favourite film, others are in chronological order)

The Innocents        (Jack Clayton, 1961)
City Lights        (Charles Chaplin, 1931)
Notorious        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)
Ladri di Biciclette        (Vittorio de Sica, 1948)
Ikiru        (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
El        (Luis Buñuel, 1952)
The Human Condition        (Masaki Kobayashi, 1959–61)
Repulsion        (Roman Polanski, 1965)
Jin-Roh        (Hiroyuki Okiura, 1998)
Eureka        (Shinji Aoyama, 2000)

Comments: I preferred to limit myself to one per director, or else it would have been full of Kurosawa, Chaplin, Hitchcock and Buñuel films. There are so many movies and directors left to mention (Godard, Bergman, Antonioni...), it was pretty difficult to make a choice. As a Japanese animation fan, I had to put one in my list, Jin-Roh, the only anime I've seen that made me forget I wasn't watching “real” actors.

Laurent Courtin is a French ex-cine-club member who's working on a screenplay and should direct a short movie soon. He's a great fan of Japanese cinema.

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Well, a year has gone by, time to reappraise my tastes with another wacky Top Ten list.

(revised list, in chronological order)

Duck Soup        (Leo McCarey, 1933)
Ordet        (Carl Dreyer, 1954)
The Killing        (Stanley Kubrick, 1956)
Mon Oncle        (Jacques Tati, 1958)
Touch of Evil        (Orson Welles, 1958)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance        (John Ford, 1962)
Opening Night        (John Cassavetes, 1977)
Stalker        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
Videodrome        (David Cronenberg, 1982)
The Wind Will Carry Us        (Abbas Kiarostami, 1999)

I don't know about everyone else, but I had a heck of a lot of fun this past year developing my cinephilia. I discovered the work of three wonderful American independents, Stan Brakhage, Jim Jarmusch and John Cassavetes. I just barely had to squeeze out Jarmusch's Dead Man (1995), and Cassavetes has three or four other films either on or near the same level as Opening Night. Then there's my appreciation for old favourites like Orson Welles (the original American independent!) and John Ford. I feel like a bit of a heel for not including anything from the silent era (La Passion de Jeanne D'Arc, Sunrise and anything and everything Chaplin all spring to mind) or any musicals (like Singin' in the Rain). The restrictiveness of a “Top Ten” list means Mon Oncle and Duck Soup will have to do for now.

See also Joe's previous list: Mar–Apr 2003

Joe Friesen is keepin' it real at Portland State University.

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(in no particular order)

Twentieth Century        (Howard Hawks, 1934)
Sand from the holy land. Slews of myrmidons. 17 shades of lavender.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp        (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1943)
No finer Technicolor movie.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre        (Tobe Hooper, 1974)
Look what your brother did to the door.

Stranger Than Paradise        (Jim Jarmusch, 1984)
Screamin' Jay Hawkins is a wild man.

Les Enfants du Paradis        (Marcel Carné, 1945)
Vivent les Funambules!

Decasia        (Bill Morrison, 2002)
The ultimate readymade and the best soundtrack for an “experimental” since Max Butting's score to Walter Ruttman's Opus 1 (1921).

Woman of the Dunes        (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)
The ultimate microcosm/pit of hell/sexual fantasy/study of sand.

L'eclipse du soleil en pleine lune        (Georges Méliès, 1907)
Several minutes of early, cosmic homoeroticism and cuckoldry.

The Invisible Man        (James Whale, 1933)
You always were a dirty little coward, Kemp.

Moonlighting        (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1982)
Jeremy Irons mooning over a lost wife in a broken television set, and the shopping cart as apocalypse.

Greg Giles is an American musician in a band called “20 Minute Loop” who slinks home late at night to write about movies.

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(in alphabetical order)

8½        (Federico Fellini, 1963)
Goodfellas        (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
In the Mood for Love        (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
Pierrot le Fou        (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
Pulp Fiction        (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
La Règle du jeu        (Jean Renoir, 1939)
Sullivan's Travels        (Preston Sturges, 1942)
Taxi Driver        (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
Touch of Evil        (Orson Welles, 1958)
Vertigo        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

Special mentions – five films: The Godfather II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974); Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000); Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966); Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986); Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927). Five filmmakers: Wes Anderson; David Fincher; Samuel Fuller; Stanley Kubrick; Alain Resnais.

This is a list of my favourite films, because I doubt I am able to adequately state with any degree of certainty what the “best” films ever created are. A list of films I feel display great filmmaking may have included a few alternative choices (Raging Bull, 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle, Battleship Potemkin, etc.), but I believe these types of decisions regarding art should remain somewhat subjective. Admittedly, I broke the one-film-per-director convention in order to emphasise my personal interests. As well, I think it tragic that Citizen Kane is despised by many, simply because it has long established itself as a pinnacle in some distinguished circles.

Chiranjit Goswami lives in Winnipeg, Canada and hopes to retain his enthusiasm, further his knowledge, and mature his taste regarding film as he grows older.

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(in no particular order)

Hana-Bi        (Takeshi Kitano, 1997)
The most paradoxical film in history: it succeeds both as a dramatic thriller with twists and gore as well as a stunning parable of human's life fragility.

La Notte        (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961)
Antonioni's most passionate work of art thanks to the best duet of actors of all time – Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau.

Dancer in the Dark        (Lars von Trier, 2000)
The most musical of all dramas and the most tragical of all musicals, this film hits with the mindblowing power of the director's talent.

Andrei Rublev        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966)
The only historical film that manages equally to succeed in the reconstruction of medieval spirit and in showing the glaring violence of one man's life with such poetic vision.

Ugetsu Monogatari        (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)
Jules et Jim        (François Truffaut, 1962)
Woman of the Dunes        (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)
The Wind Will Carry Us        (Abbas Kiarostami, 1999)
Werckmeister Harmonies        (Béla Tarr, 2000)
Suspiria        (Dario Argento, 1976)

Anton Ivin studies Japanese culture at the State University of Saint-Petersburg, Russia.

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(revised list, in no particular order)

La Passion de Jeanne D'Arc        (Carl Dreyer, 1928)
Masters the language of cinema so early, and influenced so many.

Onibaba        (Kaneto Shindô, 1964)
One of the most exciting films about the basic almost savage need for sex.

Pickup on South Street        (Samuel Fuller, 1953)
Precursor to Bresson's Pickpocket is a brilliant character study of underworld life.

Scenes from a Marriage        (Ingmar Bergman, 1973)
More believable moments of connection to love than one can imagine.

The Unknown        (Tod Browning, 1927)
Lon Chaney and Browning's best collaboration is grotesque perfection.

Mes petites amoureuses        (Jean Eustache, 1974)
(My Little Love Affairs) – less seen than La Maman et la putain but an equally powerful film, exploring a young boy's emotional journey through the girls he desires.

Playtime        (Jacques Tati, 1967)
Absolute virtuoso. Tati land is a strange vision and wonderfully human.

Manji        (Yasuzo Masumura, 1964)
Bizarre love triangle, hypnotic and erotic.

Katzelmacher        (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1969)
One of his first films and still fairly “stagey” but the deadpan humor and wasted lives sing.

The Night of the Hunter        (Charles Laughton, 1955)
I can't keep this off my lists. Perfect expressionism.

I feel optimistic about the high level of world cinema, which is especially important while the Hollywood cookie-cutter is churning out glorified video game “films”. A few works that have impressed me of late: Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr, 2000); Turning Gate (Hong Sang-Soo, 2002); Dog Days (Ulrich Seidl, 2000); Songs from the Second Floor (Roy Andersson, 2000), and the brilliant Uzak (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2003).

See also Elric's previous lists: Sept–Oct 2001        Jul–Aug 2002

Elric Kane is a Wellington filmmaker currently studying in the small southern town of Savannah, Georgia towards his MFA in filmmaking. Email: elkane20@scad.student.edu.

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(in no particular order, with no particular degree of thinking)

Les Vacances de M. Hulot        (Jacques Tati, 1953)
Mostly for the thumping of the spring at the door. Next, for all the sounds. Next, for all the music. Then for all the visuals. Then for the scents – can't you smell the seashore?

Woman in the Window        (Fritz Lang, 1944)
A nightmare made real. This is not a representation of any-thing – it is some-thing.

The Wizard of Oz        (Victor Fleming, 1939)
Due to my kids I've seen it literally hundreds of times. It does get better every time.

Aguirre: The Wrath of God        (Werner Herzog, 1972)
The past made present. The most novelistic film I can imagine.

La Règle du jeu        (Jean Renoir, 1939)
Tough to pick any of his films over any other – but his performance, the mist, and the robot automaton scene win this one for me. Although The River (1951) and French CanCan (1955) come close.

Dr. Strangelove        (Stanley Kubrick, 1963)
It just don't get any blacker – or any funnier.

Only Angels Have Wings        (Howard Hawks, 1939)
The romantic/heroic thriller that puts people first.

A Hard Day's Night        (Richard Lester, 1964)
The performances of the century.

Letter from an Unknown Woman        (Max Ophuls, 1948)
True tragedy – as sad as love can be.

The Navigator        (Buster Keaton & Donald Crisp, 1924)
The most incredible succession of sight gags – and are there any other kind? – ever. Amazing that one brain could come up with all that in one lifetime, much less in one movie.

Ken Krimstein is a writer living in New York. Find out more at www.kenkrimstein.com.

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(in no particular order)

Rear Window        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
Hitchcock deserves a Top Ten of his own...

The Company of Wolves        (Neil Jordan, 1984)
La Belle Noiseuse        (Jacques Rivette, 1991)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me        (David Lynch, 1992)
Straw Dogs        (Sam Peckinpah, 1971)
A Nightmare on Elm Street        (Wes Craven, 1984)
Star 80        (Bob Fosse, 1983)
Modern Times        (Charles Chaplin, 1936)
Ms .45        (Abel Ferrara, 1981)
Playtime        (Jacques Tati, 1967)

Tony Larder is a filmmaker and the Acting Director of Film Studies at the University of New Brunswick.

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(in no particular order)

The Exterminating Angel        (Luis Buñuel, 1962)
A cosmic, surreal belly-laugh, allegorically skewering Franco's Spain.

Celine et Julie Vont en Bateau        (Jacques Rivette, 1974)
Through the Looking Glass, to...a writer's workshop!!

Dr. Strangelove        (Stanley Kubrick, 1963)
A bold parody of our MADness made for the best black comedy ever.

Equus        (Sidney Lumet, 1977)
Superb acting from Richard Burton and Joan Plowright in a much-overlooked psychodrama/mystery.

Groundhog Day        (Harold Ramis, 1993)
Look beyond the Bill Murray humour for a meditation on the infinite and a profoundly optimistic view of man's perfectability.

Lone Star        (John Sayles, 1996)
An elliptical inquiry into the illusion of boundaries, and the role and influence of history, from a master storyteller.

Rashomon        (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
It's precisely what matters to us most that we will twist and distort in the retelling.

Sunrise        (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
Perhaps the most perfect cinematic expression of emotional purity.

Woman of the Dunes        (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)
In the end, dull human routine takes hold – as relentless as an encroaching sand dune.

The Dreamlife of Angels        (Erick Zonca, 1998)
Utterly believable, utterly heartbreaking. Some dreams are life-affirming; others can be lethal.

On another day of the week, in another mood or frame of mind, I would include something by Ozu, Kieslowski, Chabrol, de Sica, Weir, Bergman, Rohmer, Bresson and several others.

Kenneth Laux is a cinephile and student of language, history and philosophy living in rural Indiana.

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(in preferential order)

1.  8½        (Federico Fellini, 1963)
An example of perfect filmmaking. The only film to picture dreams and the process of creation so magically.

2.  Andrei Rublev        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966)
The spiritual depth of this poetic masterpiece is perhaps the greatest in the art of the 20th century.

3.  Mirror        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974)
Great poetry and the best capturing of nature in the history of filmmaking.

4.  La Dolce Vita        (Federico Fellini, 1960)
Life as it is. Funny, existential and epic (!) story not only about Roma...

5.  Citizen Kane        (Orson Welles, 1941)
Maybe the greatest STORY in the history of cinema. Breathtaking, moving and groundbreaking!

6.  Color of Pomegranates        (Sergei Parajanov, 1969)
One of the most complex films in history, but very magical, attractive and enigmatic. An example of cinema as a great art.

7.  Wild Strawberries        (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
Bergman at his best. It was Bergman who discovered that directing is magic.

8.  Journal d'un curé de campagne        (Robert Bresson, 1950)
Bresson's breakthrough. Pure art. One of the most daring films of all time. A powerful, complex exploration of faith.

9.  Fanny and Alexander        (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)
“Distillation of Bergman”. The greatest epic drama in history.

10. Pather Panchali        (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
An exquisite masterpiece which is unfortunately very underrated. Few films picture Life and Death so deeply. Everything is perfect: cinematography, editing, perfomance and poetic rhythm...

Such lists are often made according to the rule “one director: one film”. For me, it's impossible, because of my favour of Fellini and Tarkovsky. I'd like to mention also one of the most influential of all films, Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925); the genre-defining surrealist masterpiece L'Âge d'or (Luis Buñuel, 1930); Nostalghia (Andrey Tarkovsky, 1983); Le Notti di Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957), and the greatest ever documentary, The Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1928).

Mikhail Loskutnikov is a 21 year old film lover from Russia and a collaborator in the Museum of Cinema in Moscow.

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(in no particular order)

Baisers volés        (François Truffaut, 1968)
Truffaut's best film.

Un Coeur en hiver        (Claude Sautet, 1992)
A truly emotionally exhausting film.

Singin' in the Rain        (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952)
Kelly's “Singin' in the Rain” routine is probably the most joyous and ecstatic thing ever committed to film.

Conte d'été        (Eric Rohmer, 1996)
His films fulfil all my fantasies of bourgeois sophistication.

Larks on a String        (Jirí Menzel, 1969)
For the scene in which the male and female prisoners stand warming themselves around a fire in the rain.

Le Cercle rouge        (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970)
1) The opening shot of a traffic light turning red. 2) Delon and Volonte creeping across the rooftops of Paris at night. 3) The closing shot of Bourvil.

Wild Strawberries        (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
For the devastating scene in which a husband and wife sit in their car quietly arguing as the rain beats against the windscreen.

Days of Being Wild        (Wong Kar-wai, 1991)
This film has more substance and just as much style as its sequel, In the Mood for Love, and is in my estimation Wong's best film.

This Happy Breed        (David Lean, 1944)
The scene in which the camera lingers on an empty room, as the daughter goes to tell her parents that their son has been killed, has as much pathos as anything in cinema.

The Convent        (Manoel de Oliveira, 1995)
Equal parts mystifying, terrifying and sublime.

Royce Ng is a student of Art History at the University of Melbourne who plays in an Elvis cover band called “Paradise Hawaiian Style”.

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(in no particular order)

Taxi Driver        (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
Stalker        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
Seven Samurai        (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
Ladri di Biciclette        (Vittorio de Sica, 1948)
Vertigo        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
Annie Hall        (Woody Allen, 1977)
2001: A Space Odyssey        (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Battleship Potemkin        (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)
L'Argent        (Robert Bresson, 1983)
The Last Laugh        (F.W. Murnau, 1925)

I also can't resist naming some other lovely movies that are equal to my top ten: Three Colors Trilogy, Scarface (De Palma), Rosemary's Baby, Edward Scissorhands and Spirited Away.

Ali Shojaee, 21, lives in Iran, and has been a movie lover since 2000.

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For the sake of diversity, I'm limiting myself to one film per director. (Otherwise Bresson, Dreyer and Godard would occupy most of the slots.)

(in preferential order)

1.  A Brighter Summer Day        (Edward Yang, 1991)
2.  L'Argent        (Robert Bresson, 1983)
3.  Gertrud        (Carl Dreyer, 1964)
4.  Le Mépris        (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)
5.  Tokyo Story        (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
6.  Andrei Rublev        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966)
7.  Ashes of Time        (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)
8.  Les Vampires        (Louis Feuillade, 1915)
9.  Masked and Anonymous        (Larry Charles, 2003)
10. Viaggio in Italia        (Roberto Rossellini, 1953)

Michael Smith is a 28 year old independent filmmaker. He received a BA from Columbia College in Chicago and an MA from Humboldt State University in Arcata, California.

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As a historian who runs a museum, my choices will be a bit old-fashioned. No Tarantino or Oliver Stone flicks here; sorry! I tend to rate movies according to how they may have moved the perception of the art form forward in some way. So here goes the list, off the top of my head while bored to tears at work, and in no particular order:

Intolerance        (D.W. Griffith, 1916)
In its scope and sweep of imagination and vision for humanity, this film is definitely number one of all time (so far)!

Greed        (Erich von Stroheim, 1925)
Amid the fluff of 1920s American film, von Stroheim dared to tell a grim story of revenge and death. Not 20 or 30, but 100 years ahead of its time!

Metropolis        (Fritz Lang, 1926)
The first great sci-fi film is a stark vision of the future, with the most beautiful female robot ever!

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre        (John Huston, 1948)
Walter Huston's performance alone would make this one of the greatest films! And how about Bogie as the hapless Fred C. Dobbs?

The Searchers        (John Ford, 1956)
Will anyone ever make a better Western than this one? “That'll be the day!”

The Bank Dick        (Edward F. Cline, 1940)
Maybe the funniest movie ever made! Prepare to fall out of your chair as W.C. Fields talks about Eppingham Huffnagel, his uncle who was a balloon ascentionist...

Rear Window        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
Hitch at the top of his form, with the great Jimmy Stewart and the unbelievably beautiful Grace Kelly... how can you beat this one?

Rashomon        (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
Moving, compassionate, exciting, enigmatic, fascinating... HAS to be in the top ten of all time!

Citizen Kane        (Orson Welles, 1941)
Welles really delivered the goods with this one. A cliche to say that's it's among the best? Maybe, but it's a truthful one. Welles moved the art of the movies ahead a long way with his first film(!)

Modern Times        (Charles Chaplin, 1936)
Charlie's immortal Tramp meets and beats the soullessness of industrial life!

So many others I want to include! How about Funny Face (Stanley Donen, 1957) – Audrey Hepburn & Fred Astaire, in Paris? Or Dinner at Eight (George Cukor, 1933), with Harlow, Beery, Marie Dressler, and especially the great John Barrymore, at the top of their respective forms? How Green Was My Valley (John Ford, 1941) – the greatest tearjerker of all time? Or Camille (George Cukor, 1936), with Garbo in the role she was born to play? Or The Ox-Bow Incident (William A. Wellman, 1943), with unbelievably good direction from Wellman and a matching performace from Fonda? Guess I'd better give up and leave the top ten to be scrutinised.

2nd greatest director: John Ford. The poetry of the movies was never better expressed than by the drunken old Irishman. Put the list together: The Iron Horse, Stagecoach, How Green Was My Valley, The Grapes of Wrath, They Were Expendable, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, My Darling Clementine, The Quiet Man, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance... and all the others. This man created a world in itself through his movies.

Greatest director: D.W. Griffith. He created the world of the movies that we know.

John Steinle is a museum director in Colorado. He has been fascinated with the movies ever since he got so excited at a screening of Moby Dick when he was six years old that he got sick! He has appeared in many film and video documentaries for the National Park Service and other agencies.

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(in no particular order)

The Bad News Bears        (Michael Ritchie, 1976)
A great film of the '70s even if you don't like baseball. A classic.

Giant        (George Stevens, 1956)
Epic storytelling in Texas from the music, story, acting, and Jett Rink!

Cet obscur objet du désir        (Luis Buñuel, 1977)
Buñuel, the genius, used three actresses by the time he finished his last film. Brilliant.

Mr. Klein        (Joseph Losey, 1976)
I cannot believe this was made in 1976! The look is exquisite. Strange Kafka-like study of identity. Losey put all the greatest artists together for this one. Check out his Servant too!

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre        (John Huston, 1948)
Huston was probably the most diverse director. This was near perfect filmmaking.

Saturday Night Fever        (John Badham, 1977)
Forget about the disco, the character study and Travolta's performance are remarkable.

Kagemusha        (Akira Kurosawa, 1980)
How old was Kurosawa when he made this? Another study on identity, in epic verse.

Wings of Desire        (Wim Wenders, 1987)
Lyrical, like a poem. Beautiful like light of a painting. A masterpiece.

Rebel Without a Cause        (Nicholas Ray, 1955)
One of the first films that made me want to become an actor, and probably everyone else for that matter. Ray was a greatly underrated director championed by the Cahiers group. Dean was an acting god.

Seconds        (John Frankenheimer, 1966)
Strange. Pure strangeness. Great James Wong Howe cinematography. Frankenheimer was certainly on a roll starting with The Manchurian Candidate. Rock Hudson man!

Film purists are probably wondering how dare I list Bad News Bears along with a Kurosawa! My tastes are eclectic, and having grown up with the films of the '70s, I have to say Ritchie's film is a classic, one that you can watch every time it's on. All of these choices (and there are so many more) can be viewed over and over. Of course there are many directors left out: Ozu, Scorsese, Wilder, Bergman, Altman, Hitchcock, Chaplin, Keaton, Woody Allen, Fellini, Welles...the list goes on. My list changes daily.

James Sturch is a high school English teacher and a film historian from San Diego, Ca.

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(revised list, in preferential order)

1.  Chimes at Midnight        (Orson Welles, 1966)
2.  Viaggio in Italia        (Roberto Rossellini, 1953)
3.  Make Way for Tomorrow        (Leo McCarey, 1937)
4.  The “garden fragment” from The Dreamers        (Orson Welles, 1982, fragment from unfinished film)
5.  An American Romance        (King Vidor, 1944)
6.  Gertrud        (Carl Dreyer, 1964)
7.  Hatari!        (Howard Hawks, 1962)
8.  The Magnificent Ambersons        (Orson Welles, 1942)
9.  Stars in My Crown        (Jacques Tourneur, 1950)
10. Metaphor: King Vidor Meets With Andrew Wyeth        (King Vidor, 1980)

See also Peter's other lists: Jan–Feb 2003      July–Sept 2006

Peter Tonguette, 21, is staff critic at The Film Journal. His writing on film has also appeared in 24fps Magazine and Bright Lights Film Journal, among others. His article on Orson Welles' unfinished film The Dreamers, which first appeared in Senses of Cinema, was translated to Portuguese for publication in Contracampo.

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(revised list, in alphabetical order)

Aguirre: The Wrath of God        (Werner Herzog, 1972)
The Big Sleep        (Howard Hawks, 1946)
Chinatown        (Roman Polanski, 1974)
The Lady from Shanghai        (Orson Welles, 1947)
Landscape in the Mist        (Theo Angelopoulos, 1988)
Le Mépris        (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)
Une Partie de Campagne        (Jean Renoir, 1936)
Persona        (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
Vertigo        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
Viaggio in Italia        (Roberto Rossellini, 1953)

Five runners up: La Battaglia di Algeri (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1965); Talk to Her (Pedro Almodóvar, 2002); I Know Where I'm Going! (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1945); Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954); Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979).

This doesn't get any easier and I know that as soon as I submit this I'll regret the lack of Altman, Sirk, and Ozu especially. And obviously it's only sensible to stick to one film per director, so no Pierrot le fou, Notorious, Rio Bravo or Fanny and Alexander. There is still so much for me to see, and in the near future I look forward to discovering more of Bresson, Mizoguchi, Dreyer, Ozu, Tarkovsky, Rivette, Antonioni, Kiarostami...

See also Samuel's other lists: Jan–Feb 2003      Apr–June 2007

Samuel Wigley, 23, recently completed a Masters Degree in Visual Culture at the University of Nottingham, UK.