With Sight & Sound due to announce their list of the greatest ever films this week I thought I’d have a little go and come up with my own top ten.
For those of you not in the know, Sight & Sound is a BFI-published magazine which has been running since 1932 and takes a serious, scholarly approach to cinema. Once a decade they invite critics and directors to contribute their top ten films, resulting in one of the most definitive lists of the greatest movies ever.
I for one am very excited about the results, and particularly keen to see if Citizen Kane holds onto the top spot as it has done since 1962 or finally relinquishes its place. It will also be interesting to see if There Will Be Blood (above) can become the youngest film to be inducted into the list in several decades.
In putting together my own list I wanted to strike a balance between creative brilliance (what I would refer to as the best movies) and personal preference (the ones I would call my favourite movies), so this list should represent my admiration for the art form as well as my own tastes.
I also wanted to use this as a springboard for a series of reviews, looking back not only at these ten films, but also many others that made my initial long-list and a few greats I’m yet to see (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans springs to mind). So look out for those in coming months.
In this situation it seems unfair and almost impossible to rank each film individually, so here are my ten sorted chronologically:
The General (1927)
Casablanca (1942)
Black Narcissus (1947)
All About Eve (1950)
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
The Searchers (1956)
Persona (1966)
Ashes of Time (1994)
Magnolia (1999)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Edit: Between the Sight and Sound results being announced and Hey U Guys running their own poll amongst bloggers (which I have contributed to) I have actually revisited my list and made slight alterations. I decided to make my selection more personal, thinking about the films that have made an impact on my life rather than focusing more on ones I think are technically brilliant.
For reference, the old list was: The General; Casablanca; Black Narcissus; Sunset Boulevard; Singin’ in the Rain; Rear Window; The Searchers; Persona; 2001: A Space Odyssey; There Will Be Blood
Let me know what you think of my list on twitter.
Movies. Comics. Culture. 