The Canon, and The New Canon

I asked film expert extraordinaire Iain Stott if I could participate in his new project, which calls for a variety of participants to rank, according to their own personal taste, the recent entrants in the Sight and Sound critics' poll as to the top 100 films of all time. The second and more difficult tier of Stott's challenge is for each participating film expert to posit 100 more films that they think should be entered into the canon, making for 200 films listed for each. The website on which the tabulated results have been posted is called 100 Evenings Illuminated, and it already sports a parcel of very sharp photos from the Sight and Sound inductees. NOTE: Due to my commitments to MOVIE GEEKS UNITED! and this website, I could not, to my disappointment, turn my tabulations in per Iain's deadline (as I've had to watch a lotta 2012 movies in order to catch up for our year-end wrap-up, due to drop on January 20th). As a result, my results aren't included in the final tally; however, Iain has kindly included my ballot on the site as a late entry, and so I thank him for that. Overall, though, I really wanted to bring some more attention to and respect for Iain's loving dedication to new ways of thinking about film history; the final list of all the films mentioned even once on the individual participants' ballots is REALLY something else (plus I love that, on my ballot, he highlighted the ones that were unique to my list). FINALLY: as for this article, the big photographic payload is shunted towards the second half of the post.  

So here is my ranking of Sight and Sound's top 100: 

1) 2001: A Space Odyssey (US/UK...Stanley Kubrick, 68)
2) Fanny And Alexander (Sweden...Ingmar Bergman, 84)
3) Touch Of Evil (US...Orson Welles, 58)
4) The Godfather (US...Francis Ford Coppola, 72)
5) The 400 Blows (France...François Truffaut, 59)
6) The Passion of Joan of Arc (Germany...Carl Th. Dreyer, 27)
7) City Lights (US...Charlie Chaplin, 31)
8) Citizen Kane (US...Orson Welles, 41)  
9) Rear Window (US...Alfred Hitchcock, 54)
10) Lawrence Of Arabia (US/UK...David Lean, 62)
11) The Godfather Part II (US...Francis Ford Coppola, 74)
12) Playtime (France...Jacques Tati, 67)
13) Man with a Movie Camera (Russia...Dziga Vertov, 29)
14) The Magnificent Ambersons (US...Orson Welles, 42)
15) Some Like It Hot (US...Billy Wilder, 59)
16) Nashville (US...Robert Altman, 75)
17) Mulholland Dr. (US...David Lynch, 2001)
18) Taxi Driver (US...Martin Scorsese, 76)
19) Psycho (US...Alfred Hitchcock, 60)
20) 8 ½ (Italy...Federico Fellini, 63)
21) Persona (Sweden...Ingmar Bergman, 66)
22) Seven Samurai (Japan...Akira Kurosawa, 54)
23) The Night Of The Hunter (US...Charles Laughton, 55)
24) Wild Strawberries (Sweden...Ingmar Bergman, 57)
25) Blue Velvet (US...David Lynch, 86)
26) The Wild Bunch (US...Sam Peckinpah, 69) 
27) A Matter Of Life And Death (UK...Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, 46)
28) The Searchers (US...John Ford, 56)
29) Sunset Blvd. (US...Billy Wilder, 50)
30) Apocalypse Now (US...Francis Ford Coppola, 79)
31) Once Upon A Time In The West (Italy...Sergio Leone, 68)
32) Sunrise: a Song for Two Humans (US...F.W. Murnau, 27)
33) Au hasard Balthazar (France...Robert Bresson, 66)
34) Battleship Potemkin (Russia...Sergei Eisenstein, 25)
35) Sherlock Jr. (US...Buster Keaton, 24)
36) Madame de… (France...Max Ophuls, 53)
37) Pierrot le Fou (France...Jean-Luc Godard, 65)
38) The Seventh Seal (Sweden...Ingmar Bergman, 57)
39) Singin’ in the Rain (US...Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 51)
40) The Colour Of Pomegranates (Russia...Sergai Parajanov, 68)
41) Chinatown (US...Roman Polanski, 74)
42) Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (Germany...Werner Herzog, 72)
43) Raging Bull (US...Martin Scorsese, 80)
44) Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles (Belgium...Chantal Akerman, 75)
45) The General (US...Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman, 26)
46) North By Northwest (US...Alfred Hitchcock, 59)
47) Barry Lyndon (US/UK...Stanley Kubrick, 75)
48) Rio Bravo (US...Howard Hawks, 58)
49) La Grande Illusion (France...Jean Renoir, 37)
50) Tokyo Story (Japan...Yasujiro Ozu, 53)
51) Vertigo (US...Alfred Hitchcock, 58)
52) Blade Runner (US...Ridley Scott, 82)
53) Metropolis (Germany...Fritz Lang, 27)
54) Modern Times (US...Charlie Chaplin, 36)
55) A Man Escaped (France...Robert Bresson, 56)
56) Rashomon (Japan...Akira Kurosawa, 50)
57) M (Germany...Fritz Lang, 31)
58) La Jetée (France...Chris Marker, 62)
59) Le Mépris (France...Jean-Luc Godard, 63)
60) L’Atalante (France...Jean Vigo, 34)
61) Andrei Rublev (Russia...Andrei Tarkovsky, 66)
62) Late Spring (Japan...Yasujiro Ozu, 49)
63) Bicycle Thieves (Italy...Vittoria De Sica, 48)
64) The Battle of Algiers (Italy...Gillo Pontecorvo, 66)
65) Breathless (France...Jean-Luc Godard, 60)
66) The Leopard (Italy...Luchino Visconti, 63)
67) Ordet (Denmark...Carl Th. Dreyer, 55)
68) In the Mood for Love (Hong Kong...Wong Kar-Wai, 2000)
69) Les Enfants du Paradis (France...Marcel Carne, 45)
70) The Third Man (US/UK...Carol Reed, 49)
71) Un Chien Andalou (Spain...Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, 28)
72) Imitation Of Life (US...Douglas Sirk, 59)
73) L’eclisse (Italy...Michelangelo Antonioni, 62)
74) L’avventura (Italy...Michelangelo Antonioni, 60)
75) Beau Travail (France...Claire Denis, 98)
76) La Dolce Vita (Italy...Federico Fellini, 60)
77) Casablanca (US...Michael Curtiz, 42)
78) Shoah (France/Poland...Claude Lanzmann, 85)
79) Sansho Dayu (Japan...Kenji Mizoguchi, 54)
80) Pickpocket (France...Robert Bresson, 59)
81) La Règle du Jeu (France...Jean Renoir, 39)

Now I must be honest: these are the 19 films out of the 100 that I have only seen partially or not at all (mostly because they are difficult to find, or because I'm lazy, or both).  Of course, it would be disingenuous of me to rank these, so I have them in the order they appear on the original list.  So, I guess I have some great movies ahead of me...what a relief! 

82) Mirror (Russia...Andrei Tarkovsky, 74)
83) Stalker (Russia...Andrei Tarkovsky, 79)
84) Sátántangó (Hungary...Béla Tarr, 94)
85) Journey to Italy (Italy...Roberto Rossellini, 54)
86) Pather Panchali (India...Satyajit Ray, 55)
87) Gertrud (Denmark...Carl Th. Dreyer, 64)
88) Close-Up (Iran...Abbas Kiarostami, 90)
89) Histoire(s) du cinéma (France...Jean-Luc Godard, 98)
90) Ugetsu Monogatari (Japan...Kenji Mizoguchi, 53)
91) La Maman et la Putain (France...Jean Eustache, 73)
92) Intolerance (US...D.W. Griffith, 16)
93) Sans Soleil (France...Chris Marker, 82)
94) The Spirit Of The Beehive (Spain...Victor Erice, 73)
95) Greed (US...Erich Von Stroheim, 25)
96) A Brighter Summer Day (Taiwan...Edward Yang, 91)
97) Partie de Campagne (France...Jean Renoir, 36)
98) The Life and Death Of Colonel Blimp (UK...Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, 43)
99) Touki-Bouki (Hungary/Senegal...Djibril Diop Mambety, 73)
100) A One And A Two (Taiwan...Edward Yang, 2000)

Now for my list of the 100 films that I think should be canonized.  Now this...for this, I took the top choices from each of my MASTER LISTS, and reduced them down to 100 titles.   This was much more difficult...and painful...than I expected it to be.  Plus, the accumulation of the photos was daunting, indeed.  But I did it:

1) It's A Wonderful Life (US...Frank Capra, 46)

2) Annie Hall (US...Woody Allen, 77)

3) Paths of Glory (US...Stanley Kubrick, 57)

4) All That Jazz (US...Bob Fosse, 79) 

5) Ikiru (Japan...Akira Kurosawa, 52)

6) Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (UK/US...Stanley Kubrick, 64)

7) Stagecoach (US...John Ford, 39)

8) Breaking the Waves (Denmark/UK...Lars Von Trier, 96)

9) Eraserhead (US...David Lynch, 77)

10) Salesman (US...Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerlin, 69)

11) Sullivan's Travels (US...Preston Sturges, 41)

12) Goodfellas (US...Martin Scorsese, 90)

13) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (US...John Huston, 48)

14) Targets (US...Peter Bogdanovich, 68)

15) Nights of Cabiria (Italy...Federico Fellini, 57)

16) One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (US...Milos Forman, 75)

17) A Little Romance (France/US...George Roy Hill, 79)

18) Seven Beauties (Lina Wertmuller, 76)

19) Duck Soup (US...Leo McCarey, 33)

20) Stop Making Sense (US...Jonathan Demme and Talking Heads, 84)

21) The New World (US...Terrence Malick, 2005)

22) The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Italy...Sergio Leone, 66)

23) Napoleon (France...Abel Gance, 27) 

24) Jean De Florette (France...Claude Berri, 87)

25) The Exterminating Angel (Spain...Luis Bunuel, 62)

26) Great Expectations (UK...David Lean, 46)

27) Sherman's March (US...Ross McElwee, 86)  

28) West Side Story (US...Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, 61)

29) Gone With The Wind (US...Victor Fleming/David O. Selznick et al., 39)

30) Bambi (US...David Hand, James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, Graham Heid, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Norman Wright, Walt Disney, 42)

31) Umberto D (Italy...Vittorio De Sica, 52) 

32) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (US...Frank Capra, 39)

33) Manhattan (US...Woody Allen, 79) 

34) What's Opera, Doc? (US...Chuck Jones, 57)

35) Pulp Fiction (US...Quentin Tarantino, 94)

36) The Naked Spur (US...Anthony Mann, 53)

37) Shadow of a Doubt (US...Alfred Hitchcock, 43) 

38) Das Boot (TV or film version) (Germany...Wolfgang Petersen, 83)

39) Network (US...Sidney Lumet, 76)

40) Blow Up (UK....Michelangelo Antonioni, 66)

41) Unforgiven (US...Clint Eastwood, 92)

42) Vampyr (Denmark...Carl Th. Dreyer, 32)

The Last Picture Show (US...Peter Bogdanovich, 71)

44) Titicut Follies (US...Frederick Wiseman, 67)

















Reds (US...Warren Beatty, 81)

A Woman Under the Influence (US...John Cassavetes, 74)

47) The Exorcist (US...William Friedkin, 73)

Ride The High Country (US...Sam Peckinpah, 62)

49) Life is Sweet (UK...Mike Leigh, 91)

Do The Right Thing (US...Spike Lee, 89) 

 51) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (US...Mike Nichols, 66)

Brazil (UK...Terry Gilliam, 85)

53) Kiss Me, Deadly (US...Robert Aldrich, 55)

Ran (Japan...Akira Kurosawa, 85)

The Set-Up (US...Robert Wise, 49)

  56) Eyes Wide Shut (US/UK...Stanley Kubrick, 99)

Frankenstein (US...James Whale, 31)

Mothlight (US...Stan Brakhage, 63) 

59) Chilly Scenes of Winter (US...Joan Micklin Silver, 81)

60) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (US...Andrew Dominick, 2007)

61) Repulsion (UK...Roman Polanski, 65)

O Lucky Man! (UK...Lindsay Anderson, 73)

63) A Hard Day's Night (UK...Richard Lester, 64)

Once Upon A Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011) 

65) Twelve Angry Men (US...Sidney Lumet, 57)

Winchester '73 (US...Anthony Mann, 50)

67) The Innocents (UK...Jack Clayton, 61)

68) Three Colors: Blue (France/Poland...Krzysztof Kieslowski, 93)

Best Boy (US...Ira Wohl, 79)

Culloden (UK...Peter Watkins, 64)

The Tale of the Fox (France...Wladyslaw and Irene Starewicz, 30)

72) Elephant (US...Gus Van Sant, 2003)



73) Local Hero (Scotland...Bill Forsyth, 82)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (US...Steven Spielberg, 77)

Breaking Away (US...Peter Yates, 79)

Time Indefinite (US...Ross McElwee, 93)

Alien (UK/US...Ridley Scott, 79) 

Pennies from Heaven (US...Herbert Ross, 81)

Toy Story (US...John Lasseter, 95)

80) Night of the Living Dead (US...George A. Romero, 68) 

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (US...Philip Kaufman, 88)

82) The Big Lebowski (US...Joel and Ethan Coen, 98)

Badlands (US...Terrence Malick, 73)

84) Raiders of the Lost Ark (US...Steven Spielberg, 81)

I Am Cuba (Russia/Cuba...Mikhail Kalatozov, 64)

86) Frank Film (US...Frank and Caroline Morris, 73)

The Gods of Times Square (US...Richard Sandler, 99)

88) Topsy-Turvy (UK...Mike Leigh, 99)

The Music Man (US...Morton De Costa, 62)

Crumb (US...Terry Zwigoff, 94)

 91) Days of Heaven (US...Terrence Malick, 78)

Gertie the Dinosaur (US...Windsor McKay, 14) 

The Thin Blue Line (US...Errol Morris, 88)

Alexander Nevsky (Russia...Sergei Eisenstein, Dmitri Vasilyev, 38) 

My Darling Clementine (US...John Ford, 46)  

96) Midnight Cowboy (US...John Schlesinger, 69)

'Round Midnight (France/US...Bertrand Tavernier, 86)

Gimme Shelter (US...Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerlin, 71)

The Empire Strikes Back (US...Irvin Kershner, 80)

100) Modern Romance (US...Albert Brooks, 81)