The Criterion Collection

[Yami]

I'm shocked that no Powell/Pressburger made it into the top 50. Surely some made the top 100? The Third Man is the highest placed British film at 74 (Source: BBC). Though, some people consider 2001 to be British.

[Darkcritic]

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare2/rosetta.htm

I am SO excited for this! Can't wait to get it, I know myself and will probably get it before the next B&N sale . The film looks WONDERFUL.

[DarkRyder]

If you want something really interesting, an article I read suggested not voting for films that have already been in the top 10 as that has already suggested their "Hall of Fame" status. After that, the writer then posted new lists for each poll if they had followed that rule. Here are the results:

1952

[Show spoiler]
Bicycle Thieves (1948, De Sica)
City Lights (1930, Chaplin)
The Gold Rush (1925, Chaplin)
Battleship Potemkin (1925, Eisenstein)
Intolerance (1916, Griffith)
Louisiana Story (1949, Flaherty)
Greed (1925, Stroheim)
Le Jour se leve (1939, Carne)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Dreyer)
Brief Encounter (1946, Lean)
La Regle du jeu (1939, Renoir)

1962

[Show spoiler]
Citizen Kane (1941, Welles)
L’avventura (1960, Antonioni)
Ugetsu Monogatari (1953, Mizoguchi)
Ivan the Terrible, Parts I and II (1944, 1958, Eisenstein)
La terra trema (1948, Visconti)
L’Atalante (1934, Vigo)
Earth / Zemlya (1930, Dovzhenko)
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959, Resnais)
Sunrise (1927, Murnau)
Zero for Conduct (1930, Vigo)
Pickpocket (1959, Bresson)
Nazarin (1959, Bunuel)

1972

[Show spoiler]
8 ½ (1963, Fellini)
Persona (1967, Bergman)
The General (1927, Keaton and Bruckman)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942, Welles)
Wild Strawberries (1957, Bergman)
Vertigo (1958, Hitchcock)
Pierrot le fou (1965, Godard)
La Grande Illusion (1937, Renoir)
Ikiru (1952, Kurosawa)
The Searchers (1956, Ford)

1982

[Show spoiler]
Singin’ in the Rain (1952, Donen and Kelly)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Kubrick)
Andrei Rublev (1969, Tarkovsky)
Jules et Jim (1961, Truffaut)
The Third Man (1949, Reed)
Tokyo Story (1953, Ozu)
Touch of Evil (1958, Welles)
Les Enfants du paradis (1943, Carne)
Modern Times (1936, Chaplin)
Madame de… (1953, Ophuls)
Contempt (1963, Godard)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972, Bunuel)

From here on out, the lists would use aggregated votes between Critics and Directors. The 2012 list doesn't have the full directors, so it will only go by the critics' list.

1992

[Show spoiler]
Raging Bull (1980, Scorsese)
The Godfather and the Godfather Part II (1972, 1974, Coppola)
Pather Panchali (1955, Ray)
La Strada (1956, Fellini)
La Dolce vita (1961, Fellini)
Rashomon (1950, Kurosawa)
Breathless (1960, Godard)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948, Ophuls)
Apocalypse Now (1979, Coppola)
Paisan (1945, Rossellini)
The Mirror (1976, Tarkovsky)
Fanny and Alexander (1982, Bergman)

2002

[Show spoiler]
Lawrence of Arabia (1962, Lean)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964, Kubrick)
Psycho (1960, Hitchcock)
Sunset Blvd. (1950, Wilder)
Some Like It Hot (1959, Wilder)
The Seventh Seal (1957, Bergman)
Au hazard Balthazar (1966, Bresson)
Taxi Driver (1976, Scorsese)
The Apartment (1960, Wilder)
Casablanca (1943, Curtiz)
Chinatown (1974, Polanski)

2012

[Show spoiler]
Man with a Movie Camera (1929, Vertov)
Late Spring (1949, Ozu)
Seven Samurai (1954, Kurosawa)
Ordet (1955, Dreyer)
In the Mood for Love (2000, Wong)
Mulholland Dr. (2001, Lynch)
Stalker (1979, Tarkovsky)
Shoah (1985, Lanzmann)
Metropolis (1927, Lang)
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles (1975, Akerman)
Satantango (1994, Tarr)

[Cinemach]

Originally Posted by Sinthetic

Metropolis is #35.

Was talking top tens at that point.

[Sinthetic]

Originally Posted by Cinemach

Was talking top tens at that point.

Haha, I figured but was too lazy to change my post!

Happy to see La Jetée at 50.

[*DrStrangelove*]

I really need to watch Vertigo. And while I'm at it Tokyo Story too.

[Cinemach]

Originally Posted by *DrStrangelove*

I really need to watch Vertigo. And while I'm at it Tokyo Story too.

The thing is Vertigo is a terrific picture and I can see why most acclaim it as Hitchcock's best - even if I don't necessarily place it at the top of his canon. I believe most do because it's probably his most personal film, certainly if one is familiar with the almost psychoanalytic profiles that always seem to come with discussions of the film. It's a worthy successor to the mantle held by Citizen Kane though; I know most here don't macro-subscribe to lists like these but I always find the legitimate ones to be interesting to look at and useful as primers.

I can't wait to see the blu-ray. This is one truly gorgeous-looking film (and I'm not just talking about Kim Novak, either). I'm about to pop in my old, non-anamorphic DVD!

I've actually never seen Tokyo Story, either. Almost picked it up when the BFI had a sale on amazon.uk a couple months ago, but waited too long. I've been getting into Ozu though, and absolutely loved Late Spring. It's in my Hulu+ queue, now.

[Banned User]

While I love Vertigo there is no way it is number #1 IMO. Then again 'Greatest' is pretty subjective. I mean is it 'greatest' as in personal favorite, most popular at the time of the list? Definitely can't be 'greatest' in the sense of how much it has contributed to cinema overall or else Battleship Potemkin would still be on the list. I guess the only good thing about this list is A. its a list posted here that people will actually read through and not skip and B. it might get some people to check out movies they have never seen before.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by Cinemach

The thing is Vertigo is a terrific picture and I can see why most acclaim it as Hitchcock's best - even if I don't necessarily think that. It's a worthy successor to the mantle held by Citizen Kane though; I know most here don't macro-subscribe to lists like these but I always find the legitimate ones to be interesting to look at and useful as primers.

The blu-ray should look utterly fantastic. This is one truly gorgeous-looking film (and I'm not just talking about Kim Novak, either).

I'm going to have to give it a much closer look this fall. I've seen parts of it on tv over the years, rented it on VHS and most recently saw it at The Music Box in Chicago (that was fun) and my overall reaction has been pretty 'eh'.

I can see what people see in it but I don't see a lot of it myself. And I certainly don't see it as Best Movie Evrah material.

That all said, I've turned around on several movies (North by Northwest being one of them) after popping in the BD so who knows what the future will bring.

[ShellOilJunior]

A very interesting top 50. Interesting but very flawed. I say this because the voters have seen some films but not others and certainly not EVERYTHING.

I'd treat it more as film recommendations then set-in-stone rankings. Even thought Kane is no longer no.1 it won't stop many people from treating it like a musty old text book when the film should be enjoyed!

[Banned User]

If getting on the list gives it a better chance of seeing a release we all need to vote out Citizen Kane and vote in The Magnificent Ambersons. The way that film has been treated by studios is appalling. Then Warner adds insult to injury by releasing it on DVD. Give it to someone like Criterion who will give it the recognition it deserves.

Sorry had to get that off my chest.

[Halation]

Very good list, and I agree with the Vertigo placement.

Maybe Kane will be out of the top five by 2062.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by Banned User

If getting on the list gives it a better chance of seeing a release we all need to vote out Citizen Kane and vote in The Magnificent Ambersons. The way that film has been treated by studios is appalling. Then Warner adds insult to injury by releasing it on DVD. Give it to someone like Criterion who will give it the recognition it deserves.

Sorry had to get that off my chest.

Sadly, I think many of the big shots at these studios view it as "film is film". To them The Magnificent Ambersons is no different than Weekend at Bernie's Part 2.

[Banned User]

Sadly Weekend at Bernies 2 will probably get a Bluray release.

[oildude]

Originally Posted by Banned User

Sadly Weekend at Bernies 2 will probably get a Bluray release before Criterion upgrades Le Samourai or The Cranes are Flying.

Fixed.

[Yami]

There's always a chance that Masters of Cinema will manage to wrestle Ambersons from Universal. They've been trying at least. (If they do manage it would be region B locked)

Warner don't have a bad track record of releasing their catalog titles but many simply do not get a look in which is why I don't really understand their reluctance to licence them out.

[Brad1963]

I wonder if there is no acceptable transfer for Le Samourai available. The French release seems to be a "glossed over" nightmare and appearently not really a HD remaster, or anything resembling a restoration. Criterion must know that there is a demand for it. So I would guess they are trying to come up with the best elements.

[Yami]

I await someone more knowledgable coming along to correct me but I get the impression that the problem with the French BD of Le Samourai is with the Blu-Ray transfer, rather than the master.

[rodie]

Originally Posted by starman15317

Random question about a Criterion DVD: why did they choose to put out the Beastie Boys anthology? You would think their record label would put it out instead. But hey, Criterion's better anyways so why am I complaining?

I believe that the Beastie Boys approached Criterion. MCA was a huge film buff and a fan of their stuff.

[bigj10171]

Watched gold rush and world on a wire recently loved both of them but i was really surprised at how world on a wire intrigued me the whole way through considering its run time