My List of The 21st Century’s Greatest Films

So here’s my individual list of the 21st Century’s Greatest Films of BBC’s Culture. In fact, it is if I was asked to do it when they asked many film critics to do this time consuming, hair splitting, gut wrenching exercise.

It is fucking hard to try to pick only ten films out of sixteen years of cinema. The worst thing in this is that I have so many films to catch up that I don’t know how full time film critics who watch many films a day can pick ten. This is beyond me.

At first I looked back at my list of the best films of the decade 2000-2009 as a starter,  then I got back to my ratings of five and four stars and a half.

Finally, I let my judgment and my cinematic memory decide which film has to be on the list and in which position. Sometimes, my tastes got over my judgment and other times it was the overall quality of the film that won it all.

Final words : are haters are gonna hate.

(Click on the links to read my full reviews)

Link: Editors Guild Selects 75 Best Edited Films of All Time

Here is a list of the 10 best edited films of all time from Rope of Silicon's list of the 75 best edited films of all time.

1. Raging Bull (Thelma Schoonmaker, 1980)
2. Citizen Kane (Robert Wise, 1941)
3. Apocalypse Now (Lisa Fruchtman, Gerald B. Greenberg, Walter Murch, 1979)
4. All That Jazz (Alan Heim, 1979)
5. Bonnie and Clyde (Dede Allen, 1967)
6. The Godfather (William H. Reynolds, Peter Zinner, 1972)
7. Lawrence of Arabia (Anne V. Coates, 1962)
8. Jaws (Verna Fields, 1975)
9. JFK (Pietro Scalia, Joe Hutshing, 1991)
10. The French Connection (Gerald B. Greenberg, 1971)

What do you think of this list? Should a montage be visible or invisible to be more efficient?

Top Films of Billy Wilder by LMdC

"Although known for their caustic wit, Wilder’s films fluctuate between two polarities—the utterly romantic and the utterly cynical. The best of his work—Avanti (1972), The Apartment (1960), Sunset Boulevard (1949)—blends the two. At the extremes, however, we have the romantic The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1969) and the cynical Ace in the Hole (1951) and Kiss Me Stupid (1964). But all of Wilder’s films share the director’s idea that the very existence of his characters is at stake." - Ken Dancyger, The Director's Idea: The Path to Great Directing

1. Sunset Blvd.

2. Double Indemnity

3. The Apartment

4. Some Like It Hot

5. Ace in the Hole
6. One, Two, Three
7. The Seven Year Itch
8. The Lost Weekend
9. The Fortune Cookie 
10. Stalag 17

11. Irma La Douce

12. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

Still need to see: Five Graves to Cairo, The Major and the Minor, A Foreign Affair, Sabrina, Witness for the Prosecution, Kiss Me, Stupid, Love in the Afternoon, The Spirit of St. Louis, Avanti!, The Front Page, Fedora, The Emperor Waltz, The World's Greatest Lover, Buddy Budd.

Thoughts and reactions on John LaRue's 50 Greatest French Films List

While I was on vacation, my dear blogger friend John LaRue at The Droid You’re Looking For published his annual list of the 50 Greatest French Films of All Time. Being a Francophile and a Francophone myself I couldn’t get more excited about his wonderful yearly achievement.

The 10 Best Canadian Films of All Time

On Canada day I’ve decided to bring you the 10 best Canadian films of all time by the critics of the Toronto International Film Festival of 2004. This poll has been done since 1984 every ten years and the number one film, Mon Oncle Antoine has been number one ever since.

As you may notice there are many films from the previous lists of the best films of the Province of Quebec, well six out of ten are from Quebec it means that the contribution has been very prolific and represents a lot of the great films made in Canada.

1. Mon Oncle Antoine (Claude Jutras, 1974)

2. Jésus de Montréal (Denys Arcand, 1989)

3. Goin’ Down the Road (Donald Shebib, 1970)

4. The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan, 1997)

5. Atanarjuat (Zacharias Kunuk, 2001)

6. Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg. 1988)

7. Les Bons débarras (Francis Mankiewicz, 1980)

8. Les ordres (Michel Brault, 1974)

9. Le déclin de l’empire Américain (Denys Arcand, 1986)

10. Les invasions barbares (Denys Arcand, 2003)

What do you think of the list? How many have you seen? Which ones?

The Best Films of the Province of Québec

Celebrating the St. Jean Baptiste, June 24^th, in Québec is like our 4^th of July for Americans or our Bastille Day for the French. For this event, I wanted to give you a list of the most respected films made in our North-eastern Province of North America. The feature Je me souviens that I’ve been pursuing for the past months, in fact it is more on hiatus than anything for now, celebrates the films of Québec. In the nest months I will be continuing my travel into the heritage of the Cinema of my home. Completing those lists will be one of my blogging goals of the second half of 2012.

Here are three lists of the best films made in the Province of Québec (click on the links to read the reviews of the films):

The public’s list

1. Le déclin de l'empire américain (Denys Arcand, 1986)
2. Jésus de Montréal (Denys Arcand, 1989)
3. Un zoo, la nuit (Jean-Claude Lauzon, 1987)
4. Mon oncle Antoine (Claude Jutra, 1971)
5. L'homme qui plantait des arbres (Frédéric Back, 1987)
6. Les bons débarras (Francis Mankiewicz, 1980)
7. Léolo (Jean-Claude Lauzon, 1992)
8. J. A. Martin, photographe (Jean Beaudin, 1976)
9. Being at Home with Claude (Jean Beaudin, 1991)
10. Les ordres (Michel Brault, 1974)

The critics’ list

1. Mon oncle Antoine (Claude Jutra, 1971)
2. Les ordres (Michel Brault, 1974)
3. Les bons débarras (Francis Mankiewicz, 1980)
4. Le déclin de l'empire américain (Denys Arcand, 1986)
5. Pour la suite du monde (Pierre Perrault, Marcel Carrière et Michel Brault, 1963)
6. À tout prendre (Claude Jutra, 1963)
7. Jésus de Montréal (Denys Arcand, 1989)
8. Le chat dans le sac (Gilles Groulx, 1964)
9. Au clair de la lune (André Forcier, 1982)
10. L'eau chaude, l'eau frette (André Forcier, 1976)

The Quebecor critics’ list

1. Mon oncle Antoine (Claude Jutra, 1971)
2. Le déclin de l'empire américain (Denys Arcand, 1986)
3. Les bons débarras (Francis Mankiewicz, 1980)
4. Jésus de Montréal (Denys Arcand, 1989)
5. Les ordres (Michel Brault, 1974)
6. Un zoo, la nuit (Jean-Claude Lauzon, 1987)
7. Léolo (Jean-Claude Lauzon, 1992)
8. J. A. Martin, photographe (Jean Beaudin, 1976)
9. Pour la suite du monde (Pierre Perrault, Marcel Carrière et Michel Brault, 1963)
10. Au clair de la lune (André Forcier, 1982)

Source: Les Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois.

 What do you think of those lists? How many films have you seen? Which ones?

Update of my Fall 2011.. so far

 Earlier I announced the program of my Fall 2011, well, here is my update of it all and the links to the reviews of the lists watched.



Of the 41 films planned I've seen 7. So 34 to go!

1. Madame de… (Max Ophüls, 1954)
2. Battle of Algier (Gillo Pontecorvo, 196-)
3. Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, 1927)
4. Husbands (John Casavetes, 1972)
5. The Servant (Joseph Losey, 1963)
6. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1953)
7. The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971)
8. Shadows (John Cassavetes, 1959)
9. The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 19--)
10. Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)
11. Le Corbeau (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 19--)
12. Y Tu Mama Tambien (Alfonso Cuaron, 2000)
13. Irréversible (Gaspar Noé, 2001)
14. Ali : Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 19--)
15. Les yeux sans visage (Georges Franju, 195-)
16. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (Peter Greenaway, 1989)
17. Land of the Pharaohs (Howard Hawks, 1956)
18. Colossus of Rhodes (Sergio Leone, 196-)
19. Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 196-)
20. Cleopatra (Cecil B. DeMille, 192-)
21. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1975)
22. Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa, 1975)
23. Black Moon (Louis Malle, 1975)
24. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)
25. Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 195-)
26. They Live By Night (Nicholas Ray, 1948)
27. The Lusty Men (Nicholas Ray, 196-)
28. L’année dernière à Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1958)
29. The Devils (Ken Russell, 197-)
30. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956)
31. Duel (Steven Spielberg, 1971) Watched August 15
32. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 19--)
33. I Walked with A Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 19--)
34. Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur, 19--)
35. The Haunting (Robert Wise, 19--)
36. Doctor Phibes Rises Again (Robert Fuest, 19--)
37. The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 19--)
38. Scream (Wes Craven, 1994)
39. A Christmas Story (Bob Clark, 1983)
40. 3 Godfathers (John Ford, 1948)
41. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Paul Schrader, 1983)

Fall 2011

This summer has been pretty busy for me and my girlfriend since we had our wedding on August 20. The many things we had to plan and the details of our honeymoon in Hawaii took us all the free time we usually have. On my side it’s my movie viewing time that I completely cut. First, because it took a lot of time to watch and review those films but also because when my mind isn’t free I have much more difficulties to get my attention focused and to fully appreciate what I am watching.

So I’ve decided to make a list of the films I’d like to see this Fall when I’ll get back from all the wedding and the honeymoon. You’ll notice that I put many Horror classics that I am really ashamed to haven’t seen yet (Halloween, The Innocents, The Haunting, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Les yeux sans visage, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and many others). Those will be a part of my month of October, which I like to imposed myself some Halloween themed films. Then, there are some Christmas oriented picks too to get me in the mood during December (A Christmas Story, 3 Godfathers, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence) but also many films set the Ancient times (Land of the Pharaohs, Cleopatra’s, Colossus of Rhodes) because during the holidays I like to watch this kind of films. This is the historian in me that needs those.

There is also many films that will help me attain one of my objectives of the year; to get to the half of the 1000 Greatest films of All time of They Shoot Pictures Don’t They.
There's also some Nicholas Ray films I urged myself to discover after those many years of wait... It also is justified with the new release of a bio about Ray.

Here’s the list:

1. Madame de… (Max Ophüls, 1954)

2. Battle of Algier (Gillo Pontecorvo, 196-)

3. Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, 1927)

4. Husbands (John Casavetes, 1972)

5. The Servant (Joseph Losey, 1963)

6. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1953)

7. The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971)

8. Shadows (John Cassavetes, 1959)

9. The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 19--)

10. Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)

11. Le Corbeau (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 19--)

12. Y Tu Mama Tambien (Alfonso Cuaron, 2000)

13. Irréversible (Gaspar Noé, 2001)

14. Ali : Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 19--)

15. Les yeux sans visage (Georges Franju, 195-)

16. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (Peter Greenaway, 1989)

17. Land of the Pharaohs (Howard Hawks, 195-)

18. Colossus of Rhodes (Sergio Leone, 196-)

19. Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 196-)

20. Cleopatra (Cecil B. DeMille, 192-)

21. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1975)

22. Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa, 1975)

23. Black Moon (Louis Malle, 1975)

24. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)

25. Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 195-)

26. They Live By Night (Nicholas Ray, 1948)

27. The Lusty Men (Nicholas Ray, 196-)

28. L’année dernière à Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1958)

29. The Devils (Ken Russell, 197-)

30. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956)

31. Duel (Steven Spielberg, 1971) Watched August 15


32. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 19--)

33. I Walked with A Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 19--)

34. Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur, 19--)

35. The Haunting (Robert Wise, 19--)

36. Doctor Phibes Rises Again (Robert Fuest, 19--)

37. The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 19--)

38. Scream (Wes Craven, 1994)

39. A Christmas Story (Bob Clark, 1983)

40. 3 Godfathers (John Ford, 1948)

41. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Paul Schrader, 1983)

MEDIAFILM's Materpiece List

Since 50 years, MEDIAFILM.ca is a public agency that proposes the ratings of everything cinema/television related for the entire Prvince of Quebec. Its ratings are from (1)Masterpiece to (7)Duds. Those ratings are used in the newspapers, tv guides and many websites.

Being a cinephile in the province of Quebec, these ratings were the first references I had when I began to discover auteur films/ foreign and classic films.

Every five years they upgrade a list of masterpieces, This list has been the first cinephile achievement I ever wanted to complete. But on the way I encountered many many other films. An obstacle was also the availability of certain films, Victor Sjöstrom's The Wind or Abel Gance's Napoleon for example. And the many Criterion expensive releases retarded this quest. Now, with more moeny in my pockets and the discovery of certain films available online I am in position to conclude my first ever cinephile objective. Being near the end I feel like a marathonian that feels nostalgic of the first miles and I take a certain step-back at the work/fun achieved.

Enough with the words here. Here you have the list that I will try to put in the best order possible (by year). With the time you will see some links appear on the titles, it will be my review and/or thought on the film and the context I've discovered the so-called movie!

U = Unseen

The Birth of A Nation (D.W. Griffith, 1915) USA
Intolerance (D.W. Griffith, 1916) USA
The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari (Robert, Wiene, 1919) Germany
Broken Blossoms (D.W. Griffith, 1919) USA
Nanook of the North (Robert J. Flaherty, 1922) USA
The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) USA
Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922) Germany
Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1924) USA
Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924) USA
The Last Laugh (F.W. Murnau, 1924) Germany
The Navigator (Donald Crisp & Buster Keaton, 1924) USA
Battleship Potemkin (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1925) USSR
The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, 1925) USA
The General (Clyde Bruckman & Buster Keaton, 1926) USA
Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927) Germany
Berlin: Symphony of A Great City (Walther Ruttmann, 1927) Germany
Napoleon (Abel Gance, 1927) France
Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927) USA
Pandora's Box (G.W. Pabst, 1928) Germany
Steamboat Bill Jr. (Buster Keaton & Charles F. Reisner, 1928) USA
October (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1928) USSR
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1928) France
U The Wind (Victor Sjöström, 1928) USA
Man With The Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929) USSR
Earth (Alexander Dovjenko, 1930) USSR
L'Âge d'or (Luis Bunuel, 1930) France
U The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930) Germany
City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931) USA
M (Fritz Lang, 1931) Germany
L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934) France
The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934) USA
Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, 1935) USA
La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937) France
Alexander Nevsky (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1938) USSR
La règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, 1939) France
Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939) USA
The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford , 1940) USA
The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 1940) USA
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) USA
The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1941) USA
Day of Wrath (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1942) Danemark
Ivan The Terrible: Part I (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1944) USSR
Ivan The Terrible: Part II (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1945) USSR
Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné, 1945) France
La belle et la bête (Jean Cocteau, 1946) France
Roma Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1946) Italy
My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946) USA
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948) USA
Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948) Italy
Louisiana Story (Robert J. Flaherty, 1949) USA
The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949) UK
Journal d'un curé de campagne (Robert Bresson, 1950) France
Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950) USA
The African Queen (John Huston, 1951) USA
Othello (Orson Welles, 1951) USA
Umberto D. (Vittorio De Sica, 1951) Italy
Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1952) Japan
Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen, 1952) USA
High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952) USA
Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953) Japan
Les vacances de M. Hulot (Jacques Tati, 1953) France
Madame de... (Max Ophüls, 1953) France
Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953) Japan
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954) USA
Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954) Japan
La Strada (Federico Fellini, 1954) Italy
On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954) USA
The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955) USA
Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955) India
The Searchers (John Ford, 1956) USA
Ordet (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1955) Danemark
Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955)
East of Eden (Elia Kazan, 1955) USA
U Un condamné à mort s'est échappé (Robert Bresson, 1955) France
Aparajito (Satyajit Ray, 1956) India
Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1957) Sweden
Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati, 1957) France
Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957) Italy
The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957) Sweden
Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958) USA
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) USA
Les 400 coups (François Truffaut, 1958) France
Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, 1958) France
Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959) France
North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) USA
Apur Sansar (Satyajit Ray, 1959) India
The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman, 1960) Sweden
L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960) Italy
À bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) France
La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960) Italy
Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) USA
L'année dernière à Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1960) France
La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961) Italy
Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, 1961) France
West Side Story (Jerome Robbins & Robert Wise, 1961) USA
U L'Eclisse (Michaelangelo Antonioni, 1962) Italy
Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) UK
The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963) USA
8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963) Italy
Les parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1963) France
Dr.Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1963) USA
U Pour la suite du monde (Pierre Perreault & Michel Brault, 1963) Canada
U Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964) Italy
Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) Sweden
Blow Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966) UK
Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966) USSR
Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967) France
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1967) Italy
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) USA
Teorema (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1968) Italy
Once Upon A Time In The West (Sergio Leone, 1968) Italy 
The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1969) Italy
Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, 1971) Italy
A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971) UK
Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, 1972) Sweden
Le charme discrèt de la bourgeoisie (Luis Bunuel, 1972) France
The Godfathter (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) USA
Amarcord (Federico Fellini, 1973) Italy
The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974) USSR
The Godfather: Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) USA
Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) USA
Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975) USA
Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976) USA
Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977) USA
Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978) USA
Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) USA
Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979) USA
Mon oncle d'Amérique (Alain Resnais, 1980) France
Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980) USA
Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) USA
Once Upon A Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984) USA
Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985) UK
Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1987) Germany
Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) USA