French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma have compiled a list of the 100 greatest films of all time.
It is published this month in an illustrated book and was put together by 76 French film directors, critics and industry executives.
Here are the 100 films:
- Citizen Kane – Orson Welles
- The Night of the Hunter – Charles Laughton
- The Rules of the Game (La Règle du jeu) – Jean Renoir
- Sunrise – Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
- L’Atalante – Jean Vigo
- M – Fritz Lang
- Singin’ in the Rain – Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
- Vertigo – Alfred Hitchcock
- Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis) – Marcel Carné
- The Searchers – John Ford
- Greed – Erich von Stroheim
- Rio Bravo – Howard Hawkes
- To Be or Not to Be – Ernst Lubitsch
- Tokyo Story – Yasujiro Ozu
- Contempt (Le Mépris) – Jean-Luc Godard
- Tales of Ugetsu (Ugetsu monogatari) – Kenji Mizoguchi
- City Lights – Charlie Chaplin
- The General – Buster Keaton
- Nosferatu the Vampire – Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
- The Music Room – Satyajit Ray
- Freaks – Tod Browning
- Johnny Guitar – Nicholas Ray
- The Mother and the Whore (La Maman et la Putain) – Jean Eustache
- The Great Dictator – Charlie Chaplin
- The Leopard (Le Guépard) – Luchino Visconti
- Hiroshima, My Love – Alain Resnais
- The Box of Pandora (Loulou) – Georg Wilhelm Pabst
- North by Northwest – Alfred Hitchcock
- Pickpocket – Robert Bresson
- Golden Helmet (Casque d’or) – Jacques Becker
- The Barefoot Contessa – Joseph Mankiewitz
- Moonfleet – Fritz Lang
- Diamond Earrings (Madame de…) – Max Ophüls
- Pleasure – Max Ophüls
- The Deer Hunter – Michael Cimino
- The Adventure – Michelangelo Antonioni
- Battleship Potemkin – Sergei M. Eisenstein
- Notorious – Alfred Hitchcock
- Ivan the Terrible – Sergei M. Eisenstein
- The Godfather – Francis Ford Coppola
- Touch of Evil – Orson Welles
- The Wind – Victor Sjöström
- 2001: A Space Odyssey – Stanley Kubrick
- Fanny and Alexander – Ingmar Bergman
- The Crowd – King Vidor
- 8 1/2 – Federico Fellini
- La Jetée – Chris Marker
- Pierrot le Fou – Jean-Luc Godard
- Confessions of a Cheat (Le Roman d’un tricheur) – Sacha Guitry
- Amarcord – Federico Fellini
- Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête) – Jean Cocteau
- Some Like It Hot – Billy Wilder
- Some Came Running – Vincente Minnelli
- Gertrud – Carl Theodor Dreyer
- King Kong – Ernst Shoedsack & Merian J. Cooper
- Laura – Otto Preminger
- The Seven Samurai – Akira Kurosawa
- The 400 Blows – François Truffaut
- La Dolce Vita – Federico Fellini
- The Dead – John Huston
- Trouble in Paradise – Ernst Lubitsch
- It’s a Wonderful Life – Frank Capra
- Monsieur Verdoux – Charlie Chaplin
- The Passion of Joan of Arc – Carl Theodor Dreyer
- À bout de souffle – Jean-Luc Godard
- Apocalypse Now – Francis Ford Coppola
- Barry Lyndon – Stanley Kubrick
- La Grande Illusion – Jean Renoir
- Intolerance – David Wark Griffith
- A Day in the Country (Partie de campagne) – Jean Renoir
- Playtime – Jacques Tati
- Rome, Open City – Roberto Rossellini
- Livia (Senso) – Luchino Visconti
- Modern Times – Charlie Chaplin
- Van Gogh – Maurice Pialat
- An Affair to Remember – Leo McCarey
- Andrei Rublev – Andrei Tarkovsky
- The Scarlet Empress – Joseph von Sternberg
- Sansho the Bailiff – Kenji Mizoguchi
- Talk to Her – Pedro Almodóvar
- The Party – Blake Edwards
- Tabu – Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
- The Bandwagon – Vincente Minnelli
- A Star Is Born – George Cukor
- Mr. Hulot’s Holiday – Jacques Tati
- America, America – Elia Kazan
- El – Luis Buñuel
- Kiss Me Deadly – Robert Aldrich
- Once Upon a Time in America – Sergio Leone
- Daybreak (Le Jour se lève) – Marcel Carné
- Letter from an Unknown Woman – Max Ophüls
- Lola – Jacques Demy
- Manhattan – Woody Allen
- Mulholland Dr. – David Lynch
- My Night at Maud’s (Ma nuit chez Maud) – Eric Rohmer
- Night and Fog (Nuit et Brouillard) – Alain Resnais
- The Gold Rush – Charlie Chaplin
- Scarface – Howard Hawks
- Bicycle Thieves – Vittorio de Sica
- Napoléon – Abel Gance
The reaction from some outlets in this country is surprise that there are no British films on the list.
The Telegraph say:
The list in the publication Les Cahiers du Cinema features films from the USA, Germany, Russia, Italy and Sweden but there is no place for some of the biggest British directors including David Lean, Ken Loach and Peter Greenaway.
British-born Alfred Hitchcock and Charlie Chaplin are both mentioned but only for the movies that they made in Hollywood.
The nearest the British cinema industry comes to a mention is the 17th (equal) place given to 2001: A Space Odyssey, made in 1968, by the American director, Stanley Kubrick, partly with British money and with British technicians.
The 1962 classic Lawrence of Arabia came seventh in a recent list of the best 100 movies drawn up by the American Film Institute in Hollywood but is perhaps the highest profile omission.
Jean-Michel Frodon, the editor of Les Cahiers du Cinema, has pointed out that the lack of British-made films was “striking” but not part of any Gallic conspiracy:
“It does not reflect an anti-British bias. It is simply the result of the individual choices of 76 people in the French industry. Each was asked to name their 100 best films and this was the result.
Yes, it is surprising, maybe, that there is no Lawrence of Arabia, or no film by Ken Loach or Stephen Frears (The Queen).
But there are many other national film industries which are also missing. There are no Brazilian films, for instance.”
Some British films that should have made the list would surely include:
That said, if you were to ask me what are the truly great British films of the last 20 years, then I would struggle to come up with one.
In May 1957 a former editor of Cahiers (and later director) Francois Truffaut once remarked:
“The British cinema is made of dullness and reflects a submissive lifestyle, where enthusiasm, warmth, and zest are nipped in the bud. A film is a born loser just because it is English.“
Maybe nothing has changed in 50 years.
> The Telegraph on the list
> Official site for Cahiers du Cinema
> Geoffrey MacNab of The Guardian in 2001 on Cahiers du Cinema
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That was, by far, the most pointless top 100 list ever created. Most of those films, including Citizen Kane, more overrated than Abraham Lincoln…
It doesn’t include:
Pulp Fiction
Fargo
Star Wars
Halloween
Suspiria
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
The Shawshank Redemption
The Departed
Titanic
No Country for Old Men
Goodfellas
Casino
What the Hell, people? Have you all been living under a rock for the past 25 years? If you put the Godfather, you HAVE to put the Godfather Part II, which was substantially better than its predecessor.
I take it someone doesn’t like Casablanca.
im sorry, we all rolled over the crass notion that ‘billy elliot’ should be enrolled in the top 100 films of all time. i can only conceive that this was a drunken error, and not possibly considered ever a contender. i can agree that ‘freaks’ is an oversight, it may have been arguably groundbreaking but certainly not great cinema. maybe the list should be more perceived as ‘cinema’ and not ‘movies’, in which case, contemporary ‘cinema’ if we can call it that, does not really deserve to have as many entries within the last 20 yrs as people would like. as much as it is a good movie, ‘pulp fiction’ cannot be classed in the same vein as something a well delivered as ‘dr. strangelove’, or ‘sunset boulevard’; ‘godfather’ notably deserves its place, i would argue higher, but in an uncomprehensibly large and diverse medium, i dont think anyone could ever collectively define the 100 greatest films of all time. film and cinema is greatly personal. its also generational. i could argue that the coens ‘blood simple’ and ‘fargo’ are works of exceptional depth and poignancy, im incredibly impressed with nolan, coppola and kubrick, but thats my opinion, and to think that would carry to the hoi polloi would be inherently facetious. i personally have no love for as many chaplin films on this list, and i personally hate woody allen. nor will anyone ever collectively be truly truly satisfied with a complete and definitive list as short as 100 ‘films’, its silly to try. each film you have ever seen has moved you in a different way, this is why we have even bothered to view this list. cinema is personal, and each person will find different qualities in every film. but hopefully, we can all rally round and collectively argue that billy elliot is shit?
A Top-100 Movies list that leaves out The Lord Of The Rings is one I can’t get on board with. I love older movies too, but you’ve completely skewed their representation. You’re honestly telling me that “Freaks” is a far better movie than any part of the Lord Of The Rings saga or Chinatown? Are you out of your mind?
no bunuel, no eisenstein? no iranian films? what kind of top 100 list is this? whatever happened to the refined french sensibilities?
“what about The Dark Knight or the Shawshank Redemption? they both rank so high on the imdb. is that site just full of fanboys and college sophomores who eat that crap up?”
Yes, it is. The Dark Knight is a good movie. Best movie ever made? It hasn’t even come out on DVD yet, just relax. Shawshank is a good movie. Inspirational? Life-changing? There are subtler ways to do things other than blatant voice-over narration. Literacy rates are down and masturbation rates are up. Coincidence?
Where is Werner Herzog?? ‘Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes’ and ‘Fitzcarraldo’ are among two of the most influential pieces of cinema in the past 30 years–definitely some of the most honest. As for great British movies: ‘Withnail & I’. Surely makes my top 10!
A list is just a list is just a list, and a list today would be a different list tomorrow. I think I’ve seen 80 of the films. If you think about the films left out then it’s easy to see that there’s not much room for British films – I certainly wouldn’t want anything by Ken Russel there, and I’d rather a Mike Leigh than a David Lean. Anyway, you could add a few from Imamura and Kurosawa and Ozu. No Bergman. Tarkovsky under represented. No Terry Malick, no Wajda, no Johnny To, no Buñuel. And why would anyone leave out Pather Panchali? I suppose it just proves that I’m not a French cinema critic.
That was, by far, the worse top 100 list ever created.
It doesn’t include:
Fight Club
Jaws
Pulp Fiction
Star Wars
Batman The Dark Night
Lord of Rings
City of God
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Blade Runner
They don’t know nothing about films.
Speaking as a Brit, i’m not in the least bit offended that there aren’t any British films on the list – it just reflects the persepective with which one should view these lists (it’s 70-odd French writers for God’s sake!). Speaking of which, however, the complete lack of contemporary film hints that this list is useful only for nostalgists. I’m a 26 year-old who’s grown up, for better or worse, on Fincher, Gondry, the Coen Brothers and PT Anderson, so this list does not speak for me.
Still, the general order of the list is striking. ‘Seven Samura’, ‘Bicycle Thieves’ and ‘Fanny & Alexander’ so low down?! Please…
where’s Gone with the Wind??? Casablanca??? The Wizard of Oz??? and 2001: A Space Odyssey should be at least in the top 20!
I was relieved to see Kazan on the list, but the choice is inexplicable. Streetcar, Baby Doll and On the Waterfront are his masterworks, more influential than most other directors’ work, not only among filmmakers but in life as we perceive it, as we live it, as we interact with each other. Is this not the dream of all serious artists and should we not reflect seriously on the influence of that great triumvirate — Williams, Kazan and Brando — who show us the light and the way there?
A shockingly bad list. I echo the shock at the omission of films like Gone with the Wind, Rashomon, Lawrence of Arabia, All About Eve, Sunset Boulevard, Casablanca, Wizard of Oz,
The Third Man, Brief Encounter, etc., and add newer masterpieces like City of God, The Pianist, Brokeback Mountain, Spring Summer Fall Winter…Spring, Water, Satantango, Breaking the Waves, Network, etc. And France’s own greatest Grand Illusion only at #68? They also forgot their own Au Hasard Balthazar, L’Atalante, Le Million and Napoleon, among others. Wow, bad.
@ Ben
L’Atalante is at Number 5 on the list.
I can easily see leaving Star Wars off the list, if one wants the list to be based on filmmaking skill. For all of its economic influence it’s a pretty clumsily made movie. Perhaps that is the true source of its unending popularity: It is so poorly written and acted that it fairly invites viewers to reshape it as a more complex, nuanced film in their heads/fanfiction/cosplay.
Nor do I get the love for Pulp Fiction. It’s diverting, sure, but remove its cavalcade of references to other films and television programs and you don’t have a lot. Tarantino writes eminently quotable dialogue but he’s not a particularly insightful filmmaker; his films are like term papers from a student is better read than he is educated.
But yeah, Godfather II, Lawrence of Arabia and Peeping Tom deserve spots on the list.
2001 is definitely an American film. Two films which are definitely British and should be on this list: Don’t Look Now and The Wicker Man.
I don’t know what’s more depressing: that the Cahiers du Cinema people seem to think good cinema ended in about 1963; or that so many people on here seem to think that they know a lot about cinema when clearly they’ve seen next to nothing that was made in a language other than English or before 1977. If you haven’t seen The General, Battleship Potemkin, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, M, La Regle du jeu or L’Avventura (to name but a few) then you have no right whatsoever to comment on this list.
There are far more superior lists and examinations of movies than this. Take a look at the theyshootpicturs.com’s 1000 greatest, which pulls together top 10s from every industry person they can find. thependragon.co.uk’s top 1000 films are voted on by contributors aged from 19-76 years old and thus the list does not discriminate on the age of the film.
Wow nearly as bad as the AFI’s.
the best list have made ever! (maybe aggelopoulos could be there…)
excellent films! congratulations!
A Very snob and pretencious list!
I have learned to distrust French film critics…any British film on the list would be a concession, if not a kind of betrayal.
The list can hardly be considered objective, it is full of French directors who have made no better films than the British or Indians. Personally, almost any early film by the Bengali director Satyajit Ray is better than most of the films by Renoir, Vigo, Godard, Resnais, Bresson, Cocteau, Rohmer or even the great Truffaut.
Any list of this kind must ultmately be qualified as subjective- ‘A List of the greatest films of all time by a bunch of French intellectuals that get their tickets free and think that Truffaut is God…etc, etc,’
The greatest film is the one that you like the most, period.
At 49th I found Mr.Guitry……Amazed…..
It’ s quite bizarre I dont’ find any Bunuel or Herzog ! ! ! ! ! !
If you pretend to rank the ideal movies as a suggestion for cinema lovers there’s something wrong ! ! ! ! ! !
Peace.
I have to refute the idea that 2001 is not a (primarily at least) British film. Made at Shepperton and Elstree with a British crew and supporting cast, and a screenplay co-written by Arthur C Clarke based on his short story. Fair enough, MGM put up the money and Kubrick (who spent most of his career In Britain anyway) directed it, but Leonard Rossiter’s in it for goodness sake, how more British can you get?
I won’t comment on the omissions as you will always leave out deserving films in a list of only 100, but some of the inclusions are truly bizarre. Moonfleet? Not exactly the First fritz Lang film to spring to mind. I quite like The Party, but i’ve never seen it on any kind of list like this before, but perhaps the french like it because it’s so Tati-esque.
Those who don’t see films of Eisenstein, Bergman, Gance or Bunuel have to buy glasses. The fact that you have forgotten them means that you haven’t watched well the list. So, how can you criticize it ?
I think there is two defaults in this list : first, there isn’t recent movies enough (Wong Kar-Wai, Lars von Trier, Abbas Kiarostami,…) ; and there is too much occidental movies (above all American and French).
A French friend.
PS : thank you Georges Fercalli for your very, very great suggestions. At least, we can say that you are a great specialist in cinema !
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