Comments on: Cahiers du cinéma’s 100 Greatest Films

By: Gary Finch

Gary Finch — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:42:23 +0000

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.

By: First Screening — Singin’ in the Rain « Sunday Screenings

First Screening — Singin’ in the Rain « Sunday Screenings — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:35:36 +0000

[...] in the Rain rates #5 on the most recent AFI top 100 movies list, #7 on the far more comprehensive Cahiers du Cinema top 100 films list, and #75 on the populist and fanboy driven IMDB Top 250. So, why haven’t I seen it? [...]

By: TheWindWillCarryUs

TheWindWillCarryUs — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:18:23 +0000

Wow nearly as bad as the AFI’s.

By: Stuart Bull

Stuart Bull — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:40:29 +0000

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.

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:14:36 +0000

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.

By: Auburn

Auburn — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 21:38:42 +0000

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.

By: newcritics - » The Triumph of Derrièrism

newcritics - » The Triumph of Derrièrism — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:37:59 +0000

[...] old theory of auteurism, the critics at Cahiers put together a list steeped in derrièrism, which included not a single boring Tarkovsky film or any British movies at all, relegating such tedious efforts as [...]

By: Ambrose Heron

Ambrose Heron — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:38:00 +0000

@ Ben

L’Atalante is at Number 5 on the list.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 07:16:12 +0000

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.

By: Trabalho Sujo » Arquivo » Leitura Aleatória 212 - OESQUEMA

Trabalho Sujo » Arquivo » Leitura Aleatória 212 - OESQUEMA — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:32:33 +0000

[...] ver com vandalismo? Cientistas explicam 3) Dez coisas que você não sabia sobre Freddie Mercury 4) Os 100 melhores filmes segundo a Cahiers du Cinema (não tem filme inglês ) 5) Remixtures dá um tempo 6) Segurança do Rio planeja uso de ‘maconhômetro’ 7) Fãs dizem [...]