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Monday, April 16, 2007 ::
9:06 AM ::
my personal canon: final version
So here's the whole thing in a single post. For a different way of looking at it, I've reorganized it chronologically by year.
Arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat, Lumiere (1896)
A Trip To The Moon, Melies (1902)
Great Train Robbery, (1903)
Nosferatu, Murnau (1922)
Battleship Potemkin, Eisenstein (1925)
Metropolis, Lang (1927)
The General, Keaton (1927)
Un Chien Andalou, Bunuel (1929)
Duck Soup, McCarey (1933)
King Kong, Cooper + Schoedsack (1933)
Triumph of the Will, Riefenstahl (1935)
Modern Times, Chaplin (1936)
The Wizard of Oz, Fleming (1939)
Fantasia, V/A (1940)
Citizen Kane, Welles (1941)
Double Indemnity, Wilder (1944)
Rashomon, Kurosawa (1950)
Godzilla, Honda (1954)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Siegel (1956)
The Searchers, Ford (1956)
The Ten Commandments, DeMille (1956)
Touch of Evil, Welles (1958)
Vertigo, Hitchcock (1958)
Psycho, Hitchcock (1960)
La Dolce Vita, Fellini (1960)
Breathless, Godard (1960)
Spartacus, Kubrick (1960)
Yojimbo, Kurosawa (1961)
Jules and Jim, Truffaut (1962)
The Exterminating Angel, Bunuel (1962)
8 1/2, Fellini (1963)
Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick (1964)
A Fistful of Dollars, Leone (1964)
Dog Star Man, Brakhage (1964)
Empire, Warhol (1964)
Blow-Up, Antonioni (1966)
Persona, Bergman (1966)
The Graduate, Nichols (1967)
Night of the Living Dead, Romero (1968)
Faces, Cassavetes (1968)
Godfather, Coppola (1972)
Solaris, Tarkovsky (1972)
Pink Flamingos, Waters (1972)
Deep Throat, Damiano (1972)
Badlands, Malick (1973)
Chinatown, Polanski (1974)
Blazing Saddles, Brooks (1974)
Jaws, Spielberg (1975)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Gilliam + Jones (1975)
Star Wars, Lucas (1977)
Annie Hall, Allen (1977)
Eraserhead, Lynch (1977)
Halloween, Carpenter (1978)
Alien, Scott (1979)
Muppet Movie, Frawley (1979)
Apocalypse Now, Coppola (1979)
Airplane!, Abrahams + Zucker (1980)
Raging Bull, Scorsese (1980)
My Dinner With Andre, Malle (1981)
48 Hrs., Hill (1982)
Blade Runner, Scott (1982)
Fitzcarraldo, Herzog (1982)
Koyannisqatsi, Reggio (1982)
Nostalghia, Tarkovsky (1983)
This Is Spinal Tap, Reiner (1984)
Ran, Kurosawa (1985)
Aliens, Cameron (1986)
The Fly, Cronenberg (1986)
Lethal Weapon, Donner (1987)
Wings of Desire, Wenders (1987)
Die Hard, Tiernan (1988)
Akira, Otomo (1988)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Almodovar (1988)
When Harry Met Sally, Reiner (1989)
Say Anything..., Crowe (1989)
Do the Right Thing, Lee (1989)
Roger and Me, Moore (1989)
Goodfellas, Scorcese (1990)
Silence of the Lambs, Demme (1991)
Beauty and the Beast, Trousdale + Wise (1991)
Thelma and Louise, Scott (1991)
Slacker, Linklater (1991)
Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino (1992)
Unforgiven, Eastwood (1992)
Player, The, Altman (1992)
Jurassic Park, Spielberg (1993)
Pulp Fiction, Tarantino (1994)
Toy Story, Lasseter (1995)
Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki (1997)
Titanic, Cameron (1997)
The Celebration, Vinterberg (1998)
Rushmore, Anderson (1998)
Matrix, The, Wachowsky (1999)
Blair Witch Project, The, Myrick + Sanchez (1999)
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Lee (2000)
Mulholland Dr., Lynch (2001)
Fellowship of the Ring, Jackson (2001)
Y Tu Mama Tambien, Cuaron (2001)
Adaptation, Jonze (2002)
Sin City, Rodriguez (2005)
Some notes on the last-second replacements: I ultimately went with Pulp Fiction as my Tarantino pick, instead of Reservoir Dogs: although Pulp Fiction is a little more talky and sprawling, it's also ultimately the one that really inspired a generation of filmmakers to make slick postmodern crime-movies, far more so than its predecessor. And C-Collision reminded me, last week, that the true cop-buddy movie template is not Lethal Weapon but rather 48 Hrs., predating Weapon by a healthy five years. (I'm still vacillating on whether I should replace 1978's Halloween with 1974's Texas Chainsaw Massacre.)
This list may fluctuate more once I've seen a few of the following: Shoah, Lanzmann (1985); Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Herzog (1972); Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Van Peebles (1971); Titicut Follies, Wiseman (1967); Battle of Algiers, Pontecorvo (1966); Hiroshima Mon Amour, Resnais (1959); L'Avventura, Antonioni (1960); Some Like It Hot, Wilder (1959); The Seven-Year Itch, Wilder (1955); Meshes of the Afternoon, Deren (1943); His Girl Friday, Hawks (1940); Grand Illusion, Renoir (1937); Freaks, Browning (1932); M, Lang (1931); The Adventures of Prince Achmed, Reiniger (1926). As of right now these are all very high on my "must-see" list.
Also: is Leni Riefenstahl really the most important female director of all time? That seems like my list has another blind spot in it. Suggestions? Labels: filmographies, media commentary
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