Ted Michael Morgan

I admit that every film on the Sight and Sound List belongs or almost belongs there. The list includes some of my favourite films and some that I regard highly for a number of reasons. I simply cannot figure out where to place the movies in italics but I did list from number 68 down some films that I regard less highly than some other movies. Some of these are great pictures. I have never understood the popularity of Apocalypse Now. I do not like Some Like It Hot. Lawrence of Arabia is ponderous. I know why viewers like Gertrud and Ordet but I did not like either of them. Singin in the Rain is a splendid movie but it is more the parts than the whole that I love. The Godfather films are powerful classics and deserve immense respect; they just are not in my top 100. Sunset Blvd. is like that.

  1. L'Eclisse | Michelangelo ANTONIONI | 1962
  2. La Jetée | Chris MARKER | 1962
  3. Sansho Dayu | MIZOGUCHI Kenji | 1954
  4. Persona | Ingmar BERGMAN | 1966
  5. Vertigo | Alfred HITCHCOCK | 1958
  6. 2001: A Space Odyssey | Stanley KUBRICK | 1968
  7. The Spirit of the Beehive | Víctor ERICE | 1973
  8. Au Hasard Balthazar | Robert BRESSON | 1966
  9. L'Avventura | Michelangelo ANTONIONI | 1960
  10. The Colour of Pomegranates | Sergei PARAJANOV | 1968
  11. The Leopard | Luchino VISCONTI | 1963
  12. Partie de Campagne | Jean RENOIR | 1936
  13. La Règle du Jeu | Jean RENOIR | 1939
  14. Sátántangó | TARR Béla | 1994
  15. Pather Panchali | Satyajit RAY | 1955
  16. L'Atalante | Jean VIGO | 1934
  17. 8½ | Federico FELLINI | 1963
  18. Battleship Potemkin | Sergei EISENSTEIN | 1925
  19. Un Chien Andalou | Luis BUÑUEL | 1929
  20. Histoire(s) du Cinéma | Jean-Luc GODARD | 1998
  21. Le Mépris | Jean-Luc GODARD | 1963
  22. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans | F.W. MURNAU | 1927
  23. Man with a Movie Camera | Dziga VERTOV | 1929
  24. Breathless | Jean-Luc GODARD | 1960
  25. Tokyo Story | OZU Yasujirō | 1953
  26. Pierrot le Fou | Jean-Luc GODARD | 1965
  27. The Third Man | Carol REED | 1949
  28. Sans Soleil | Chris MARKER | 1983
  29. The 400 Blows | François TRUFFAUT | 1959
  30. The Night of the Hunter | Charles LAUGHTON | 1955
  31. City Lights | Charles CHAPLIN | 1931
  32. M | Fritz LANG | 1931
  33. The Seventh Seal | Ingmar BERGMAN | 1957
  34. Wild Strawberries | Ingmar BERGMAN | 1957
  35. The Wild Bunch | Sam PECKINPAH | 1969
  36. Jeanne Dielman | Chantal AKERMAN | 1975
  37. La Maman et la Putain | Jean EUSTACHE | 1973
  38. Touki-Bouki | Djibril DIOP MAMBÉTY | 1973
  39. Late Spring | OZU Yasujirō | 1949
  40. In the Mood for Love | WONG Kar-wai | 2000
  41. The Magnificent Ambersons | Orson WELLES | 1942
  42. Aguirre, Wrath of God | Werner HERZOG | 1972
  43. Blade Runner | Ridley SCOTT | 1982
  44. La Dolce Vita | Federico FELLINI | 1960
  45. Fanny & Alexander | Ingmar BERGMAN | 1982
  46. The Battle of Algiers | Gillo PONTECORVO | 1966
  47. The Passion of Joan of Arc | Carl Th. DREYER | 1928
  48. The General | Clyde BRUCKMAN & Buster KEATON | 1927
  49. Ugetsu Monogatari | MIZOGUCHI Kenji | 1953
  50. Chinatown | Roman POLANSKI | 1974
  51. Rashomon | KUROSAWA Akira | 1950
  52. Citizen Kane | Orson WELLES | 1941
  53. Modern Times | Charles CHAPLIN | 1936
  54. A Brighter Summer Day | Edward YANG | 1991
  55. Andrei Rublev | Andrei TARKOVSKY | 1966
  56. A One and a Two | Edward YANG | 2000
  57. Rear Window | Alfred HITCHCOCK | 1954
  58. Psycho | Alfred HITCHCOCK | 1960
  59. North by Northwest | Alfred HITCHCOCK | 1959
  60. Sherlock Jr. | Buster KEATON | 1924
  61. The Searchers | John FORD | 1956
  62. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp | M. POWELL & E. PRESSBURGER | 1943
  63. Metropolis | Fritz LANG | 1927
  64. Beau Travail | Claire DENIS | 1999
  65. Shoah | Claude LANZMANN | 1985
  66. Journey to Italy | Roberto ROSSELLINI | 1954
  67. Les Enfants du Paradis | Marcel CARNÉ | 1945

Barry Lyndon | Stanley KUBRICK | 1975
Bicycle Thieves | Vittorio DE SICA | 1948
Blue Velvet | David LYNCH | 1986
Casablanca | Michael CURTIZ | 1942
Close-Up | Abbas KIAROSTAMI | 1990
Greed | Erich VON STROHEIM | 1924
Imitation of Life | Douglas SIRK | 1959
Intolerance | D.W. GRIFFITH | 1916
A Man Escaped | Robert BRESSON | 1956
A Matter of Life and Death | POWELL & PRESSBURGER | 1946
Mirror | Andrei TARKOVSKY | 1975
Mulholland Dr. | David LYNCH | 2001
Nashville | Robert ALTMAN | 1975
Once upon a Time in the West | Sergio LEONE | 1968
Pickpocket | Robert BRESSON | 1959
Play Time | Jacques TATI | 1967
Raging Bull | Martin SCORSESE | 1980
Rio Bravo | Howard HAWKS | 1959
Seven Samurai | KUROSAWA Akira | 1954
Stalker | Andrei TARKOVSKY | 1979
Taxi Driver | Martin SCORSESE | 1976

  1. Sunset Blvd. | Billy WILDER | 1950
  2. Singin' in the Rain | Stanley DONEN & Gene KELLY | 1952
  3. Ordet | Carl Th. DREYER | 1955
  4. Gertrud | Carl Th. DREYER | 1964
  5. The Godfather | Francis Ford COPPOLA | 1972
  6. The Godfather: Part II | Francis Ford COPPOLA | 1974
  7. Apocalypse Now | Francis Ford COPPOLA | 1979
  8. Lawrence of Arabia | David LEAN | 1962
  9. Some Like It Hot | Billy WILDER | 1959

While not every film on this alternative list might stand up to the films on the Sight and Sound List, except for my first three, each film listed here is at least as good as or better than Rio Bravo, which is a fine film, by the way. I could make a second list of 100 "best" films, I think.

  1. Night and Fog | Alain RESNAIS | 1955
  2. La Belle et la Bête | Jean COCTEAU | 1946
  3. Berlin Alexanderplatz | Rainer Werner FASSBINDER | 1980
  4. Senso | Luchino VISCONTI | 1954
  5. Kagemusha | KUROSAWA Akira | 1980
  6. Alexander Nevsky | Sergei EISENSTEIN | 1938
  7. The Senator Was Indiscreet | George S. KAUFMAN | 1947
  8. Play It as It Lays | Frank PERRY | 1972
  9. Two or Three Things I Know About Her | Jean-Luc GODARD | 1967
  10. Three Colours: Red | Krzysztof KIEŚLOWSKI | 1994
  11. Enemies: A Love Story | Paul MAZURSKY | 1989
  12. Cries and Whispers | Ingmar BERGMAN | 1972
  13. Finally, Sunday! | François TRUFFAUT | 1983
  14. Les Amants | Louis MALLE | 1958
  15. Frenzy | Alfred HITCHCOCK | 1972
  16. True Confessions | Ulu GROSBARD | 1981
  17. What About Bob? | Frank OZ | 1991
  18. The Unbearable Lightness of Being | Philip KAUFMAN | 1988
  19. Russian Ark | Aleksandr SOKUROV | 2002
  20. Bad Timing | Nicolas ROEG | 1980
  21. Lola Montès | Max OPHÜLS | 1955
  22. Silent Souls | Aleksei FEDORCHENKO | 2010
  23. Kramer vs. Kramer | Robert BENTON | 1979
  24. You Can’t Take It with You | Frank CAPRA | 1938
  25. Invasion of the Body Snatchers | Philip KAUFMAN | 1978
  26. Babbitt | William KEIGHLEY | 1934
  27. Craig’s Wife | Dorothy ARZNER | 1936
  28. Fear Eats the Soul | Rainer Werner FASSBINDER | 1974
  29. Danton | Andrzej WAJDA | 1983
  30. Despair | Rainer Werner FASSBINDER | 1978
  31. The Double Life of Veronique | Krzysztof KIEŚLOWSKI | 1991
  32. Lola | Rainer Werner FASSBINDER | 1981
  33. À Nous la Liberté | René CLAIR | 1931
  34. Veronika Voss | Rainer Werner FASSBINDER | 1982
  35. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser | Werner HERZOG | 1974
  36. Au Revoir les Enfants | Louis MALLE | 1987
  37. Marnie | Alfred HITCHCOCK | 1964
  38. The Piano | Jane CAMPION | 1993
  39. Buster’s Bedroom | Rebecca HORN | 1991
  40. Man of Flowers | Paul COX | 1983
  41. Atlantic City | Louis MALLE | 1980
  42. Patriot Games | Phillip NOYCE | 1992
  43. A Man’s Gotta Do | Chris KENNEDY | 2004
  44. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith | Fred SCHEPISI | 1978
  45. After Hours | Martin SCORSESE | 1985
  46. A Cry in the Dark | Fred SCHEPISI | 1988
  47. The Memory of Justice | Marcel OPHÜLS | 1976
  48. Dead Calm | Phillip NOYCE | 1989
  49. Stroszek | Werner HERZOG | 1977
  50. Le Souffle au Coeur | Louis MALLE | 1971
  51. Damage | Louis MALLE | 1992
  52. The Others | Alejandro AMENÁBAR | 2001
  53. Swimming Pool | François OZON | 2003
  54. The Interpreter | Sydney POLLACK | 2005
  55. Womb | Benedek FLIEGAUF | 2010
  56. Dangerous Liaisons | Stephen FREARS | 1988
  57. Smiles of a Summer Night | Ingmar BERGMAN | 1955
  58. Story of a Love Affair | Michelangelo ANTONIONI | 1950
  59. The Fabulous Baker Boys | Steve KLOVES | 1989
  60. The Age of Innocence | Martin SCORSESE | 1993
  61. The Ides of March | George CLOONEY | 2011
  62. Jennifer Eight | Bruce ROBINSON | 1992
  63. Cool Hand Luke | Stuart ROSENBERG | 1967
  64. Smile | Michael RITCHIE | 1975
  65. Alice | Jan ŠVANKMAJER | 1988
  66. The Last Detail | Hal ASHBY | 1973
  67. Hannah and Her Sisters | Woody ALLEN | 1986
  68. Bringing Up Baby | Howard HAWKS | 1938
  69. When Harry Met Sally... | Rob REINER | 1989
  70. Stand by Me | Rob REINER | 1986
  71. The War of the Roses | Danny DEVITO | 1989
  72. The Passenger | Michelangelo ANTONIONI | 1975
  73. The Pawnbroker | Sidney LUMET | 1964
  74. Long Day's Journey Into Night | Sidney LUMET | 1962
  75. Prince of the City | Sidney LUMET | 1981
  76. Ordinary People | Robert REDFORD | 1980
  77. An Unmarried Woman | Paul MAZURSKY | 1978
  78. The Appointment | Sidney LUMET | 1969
  79. The Exterminating Angel | Luis BUÑUEL | 1962
  80. Belle de Jour | Luis BUÑUEL | 1967
  81. The Grapes of Wrath | John FORD | 1940
  82. Hobson's Choice | David LEAN | 1954
  83. Trapeze | Carol REED | 1956
  84. The Silence | Ingmar BERGMAN | 1963
  85. Through a Glass Darkly | Ingmar BERGMAN | 1961
  86. Winter Light | Ingmar BERGMAN | 1962
  87. Le Voyage en Douce | Michel DEVILLE | 1980
  88. La Guerre Est Finie | Alain RESNAIS | 1966
  89. Hemingway & Gellhorn | Philip KAUFMAN | 2012
  90. Not on the Lips | Alain RESNAIS | 2003
  91. Burnt by the Sun | Nikita MIKHALKOV | 1994
  92. An Autumn Tale | Eric ROHMER | 1998
  93. The Aviator's Wife | Eric ROHMER | 1980
  94. Hiroshima, Mon Amour | Alain RESNAIS | 1959
  95. The Bridges of Madison County | Clint EASTWOOD | 1995
  96. Barfly | Barbet SCHROEDER | 1987
  97. Just Before Nightfall | Claude CHABROL | 1971
  98. Henry & June | Philip KAUFMAN | 1990
  99. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close | Stephen DALDRY | 2011

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