Dennis Dorney

Brotherdeacon

I appreciate the attempt to modify the rather stodgy and oh-so-usual list and placements within that list of Sight & Sound's 100 Best Film List for 2012.  The average critic/director polled seemed stuck in an American Film bias, an almost strict male gender bias, and has forgotten, or are unaware of entire continents of film resources (Africa having one film mentioned).  Certainly it's not a blanket condemnation, since many who sent lists to Sight & Sound included a vital, well-versed knowledge of film's history and seemed to have a vision for the art form's continuum.  However, far too many seemed to be filling in the blanks with work they studied back in film school, not even bothering to dust off the cobwebs from the last time they sent a roster of their ten best.  Noticeably absent are experimental films except for the sacred cows of the distant past, as if no-one has had a new idea since Chris Marker in 1962, or the 1940's films of Maya Deren (who's not even included in the top 100).  In addition, with all the global resources being invested into film archives, the S & S list shows a definite paucity in re-discovering lost directors and lost masterworks.  It seems it takes an imprimatur from the likes of Francis Coppola or Martin Scorsese before many of these rediscovered and archived voices can find distribution, let alone critical acknowledgment in glossy film publications.

This venture has me excited to see a re-ordering of that S& S list, hopefully with some noticeable changes in regard to today's canon.  However, I'm even more interested to see the alternative lists of the  submitters' 100 best, purely as a selfish way to become introduced to films I've never seen, or hopefully, never even heard of.

1. Andrei Rublev | Andrei TARKOVSKY | 1966
2. The Colour of Pomegranates | Sergei PARAJANOV | 1968
3. Touch of Evil | Orson WELLES | 1958
4. La Règle du Jeu | Jean RENOIR | 1939
5. Ugetsu Monogatari | MIZOGUCHI Kenji | 1953
6. Pather Panchali | Satyajit RAY | 1955
7. Persona | Ingmar BERGMAN | 1966
8. Jeanne Dielman | Chantal AKERMAN | 1975
9. Close-Up | Abbas KIAROSTAMI | 1990
10. Touki-Bouki | Djibril DIOP MAMBÉTY | 1973
11. Sátántangó | TARR Béla | 1994
12. Rashomon | KUROSAWA Akira | 1950
13. Metropolis | Fritz LANG | 1927
14. A One and a Two | Edward YANG | 2000
15. The General | Clyde BRUCKMAN & Buster KEATON | 1927
16. Man with a Movie Camera | Dziga VERTOV | 1929
17. Pierrot le Fou | Jean-Luc GODARD | 1965
18. Late Spring | OZU Yasujirō | 1949
19. La Jetée | Chris MARKER | 1962
20. L'Eclisse | Michelangelo ANTONIONI | 1962
21. The Wild Bunch | Sam PECKINPAH | 1969
22. In the Mood for Love | WONG Kar-wai | 2000
23. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans | F.W. MURNAU | 1927
24. Psycho | Alfred HITCHCOCK | 1960
25. L'Atalante | Jean VIGO | 1934
26. Blue Velvet | David LYNCH | 1986
27. Sansho Dayu | MIZOGUCHI Kenji | 1954
28. The Night of the Hunter | Charles LAUGHTON | 1955
29. Un Chien Andalou | Luis BUÑUEL | 1929
30. Citizen Kane | Orson WELLES | 1941
31. Histoire(s) du Cinéma | Jean-Luc GODARD | 1998
32. La Grande Illusion | Jean RENOIR | 1937
33. Intolerance | D.W. GRIFFITH | 1916
34. Tokyo Story | OZU Yasujirō | 1953
35. Gertrud | Carl Th. DREYER | 1964
36. Seven Samurai | KUROSAWA Akira | 1954
37. Stalker | Andrei TARKOVSKY | 1979
38. City Lights | Charles CHAPLIN | 1931
39. La Dolce Vita | Federico FELLINI | 1960
40. Les Enfants du Paradis | Marcel CARNÉ | 1945
41. Greed | Erich VON STROHEIM | 1924
42. Blade Runner | Ridley SCOTT | 1982
43. The Seventh Seal | Ingmar BERGMAN | 1957
44. Apocalypse Now | Francis Ford COPPOLA | 1979
45. Vertigo | Alfred HITCHCOCK | 1958
46. Play Time | Jacques TATI | 1967
47. Battleship Potemkin | Sergei EISENSTEIN | 1925
48. L'Avventura | Michelangelo ANTONIONI | 1960
49. The Spirit of the Beehive | Víctor ERICE | 1973
50. Mirror | Andrei TARKOVSKY | 1975
51. M | Fritz LANG | 1931
52. The Battle of Algiers | Gillo PONTECORVO | 1966
53. Lawrence of Arabia | David LEAN | 1962
54. Casablanca | Michael CURTIZ | 1942
55. Taxi Driver | Martin SCORSESE | 1976
56. The 400 Blows | François TRUFFAUT | 1959
57. Rear Window | Alfred HITCHCOCK | 1954
58. Aguirre, Wrath of God | Werner HERZOG | 1972
59. Sunset Blvd. | Billy WILDER | 1950
60. Fanny & Alexander | Ingmar BERGMAN | 1982
61. Partie de Campagne | Jean RENOIR | 1936
62. Au Hasard Balthazar | Robert BRESSON | 1966
63. Mulholland Dr. | David LYNCH | 2001
64. Shoah | Claude LANZMANN | 1985
65. Sherlock Jr. | Buster KEATON | 1924
66. Rio Bravo | Howard HAWKS | 1959
67. Wild Strawberries | Ingmar BERGMAN | 1957
68. 8½ | Federico FELLINI | 1963
69. The Passion of Joan of Arc | Carl Th. DREYER | 1928
70. Some Like It Hot | Billy WILDER | 1959
71. Pickpocket | Robert BRESSON | 1959
72. Madame de… | Max OPHÜLS | 1953
73. A Brighter Summer Day | Edward YANG | 1991
74. La Maman et la Putain | Jean EUSTACHE | 1973
75. Chinatown | Roman POLANSKI | 1974
76. The Third Man | Carol REED | 1949
77. Le Mépris | Jean-Luc GODARD | 1963
78. The Searchers | John FORD | 1956
79. Modern Times | Charles CHAPLIN | 1936
80. A Man Escaped | Robert BRESSON | 1956
81. Ordet | Carl Th. DREYER | 1955
82. Sans Soleil | Chris MARKER | 1983
83. The Leopard | Luchino VISCONTI | 1963
84. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp | POWELL & PRESSBURGER | 1943
85. Journey to Italy | Roberto ROSSELLINI | 1954
86. Beau Travail | Claire DENIS | 1999
87. A Matter of Life and Death | POWELL & PRESSBURGER | 1946
88. The Godfather | Francis Ford COPPOLA | 1972
89. Nashville | Robert ALTMAN | 1975
90. Raging Bull | Martin SCORSESE | 1980
91. Singin' in the Rain | Stanley DONEN & Gene KELLY | 1952
92. The Godfather: Part II | Francis Ford COPPOLA | 1974
93. Bicycle Thieves | Vittorio DE SICA | 1948
94. Breathless | Jean-Luc GODARD | 1960
95. Once upon a Time in the West | Sergio LEONE | 1968
96. The Magnificent Ambersons | Orson WELLES | 1942
97. North by Northwest | Alfred HITCHCOCK | 1959
98. 2001: A Space Odyssey | Stanley KUBRICK | 1968
99. Imitation of Life | Douglas SIRK | 1959
100. Barry Lyndon | Stanley KUBRICK | 1975 

Alternative 100

No order implied or desired:

1. Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life | Merian C. COOPER & Ernest B. SCHOEDSACK | 1925
2. Marketa Lazarová | Frantisek VLÁCIL | 1967
3. Twenty-Four Eyes | KINOSHITA Keisuke | 1954
4. The Wishing Tree | Tengiz ABULADZE | 1976
5. Stray Bullet | YU Hyun-mok | 1961
6. Les Bons Débarras | Francis MANKIEWICZ | 1980
7. Big Deal on Madonna Street | Mario MONICELLI | 1958
8. Street of Crocodiles | Brothers QUAY | 1986
9. Tange Sazen and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo | YAMANAKA Sadao | 1935
10. Sambizanga | Sarah MALDOROR | 1972
11. The Forty-First | Grigori CHUKHRAI | 1956
12. Great Expectations | David LEAN | 1946
13. Vampyr | Carl Th. DREYER | 1932
14. Kukuli | Luis FIGUEROA & Eulogio NISHIYAMA | 1961
15. Palms | Artour ARISTAKISIAN | 1993
16. That Hamilton Woman | Alexander KORDA | 1941
17. Poto and Cabengo | Jean-Pierre GORIN | 1980
18. Mother Joan of the Angels | Jerzy KAWALEROWICZ | 1961
19. The Dupes | Tewfik SALEH | 1973
20. The Ox-Bow Incident | William A. WELLMAN | 1943
21. Quilombo | Carlos DIEGUES | 1984
22. Port of Call | Ingmar BERGMAN | 1948
23. Syndromes and a Century | Apichatpong WEERASETHAKUL | 2006
24. The Man Who Laughs | Paul LENI | 1928
25. The Sealed Soil | Marva NABILI | 1977
26. Extraordinary Stories | Mariano LLINÁS | 2008
27. Eureka | AOYAMA Shinji | 2000
28. Zero Focus | NOMURA Yoshitaro | 1961
29. Illusion Travels by Streetcar | Luis BUÑUEL | 1954
30. The Terrorisers | Edward YANG | 1986
31. Violence at Noon | ŌSHIMA Nagisa | 1966
32. Bandini | Bimal ROY | 1963
33. A Touch of Zen | King HU | 1969
34. Crash | David CRONENBERG | 1996
35. Drowning by Numbers | Peter GREENAWAY | 1988
36. Pictures of the Old World | Dušan HANÁK | 1972
37. Love | MAKK Károly | 1971
38. L'Argent | Marcel L'HERBIER | 1928
39. Napoleon | Abel GANCE | 1927
40. Genesis | Cheick Oumar SISSOKO | 1999
41. Bandits of Orgosolo | Vittorio DE SETA | 1960
42. Flowers of Shanghai | HOU Hsiao-hsien | 1998
43. The Reckless Moment | Max OPHÜLS | 1949
44. The Battle of San Pietro | John HUSTON | 1945
45. Leap Year | Michael ROWE | 2010
46. Germany, Pale Mother | Helma SANDERS-BRAHMS | 1980
47. Despair | Rainer Werner FASSBINDER | 1978
48. Devils on the Doorstep | JIANG Wen | 2000
49. The Isle | KIM Ki-duk | 2000
50. Paris, Texas | Wim WENDERS | 1984
51. La Belle et la Bête | Jean COCTEAU | 1946
52. A Taste of Honey | Tony RICHARDSON | 1961
53. Time of the Gypsies | Emir KUSTURICA | 1988
54. A River Called Titas | Ritwik GHATAK | 1973
55. A Woman's Tale | Paul COX | 1991
56. Francis, God's Jester | Roberto ROSSELLINI | 1950
57. Oedipus Rex | Pier Paolo PASOLINI | 1967
58. Pyaasa | Guru DUTT | 1957
59. The Piano Teacher | Michael HANEKE | 2001
60. Safe | Todd HAYNES | 1995
61. A Woman Under the Influence | John CASSAVETES | 1974
62. La Reine Margot | Patrice CHÉREAU | 1994
63. The Last Laugh | F.W. MURNAU | 1924
64. Maskerade | Willi FORST | 1934
65. Mouchette | Robert BRESSON | 1967
66. The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice | OZU Yasujirō | 1952
67. Conflagration | ICHIKAWA Kon | 1958
68. Le Feu Follet | Louis MALLE | 1963
69. Maborosi | KORE-EDA Hirokazu | 1995
70. Werckmeister Harmonies | TARR Béla | 2000
71. The Lusty Men | Nicholas RAY | 1952
72. The Docks of New York | Josef VON STERNBERG | 1928
73. Story of a Prostitute | SUZUKI Seijun | 1965
74. My Man Godfrey | Gregory LA CAVA | 1936
75. The Commissar | Aleksandr ASKOLDOV | 1967
76. Storm Over Asia | Vsevolod PUFOVKIN | 1928
77. Stroszek | Werner HERZOG | 1977
78. Vendredi Soir | Claire DENIS | 2002
79. Water-Mirror of Granada | José VAL DEL OMAR | 1955
80. The Hes Case | Orlow SEUNKE | 1982
81. Silent Light | Carlos REYGADAS | 2007
82. Naked Island | SHINDŌ Kaneto | 1960
83. Siberiade | Andrei KONCHALOVSKY | 1979
84. Sergeant Rutledge | John FORD | 1960
85. The Ascent | Larissa SHEPITKO | 1976
86. The Tree of Wooden Clogs | Ermanno OLMI | 1978
87. The Crowd | King VIDOR | 1928
88. To Live | ZHANG Yimou | 1994
89. Fährmann Maria | Frank WISBAR | 1936
90. The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums | MIZOGUCHI Kenji | 1939
91. La Niña Santa | Lucrecia MARTEL | 2004
92. The Birth of a Nation | D.W. GRIFFITH | 1915
93. Orlando | Sally POTTER | 1992
94. The Young Girl | Souleymane CISSÉ | 1975
95. The Apartment | Billy WILDER | 1960
96. Memories of Underdevelopment | Tomás GUTIÉRREZ ALEA | 1968
97. Scarface | Howard HAWKS | 1932
98. Electra, My Love | JANCSÓ Miklós | 1974
99. The Crime of Monsieur Lange | Jean RENOIR | 1936
100. Ossessione | Luchino VISCONTI | 1943