Top 250 Tuesdays: #000 – An Introduction

So I finally decided to take the plunge. As a movie lover, as well as someone who enjoys writing about them, there are those movies that you’ve either always heard about or feel like you should have seen to really be a “literate” film viewer. Of course, just what those movies are changes depending not only on who you ask, but also with time and tastes.

Nonetheless, I decided that I wanted some kind of a guide, some kind of a list that I could go through, could check things off of, and could, at the end, say “Okay, I’ve done that”, and for various reasons that would take far too long to go into now, I decided to go with the Sight and Sound Greatest Films Poll. You can find out more about the poll here, but the short version is that every 10 years The British Film Institute invites a number of critics to submit their all-time top 10 movies and then collates those lists until it has a list of the top 250.

The poll always sparks a lot of discussion in film circles, not only concerning the actual results – which were somewhat surprising in the last go-round because Hitchcock’s Vertigo actually supplanted Citizen Kane as the number one film for the first time in decades – but the methodologies that are used and the ways various critics used to compile their lists. Still, when it came down to it, the final list has enough variety of content and enough of a selection of movies – some I’ve seen already, some I’ve known about but never watched, and some I’ve never even heard of before – and enough variation in time-period, country of origin, and all the other factors I was trying to weigh out, to be useful for the purpose I was looking for.

So, then, having picked the list I was going to use, the next question, of course, was “what now?’ How was I going to make my way through such an extensive list without just getting completely overwhelmed by it. Well, that’s where Top 250 Tuesdays comes in. The plan, at least here at the beginning, is that each week I will pick one of the movies from the list, watch it, and then on Tuesday post a blog entry about it. That way I have a set goal, and also a relatively reasonable time frame to execute it in. Of course, life is what it is, and there are likely to be times when I won’t be able to hit the Tuesday mark, but I’m going to give it a shot, anyway.

And even if I do hit every a movie every week, we’re still talking about a five-year project.

I’ve also decided that rather than going through the list from top to bottom or something like that, I’m going to hit it in a sort of random order. Not strictly random, though sometimes I will just pick a number and go with it, but also the selection for the week may depend on various circumstances such as availability, a particularly keen interest at any given time, or whatever other factor I may choose for that week. And the number in the title will be the movie’s number on the list,, not a consecutive number, so don’t be surprised if you see, for instance, #198 before #085.

So basically what the idea boils down to is this: Each week I’ll pick a movie from the list, and on Tuesday I’ll blog about it. Then, when I post the link to that week’s post on the blog’s Facebook page (and while you’re there why not go ahead and click like so you can keep up with all the Durnmoose goodness and also catch some of the little extras and heads up that don’t make it to the blog proper?). I’ll also announce there what the next week’s movie is going to be, in case you want to watch along. (Though this week you’ll also find the info for the first movie at the bottom of this post.) I’ll also be using the list below as a master list for posting, so each time I post about a movie I’ll put a link to the post here to make it easy to see which ones I’ve already covered and for newer readers to easily catch up.

Ok, that’s more than enough introduction, I think. Let’s get on with it.

Here’s the list in full. The way the list is organized may look a little odd at first, but what you’ll see is two numbers – the first is simply the number that the movie falls on the list, and the second (in parentheses) is the movie’s actual rank. The difference, of course, is because of ties where two or more films my have received the same number of votes. So, for instance, Seven Samurai and Persona, both of which garnered 48 votes, are actually tied at number 17. However, they have been (arbitrarily as far as I can tell) assigned numbers 17 and 18 to make them easier to find on the list. So, to make the write-ups easier to keep track of, I’ll be going by the first number as I write them up,, and that’s the number you’ll see in the title of each post. Also, for the first 50 or so, you’ll see the names of the director, and the date of release. I hope to update the list soon and finish filling those in, again, in order to make them easier to find. Finally, you’ll see a number in brackets []. That’s the number of votes each film got in order to qualify it for the list.

001 (1) – Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958) [191 votes]
002 (2)- Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941) [157 votes]
003 (3) – Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953) [107 votes]
004 (4)- La Règle du jeu (Renoir, 1939) [100 votes]
005 (5) – Sunrise: a Song for Two Humans (Murnau, 1927) [93 votes]
006 (6) – 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968) [90 votes]
007 (7) – The Searchers (Ford, 1956) [78 votes]
008 (8) – Man with a Movie Camera (Vertov, 1929) [68 votes]
009 (9)- The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1927) [65 votes]
010 (10) – 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963) [64 votes]
011 (11)- Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein, 1925) [63 votes]
012 (12) – L’Atalante (Vigo, 1934) [58 votes]
013 (13) – Breathless (Godard, 1960) [57 votes]
014 (14)- Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979) [53 votes]
015 (15) – Late Spring (Ozu, 1949) [50 votes] Part 2, Part 3
016 (16) – Au hasard Balthazar (Bresson, 1966) [49 votes]
017 (17) – Seven Samurai (Kurosawa, 1954) [48 votes]
018 (17) – Persona (Bergman, 1966)
019 (19) – Mirror (Tarkovsky, 1974) [47 votes]
020 (20) – Singin’ in the Rain (Donen & Kelly, 1951) [46 votes]
021 (21) – L’avventura (Antonioni, 1960) [43 votes]
022 (21) – Le Mépris (Godard, 1963)
023 (21) – The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)
024 (24) – Ordet (Dreyer, 1955) [42 votes]
025 (24) – In the Mood for Love (Wong, 2000)
026 (24) – Rashomon (Kurosawa, 1950)
027 (27) – Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky, 1966) [41 votes]
028 (28) – Mulholland Drive (Lynch, 2001) [40 votes]
029 (29) – Stalker (Tarkovsky, 1979) [39 votes]
030 (29) – Shoah (Lanzmann, 1985)
031 (31) – The Godfather Part II (Coppola, 1974) [38 votes]
032 (31) – Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1976)
033 (33) – Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 1948) [37 votes]
034 (34) – The General (Keaton & Bruckman, 1926) [35 votes]
035 (34) – Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960)
036 (36) – Metropolis (Lang, 1927) [34 votes]
037 (36) – Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles (Akerman, 1975)
038 (36) – Sátántangó (Tarr, 1994)
039 (39) – The 400 Blows (Truffaut, 1959) [33 votes]
040 (39) – La dolce vita (Fellini, 1960)
041 (41) – Journey to Italy (Rossellini, 1954) [32 votes]
042 (41) – Pather Panchali (Ray, 1955)
043 (43) – Some Like It Hot (Wilder, 1959) [31 votes]
044 (43) – Gertrud (Dreyer, 1964)
045 (43) – Pierrot le fou (Godard, 1965)
046 (43) – Play Time (Tati, 1967)
047 (43) – Close-Up (Kiarostami, 1990)
048 (48) – The Battle of Algiers (Pontecorvo, 1966) [30 votes]
049 (48) – Histoire(s) du cinéma (Godard, 1998)
050 (50) – City Lights (Chaplin, 1931) [29 votes]
051 (50) – Ugetsu monogatari (Mizoguchi, 1953)
052 (50) – La Jetée (Marker, 1962)
053 (53) – Rear Window [28 votes]
054 (53) – North By Northwest
055 (53) – Raging Bull
056 (56) – M [27 votes]
057 (57) – Touch of Evil [26 votes]
058 (57) – The Leopard
059 (59) – Sherlock Jr [25 votes]
060 (59) – Sansho Dayu
061 (59) – La Maman et la Putain
062 (59) – Barry Lyndon
063 (63) – Modern Times [24 votes]
064 (63) – Sunset Blvd
065 (63) – The Night of the Hunter
066 (63) – Wild Strawberries
067 (63) – Rio Bravo
068 (63) – Pickpocket
069 (69) – A Man Escaped [23 votes]
070 (69) – Blade Runner
071 (69) – Sans Soleil
072 (69) – Blue Velvet
073 (73) – La Grande Illusion [22 votes]
074 (73) – Les Enfants du Paradis
075 (73) – The Third Man
076 (73) – L’eclisse
077 (73) – Nashville
078 (78) – Once Upon a Time in the West [21 votes]
079 (78) – Chinatown
080 (78) – Beau Travail
081 (81) – Magnificent Ambersons [20 votes]
082 (81) – Lawrence of Arabia
083 (81) – Spirit of the Beehive
084 (84) – Greed [19 votes]
085 (84) – Casablanca
086 (84) – Colour of Pomegrantes
087 (84) – The Wild Bunch
088 (84) – Fanny & Alexander
089 (84) – A Brighter Summer Day
090 (90) – Partie de campagne [18 votes]
091 (90) – A Matter of Life and Death
092 (90) – Aguirre, Wrath of God
093 (93) – Intolerance [17 votes]
094 (93) – Un chien andalou
095 (93) – Colonel Blimp
096 (93) – Madame de…
097 (93) – Seventh Seal
098 (93) – Imitation of Life
099 (93) – Touki-Bouki
100 (93) – A One and a Two
101 (93) – Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
102 (102) – Wavelength [16 votes]
103 (102) – The Conformist
104 (102) – The Traveling Players
105 (102) – Meshes of the Afternoon
106 (102) – Last Year At Marienbad
107 (102) – Tree of Life
108 (102) – Two or Three Things I Know About Her
109 (102) – Ivan the Terrible
110 (110) – The Lady Eve [15 votes]
111 (110 ) – Los Olividados
112 (110) – Bringing Up Baby
113 (110) – Performance
114 (110) – The Passenger
115 (110) – Viridiana
116 (110) – L’Age d’Or
117 (117) – A Canterbury Tale [14 votes]
118 (117) – Mouchette
119 (117) – Dr. Strangelove
120 (117) – Nosferatu
121 (117) – The Red Shoes
122 (117) – Trouble In Paradise
123 (117) – A City of Sadness
124 (117) – Amacord
125 (117) – The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
126 (117) – Days of Heaven
127 (127) – Spring In a Small Town [13 votes]
128 (127) – Do the Right Thing
129 (127) – Out 1
130 (127) – Tropical Malady
131 (127) – The River
132 (127) – Jules et Jim
133 (127) – Pulp Fiction
134 (127) – Meet Me In St. Louis
135 (127) – L’Argent
136 (127) – Ikiru
137 (127) – Three Colours: Blue
138 (127) – Don’t Look Now
139 (127) – Celine and Julie Go Boating
140 (127) – Annie Hall
141 (127) – The Apartment
142 (127) – The Last Laugh
143 (127) – Hiroshima Mon Amour
144 (144) – Blow-Up [12 votes]
145 (144) – The Great Dictator
146 (144) – Memories of Underdevelopment
147 (144) – Diary of a Country Priest
148 (144) – Chungking Express
149 (144) – To Be or Not to Be
150 (144) – A Woman Under the Influence
151 (144) – Napoleon
152 (144) – Vivre Sa Vie
153 (144) – The Wizard of Oz
154 (154) – Marketa Lazarová [11 votes]
155 (154) – Hidden
156 (154) – The Shining
157 (154) – Solaris
158 (154) – Chimes at Midnight
159 (154 )- The Gold Rush
160 (154) – Letter From an Unknown Woman
161 (154) – Brief Encounter
162 (154) – In a Lonely Place
163 (154) – Black Narcissus
164 (154) – My Neighbor Totoro
165 (154) – Only Angels Have Wings
166 (154) – Vampyr
167 (154) – Come and See
168 (154) – Distant Voices, Still Lives
169 (154) – Once Upon a Time in America
170 (154) – Cries and Whispers
171 (171) – King Kong [10 votes] (also revisited here)
172 (171) – The Werkmeister Harmonies
173 (171) – Star Wars
174 (171) – Notorious
175 (171) – His Girl Friday
176 (171) – Goodfellas
177 (171) – The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
178 (171) – A Trip To the Moon
179 (171) – Sweet Smell of Success
180 (171) – Kind Hearts and Coronets
181 (171) – Tabu
182 (171) – Earth
183 (183) – Breaking the Waves [9 votes]
184 (183) – The Grapes of Wrath
185 (183) – Paris, Texas
186 (183) – E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
187 (183) – Faces
188 (183) – Rome, Open City
189 (183) – The Music Room
190 (183) – The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums
191 (183) – A Touch of Zen
192 (183) – Listen to Britain
193 (183) – Day of Wrath
194 (183) – The Thin Red Line
195 (183) – Eraserhead
196 (183) – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
197 (183) – The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
198 (183) – The Conversation
199 (183) – Out of the Past
200 (183) – I Was Born, But…
201 (183) – I Know Where I’m Going
202 (202) – The Death of Mr. Lazarescu [8 votes]
203 (202) – Red Desert
204 (202) – Chelsea Girls
205 (202) – Badlands
206 (202) – Kings of the Road
207 (202) – There Will Be Blood
208 (202) – WALL-E
209 (202) – Berlin Alexanderplatz
210 (202) – Videodrome
211 (202) – Daisies
212 (202) – Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
213 (202) – Manhattan
214 (202) – Cleo from 5 to 7
215 (202) – West of the Tracks
216 (202) – Russian Ark
217 (202) – A Tale of Tales
218 (202) – Spirited Away
219 (202) – La Strada
220 (202) – Paisà
221 (202) – The Shop Around the Corner
222 (202) – The Big Sleep
223 (202) – Killer of Sheep
224 (202) – Wanda
225 (202) – Germany Year Zero
226 (202) – The Life of Oharu
227 (202) – Army of Shadows
228 (202) – Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom
229 (202) – Duck Soup
230 (202) – The Devil Probably
231 (202) – The Turin Horse
232 (202) – Love Streams
233 (202) – The Exterminating Angel
234 (202) – Floating Clouds
235 (235) – The Piano [7 votes]
236 (235) – Gone With the Wind
237 (235) – Melancholia
238 (235) – The House is Black
239 (235) – The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari
240 (235) – Red River
241 (235) – A Clockwork Orange
242 (235) – Two-Lane Blacktop
243 (235) – An Autumn Afternoon
244 (235) – The Thin Blue Line
245 (235) – The World of Apu
246 (235) – The Testament of Dr – Mabuse
247 (235) – My Darling Clementine
248 (235) – The Double Life of Veronique
249 (235) – Kes
250 (235) – Three Colors: Red

So which one will be first? Well, thanks to the loan of a copy of the Masters of Cinema three disk DVD set, I’ve decided to go ahead and kick things off with the film that ranked #5 on the list: F. W. Murnau’s Sunrise: a Song for Two Humans from 1927. This is one that fits into that category of “I’ve heard a lot about it, but never seen it”, so I’m definitely looking forward to checking it out, especially with all of the supplements and special features that MOC always packs onto their releases which will hopefully help with giving more context to the film and putting it into perspective. So be sure to come back next week for that.

Oh, and one more thing: this is definitely a project I’d like to get a lot of feedback and comment on, whether it’s about the project itself, Top Whatever polls in general, or even specific movies that you’d like to see me bump up on the list to cover early on. Or if you’d like to contribute your own personal top 10 list, I’d love to see those. So use the comments section, either here or on the facebook page to let me know what you think.

Or even just to wish me luck as I take this one on. I’ve got a feeling it may be a bumpy ride at times.