The British Film Institute updates their Top 50 Greatest Movies

[Ren 77]

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[JamieC 13]

Hi guys

If you're interested in reading up on some of the movies in the BFI's Top Ten list do check out my book 'Movie Movements: Films That Changed The World of Cinema' which is right here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Movie-Movements-Kamera-Books-Clarke/dp/1842433059/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344082349&sr=8-1

Thanks!

James

[Romão 2,473]

It's a good and very interesting list, but specially coming from the British Film Institute, I was surprised Lawrence of Arabia was nowhere to be found. No Lean at all

[JamieC 13]

Lean doesn't always seem to be considered that highly in Britain, it seems to me. That said, it's worth reading the fantastic biography of him by British filmmaker Kevin Brownlow.

[A24 5,156]

When the '70s came, Lean was already considered old-fashioned. Hollywood was living a rennaissance with American New Wave cinema. Lean was devastated when the critics panned Ryan's Daughter.

[ZackR 187]

The original Star Wars is one of the best purely fun escapist movies. It might not be high art, but it would definitely make my list simply for he enjoyment factor.

And a few people mentioned Eternal Sunshine - it is easily one of my favorites from the 2000's.

[mrbellamy 8,244]

Surprised how many I've seen, actually. 43 in all, most of them through following Roger Ebert's Great Movies series. Just missing the Godards aside from Breathless, a couple of the 3 hour+ ones, Gertrud, In the Mood For Love, and Journey to Italy. I thought several of them were absolutely terrific, a handful I was totally disinterested with, and the rest were varying degrees of enjoyable and/or thoughtful.

Great to see The Battle of Algiers in there, that's one of my very favorite war films. Also love seeing Man with a Movie Camera in the top 10. Just a wild, zany movie and so cool to see some revolutionary editing techniques in action. I didn't realize just how much the modern music video owes to the silent era, it's one of the few movies where the phrase "ahead of its time" truly applies. The version scored by The Cinematic Orchestra is extra fun.

[JoeinAR 1,957]

http://www.bfi.org.u...-films-all-time

Surprisingly to myself I've seen about ten of these. As lists go, it's about the stuffiest you'll find, but I appreciate their earnest approach all the same and would take it every time over the frequent populist ones.

shittiest list I think I've ever seen. You're correct about stuffy. It's not an accessible list for the public in general. Some great films on there but top 50 of all time. NO way.

[publicist 4,650]

Where's THE COURT JESTER?

Where's DUCK SOUP?

Where's TRAINS, PLANES AND AUTOMOBILES?

As lists go, this one is OK, but too heavily features arty movies by the likes of Antonioni, Godard, Truffaut, Tarkovski et al. I recently saw LE MEPRIS and no way it belongs on such a list. I also saw THE SEARCHERS and found it nowhere as significant as critics always claim...and it has a terribly obtrusive Steiner score. Snubbing Lean - who did terribly good films before his portentous epics phasae, like GREAT EXPECTATIONS or OLIVER TWIST - and Spielberg seems to suggest they are a bit snobby. I mean, they all rather watch AN AMERICAN IN PARIS but no DUEL, JAWS, E. T., SCHINDLER or whatever?

[JoeinAR 1,957]

Mullholland Falls, and the list folded in on itself like the house in Poltergeist.

[Ren 77]

I had my list for posting but then tapatalk crashed yesterday and I haven't redone it.

[Quintus 6,497]

What a fucker! Sounds buggy as hell on iOS that app.

[Ren 77]

Yes, I jusssst got the convo error fixed then this starts. Oh well. Today it's up via my computer won't lose that shit again.

[Jill Sandwich 11,166]

Vertigo's a head scratcher at number one. It's a decent thriller, but not Hitch's best film nor a reference quality masterpiece. I think as the film was re-discovered and restored in the 1990s, it's received more praise than it deserves. Either the voters like the story about obsession and male sexual anxiety or they just wanted to be seen to like it.

[Ren 77]

Hmmm. I love the movie jus for the plot twist and the score

[A24 5,156]

I haven't seen it in a long time but I'm sure it's dated, just like Metropolis. Of all art forms, movies tend to date the most. They don't remake the Mona Lisa.

[Quintus 6,497]

Most dated movies are better than most modern ones.

[Ren 77]

OK,

Here is my list of 11 (!!!) all time favorite movies where I still get all emotional/excited/_________ watching them either for the score or the movie or both:

VERTIGO

Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring

Lord of the Rings The Two Towers

E. T.

Schindlers List

Amadeus

Pulp Fiction

Star Trek TMP

Star Trek First Contact

West Side Story

Toy Story

I have to have an aside here, I'd feel funny putting The Odd Couple on my list since Lee reminded me of it, or I would have forgotten it. But I have to mention that this is an incredible movie that holds a special place in my heart. I cry laughing EVERY time I watch it - Lemmon/Matthau had incredible chemistry.

[Sandor 918]

Well, my favorite films (not in order):

Breaking The Waves

The Godfather/The Godfather part II

The Deer Hunter

Mean Streets

Star Wars/The Empire Strikes Back

Children Of Men

Boogie Nights

Memento

Chinatown

Apocalypse Now

Taxi Driver

Jaws

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind

Alien/Aliens

The Silence Of The Lambs

Se7en

Pulp Fiction

28 Days Later

Memento

Raiders Of The Lost Ark

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

The Lord Of The Rings trilogy

[Hurmm 104]

Off the very top of my head...

Alien

The Godfather

Seven

Zodiac

The Silence of the Lambs

The Wages of Fear

Casablanca

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2001: A Space Oddysey

A Clockwork Orange

Paths of Glory

Apocalypse Now

In Bruges

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Taxi Driver

Black Swan

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Jaws

Jurassic Park

Terminator 2

Toy Story

Evil Dead II

Eraserhead

LA Confidential

The Thing (John Carpenter)

Manhattan

Once Upon A Time in the West

The Big Lebowski

The Sting

Road to Perdition

Transformers 2

Wow a way too obvious list. I'm sure I have some older less talked about gems in there but they just aren;t surfacing right now.

(Plus I stole some from you guys)

[A24 5,156]

Only saw Wages Of Fear once a long time ago but what an experience it was. At the time, I couldn't believe it was an old movie. It still felt superfresh to me and it was tougher, harder and more extensive than most modern flicks. I remember thinking Spielberg learned a lot from this movie. I don't remember why I thought that.

[Ren 77]

HOW COULD I FORGET LES CHORISTES!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,387]

How could you???

[A24 5,156]

That was merely okay.

[Ren 77]

guess you have to be a choir instructor to enjoy it.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,387]

Alex hates movies which are in any way emotional.

[indy4 160]

In no order:

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Temple of Doom

Last Crusade

Star Wars

Empire Strikes Back

Revenge of the Sith

Sweeney Todd

Nightmare Before Christmas

Big Fish

Shutter Island

Sound of Music

West Side Story

E.T.

Jurassic Park

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Rear Window

Vertigo

Psycho

Minority Report

War of the Worlds (2005)

Signs

Back to the Future

[Ren 77]

oooooo Minority Report!

[indy4 160]

Definitely one of Spielberg's best.

[Ren 77]

I LURVED that

[Koray Savas 2,260]

I'll start a dedicated thread for my thoughts after I'm finished with my top composers.

[Hurmm 104]

Only saw Wages Of Fear once a long time ago but what an experience it was. At the time, I couldn't believe it was an old movie. It still felt superfresh to me and it was tougher, harder and more extensive than most modern flicks. I remember thinking Spielberg learned a lot from this movie. I don't remember why I thought that.

Yeah it was a super masculine film, filled to the brim with testosterone. One hell of an action thriller.

No one seemed to mind that I had Transformers 2 in there? I wanted to see the reaction to that... but I guess no one made it that far down my list.

[Quintus 6,497]

We all need you were joking.

[hornist 1,261]

blade runner

empire of the sun

jaws

close encounters

american beauty

amadeus

dancer in the dark

matrix

saving privat ryan

the elephan man

not surprised that none of my films weren't in that list of the "professionals".

[Ren 77]

Love Amadeus. Watch it at least 3 times a year

[hornist 1,261]

It's brilliant. In almost all of my other films also, the music plays a big part...

[Naïve Old Fart 13,023]

For what it's worth, here's mine:

CE3K,

Blade Runner,

Superman,

The Towering Inferno,

Dune,

Grand Canyon.

The Empire Strikes Back,

Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

That's my 8. Couldn't come up with 10. Sorry.

[Ren 77]

It's brilliant. In almost all of my other films also, the music plays a big part...

I'd say the requiem recording is the best I've heard. One to standardize all others.

[indy4 160]

As long as these are lists of personal favorites, then I forgot Revenge of the Sith in my list.

[SF1_freeze 138]

Absolute snob list from the BFI... It's just ridiculous, as if good old films were so much better than good new ones.

Most of these so called critics are probably older than 70 themselves. And to not even include Blade Runner just further shows how stupid this list is.

[Koray Savas 2,260]

It's called an opinion. Some people may like different films than you.

[gkgyver 1,647]

39= The 400 Blows

Is that a porno?

[mrbellamy 8,244]

Most of these so called critics are probably older than 70 themselves. And to not even include Blade Runner just further shows how stupid this list is.

Hence they have probably seen more movies than most of the rest of us, and have more to draw from when making a list.

That's irrelevant, though, I think it's a bit silly to look at any "best of" list as anything more than a simple list of recommendations. They're a dime a dozen, and I'm sure there's one out there that would better match any one of our specific tastes. I adore the new releases too, and plenty of stuff that some BFI critics would probably turn their noses up at, but while my personal favorites list wouldn't look much like this, I also think it has some damn good movies on it. Plus, with Singin in the Rain and Some Like It Hot in the top 50, they must at least have some sense of humor.

Also, for what it's worth, Blade Runner did make the top 100

[hornist 1,261]

with Singin in the Rain and Some Like It Hot in the top 50, they must at least have some sense of humor.

I think this means that all in FBI are gays. With gay here I mean happy.

[JamieC 13]

Hi gang

As always, the BFI's Top Ten / Top 50 list makes fascinating, stimulating reading but it's a little frustrating that there's not one animated feature film in the list.

[Koray Savas 2,260]

There'd probably only be one animated film in my Top 50.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,387]

Finding Nemo!

[A24 5,156]

Koray refers to Fantasia.

[Koray Savas 2,260]

Wrong.

[Jay 46,244]

My favorite animated films are all by Hayao Mayazaki, with Spirited Away probably being on top