Vertigo named 'Greatest Film of All Time'

[herringbonekid]

The British Film Institute's Sight and Sound magazine polls a selected panel once a decade and Citizen Kane has been its top pick for the last 50 years.

This time 846 distributors, critics and academics championed Vertigo, about a retired cop with a fear of heights.

Here is Sight and Sound's current top ten (note that the youngest film is Kubrick's 2001 made in 1968):


1. Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)

2. Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)

3. Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)

4. La Regle du Jeu (Renoir, 1939)

5. Sunrise: a Song for Two Humans (Murnau, 1927)

6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)

7. The Searchers (Ford, 1956)

8. Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)

9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1927)

10. 8½ (Fellini, 1963)




http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19078948

 

[Angus Forbes]

I agree with the choice, but surely Vertigo is about a lot more than just a retired cop with a fear of heights! Another aspect is "obsession."

 

[Edward]

Mn, not convinced. Looks a bit deliberately obtuse to me, but on the flipside it's a lot more interesting than some of the more populist lists which have the same two or three popcorn blockbusters of recent years dominating. 2001, though... serious case of Emperor's New Clothes. Some lovely cinematography and a great score, but it's at least an hour too long and deathly dull. I always did find Kubrick hit and miss. Doctor Strangelove was vastly superior.

 

[Benzadmiral]

. . . 2001, though... serious case of Emperor's New Clothes. Some lovely cinematography and a great score, but it's at least an hour too long and deathly dull. I always did find Kubrick hit and miss. Doctor Strangelove was vastly superior.

I always disliked films with Kubrick's name on them. Nor was I alone. I saw Stephen King at an SF convention in 1983, where someone asked him what he thought of Kubrick's rendition of "The Shining." He said, "I consider I handed Stanley Kubrick a live hand grenade . . . and he heroically threw his body on top of it!"

Then I rented "Eyes Wide Shut." (To watch Nicole Kidman, of course.) And it blew me away. The film has a certain spooky mystery, a peculiar adventure tone, that I didn't expect. Nicole's not even in the movie that much, and I liked it anyway. I'll certainly try some of SK's earlier stuff.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm terribly miffed that they made no mention of "Hips Hips Hooray."

 

[Shangas]

I like the film Vertigo, but I don't know about it being the best of all time, or whatever.

 

[ButteMT61]

I like the film Vertigo, but I don't know about it being the best of all time, or whatever.

Agree. Not even my favorite Hitchcock film for that matter...At least it wasn't The Matrix.

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

Gone with the Wind is obviously the greatest film ever made. I don't know why its supremacy is even disputed.

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

Hm I like most of Kubrick's work but agree with Edward on 2001. I fell asleep. Sorry.

I gotta watch more Renoir Flics and other 1930s movies from france

 

[Doctor Strange]

It's pretty close to my favorite Hitchcock film. It's been interesting to watch its evaluation change over the years. I remember being baffled by it when I first saw it at around 13 on NBC Saturday Night at the Movies. Twenty years later - after the critics began talking it up as Hitch's masterpiece - it was a whole other thing. After many viewings, I've really come to love it...

Honestly, the only worth of a list like this is that some folks may make an effort to see these great older films that they'd probably never seek out on their own. (Even with a large consensus, what's the point of naming a "greatest" film? It's just a silly academic exercise.) Of course, that doesn't mean these folks will appreciate the films...

Re 2001: A Space Odyssey, you had to be there back in the 60s/70s to understand what a revelation it was... like many older great films, it requires concentration and patience to appreciate it. (The kind of concentration that was standard for hardcore film buffs back then, in the heyday of Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa, etc.) Virtually nobody of the post-MTV/post-Star Wars generation enjoys it. Today's kids typically find it hopelessly dull and boring... of course, in their continuously-plugged-in world, the very concepts of "concentration" and "patience" hardly even exist anymore.

 

[Edward]

I always disliked films with Kubrick's name on them. Nor was I alone. I saw Stephen King at an SF convention in 1983, where someone asked him what he thought of Kubrick's rendition of "The Shining." He said, "I consider I handed Stanley Kubrick a live hand grenade . . . and he heroically threw his body on top of it!"

Then I rented "Eyes Wide Shut." (To watch Nicole Kidman, of course.) And it blew me away. The film has a certain spooky mystery, a peculiar adventure tone, that I didn't expect. Nicole's not even in the movie that much, and I liked it anyway. I'll certainly try some of SK's earlier stuff.

lol Kubrick for me is rather hit and miss. I either really like his stuff, or really loathe it - little or no middle ground. Eyes Wide Shut was a surprise to me - I really didn't expect to like it, but it was an entertaining watch and did keep up a certain intensity. Full Metal Jacket is, I think, my favourite of all the Vietnam-set films that came out in a clump in the Eighties (although I know Stone's Platoon is cracked up to be by far the most accurate). Doctor Strangelove is divine. Then there was 2001... The Shining I do enjoy. It helps I saw it before I read the book. I'd have been disappointed had I not, I think. I certainly can see King's point. His main criticism, I believe, was that the film made it look like Jack was evil and going mad, rather than that he was slowly becoming possessed by the lurking evil in the Overlook itself. Book better, but film still entertaining.

The other director who gives me those extremes is David Lynch... I adored Twin Peaks; also liked the film Firewalk With Me. Eraserhead bored me to tears.

 

[Feraud]

For the better of Kubrick's films I'd recommend his less discussed work like The Killing, Paths of Glory, and Lolita. Let's throw Barry Lyndon in there too.

Those "greatest" lists are fun to read and cannot be taken too seriously.
Being a fan of Vertigo I won't complain about this list. Vertigo might be my favorite film by Hitchcock and performance by Stewart.

 

[Yeps]

I think Lawrence of Arabia should be on there, although I don't know all the movies, so I can't tell which one to bump off. I like it more than 2001 though (which is saying a lot for me).

 

[skyvue]

I like all those pictures -- I count a good number of them as favorites -- but any all-time top ten that doesn't include Casablanca is easily discounted, if not dismissed.

 

[Edward]

I like all those pictures -- I count a good number of them as favorites -- but any all-time top ten that doesn't include Casablanca is easily discounted, if not dismissed.

I'd love to see the decision making process. I think it's swings and roundabouts. Casablanca would probably top many lists, then there comes a tie when it becomes fashionable to dismiss it as a cliché, so people pick other things.... Cycle of life, n' aw...

Re 2001: A Space Odyssey, you had to be there back in the 60s/70s to understand what a revelation it was... like many older great films, it requires concentration and patience to appreciate it. (The kind of concentration that was standard for hardcore film buffs back then, in the heyday of Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa, etc.) Virtually nobody of the post-MTV/post-Star Wars generation enjoys it. Today's kids typically find it hopelessly dull and boring... of course, in their continuously-plugged-in world, the very concepts of "concentration" and "patience" hardly even exist anymore.

Hey, you can't say I lack patience - I've sat through Plan 9 From Outer Space!

 

[alsendk]

I always liked Vertigo better than citizen Kane, but I am slightly confused about the top ten movies being that old still....but of course I am proud of a danish movie making it at number nine.

There has to be newer movies that deserves to be up there.....without being in position to bring up any qualified film right now.
Do you fellow loungers have suggestions for newer movies to go to the top 10 ?

 

[Yeps]

I always liked Vertigo better than citizen Kane, but I am slightly confused about the top ten movies being that old still....but of course I am proud of a danish movie making it at number nine.

There has to be newer movies that deserves to be up there.....without being in position right now to bring up any qualified film right now.
Do you fellow loungers have suggestions for newer movies to go to the top 10 ?

I think that the idea is that in order for a movie to be up there, it has to stand the test of time, and the future will tell if more modern movies are included.

That said, WALL-E.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I'm terribly miffed that they made no mention of "Hips Hips Hooray."

Yea, ME TOO! And where's Just Imagine?? Diplomaniacs?? Sh! The Octopus??? lol

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've been trying for years to arrange exactly that program for a film festival.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

Throw in Bare Knees and All American Co-Ed and I'll be there!!! lol