a few notes on the top 1000 films of all time

They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They have released the latest version of the 1000 Greatest Films of All Time. The main change seems to come from the various best-of-2000s decade lists, which raised the profile of some more recent films. They also have some interesting lists that breakdown the ratings based on various categories.

For instance, they list the top 100 films from male and female voters, and this tells us something perhaps not so surprising: the male voters’ list looks a lot like the overall list, suggesting that most of the voters are men. (“Voters” is a misnomer, I suppose … the lists are just collated rankings based on lists from other sources, using some ranking system I don’t care enough about to examine.) What films have the highest jump when only female critics are considered? I won’t do the exact calculations, but the following, from the Top 100 according to female critics, rank much higher according to women:

• Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (152nd overall, 9th amongst women)
• Mean Streets (127/23)
• Shoah (159/24)
• Pandora’s Box (199/39)
• Thelma & Louise (399/52)
• The Piano (265/59)
• The Terminator (259/76)
• Shadows (309/78)
• Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (200/85)
• An Angel at my Table (unranked/89)
• Rumble Fish (unranked/90)
• Accattone (341/92)
• Sans soleil (201/93)
• Grey Gardens (641/97)

Doing the same thing for “top critics,” who come closer to the overall list, gives us:

• The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums (254/38)
• Two or Three Things I Know About Her (252/4
• L’Eclisse (193/60)
• The Music Room (189/65)
• The Crime of Monsieur Lange (277/71)
• Celine and Julie Go Boating (190/72)
• Tabu (211/84)
• The Shop Around the Corner (209/89)
• A Canterbury Tale (366/97)

Filmmakers only:

• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (120/18)
• The Wages of Fear (206/75)
• Nights of Cabiria (184/77)
• Cinema Paradiso (238/86)
• La Notte (224/89)
• Throne of Blood (196/90)
• The Bridge on the River Kwai (220/93)
• Crimes and Misdemeanors (244/96)
• The Tree of Wooden Clogs (262/97)

And finally, “low profile” and/or younger critics:

• Days of Heaven (154/42)
• Brazil (163/46)
• Sans soleil (201/80)
• Wings of Desire (257/87)
• Sátántangó (245/95)
• The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (208/96)

I haven’t updated my info on “Lists of Bests” lately, but without those updates, it appears I’ve seen 42% of the Top 1000 Films. The highest-ranked film I haven’t seen is #11, Tokyo Story.

Comments

[Steve]

That filmmakers list is like the Frankie Frisch Veterans Committee.

[Steven Rubio]

Good call.