10 best films in the history of cinema according to 358 directors

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

British film magazine Sight & Sound polled 358 filmmakers to select the 10 greatest films in film history. Find out which films are considered the best by Quentin Tarantino, Guillermo del Toro, Francis Ford Coppola and other famous authors.

Leading Films Based on Poll Results

So, here are the films that received the most votes, as well as the comments of the survey participants.

1. "Tokyo Tale", Yasujiro Ozu, 1953

Adur Gopalakrishnan Indian director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer

Refined and touching "Tokyo Story" allows the viewer to feel the conflicts and misunderstandings that arise in our time between family members.

2. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick, 1968

Gaspard Noé French and Argentinean film director and screenwriter

I watched this film more than anyone else. Forty times or more. He turned my life around when I discovered him at the age of seven in Buenos Aires. This was my first hallucinogenic experience, a turning point for artistic perception. Without this film, I would not have become a director.

3. "Citizen Kane", Orson Welles, 1941

Kenneth Branagh British actor, film director, screenwriter and producer

Wells' wild imagination in Citizen Kane is amazing and inspiring. A great work of cinematography with socially important overtones, presented with incredible entertainment. The mood of the film is, as always, exciting and energetic. Its intense plot just can't disappoint.

4. "Eight and a Half", Federico Fellini, 1963

Pen-Ek Ratanarwang Thai film director and screenwriter

"Eight and a Half" is a film that I watched in the theater for three consecutive sessions. It's chaos in its most elegant and heady form. You cannot take your eyes off the screen, even if you do not understand where everything is going. Proof of the power of cinema: You don't fully grasp the point, but you still give up and let yourself be carried away.

5. "Taxi Driver" Martin Scorsese, 1976

Edgar Wright British film director, screenwriter, actor and film producer

The film is so bright, hypnotic and caustic that it seems as if it leaves a mark on your pupils forever. "Taxi Driver" turns the city, time and state of mind into a true nightmare, frighteningly real and at the same time ghostly.

6. "Apocalypse Now", Francis Ford Coppola, 1979

Michael Mann American film director, screenwriter and producer

Coppola showed an incredibly tense, gloomy immersion of the personality to an incredible depth. Savagery and nihilism - everything is captured in the dramatic and objective narrative. Work of the highest complexity. Masterpiece.

7. "The Godfather", Francis Ford Coppola, 1972

Justin Kurzel Australian film director and screenwriter

Classic, but I never get tired of it. The script is so holistic, and Michael's story is one of the best story-driven adventures the world has ever seen.

8. "Vertigo", Alfred Hitchcock, 1958

Robin Wood British and Canadian film critic, author of a monograph on Alfred Hitchcock

If Vertigo remains Hitchcock's undisputed masterpiece, it is precisely because the unknown and incomprehensible in it not only frightens, but at the same time retains a deep and exciting appeal.

9. "Mirror", Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974

Alexey Popogrebsky Russian film director and screenwriter

I was about 13 years old when I first saw The Mirror. Then I realized that there are films that are not meant to be "understood." This is the poetry of cinema in its purest form, on a very thin line of pretentiousness, which makes its genius even more striking.

10. "The Bicycle Thieves", Vittorio De Sica, 1949

Roy Andersson Swedish film director

My absolute favorite, the most humanistic and social film in history.

Personal top films of famous directors

Sight & Sound also revealed which films each of the directors surveyed voted for. Here are some lists of personal preferences for members.

Quentin Tarantino

1. Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola 1979
2. Taxi Driver Martin Scorsese 1976
3. Obnoxious Bears by Richard Linklater, 1976
4. Carrie by Brian De Palma 1976
5. High and Confused by Richard Linklater, 1993
6. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly by Sergio Leone, 1966.
7. The Great Escape by John Sturges, 1963
8. His Girlfriend Friday, Howard Hawks, 1940.
9. Jaws by Steven Spielberg 1975
10. Pretty Girls, Stand in a Line, Roger Vadim, 1971.

Mike Newell

1. "Andrei Rublev", Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966.
2. The Nice Guys by Martin Scorsese 1990
3. The Great Illusion, Jean Renoir, 1937.
4. Leopard, Luchino Visconti, 1963.
5. Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa, 1954
6. The Road by Federico Fellini, 1954.
7. Trains under Close Watch, Jiri Menzel, 1966.
8. "The Manchurian Candidate," John Frankenheimer, 1962.
9. Strangers on a Train by Alfred Hitchcock, 1951
10. White Ribbon, Michael Haneke, 2009.

Martin Scorsese

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick, 1968.
2. Eight and a Half by Federico Fellini, 1963
3. Ashes and Diamonds, Andrzej Wajda, 1958.
4. Citizen Kane by Orson Welles 1941
5. Leopard, Luchino Visconti, 1963.
6. Countryman, Roberto Rossellini, 1946.
7. Red Shoes, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948.
8. The River, Jean Renoir, 1951.
9. Salvatore Giuliano by Francesco Rosi, 1961.
10. Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock, 1958

Sam Mendes

1. Four Hundred Blows, François Truffaut, 1959.
2. Citizen Kane by Orson Welles 1941
3. Kes, Ken Loach, 1969
4. Taxi Driver Martin Scorsese 1976
5. Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock, 1958
6. Blue Velvet by David Lynch 1986
7. Fanny and Alexander, Ingmar Bergman, 1984.
8. The Godfather 2 by Francis Ford Coppola, 1974
9. Rosemary's Baby by Roman Polanski, 1968.
10. Oil, Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007.

Woody Allen

1. Four Hundred Blows, François Truffaut, 1959.
2. Eight and a Half by Federico Fellini, 1963
3. Amarcord by Federico Fellini, 1972
4. Bicycle Thieves by Vittorio De Sica, 1949
5. Citizen Kane by Orson Welles 1941
6. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Luis Buñuel, 1972.
7. The Great Illusion, Jean Renoir, 1937.
8. Paths of Glory by Stanley Kubrick, 1957
9. Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa, 1950.
10. The Seventh Seal, Ingmar Bergman, 1957.

Andrey Zvyagintsev

1. "Andrei Rublev", Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966.
2. Diary of a Country Priest, Robert Bresson, 1951.
3. Eclipse by Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962
4. The Child, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, 2005.
5. Husbands by John Cassavetes 1970
6. Koyaaniskatsi, Godfrey Reggio, 1983.
7. Lovers, Louis Malle, 1958
8. The Word, Carl Theodore Dreyer, 1955
9. The Hour of the Wolf, Ingmar Bergman, 1968.
10. The Woman in the Sands by Hiroshi Tesigahara, 1964

Francis Ford Coppola

1. Ashes and Diamonds, Andrzej Wajda, 1958.
2. The Apartment, Billy Wilder, 1960.
3. The Bad Sleep Well, Akira Kurosawa, 1960.
4. The Best Years of Our Lives, William Wyler, 1946
5. Mama's Sons by Federico Fellini, 1953
6. The King of Comedy by Martin Scorsese, 1983
7. Raging Bull by Martin Scorsese, 1980
8. Singing in the Rain by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952.
9. Sunrise, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1927.
10. "Bodyguard", Akira Kurosawa, 1961.

Paul Greengrass

1. Bicycle Thieves by Vittorio De Sica, 1949
2. Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa, 1954
3. Citizen Kane by Orson Welles 1941
4. The Battle of Algeria by Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966.
5. "Battleship Potemkin", Sergei Eisenstein, 1925.
6. “In His Last Breath,” Jean-Luc Godard, 1960.
7. The Gospel of Matthew, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964.
8. Kes, Ken Loach, 1969
9. The War Game by Peter Watkins, 1965
10. Zeta, Costa Gavras, 1968.

Guillermo del Toro

1. Eight and a Half by Federico Fellini, 1963
2. Beauty and the Beast, Jean Cocteau, René Clement, 1946.
3. Frankenstein by James Weill, 1931
4. Freaks by Tod Browning, 1932
5. The Nice Guys by Martin Scorsese 1990
6. Avarice, Erich von Stroheim, 1924.
7. Forgotten by Luis Buñuel, 1950
8. New Times, Charles Chaplin, 1936.
9. Nosferatu, Symphony of Horror, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1922.
10. Shadow of Doubt, Alfred Hitchcock, 1942.

Andrey Konchalovsky

1. Four Hundred Blows, François Truffaut, 1959.
2. Eight and a Half by Federico Fellini, 1963
3. The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola, 1972
4. Atalanta, Jean Vigo, 1934.
5. “At random, Balthazar,” Robert Bresson, 1966.
6. City Lights by Charles Chaplin, 1931
7. Fanny and Alexander, Ingmar Bergman, 1984.
8. Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa, 1954
9. The Road by Federico Fellini, 1954.
10. Viridiana by Luis Buñuel, 1961