"Citizen Kanes" of cinema (1 Viewer)

[Kirk Tsai]

Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon. My knowledge isn't as great as I would like it to be, but Rashomon seems like a major film which told one event through many different perspectives. And in turn, questions every person's own constructed reality. Kane had many perspectives on one man, but this was on a simple event. Of course, this was also the film that launched Kurosawa into an international name.

 

[Terrell]

I'd have to agree with Ike Donny. Fight Club, NBT, and A Clockwork Orange did not revolutionize film, or advanced any particular aspect of filmmaking. A Clockwork Orange was a very good film. Fight Club and NBT were dreck in my opinion, but that's not my point. It's about influencing and changing the art of filmmaking. About revolutionizing some aspect. I don't see how those films do that.
Unless you can consider ACO revolutionizing a group guys running around with rubber dicks on their nose.

 

[Patrick Larkin]

Well, I also vote for 2001: A Space Odyssey as one of the most important films.
2001 legitimized scifi. It went beyond in every way any scifi film that preceded it. Its special effects, done more than 10 years before Star Wars stands up today. The use of music as an integral part of the film was brilliant. 2001 was able to convey deep philosophical concepts over millions of years with very little dialogue. Kubrick did it with images, music, and special effects. Space was never space before this movie. People were just beginning to question their place in the universe. 2001 blew it all wide open
One could go on and on about 2001....

 

[Terrell]

I didn't like 2001, but I'd agree that it was influential in it's impact on the film industry.

 

[Brian W.]

Polling for #1 movie is one of the most meaningless endeavor I can think of.

Then so is this thread, 'cause that's exactly what we've been doing here.
Back with the promised Sight & Sound lists. It's interesting to see how they've changed over the years. "Battleship Potemkin" is the only film that's made the Top 10 all five polls, '52-'92. I'm taking the '52-'72 polls from a late 70s book called "Film Facts." What I like about that book is that it lists the full Top 20, not just the Top 10. I've never seen that information listed elsewhere.
Nothing is definitive in these lists; everything is subjective. But you can get an idea from these which films people who watch films for a living think are great. I'll put a star next to the ones that are available on DVD.
1952
1. *The Bicycle Thief
2. *City Lights (tie)
2. *The Gold Rush (tie)
4. *Battleship Potemkin
5. Louisiana Story (early documentary) (tie)
5. *Intolerance (tie)
7. Greed (tie)
7. Le Jour se leve (tie)
7. *The Passion of Joan of Arc (tie)
10. *Brief Encounter (tie)
10. *Le Million (tie)
10. The Rules of the Game (tie - supposedly in the works from Criterion)
11. *Citizen Kane (tie)
11. *Grand Illusion (tie)
11. The Grapes of Wrath (tie - come on Fox, where is this?)
12. The Childhood of Maxim Gorki (tie)
12. *Monsieur Verdoux (tie)
12. *Que Viva Mexico! (tie - from Image, might have different title)
13. *Earth (tie)
13. Zero for Conduct (tie)
14. *Broken Blossoms (tie)
14. Les Dames Du Bois De Boulogne (tie - Robert Bresson, 1945)
14. Hallelujah! (tie - King Vidor, 1929)
1962
1. *Citizen Kane
2. *L'Avventura
3. The Rules of the Game
4. Greed
4. Ugetsu Monogatari (aka Ugetsu)
6. *Battleship Potemkin
6. *The Bicycle Thief
6. *Ivan The Terrible, Parts 1 & 2
9. La Terra Trema (Luchino Visconti, 1948)
10. L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1933)
11. Hiroshima Mon Amour
11. Pather Panchali
11. Zero for Conduct
14. *City Lights
14. The Childhood of Maxim Gorki
14. *The Gold Rush
17. Sunrise (where is this, Fox?)
18. *Earth
18. *Monsieur Verdoux
20. *The General (Buster Keaton)
20. *Grand Illusion
20. *Ikiru (coming soon from Criterion)
20. Nazarin (Luis Bunuel, 1958)
20. October (aka Ten Days that Shook the World)
20. Umberto D (Vittorio DeSica, 1951)
1972
1. *Citizen Kane
2. The Rules of the Game
3. *Battleship Potemkin
4. *81/2
5. *L'Avventura
5. *Persona
7. *The Passion of Joan of Arc
8. *The General
8. The Magnificent Ambersons
10. Ugetsu Monogatari (aka Ugetsu)
10. *Wild Strawberries
(believe it or not, all of the following were tied)
11. *The Gold Rush
11. Hiroshima Mon Amour
11. *Ikiru
11. *Ivan the Terrible, Parts 1 & 2
11. *Pierrot Le Fou
11. *Vertigo
17. *Grand Illusion
17. Mouchette (Robert Bresson, 1966)
17. *The Searchers
17. Sunrise
17. 2001: A Space Odyssey
17. Viridiana (Luis Bunuel, 1961)
1982
1. *Citizen Kane
2. The Rules of the Game
3. *Seven Samurai
3. *Singin' in the Rain
5. *8 1/2
6. *Battleship Potemkin
7. *L'Avventura
7. The Magnificent Ambersons
7. *Vertigo
10. *The General
10. *The Searchers
1992 (2 separate polls this year -- one critics, one directors)
Critics:
1. *Citizen Kane
2. The Rules of the Game
3. Tokyo Story
4. *Vertigo
5. *The Searchers
6. L'Atalante
6. *The Passion of Joan of Arc
6. Pather Panchali
6. *Battleship Potemkin
10. *2001: A Space Odyssey
Directors:
1. *Citizen Kane
2. *Raging Bull
2. *8 1/2
4. La Strada (coming this year from Criterion, I think)
5. L'Atalante
6. *Modern Times
6. *The Godfather
6. *Vertigo
9. *Seven Samurai
9. *The Passion of Joan of Arc
9. *The Godfather Part II
9. *Rashomon (coming soon from Criterion)
While hardly a list of the most innovative films, maybe these will give people a few more ideas, and prompt some discussion and debate.
At one time I had figured out the runners up for 1992 also (they list each critic's top ten in the magazine), so if I find it I'll add that onto the tail end here.

 

[Seth Paxton]

and the police procedural.

I agree with Ebert and concede on that point. M is critcal in starting this style of film, later done to even more absolute perfection by Kurosawa in High and Low. Both excellent films.

 

[Terrell]

I also think polling and picking the best films in order is completely useless. If that makes this thread useless, so be it. I actually thought the thread as being films that are the most influential and have had the most impact and change on film and filmmaking. But everyone's Top 100 is extremely subjective and extremely different. It's fun to talk about and discuss, but utterly worthless in my opinion.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Potemkin - I agree. Soviet Montage comes to the world which meant fast editing came to the world. Shots had run much longer before Soviet Montage came along. Just think, where would MTV be with Eisenstein.

 

[Brian W.]

Terrell, all I meant was it's silly to criticize film polls when this thread IS a film poll -- a poll of the most innovative films. You yourself are participating in the very thing you're critizing.
I only mentioned and listed the Sight & Sound poll because many of the titles on it are considered to be innovative and to have taken film to new artistic/technical levels.

 

[Terrell]

Brian, I'm not necessarily criticizing people for participating in a poll for the best film, or in a thread like this. It's fun to do. I just think it's impossible to accurately quantify what is the best film and where they should line up, especially considering the huge number of great films and the subjectivity of opinions. So ultimately it's worthless. But we can certainly debate it and have fun doing so.
Just to make sure we're talking about the same thing, I'm talking about ranking the Top 100 or Top 50 films of all time. I do think you can accurately point out the most influential films, however.

 

[Brian W.]

I know, I agree. I'm just saying that many or most of the films on the critics polls, particularly Sight & Sound, are considered to be groundbreaking films. "Citizen Kane" was largely forgotten by the general public until it started appearing on the critics' "10 best" polls.

 

[Terrell]

I'd agree, at least with the films that I've seen that are on the list.

 

[Jack Briggs]

"One could go on and on about 2001...."

Do tell!

 

[Rob Tomlin]

I have to second Pulp Fiction as one of the more modern movies to have a real impact on cinema.

 

[L. Anton Dencklau]

OK. I'm sure some will disagree, but I believe a case can be made for The Blair Witch Project. The innovations being: mainstream film going audiences watching a film in a television-like aspect ratio long after 99% of all newly released films are projected at 1:85 or 2:35, and original, inventive use of the rapidly growing Internet in marketing the film.

 

[Seth Paxton]

But it's far too soon to know if BWP will actually influence cinema. So far it hasn't appeared to change much.

If it has influenced cinema at all it's in the use of ONLINE buzz to help boost a film's box office. In that way it probably might already merit some Kane talk. Certainly distributors/producers don't look at the internet in the same way post-BWP.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

I believe the Sight and Sound list is up for a revision this year. It will be interesting to find out the changes, if any.

~Edwin

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Would you guys count The Wizard of Oz in this list?
I'm trying to rack my brain to come up with some more "monumentally influential" movies, but you guys are quite thorough.
Don't laugh, but I'd consider Airplane! to be a VERY influential film. It's no Citizen Kane, but it did kind of create an entirely new genre...

 

[Jude Faelnar]

I'm sure the following 2 films will qualify:
1] TRON (1982) for computer animation.
To quote from the Frontier's review: "In addition to being the first film to acknowledge the growing prominence of video games in popular culture, "Tron" also became the first feature-length production that utilized computer animation to an unprecedented degree-- a watershed moment in the evolution of special effects technology."
2] JURASSIC PARK (1993) for sound (DTS)
From IMDB Trivia: "The first film to use DTS digital surround sound."
JUDE

 

[Jack Briggs]

"So ultimately it's worthless."

Meant to address the above. My response: no it's not.