Movies

Best movie lists invariably end up as personal favorite movie lists and as such are by necessity very subjective. It would be futile and damn near impossible to limit any such list to only 10 movies. Such a list would be more categorized by what was left out than what was included. Therefore, I have decided to list movies that are my personal favorites regardless of their supposed merit by the box office or by critics. Of course, many of these have appeared on critics best of lists and been box office successes, but my list will not be defined by those two criteria.
My list is heavy with old movies. The common criticism of older or classic movies is that they do not hold up over time. Nothing could be further from the truth. As with other forms of art, a great movie is a great movie is a great movie. Is Picasso diminished by the eighty years of space between his work and now? Are the Beatles declasse? Of course not. A common refrain about the movie Citizen Kane is the following: "well it was great for its time, etc . . . " Ridiculous! It is great for all times. Anyway, here is the list which will be a ongoing process.

Citizen Kane-The masterpiece by which every movie since is measured. The hype, the pretense and its legacy are not fully appreciated on a first viewing, but trust me, its greatness is revealed on a second and a third showing. First things first, notice the cinematography. Much of it had never been done before, from the continuous takes to the deep focus which allows the entire scene to be clearly visible. Notice the under the floor vantage point with Joseph Cotton and Welles shot after Kane had lost the election. They actually cut into the floor to lower the camera below grade to attain this angle. Under appreciated by American audiences upon its release, Orson Welles would never have this much control over a movie again.
This is a very real debate over whether Welles or his screenwriter Joseph Mankiewicz wrote the bulk of the material. Either way the dialogue has a vitality that lifts the movie above its technical achievements. Why is Kane the masterpiece and the place holder at the top of most any critics top films? Simply it does more in in two hours than most directors accomplish in ten movies. It is a pastiche of available technique. It combines "march of time" photography with newsreel footage with flashbacks and allegorical story telling non pareil. This film is a very thinly veiled reference to William Randolph Hearst and his America.


The Godfather I and II

La Dolce Vita

Vertigo

The Conversation

Double Indemnity

The Manchurian Candidate

Modern Times

Chinatown

The Maltese Falcon