Screen Shot 2022-09-18 at 7.53.57 AMThis is the second update to my Top 1000 list.  The list, recently completed here has an introduction here.  I have broken this down by year.  I was originally going to include “hard luck cases”, films that made the Top 1000 in their year of release and then got bumped, but an upcoming post made me decide not to bother.  So, under each year are films that make the current Top 1000 list (through 2021), by year of initial release (not necessarily Oscar eligible / Nighthawk eligible year) from lowest on the list to highest. (more…)

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Screen Shot 2022-08-22 at 7.18.46 AMThis is the first update to my Top 1000 list.  The list, recently completed, has an introduction here.  I have broken this down by year.  I was originally going to include “hard luck cases”, films that made the Top 1000 in their year of release and then got bumped, but an upcoming post made me decide not to bother.  So, under each year are films that make the current Top 1000 list (through 2021), by year of initial release (not necessarily Oscar eligible / Nighthawk eligible year) from lowest on the list to highest. (more…)

spielberg-scorsese

Did you think this would let you know who the #1 director is? You fool! Read the list.

As I said on the 2.0 version, my lists are always organic; they continue to change and grow.  I’ve continued to watch films and new films have come out and I fiddled with the categories again as said in the introduction.  I’ve also already listed the directors who made my chart but didn’t make the Top 100.  It’s way overdue, but here is the final version of My Top 100 Directors of All-Time.

This list is in two parts.  The first just counts down the directors from #100 to #1 with their total score.  It includes a link to a piece on the director.  The number in that link is from the original list (or, in the case of directors who only made the 2.0 list, that list) and not from this list (unless they’re the same rank as before).  Those posts are now over a decade out of date and I haven’t bothered to write posts for the new directors to make the list (12 directors in all though three link to their Oscar Director post). (more…)

lean-o-tool-tour-lawrence--gRight from the start, the directors kind of ruled the world of film.  They were paid well and by the 1930s they were getting “film by” credit and before too long that credit was before the title (in fact, mandated that way by agreement with the DGA).  They formed one of the powerful early guilds and their guild was one of the first two to begin giving out their own awards.  Writer-directors started to rise in the 1940s (lead by Preston Sturges and John Huston) and that would become the standard for most of the great foreign directors.  In the 1960s the auteur theory would come along and propel a number of directors to the top of the film world when it came to critical appreciation of the medium.  Today we are still in an era of truly great film directors, from those who came up through the medium in the 70s (Spielberg, Scorsese) to those 70s type independent minded directors who missed that era and came right after (Coen Brothers, Almodovar) to the great directors who made their mark in the 90s and later (Tarantino, Nolan, P.T. Anderson).  Following not too long after this post will come finally my 3.0 version of the Top 100 Directors of All-Time.

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Screen Shot 2022-06-16 at 8.17.16 AMThis is the final grouping of 50 to count down the 1000 Greatest Films of the first Century of Film (1912-2011).

The original introduction can be found here.  Other parts can be found here.

The films in this portion rate at a 98 down through Modern Times and a 99 after that.

After some other posts, there will be an update that covers the years 2012-2016.  Then after some other posts, there will be another update that will cover the years 2017-2021.

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Screen Shot 2022-05-08 at 3.34.23 PMThe penultimate grouping of 50 has films that earn a 97 down through 2001.  After that, they are a 98.  The intro is here.  Other parts can be found here. (more…)

Screen Shot 2022-04-02 at 7.29.48 AMThree parts left in the first 1000 (before the updates).  The introduction can be found here.  The preceding parts of the list can be found here. (more…)

Screen Shot 2022-03-06 at 7.31.14 AMGetting close to the (initial) end of the Top 1000 list.  The introduction is here and the rest of the list can be found by going here.  Films through Inglourious Basterds (#174) are a 95 which is high ****.  The rest are a 96.  A 96 is, to me, worthy of a Best Picture win.  That means any Oscar winners from that point on, even if they don’t win the Nighthawk, earn no complaints from me.  Ironically, one of those films doesn’t even earn a Nighthawk nomination (The Hours) because 2002 is just that tough.  There are also a few films that come 5th in their years while the only actual Nighthawk winners in this post are all 95 films.  Things are so even across genres and major studios that only one film in this group of 50 is in the Top 5 all-time for its genre or major studio. (more…)

Screen Shot 2022-02-12 at 9.19.40 AMAnother part of the Top 1000 films through 2011.  The introduction can be found here.  Preceding parts of the list can be found here.  All of these films are a 95, which is high ****.  All but 6 of these films (all in very good years) earned Nighthawk nominations for Best Picture. (more…)

Screen Shot 2022-01-08 at 6.50.30 AMAnother part of my countdown of the 1000 greatest films through 2011.  Through Pinocchio, these are all a 94 and after that, they are all a 95.  So, high ****.  The introduction can be found here.  Previous entries can be found here. (more…)