Some time ago, when Empire put a list of the 500 films they considered the 'Greatest Films Ever Made’, I decided to write down all the film titles and take out the ones I'd seen. I didn't really think much of it at the time but, recently, when I rejoined Lovefilm, I decided to add those films that have, for one reason or another, evaded my attention.
Clearly, not all of these will be to my taste yet but, as the challenge was now on, I figured it was time to bite the bullet and watch these films regardless. People were understandably taken aback a few weeks ago when they found me watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers which, being a thigh slapping musical, is not the sort of film they were used to seeing on my plasma screen!
It is a shame that some of these aren't available on DVD in the UK so it seems that, in order to complete my challenge, I'll either have to wait for these films to be released on R2 DVD (or Region B/Region All BD) or look overseas and buy them 'blind'. As there are (at the time of writing) seven films from that list that I haven't seen (including Abel Gance’s Napoléon, which shamefully has never been released for home viewing and La maman et la putain only available on VHS), it may take a while before I complete my mission.
So far, some of the selections have been extremely surprising whereas others have
been utterly predictable. I have major issues with the order as, no matter how popular
they are, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars and Back to the Future higher up in
the pecking order of ‘Greatest Films Ever Made’ films than Citizen Kane, Vertigo
or The 400 Blows . If you approach this list wanting an education in the truly great
films, you'll be disappointed. This may be the cinephile in me speaking, the film
fan who considers garbage like the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise to be just
that and the most important pieces of cinema ever constructed are those by the likes
of Alfred Hitchcock, Jean-
Anyway, I digress. As it currently stands, the full list of the 500 films can be
found here, with those that I haven't seen listed below. If the numbering seems a
little weird, that's because there are gaps where I've removed those that I've seen.
I shall endeavour to keep this as up-
FILMS TO WATCH:
255. Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch, 1939)
293. La maman et la putain (Jean Eustache, 1973)
356. Napoléon (Abel Gance, 1927)
360. The Return (Andrei Zvyagintsev, 2003)
399. Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1924)
427. Spring in a Small Town (Mu Fei, 1948)
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