There was a full slate of scuttlebutt from Sight & Sound’s decision earlier this week to move Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo to the top of its revered Top 10 list of all-time movies, replacing longtime leader Citizen Kane. All lists are subjective, of course, and most of the heated debate taking place online after the list was revealed circulated on whether Vertigo was worthy, whether Kane deserved to be displaced, and what movies were continually overlooked in this Sight & Sound poll.
Online debate is great. But here’s something tangible to sink your teeth into. In the Sight & Sound issue dedicated to the poll, individual directors share their Top 10 lists … and they are eye-opening. The Playlist grabbed a selection of the lists, and we’re sharing a few of our favorites below. Will they better help you understand why Citizen Kane, through no fault of its own, is now considered substandard to Vertigo? No. At the very least, these lists can help you create a fantastic Master List of must-see titles that you might have missed over the years. Who better to make suggestions than the directors of Annie Hall, Pulp Fiction, Raging Bull and The Godfather, parts one through three?
Here are the lists:
Woody Allen
Bicycle Thieves (1948, dir. Vittorio De Sica)
The Seventh Seal (1957, dir. Ingmar Bergman)
Citizen Kane (1941, dir. Orson Welles
Amarcord (1973, dir. Federico Fellini
8 ½ (1963, dir. Federico Fellini)
The 400 Blows (1959, dir. Francois Truffaut)
Rashomon (1950, dir. Akira Kurosawa)
La Grande Illusion (1937, dir. Jean Renoir)
The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie (1972, dir. Luis Bunuel)
Paths Of Glory (1957, dir. Stanley Kubrick)
Ashes And Diamonds (1958, dir. Andrzej Wajda)
The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946, dir William Wyler)
I Vitteloni (1953, dir. Federico Fellini)
The Bad Sleep Well (1960, dir. Akira Kurosawa)
Yojimbo (1961, dir. Akira Kurosawa)
Singin’ In The Rain (1952, dir. Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly)
The King Of Comedy (1983, dir Martin Scorsese)
Raging Bull (1980, dir. Martin Scorsese)
The Apartment (1960s, dir. Billy Wilder)
Sunrise (1927, dir. F.W. Murnau)
Frankenstein (1931, dir. James Whale)
Freaks (1932, dir. Todd Browning)
Shadow Of A Doubt (1943, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Greed (1925, dir. Erich Von Stroheim)
Modern Times (1936, dir. Charlie Chaplin)
La Belle Et La Bete (1946, dir. Jean Cocteau)
Goodfellas (1990, dir. Martin Scorsese)
Los Olvidados (1950, dir. Luis Bunuel)
Nosferatu (1922, dir. F.W. Murnau)
8 ½ (1963, dir. Federico Fellini)
Michel Hazavanicius
City Girl (1930, dir. F.W. Murnau)
City Lights (1931, dir. Charlie Chaplin)
To Be Or Not To Be (1942, dir. Ernst Lubitsch)
Citizen Kane (1941, dir. Orson Welles)
The Apartment (1960, dir. Billy Wilder)
The Shining (1980, dir. Stanley Kubrick)
North By Northwest (1959, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
The Third Man (1949, dir. Carol Reed)
Raging Bull (1980, dir. Martin Scorsese)
Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937, dir. Walt Disney)
Miranda July
Blind (1987, dir. Frederick Wiseman)
Smooth Talk (1985, dir. Joyce Chopra)
Vertigo (1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
After Life (1998, dir. Hirokazu Koreeda)
Somewhere In Time (1980, dir. Jeannot Szwarc)
Cheese (2007, dir. Mika Rottenberg)
Punch Drunk Love (2002, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
The Red Balloon (1956, dir. Albert Lamorisse)
A Room With A View (1985, dir. James Ivory)
Fish Tank (2009, dir. Andrea Arnold)
Apocalypse Now (1979, dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
Battleship Potemkin (1925, dir. Sergei Eisenstein)
Citizen Kane (1941, dir. Orson Welles)
Avatar (2009, dir. James Cameron)
Dr. Strangelove (1964, dir. Stanley Kubrick)
Biutiful (2010, dir. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
My Darling Clementine (1946, dir. John Ford)
The Passion Of Joan Of Arc (1928, dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer)
Raging Bull (1980, dir. Martin Scorsese)
The Wild Bunch (1969, dir. Sam Peckinpah)
David O. Russell
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946, dir. Frank Capra)
Chinatown (1974, dir. Roman Polanski)
Goodfellas (1990, dir. Martin Scorsese)
Vertigo (1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Pulp Fiction (1994, dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Raging Bull (1980, dir. Martin Scorsese)
Young Frankenstein (1974, dir. Mel Brooks)
The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie (1972, dir. Luis Bunuel)
The Godfather (1972, dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
Blue Velvet (1986, dir. David Lynch)
Groundhog Day (1993, dir. Harold Ramis)
Martin Scorsese
8 1/2 (1963, dir. Federico Fellini)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, dir. Stanley Kubrick)
Ashes And Diamonds (1958, dir. Andrzej Wajda)
Citizen Kane (1941, dir. Orson Welles)
The Leopard (1963, dir. Luchino Visconti)
Palsa (1946, dir. Roberto Rossellini)
The Red Shoes (1948, dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
The River (1951, dir. Jean Renoir)
Salvatore Giuliano (1962, dir. Francesco Rosi)
The Searchers (1956, dir. John Ford)
Ugetsu Monogatari (1953, dir. Kenji Mizoguchi)
Vertigo (1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Quentin Tarantino
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (1966, dir. Sergio Leone)
Apocalypse Now (1979, dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
The Bad News Bears (1976, dir. Michael Ritchie)
Carrie (1976, dir. Brian DePalma)
Dazed And Confused (1993, dir. Richard Linklater)
The Great Escape (1963, dir. John Sturges)
His Girl Friday (1940, dir. Howard Hawks)
Jaws (1975, dir. Steven Spielberg)
Pretty Maids All In A Row (1971, dir. Roger Vadim)
Rolling Thunder (1977, dir. John Flynn)
Sorcerer (1977, dir. William Friedkin)
Taxi Driver (1976, dir. Martin Scorsese)
