It has not taken a month Variety, the most important entertainment publication (covering television, theater and cinema from a business perspective), in giving what seems like an answer to Sight & Sound. The American magazine has released for the first time in its 117 years its list of the 100 best films in history. The choice has been voted on by some thirty of its critics and editors and, although it is not mentioned, it seems to be in response to the publication of the British Film Institute, which every decade chooses the hundred most relevant titles of the seventh art. And that at the beginning of December he caused an earthquake by announcing that his list led him Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles (1975), written and directed by the Belgian Chantal Akerman when she was barely 25 years old and starring Delphine Seyrig, who gives life to a lonely housewife practically silent during the three hours and twenty minutes of footage. However, Psychosis, by Alfred Hitchcock, heads that of what is considered the Hollywood Bible.
Variety He was born in New York on August 30, 1905. And until last week he had never considered making a list of these characteristics. You have resorted to a method as opposed to the list of Sight&Sound, which had the votes of 1,639 participants (in the previous one, in 2012, it already had 846). The two lists share titles, obviously, but their differences are much more striking. the one of Variety place, behind Psycho, The Wizard of Oz (1939), by Victor Fleming; The Godfather (1972), by Francis Ford Coppola; Citizen Kane (1941), by Orson Welles; Y pulp fiction (1994), by Quentin Tarantino. Right after comes the first non-American film, the seven samurai (1954) by Akira Kurosawa. The first European does not reach 13th position, with The rules of the game (1939), by Jean Renoir (the French master did not appear in Sight&Sound). The text that accompanies Psychosis in Variety He starts justifying the choice like this: “There is hardly a frame of this Hitchcock masterpiece that is not iconic.” And he assures: “The 45 seconds of the shower sequence split the 20th century in two.” Which is the same thing that happens to the plot of the film, when Hitchcock decides to assassinate the character of Janet Leigh, the apparent protagonist of Psychosis, in the bates motel shower at 48 minutes of footage.
Y Jeanne Dielman? It doesn’t appear until the 78th position, and behind truly amazing choices for a listing in this category as The Empire Strikes Back (30th); titanic (45th); The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (49th); Mad Max 2, the warrior of the road (54th); Moulin Rouge! (60th); Movida del 76 (Dazed And Confused) (62nd); Carrie (66th); My best friend’s Wedding (71st), or goldfinger (a bond in the 77th position).
Films directed by women are The piano (48th), by Jane Campion; without roof or law (59th), by Agnès Varda; the documentary Paris Is Burning (66th), by Jeannie Livingston; Y Nice job (69th), by Claire Denis, in addition to the aforementioned Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles in the 78th position: that of Variety it is a list with less variety of gender. And there are only three black directors: the African-American Spike Lee (Do what you must Y Malcolm X) and Barry Jenkins (Moon light) and Brit Steve McQueen (Twelve Years a Slave).
Four Latin American creators
In the list of Variety six films of the 21st century appear: Moon light (42nd); twelve years a slave (70th); The Tree of Life (76th); The dark knight (81st); parasites (82nd) ―which being from 2019 is the most recent on the list―, and My best friend’s wedding (Bridemaids) (94th). Halfway between one century and another is wishing to love, of Wong Kar-wai, in 53rd place. There are also four titles from Latin American creators: Pixote (the law of the weakest) (80th), the Brazilian Héctor Babenco; The Pan’s Labyrinth (84th), by the Mexican Guillermo del Toro; Belle de jour (89th), by Spanish Luis Buñuel, and Women at the edge of a nervous attack (98th), by Pedro Almodóvar. On the other hand, not a trace of Víctor Erice, the only Ibero-American representative in the classification of Sight&Sound with The spirit of the hive. Again, very underrepresented.
In the comparison between both classifications, in that of Variety there is a wink to the against on the one of Sight & Sound. In the 32nd position appears Vertigo, as the second Hitchcock film on his list. That was the film that in 2012 led the list of Sight&Sound (as it is voted on every decade, it is, therefore, the title ousted by Jeanne Dielmann), and the small text in Variety that accompanies the film begins with “No, it is not the best Hitchcock film”, which could well refer to the fact that it is behind Psychosis. As was not the case in the British Film Institute list, Variety, It does house silent films, many longer animated ones, and other titles considered classic references, such as chinatown, by Roman Polanski; wild bunch, by Sam Peckinpah, or lawrence of arabia, by David Lean. And yes, there is a Howard Hawks film, The beast of my girl, in the 25th position. But the names of Ernst Lubitsch and John Cassavetes are still missing. All lists are debatable.
Complete list of the best films according to ‘Variety’
1. Psychosis (1960)
2. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
3. The Godfather (1972)
Four. Citizen Kane (1941)
5. pulp fiction (1994)
6. the seven samurai (1954)
7. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
8. Living is beautiful (1946)
9. naked eve (1950)
10. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
eleven. Singing under the rain (1952)
12. One of ours (1990)
13. the rule of the game (1939)
14. do what you must (1989)
fifteen. Dawn (1927)
16. White House (1942)
17. Nashville (1975)
18. Person (1966)
19. The godfather II (1974)
twenty. blue velvet (1086)
twenty-one. gone With the Wind (1939)
22. chinatown (1974)
23. Apartment (1960)
24. tales from tokyo (1953)
25. The beast of my girl (1938)
26. the 400 hits (1959)
27. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
28. city lights (1931)
29. Perdition (1944)
30. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
31. Network, an unforgiving world (1976)
32. Vertigo (1958)
33. Felini 8 1/2 (1963)
3. 4. The diligence (1939)
35. The silence of the lambs (1991)
36. the law of silence (1954)
37. Annie Hall (1977)
38. lawrence of arabia (1962)
39. Whit skirts and being crazy (1959)
40. Fargo (nineteen ninety six)
41. wild bunch (1969)
42. Moon light (2016)
43. shoah (1985)
44. The adventure (1960)
Four. Five. titanic (1997)
46. chained (1946)
47. bad streets (1973)
48. The piano (1993)
49. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
fifty. At the end of the escapade (1960)
51. Apocalypse Now (1979)
52. The driver of La General (1926)
53. wishing lovesr (2000)
54. Mad Max 2, the warrior of the road (1981)
55. Pather Panchali (The Song of the Path) (1955)
56. The seed of the devil (1968)
57. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
58. ET the alien (1982)
59. without roof or law (1985)
60. Moulin Rouge! (2001)
61. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
62. Move of 76 (Dazed & Confused) (1993)
63. Bambi (1942)
64. Carrie (1976)
65. A man sentenced to death has escaped (1956)
66. Paris Is Burning (1990)
67. bike thief (1948)
68. kingkong (1933)
69. Nice job (1999)
70. 12 years a slave (2013)
71. My best friend’s Wedding (1997)
72. breaking waves (nineteen ninety six)
73. Intolerance (1916)
74. my neighbor totoro (1988)
75. Boogie Nights (1997)
76. The Tree of Life (2011)
77. James Bond vs. Goldfinger (1964)
78. Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
79. The expert (nineteen ninety six)
80. Pixote (the law of the weakest) (1980)
81. The dark knight (2008)
82. parasites (2019)
83. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
84. The Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
85. Natural Born Killers (1994)
86. close up (1990)
87. Smiles and tears (1965)
88. malcolm x (1992)
89. Belle de jour (1967)
90. The glow (1980)
91. secrets of a marriage (1974)
92. Pink Flamingos (1972)
93. the silence of a man (1967)
94. My best friend’s Wedding (2011)
95. toy story (nineteen ninety five)
96. A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
97. Alien: The Eighth Passenger (1979)
98. Women at the edge of a nervous attack (1988)
99. 12 merciless men (1957)
100. The graduate (1967)
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