One consequence of my building out the meme of A Life in Movies is that I realized just how many films I have seen over the course of my life and of those how many I actually enjoyed. So while this blog-a-thon is great fun to take part of, my mind wanders and I keep on remembering what I have not put on the list. But that has not prevented from thinking about other movie lists to put together.
Lo and behold, the other day i was doing my customary scouring of the internets to look for yet more movie resources. I then ran across another blog list entitled 60 Must See Films. The blogger established the following criteria for each film to make the list:
- Directing
- Acting
- Writing
- Photography
I decided that this kind of list would be fun too but I made a couple of changes, including:
- expanding the list to 100 films
- (1-60) are still films remaining must-see
- (61-100) are films that I have been told are” must-see” (meeting above criteria) but I have not seen them.
Because this is a huge (and likely dynamic) undertaking, I decided to create a new page and not simply a blog post. Over time I am sure that items on the list will change. Even as I write this I am making notations about films that have been left off. But for the sake of my mental sanity, I will leave everything frozen in time (for now).
All of this is in good fun of course but it should be noted that even with this established criteria of excellence in the 4 basic areas of filmmaking, there is a lot of subjectivity. No one could ever create a purely empirical, universally accepted list of 60 must see films without sparking some degree of debate. For instance I struggled with whether or not Gone With the Wind should make the list (right now it is there).
So visit the page, take a look at my suggestions and feel free to add comments and feedback.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Anna says
May 30, 2011 at 1:40 amLove your list, a great idea to have this in a blog and when it’s must see you don’t really have to worry to much about the order of things. I’ve been trying to work on one as well, it’s a daunting task : – )
iluvcinema says
May 30, 2011 at 11:12 am@Anna Thanks all credit to the originator of the blog. It is a daunting task but I tried to give myself a little wiggle room by including films I have not seen in the list. I made several edits with many films I do think are kind of “essential” still off the list. A couple of examples I left off are “Dead of Night” and “The Devil and Daniel Webster.” But I figure based on my “rules” some of the films in the bottom portion of the list will not ultimately make my essentials.
Can’t wait to see yours!