What do “The Godfather” and “Casablanca” have in common? They both made the top ten of City College’s Film Review Club’s first “Top 50 Films of All Time” list. The list, released Nov. 1 by the online-based club, paid homage to a diverse group of films; international (“8½”), silent (“Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans”), Indie (“Man on Wire”), and Hollywood blockbusters (“The Dark Knight”).
“You hope that what you put up is not what everyone has already seen,” said club advisor and Department Chair of Film Studies Nico Maestu.
The surprises start at #1 with “The Godfather” taking the spot traditionally held by “Citizen Kane.”
“There was a pretty wide margin, nearly two to one. It was overwhelming. There were only two people that didn’t have ‘The Godfather’ somewhere on their list,” said Film Review Club President Will Conlin.
Unlike the individual top 10 films of the year lists, which are posted at the end of the calendar year, this list was compiled by secret ballot and point system. “People are more willing to show their top films of this year than all time,” Conlin said.
While this is the first ‘all time’ list the club has released, Conlin is open to doing it again for the joy of the list and the process. He said, “it really makes you think. It makes you make tough decisions.”
Here’s the top ten:
1. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
“It’s a great film because it has so many facets of what film making is. The lighting the directing and the acting are the principal of what filmmaking is.”-Byron Potau
2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
“Of course Citizen Kane had to be up there too. It was such big step for cinema. It’s hard to deny Orson Wells.”
-Alex Kilauano
3. Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)
“Star Wars is the movie that made me want to be a film major. I think it’s every boy’s childhood dream”
-Andrej Landin
4. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
“It’s all about deception, and a lack of clarity. It’s about these themes that are not specific but engaging.”
-Nico Maestu
5. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
“If you don’t like Stanley Kubrick, you’re an idiot.”
-Alex Kilauano
6. The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939)
“It’s done in a way that’s very subtle. Its the metaphors and subtlety that are really spectacular.” -Nico Maestu
7. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
“I love Apocolypse Now just because of it’s scale and the fact that is was made in 79 is so impressive”
-Andrej Landin
8. The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994)
“That whole story just works so well. They don’t tell you where you’re going, they let you find out as Morgan Freeman finds out …we all follow the same perspective.” -Alex Kilauano
9. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1956)
“There’s a lot of interpersonal psychological [factors]. They deal a lot with human emotion in a good way and of course the cinematography is beautiful”-Andrej Landin
10. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
“For me, Casa Blanca is one of those timeless romance films. It’s just so well made and comes from a beautiful screenplay.” -Will Conlin