The Top 10 Films Of All Time, According To Metacritic
Only ten films command the ‘perfect 100’ on Metacritic, a website which converts reviews into a percentage score based on the tone of the review, or a simple analysis of the overall score. The hallowed selection of ten films constituted by every critic who has viewed them as absolutely flawless works of cinematic genius, consists of both legendary and widely revered pictures as well as others that are relatively unknown by the mainstream cinema audience. Nevertheless, they each possess qualities that render their artistic merit as both untouchable and undeniable. Some are adored in critical circles, whilst the wider public reacts with a little more indifference to their supposed untouchable qualities. So what exactly are these esteemed selection of films? And just why do the critics reach the unanimous opinion that these are simply works of cinema that cannot be criticised to any degree?
Robert Bresson’s 1966 feature Balthazar tells the tale of a mistreated donkey as he is passed through the hands of several owners, including a peasant girl, a satanic delinquent, and a saintly fool. It has been described by legendary French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard as “absolutely astonishing, because this film is really the world in an hour and a half.” Such praise is atypical of that which greets the film, especially in retrospective analysis. The donkey rises from an idyllic childhood into a world of sadistic beatings in a tale that is both immensely moving and an astute observation of the people who occupy the world. The tale maybe allegorical, yet it is able to undergo multiple interpretations amongst a journey that is alive with spiritual meaning and shot evocatively by the French director.
Lawrence Of Arabia
The film that elevated the legendary Peter O’Toole to that of Hollywood mainstay, Lawrence Of Arabia is a three-and-a-half hour epic which centres on the exploits of T.E Lawrence and his adventures against the Turkish Army during the First World War. An iconic piece of cinema, it is full of breath-taking landscapes and a cinematography that remains spellbinding despite the picture’s age. It was also the high point in an illustrious career by esteemed British director David Lean, who approaches the camera work like a painter, filling the screen with colour like a brush on canvas. An ensemble cast which consists of the ever-brilliant Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quale and Jack Hawkins all excel in a picture that remains gripping throughout its potentially exhausting running time. It was the Titanic of its day, but while James Cameron’s epic was slick and shallow, Lawrence of Arabia exudes an engrossing warmth that extends to every facet of the film, from the gorgeous score, to a superb script and a performance by O’Toole that he would never better.
Voyage To Italy
Voyage To Italy centres around the strained relationship between Catherine and Alexander, a couple of sophistication and wealth, played by impeccable truism by Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders respectively. The film helped to redefine the contours of Italian neo-realism which had sprung up in the country shortly after the closing days of World War II. A threat of divorce hangs heavily in the air as the pair absorb Italian culture along the beautifully shot Sorrento coast. Bergman and Sanders are classic movie stars, but Voyage To Italy lies far from the tone either of the actors are known for. United only by their destination, Bergman and Sanders are strangers in each other’s company, yet their experiences in Italy open up something within them that has been suppressed for countless years. Maligned upon its original release, Roberto Rossellini’s picture has gained a new lease of life through retrospective analysis.
Best Kept Secret
Best Kept Secret focuses on the lives of a selection of autistic student at JFK High School, located in a particularly dilapidated part of Newark, New Jersey. Janet Mino, the focal point of the film, struggles to prepare these young men for their immersion in the adult world, which, for any autistic person, is a hugely anxiety-inducing prospect. Full of dramatic camera work by the film’s director, Samantha Buck, the film focusses on some truly important issues, using the emotional responses of Janet Mino as a mirror to the audiences own reactions. Its unflinching and often hard to watch, with the camera often hovering over one frustrating event for longer than is comfortable, but the effect is crucial to the film’s success as a thoroughly engrossing documentary piece.
The Godfather
A film that should need no introduction, Francis Ford Coppola’s Oscar-winning work has thoroughly ingrained itself on popular culture through some of the most iconic scenes and dialogue in cinematic history. An exemplary cast of screen legends, including Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, James Caan, Diane Keaton and, of course, Marlon Brando as the film’s eponymous protagonist, help bring alive a dazzling visual spectacle of arbitrary violence, love, death and above all, family. Like the Sicilian heritage of the film’s protagonist, The Godfather overflows with the richness of existence, of grand emotionality and doomed idealism all shot in a virtuosic filmmaking style that would posit Francis Ford Coppola amongst Hollywood’s greatest auteurs. It’s an enduring masterpiece, so alive with nuance and depth that it endures countless viewings without inducing fatigue. Cinema at its most arresting.
Next page: The Leopard, The Conformist, and more
The Leopard
Read Our Review Of The Leopard Here
Starring Hollywood leading man Burt Lancaster and the flamboyant charms of Alain Delon, The Leopard ruminates upon the fate of a noble aristocrat amidst social upheaval in 19th Century Sicily. It is a profound character study, centring upon Lancaster’s protagonist, The Prince Of Salina, as his system of values and power comes under attack from a rapidly changing society. It also boasts what is commonly considered to be one of the sexiest scenes in cinematic history, a long dance with Claudia Cardinale in a particularly striking scene of bourgeois ballroom socializing. Defined by graceful long shots indicative of erstwhile epics, Luchino Visconti’s 1963 masterwork shows the influence of Sicilian nobility unravelling and the looming threat of war impacting among the families who had long held hierarchy over the tumultuous island. At three hours in length, it suggests a laborious watching experience, but the emotional complexities at work, coupled with sumptuous choreography, leaves the film as a fervently affecting cinematic experience.
The Conformist
Like The Godfather, Bernardo Bertolucci’s taut masterpiece stands up as well today as it did upon its initial release. The Conformist, set in 1930’s Rome and Paris, details the plight of a Mussolini operative sent to assassinate an ageing professor who fled Italy after the fascist Black Shirts installed themselves as the country’s leaders. After a number of factors upset the task of the film’s protagonist, including being seduced by the professor’s wife, he is faced with an overwhelming dilemma, either to follow the wishes of the fascist leaders and kill a man who is simply standing up for what is morally right, or defy his masters and spare the life of the professor. Its breath-taking style sits alongside themes of corruption, cowardice, treachery and sexual decadence whilst elegant cinematography reminds viewers of the capabilities of cinema. Tantalizing stuff.
Sweet Smell Of Success
Read Our Review Of Sweet Smell Of Success Here
The second Burt Lancaster film to make the top 10 on the Metacritic scale, the icon stars alongside legend of comedy Tony Curtis in a film-noir abundant with cinematic pleasures and delights that belies the films subject matter of greed and corruption. Riddled with punchy dialogue and snappy one-liners that populate film-noir more so than any other genre, Sweet Smell Of Success subscribes to the ‘fast talking and high trousers’ era of American cinema. New York is portrayed with stringently unsympathetic attributes by director Alexander Mackendrick, a grotesque labyrinth of manipulation and greed, where any semblance of goodness is swiftly crushed and stamped out by the overwhelming stench of abused power. Lancaster and Curtis are superb as they attempt to out-manipulate both each other, and everyone around them. Rarely has such an unforthcoming and irksome group of people and circumstances been portrayed with such beauty, rendering the omnipresent nastiness and sleaziness with incredible allure.
Fanny & Alexander
Only Alfred Hitchcock can claim to produce psychological cinema as poignantly as Ingmar Bergman, whose insights into the infinitely complex human psyche ruminate upon the darker side of human nature in ways that are frequently disturbing. The Oscar-winning Fanny & Alexander, written and directed by the Swedish auteur, arrived rather late in the directors career, and is often overlooked in favour of his earlier pictures which include Persona and The Seventh Seal. A period piece set in in early 20th Century, the film follows two young Swedish children through a rich tapestry of childhood drama and events. It combines elements of visual and black comedy as well as a selection of darker elements that Bergman was so consistently fond of. The result is a haunting masterpiece of idiosyncratic cinema; it manages to be both haunting and mesmerizing, despite the low-key subject matter. The emphasis on philosophy means the film would never offer the populist incantations of Hitchcock’s work, yet for those ready to immerse themselves in Bergman’s often hellish world, the experience will have a deeply profound effect.
The Wizard Of Oz
Perhaps one of the most enduring pictures Hollywood has ever produced, Wizard Of Oz is a masterclass in fantastical cinematic journeys. Joyous, charming and also terrifying, the film has achieved its position of universal acclaim through a timeless quality, memorable songs, loveable characters and a visual pomp that still appeals to audiences to this day. Despite being released in 1939, the screen flourishes with a wealth of visually infatuating colour, from the intense deep reds of Dorothy’s shoes to yellow brick road and the Wicked Witch of the West’s snot green complexion. Judy Garland takes her star-making turn as Dorothy in a performance that defined her career, despite being on 16 when she accepted the role. It possesses what every brilliant children’s film should exude- an appeal that extends to adults. As such, The Wizard Of Oz will live on as an example of classic Hollywood at its very finest.