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Apr 1, 1991 · If I have a criterion for choosing the greatest films, it's an emotional one. These are films that moved me deeply in one way or another. The cinema is the greatest art form ever conceived for generating emotions in its audience. That's what it does best.
- The Battleship Potemkin
Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times...
- The greatest films of all time
I am faced once again with the task of voting in Sight &...
- Great Movies
Great Movies. One of the gifts a movie lover can give...
- The Battleship Potemkin
Aug 26, 2021 · The late film critic Roger Ebert reveals his personal list of the ten greatest films of all time in his final Sight & Sound poll. See his picks, from Citizen Kane to The Tree of Life, and his comments on each film.
- 1 'Casablanca'
- 2 'Citizen Kane'
- 3 'Floating Weeds'
- 4 'Gates of Heaven'
- 5 'La Dolce Vita'
- 6 'Notorious'
- 7 'Raging Bull'
- 8 'The Third Man'
- 9 '28 Up'
- 10 '2001: A Space Odyssey'
Director: Michael Curtiz
An iconic movie on multiple levels, Casablanca features Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman as Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund, a pair of former lovers reuniting in the Vichy-controlled city of Casablanca. Fighting their lingering feelings, Rick must help Ilsa's husband, a Czechoslovak resistance leader, escape so he can continue his fight against the Nazis during World War II. Casablanca is not only a top-rated movie on Ebert's list but is currently number three on the American Film Institute's top...
Director: Orson Welles
Citizen Kane is a movie that continues to age like fine wine, retaining its status as one of the best movies of all time, currently number one on AFI's list of the best American movies ever. Directed by Orson Welles, this movie tells the story of a group of reporters desperate to decode the final words of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane (Welles), infamously based on real-life magnate William Randolph Hearst. In a wild original story of the Hollywood dream, Ebert wonderfully points out,...
Director: Yasujirō Ozu
An excellent international feature film, Floating Weeds flies mostly under the radar when it comes to mainstream attention. The 1959 drama tells the story of a man who returns to the small town where he left his son and attempts to make up for the missed years while the child remains under the assumption the man is his uncle. Ebert recognized that many viewers had probably never seen or heard of the film or director Yasujirô Ozu. Speaking highly of this feature, Ebert said,"Ozu fashioned his...
Director: Errol Morris
Referring to director Errol Morris, Ebert said, "He has made a film about life and death, pride and shame, deception and betrayal, and the stubborn quirkiness of human nature." A renowned documentarian, Morris' oeuvre explores knowledge itself, concerned as much with the people possessing it as it is with the highly specific nature of expertise. His ticket to mainstream recognition was Gates of Heaven, a documentary about a pet mortician and the animals he's buried in a California pet cemeter...
Director: Federico Fellini
An Oscar-winning Italian masterpiece, La Dolce Vita is a romanticized tale of a week's worth of stories for a tabloid journalist living in Rome. It secured one golden statute for Best Costume Design, yielded three other nominations, and now stands as one of its country's greatest cinematic achievements. The film stars Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg and is directed by Federico Fellini. Like any good film study, Ebert's review and praise encourage viewers to look beyond the surface popul...
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Adding another iconic director to the greatest of all time, Notorious was Alfred Hitchcock's ticket to Ebert's heart. A drama starring Hollywood royalty Cary Grantand Ingrid Bergman, the movie follows T.R. Devlin, who recruits the daughter of a convicted German criminal, Alicia, to act as a spy. When she becomes involved with a Nazi hiding in Brazil, their dangerous scheme threatens to slip out of their hands. Notoriousis among Hitchcock's greatest movies, a sleek and stylish spy noir elevate...
Director: Martin Scorsese
The film that perhaps knocked Taxi Driver off Ebert's top ten list, Raging Bull is one of the best sports movies of all time and arguably the all-time best boxing picture. Starring as real-life boxer Jake La Motta, Robert De Niroportrays the middleweight champ's dominating, violent force inside the ring, which translated into a volatile and painful life outside of it. Ebert commends the cinematic artwork led by director Martin Scorsese, from the black-and-white aesthetic choice to the overall...
Director: Carol Reed
One of IMDb's top-rated films, The Third Man is also within Ebert's choices. A gripping mystery and visually distinctive triumph, this film-noir tells the story of Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) in postwar Vienna as he investigates the death of his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles). This cinematic masterpiece captured not only the heart of Ebert but new audiences for decades. In his review, Ebert details the physical cinematic experience he encountered when he saw the movie, capturing the impor...
Director: Michael Apted
Another documentary audiences may not be familiar with, 28 Up is a biographical piece in which director Michael Aptedinterviews the same group of British adults over several seven-year wait periods. With over two hours in runtime, it's a longer documentary but worth the watch to see the evolution of these subjects over almost 30 years. 28 Up is a prime example of how filmmaking can bridge time, according to his testimonial on the film. Apted's experiment was like nothing audiences or Ebert ha...
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Iconic, top-rated, foundational...all descriptors that apply to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, this sci-fi film takes audiences through space and time as a spaceship, operated by two men and an AI computer named H.A.L 9000, is sent to Jupiter to understand a mysterious artifact. The Oscar winner for Best Visual Effects, 2001: A Space Odyssey set the bar for where technology was headed in cinematic storytelling. Ebert referred to the film as "a landmark of non-narrative, p...
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Apr 8, 2013 · Despite the seeming limitations of serving as the co-host of a syndicated TV review show and plying his trade in the Midwest (where distribution of independent or foreign-language films can be...
Dec 28, 2023 · To celebrate his life and the films he championed (seriously, they’re all amazing), we’re listing them all in alphabetical order for everyone to discover. 12 Angry Men (1957) 100% Critics...
