Joan Mellen
Joan Mellen
Professor, Department of English and Creative Writing, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pa., USA
US
Voted in the critics poll
US
Voted in the critics poll
Voted for:
| 8½ | 1963 | Federico Fellini |
| 2001: A Space Odyssey | 1968 | Stanley Kubrick |
| Battle of Algiers, The | 1966 | Gillo Pontecorvo |
| Battleship Potemkin | 1925 | Sergei M Eisenstein |
| Conformist, The | 1970 | Bernardo Bertolucci |
| Godfather: Part II, The | 1974 | Francis Ford Coppola |
| Ivan the Terrible | 1945 | Sergei M Eisenstein |
| Life of Oharu, The | 1952 | Mizoguchi Kenji |
| Seven Samurai | 1954 | Akira Kurosawa |
| Viridiana | 1961 | Luis Buñuel |
Comments
These films share a willingness to confront received wisdom. They all have an edge, originality and ferocity. They’re defiant, both stylistically and conceptually. When they’re over, you’re stunned and your mouth is dry. All take responsibility for the truths they uncover, and they have held their heads up over time. Among my runners-up were Greed, La Chinoise, Ceremonies, and McCabe and Mrs. Miller.