100 Best Films of the 20th Century

by the Village Voice Critics' Poll
The Village Voice and Voice are registered trademarks of Village Voice Media, Inc.
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2001 Village Voice Media, Inc.


100 Best Films of 20th Century: The reknowned Village Voice newspaper held its "First Annual Film Critics' Poll" at the conclusion of the 20th century. The complete poll, authored/described by J. Hoberman was originally accessible online, but no longer available.

Facts and Commentary about the List:

  • The newspaper asked 50 or more distinguished film critics, including Molly Haskell, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Andrew Sarris and others, to vote in their film poll.
  • One of the film poll categories asked the participants to rank their top ten best films of the century.
  • The results were compiled from the poll's voting and published in the January 4, 2000 edition of The Village Voice.

100 Best Films of the 20th Century
Village Voice Critics' Poll
(ranked)

  1. Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles)
  2. The Rules of the Game (1939, Jean Renoir)
  3. Vertigo (1958, Alfred Hitchcock)
  4. The Searchers (1956, John Ford)
  5. The Man With a Movie Camera (1929, Dziga Vertov)
  6. Sunrise (1927, F.W. Murnau)
  7. L'Atalante (1934, Jean Vigo)
  8. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Carl Theodor Dreyer)
  9. Au Hasard Balthazar (1966, Robert Bresson)
  10. Rashomon (1950, Akira Kurosawa)
  11. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Stanley Kubrick)
  12. The Godfather (1972, Francis Ford Coppola)
  13. Pather Panchali (1955, Satyajit Ray)
  14. The Birth of a Nation (1915, D.W. Griffith)
  15. The Wizard of Oz (1939, Victor Fleming)
  16. It's a Wonderful Life (1946, Frank Capra)
  17. Ordet (1955, Carl Theodor Dreyer)
  18. Intolerance (1916, D.W. Griffith)
  19. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975, Chantal Akerman)
  20. Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock)
  21. Chinatown (1974, Roman Polanski)
  22. M (1931, Fritz Lang)
  23. The Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)
  24. The Earrings of Madame de... (1953, Max Ophuls)
  25. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942, Orson Welles)
  26. A Man Escaped (1956, Robert Bresson)
  27. Broken Blossoms (1919, D.W. Griffith)
  28. Greed (1924, Erich von Stroheim)
  29. Ugetsu (1953, Kenji Mizoguchi)
  30. The Third Man (1949, Carol Reed)
  31. The Godfather Part II (1974, Francis Ford Coppola)
  32. The General (1927, Buster Keaton)
  33. The Seventh Seal (1956, Ingmar Bergman)
  34. Taxi Driver (1976, Martin Scorsese)
  35. The Night of the Hunter (1955, Charles Laughton)
  36. Tokyo Story (1953, Yasujiro Ozu)
  37. The Bicycle Thief (1948, Vittorio DeSica)
  38. City Lights (1931, Charles Chaplin)
  39. King Kong (1933, Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack)
  40. Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang)
  41. My Life to Live (Vivre sa vie) (1962, Jean-Luc Godard)
  42. Sherlock Jr. (1924, Buster Keaton)
  43. Aguirre: the Wrath of God (1972, Werner Herzog)
  44. Duck Soup (1933, Leo McCarey)
  45. Sunset Boulevard (1950, Billy Wilder)
  46. Barry Lyndon (1975, Stanley Kubrick)
  47. The 400 Blows (1959, Francois Truffaut)
  48. Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928, Buster Keaton)
  49. Contempt (1963, Jean-Luc Godard)
  50. The Gold Rush (1925, Charles Chaplin)
  51. North by Northwest (1959, Alfred Hitchcock)
  52. Hold Me While I'm Naked (1966, George Kuchar)
  53. The Rise of Louis XIV (1966, Roberto Rossellini)
  54. The Apu Trilogy (1955-59, Satyajit Ray)
  55. Touch of Evil (1958, Orson Welles)
  56. A Woman Under the Influence (1974, John Cassavetes)
  57. The Lady Eve (1941, Preston Sturges)
  58. The Conformist (1970, Bernardo Bertolucci)
  59. The Palm Beach Story (1942, Preston Sturges)
  60. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962, John Ford)
  61. Pickpocket (1959, Robert Bresson)
  62. An Actor's Revenge (1963, Kon Ichikawa)
  63. Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
  64. Close-Up (1990, Abbas Kiarostami)
  65. The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1965, Pier Paolo Pasolini)
  66. La Jetee (1961, Chris Marker)
  67. Modern Times (1936, Charles Chaplin)
  68. October (1927, Sergei Eisenstein)
  69. Los Olvidados (1950, Luis Bunuel)
  70. Paisan (1946, Roberto Rossellini)
  71. Performance (1970, Nicolas Roeg & Donald Cammell)
  72. Shoah (1985, Claude Lanzmann)
  73. Singin' in the Rain (1952, Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly)
  74. Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1966, Jean-Luc Godard)
  75. Umberto D (1952, Vittorio De Sica)
  76. Les Vampires (1915-16, Louis Feuillade)
  77. All About Eve (1950, Joseph H. Lewis)
  78. All That Heaven Allows (1955, Douglas Sirk)
  79. Battleship Potemkin (1925, Sergei Eisenstein)
  80. Notorious (1946, Alfred Hitchcock)
  81. Pierrot le Fou (1965, Jean-Luc Godard)
  82. Fox and His Friends (1975, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
  83. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974, Tobe Hooper)
  84. A Trip to the Moon (1902, Georges Melies)
  85. Wavelength (1967, Michael Snow)
  86. Ashes and Diamonds (1958, Andrzej Wajda)
  87. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970, Russ Meyer)
  88. The Golden Coach (1952, Jean Renoir)
  89. Salo (1975, Pier Paolo Pasolini)
  90. Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974, Jacques Rivette)
  91. Masculine-Feminine (1966, Jean-Luc Godard)
  92. Nosferatu (1922, F.W. Murnau)
  93. Star Wars (1977, George Lucas)
  94. Blade Runner (1982, Ridley Scott)
  95. Bride of Frankenstein (1935, James Whale)
  96. Jules and Jim (1962, Francois Truffaut)
  97. Landscape in the Mist (1988, Theo Angelopoulos)
  98. Mean Streets (1973, Martin Scorsese)
  99. Shadow of a Doubt (1943, Alfred Hitchcock)
  100. Suspiria (1977, Dario Argento)

The Village Voice and Voice are registered trademarks of Village Voice Media, Inc.
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2001 Village Voice Media, Inc.

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