It will not surprise you what is at the top of my list of the ten best films of the 1940s: 1. CITIZEN KANE (Orson Welles, U.S., 1941). Rosebud.      The attempted deconstruction of a man’s life by an investigative reporter, Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane is a fascinating film. Nearly intolerably moving, it’s a titanic, dark, […]

Today, here are my selections of the ten best films of the 1950s. They are given in order of preference, beginning with what I currently consider the single greatest movie ever made: 1. EARLY SUMMER (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1951). Postwar Tokyo; Noriko’s family prevails upon her to marry, but she chooses a man of whom […]

For one of cinema’s three greatest decades (the others being the 1920s and 1950s), here are my selections this morning of the ten best films. They are given in order of preference, beginning with Italy’s highest cinematic achievement: 1. L’ECLISSE (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, France, 1962). Eclipse completes Michelangelo Antonioni’s towering black-and-white trilogy of modern alienation […]