Here are my current selections of the ten best films of the 1910s in order of preference: 1. THE OUTLAW AND HIS WIFE (Victor Sjöström, Sweden, 1917). The argument has been made that Sweden’s Victor Sjöström was cinema’s first genuine artist. Cinema, which began as a visual recording device in the late nineteenth century, evolved […]

At this hour on this day, here in order of preference are my choices for the ten best films of the 1920s: 1. BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (Serge M. Eisenstein, U.S.S.R., 1925). One would never guess that Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein heralded from the stage. Thrilling and kinetic, his Battleship Potemkin is purely cinematic.      The film re-creates the […]

Here, in order of preference, beginning with my favorite, are my choices today of the ten best films of the 1930s: 1. EARTH (Aleksandr Dovzhenko, U.S.S.R., 1930). Cinema’s “poet of the Ukraine,” Aleksandr Dovzhenko, made his lyrical silent Zemlya in response to Eisenstein’s The Old and the New (1929). Selfish peasants—kulaks—resist collectivization. Trying to hold […]

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 […]