CORY'S LISTS OF THE BEST AND THE BEST OF THE BEST FILMS EVER MADE - PART II
Jacques Cory
Israeli entrepreneur, author & lecturer. Best known for pioneering business ethics in the corporate field, crises of capitalism & the Second Republic of Israel.
N – The Naked Maja (1958) – Italy, Nana (1955) – France, Napoleon (1927) - France, it is amazing how many excellent movies were produced during the era of the silent movies, Napoleon is one of the best movies ever made although it was silent or possibly because it was silent, Nashville (1975) – US, Naughty Marietta (1935) – US, Neigboring Sounds/O Som ao Redor (2012) – Brazil, Ne le dis a personne/Tell No One (2006) – France, Network (1976) - US, Never on Sunday (1960) – Greece, my origins are Greek and I always enjoy watching Greek films, this one is possibly one of the best, and I learned the song as well, A Night at the Opera (1935) – US, The Night of the Hunter (1955) - US, The Night of the Iguana (1964) – US, Tennessee Williams is probably the playwright whose plays were adapted to the screen with the most success, this film is one of the best, A Night to Remember/Titanic (1958) – UK, I enjoyed much more this film on the Titanic, probalby because the actors were better and the director was excellent as well. Among the many films about the Titanic, it has long been regarded as the high point by Titanic historians and survivors alike for its accuracy, despite its modest production values when compared with the 1997 Oscar-winning film Titanic, Nightwatching (2007) – Canada, I heard a lecture of the film's director Peter Greenaway at the Haifa Film Festival, Nine to Five/9 to 5 (1980) - US, Ninotchka (1939) – US, Greta Garbo is charming in this comedy and for the first time she does not play like a diva, Nobody Knows (2004) – Japan, No Country for Old Men (2007) – US, No Man's Land (2001) – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norma Rae (1979) – US, North by Northwest (1959) - US, Notorious (1946) - US, Notre-Dame de Paris/The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956) – France, (1939) - US, Novecento/Twentieh Century (1976) – Italy, Novia que te vea (1994) – Mexico in Ladino and Spanish about Sephardic Jews, I was thrilled to read a book and watch a film in my mother tongue Ladino, Nowhere in Africa/Nirgendwo in Afrika (2001) – Germany, Nuit et brouillard/Night and Fog (1955) - France, one of the best films on the Holocaust, I have included in my list many such films.
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O – O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000) – US, The Odessa File (1974) – UK, Oklahoma! (1955) - US, one of the best musicals ever made, an outstanding music with a very tedious script, Oldboy (2003) – South Korea, The Old Man and the Sea (1958) – US, Oliver! (1968) – UK, Once (2006) – Ireland, Once upon a time in America (1984) - US, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) – Turkey, once not so far ago, we used to "denigrate" Turkish films as telenovela films, ridiculous, with an idiotic plot, and second rate acting, and many Israeli, Arabic, and Indian films were not much better, but recently Turkish films have become in many cases masterpieces, with the best directors, scriptwriters, actors, and actresses, I am always supportive of such renaissance, that has happened also to Israeli films, ?One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) - US, One Two Three (1961) – US, On ne badine pas avec l'amour (1978) – France, On the Town (1949) – US, On the Waterfront (1954) - US, Orfeu Negro/Black Orpheus (1959) – Brazil, an excellent film, poetic, nostalgic, sad, and beautiful, Orpheus Descending (1990) – US, Othello (1952) – Italy, Other People's Money (1991) - US, The Others (2001) – Spain, Otto e Mezzo – 8? (1963) - Italy, modern film at its best, the modern film-makers I like most are Fellini, Antonioni, Bergman, Allen, and of course the Nouvelle Vague film-makers, ?Outsourced (2006) - US, it was included in one of my courses.
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P – Paint Your Wagon (1969) – US, I enjoyed especailly the acting of Lee Marvin in this film and in Cat Ballou, which was a surprise for me as Marvin was perceived priorly only as a serious actor, and he proved in these musicals that he is multi-talented, The Pajama Game (1957) – US, Doris Day in the list of the best film? Many veinschmeckers would pity my poor taste, but I always liked Doris Day, and films like The Pajama Game were a solace and a filmotherapy when I was in a pessimistic mood, Paris Texas (1984) - Germany, Partie de campagne (1936) - France, A Passage to India (1984) – UK, The Passenger (1975) –Italy, Paths of Glory (1957) – US, The Pawnbroker (1964) – US, Pelle the Conqueror (1987) – Denmark, Pepe le Moko (1937) – France, Persona (1966) - Sweden, Phaedra (1962) – France, The Phantom of the Opera (1925) – US, The Philadelphia Story (1940) - US, The Pianist (2002) – Poland, The Piano (1993) – New Zealand, Pillow Talk (1959) – US, The Pirates of Penzance (1983) – UK, A Place in the Sun (1951) - US, Plein Soleil/Purple Noon (1960) – France, The Policeman (1971) - Israel, one of the best Israeli films ever made, as Ephraim Kishon was a humorist genius in all what he made – films, plays, satires, books. In an era where most of the Israeli films were ridiculous he wrote and directed masterpieces, ?Porgy and Bess (1959) – US, one of the best musicals ever made, The Portrait of a Lady (1996) – UK, Pot-Bouille/Lovers of Paris (1957) – France, Profumo di donna/Scent of a Woman (1974) – Italy, Pulp Fiction (1994) – US.
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Q – Quai des Orfevres (1947) – France, The Quiet Man (1952) – US, a departure for Wayne and the director Ford, who were both known mostly for Westerns and action-oriented films.
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R – Radio Days (1987) – US, I miss Woody Allen who made in the eighties such excellent films, ?Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - US, Rain (2001) – New Zealand, Rain Man (1988) - US, Raise the Red Lantern (1991) – China, Raising Arizona (1987) – US, Ran (1985) – Japan, Rashomon (1950) - Japan, Rear Window (1954) - US, one of the best Hitchcock's films with James Stewart, my favorite actor, in the leading role, Rebecca (1940) - US, Rebel Without a Cause (1955) - US, The Red Shoes (1948) – UK, Rembetiko (1983) – Greece, one of the music I like most is Rembetiko, the music of the refugees who were integrated in the Greek society without the assistance of billions by the UN to the never-ending saga of the Palestinian refugees, Repulsion (1965) - UK, Reservoir Dogs (1992) – US, The Rest Is Silence (2007) – Romania, The Return (2003) – Russia, Riff Raff (1991) – UK, Rhinoceros (1974) - US, Richard III (1955) – UK, one of the best plays ever made in one of the best films ever made, Rigoletto (1982) – Germany, and in English Modern Version (1982) - UK, two excellent versions of my favorite opera Rigoletto, Riso Amaro/Bitter Rice (1949) – Italy, Rocco and his Brothers/Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960) – Italy, Roger & Me (1989) - US, Michael Moore is a genius and this is one of his best documentary films, Roma citta aperta/Rome open city (1945) - Italy, Roman Holiday (1953) - US, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003) – US, Romeo and Juliet (1968, 1936) – UK, A Room with a View (1985) – UK, Rosemary's Baby (1968) - US, the first time I saw this film in spring 1969 I had mixed feelings – I was extremely scared by its content, and I was extremely pleased, as during the film my friend whispered to my ear that she intends to invite Ruthy and me to her party soon and I'd better come as I'll surely fall in love with her, The Rose Tattoo (1955) – US, The Rules of the Game/La regle du jeu (1939) - France, Runaway Jury (2003) - US, Run Lola Run/Lola rennt (1998) – Germany, Russian Ark (2002) – Russia.
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S – Safety Last! (1923) – US, Sallah Shabati (1964) – Israel, Samson et Dalila by Saint-Saens (2002) – Italy, Saraband (2003) – Sweden, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) – UK, Saving Private Ryan (1998) – US, Scarface (1983) - US, The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) – UK, Scenes from a Marriage (1973) - Sweden, the best film I've ever seen, the best director, best script, best actress, every time I see it I enjoy it more as I discover new subtleties of the text, the directing, and the acting, Scent of a Woman (1974-Italy, 1992-US), Schindler's List (1993) - US, one of the most accute dilemmas – how can such a humane hero as Schindler be a lousy husband, while such a monster as Eichmann was an excellent family man, The Searchers (1956) - US, The Secret in Their Eyes/El secreto de sus ojos (2009) – Argentina, Secrets and Lies (1996) – UK, Sense and Sensibility (1995) – US, A Separation (2011) – Iran, Sergeant York (1941) – US, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) - US, The Seventh Seal (1957) - Sweden, Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) – US, Shakespeare in Love (1998) – US, I saw this film as in a dream, as only in dreams you can reach such perfection and joy, Shall We Dance (1937) – US, Shame (1968) - Sweden, The Shawshank Redemption (1994) – US, The Sheik (1921) – US, Shichinin no samurai/Seven Samurai (1954) - Japan, Shine (1996) – Australia, The Shining (1980) – US, Shoah (1985) – France, one of the longest films ever made, but you remain flabbergasted and breathless in spite of the horrendous content of the Holocaust, The Shop Around the Corner (1940) - US, The Shop on Main Street (1965) – Slovakia, Show Boat (1936, 1951) – US, Shree 420 (1955) – India, I enjoy very much films with Raj Kapoor, although the translation was on the side of the screen and there was no synchronization between the film and the subtitles, but who need to understand the film – it is enough that you sense it, Sicko (2007) - US, it is a shame that such a great nation as the US has such a lousy health insurance system, a monster of capitalism at its worse, meant primarily to enrich the healthcare corporations at the expense of the American budget and the public, Moore shows the absurdities of the system as in his other films – Roger and Me, Capitalism a Love Story, The Big One, etc., The Silence (1963) - Sweden, Silkwood (1983) - US, one of the most poignant films ever made, a greater than life heroine – Karen Silkwood acted by the greatest actress Meryl Streep, showing the ugliness of the neoliberal large corporations wanting to maximize their profits according to the false mantra of Milton Friedman the consigliere of Reagan, Thatcher, Netanyahu, and Pinochet, at the expense of the life and health of their employees and their countries' citizens, and the finale – the murder of Silkwood to the sound of the thrilling Amazing Grace, I showed it at my courses, and it made such a strong impression on my students, much more than tedious lectures about morality and ethics, Singin' in the Rain (1952) - US, what a lovely comedy and music, Sissi (1955) – Austria, the best kitsch that I have ever seen, Si Versailles m'etait conte/Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954) – France, the only time that I won something – when I was the only one in the public to answer correctly a question on this film, The Sixth Sense (1999) – US, The Skin I live in /La piel que habito (2011) – Spain, Slumdog Millionaire (2008) – UK, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) - US, the best animated film I have ever seen, the best songs, the delight of my children and grandchildren, ?Some Came Running (1958) - US, Some Like It Hot (1959) - US, nobody is perfect? This film is perfect! A Song to Remember (1945) – US, Son of the Bride/El hijo de la novia (2001) – Argentina, I remember being a member of the Argentinian film club in Jerusalem in 1964 when I was 20 together with my Argentinian friend Mario Diament – the films were so rudimentary, so boring, so childish, and now – a few decades later the Argentinian films are among the best in the world, The Son of the Sheik (1926) – US, Sons and Lovers (1960) – UK, Sophie's Choice (1982) – US, The Sound of Music (1965) - US, one of the best musicals and films ever made, a masterpiece, great songs, great acting, with the one and only Christopher Plummer who was Captain Von Trapp in this film, Mike Wallace in The Insider – part of my business ethics courses as it has the most salient dilemmas personified with two other excellent actors Al Pacino and Russel Crowe. Plummer at the age of almost 90 still acts and receive the highest awards, and indeed you have to be a great actor to personify two such opposites and Von Trapp and Wallace, Sous les toits de Paris/Under the Roofs of Paris (1930) – France, South Pacific (1958) - US, one of the best musicals and musical films ever made, Spartacus (1960) – US, Spring Summer Autumn Winter… and Spring (2003) – South Korea, a Korean masterpiece, Stagecoach (1939) - US, Stalag 17 (1953) – US, Stanno tutti bene/Everybody's Fine (1990) – Italy, A Star Is Born (1954) - US, Stories We Tell (2012) – Canada, The Stranger/Al Majhoul (1984) – Egypt in Arabic, part of my business ethics courses as it raises many ethical dilemmas, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) - US, Stromboli (1950) – Italy, Suddenly Last Summer (1959) – US, The Sun Also Rises (1957) – US, Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) – UK, Sunset Boulevard (1950) - US, I remember seeing this film at the age of 6, and surprisingly enough I did not appreciate it, I was even afraid by the scaring Gloria Swanson, only decades later I overcame my reticence and saw it once again – a masterpiece, proving that maybe it is too early to take your small children to all the films that the grownups want to see, Super Size Me (2004) - US, Sweet Bird of Youth (1962) – US.
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T – Tai-Pan (1986) – US, A Taste of Honey (1961) – UK, the British and the Italian film industries had their glorious era until the seventies, and only recently they have regained their excellence, unlike the French film industry that has remained excellent during more than a century, Terms of Endearment (1983) – US, Tevya/Tevye/Tevye the Dairyman (1939) – US in Yiddish about Ashkenazi Jews, The Take (2004) – Canada, Ten/10 (2002) – Iran, Ten Blocks on the Camino Real (1966) – US, Thelma and Louise (1991) – US, Therese Desqueyroux (2012) – France, Therese Raquin (1953) – France, There's No Business Like Show Business (1954) – US, There Will Be Blood (2007) – US, The Thief of Bagdad (1924) – US, The Third Man (1949) - UK, The 39 Steps (1935) - UK, Three Colors: Blue/Trois couleurs: bleu (1993) – France, Three Colors: Red/Trois couleurs: rouge (1994) – France, Three Colors: White/Trois couleurs: blanc (1994) – France, Three Mothers (2006) – Israel, about Egyptian Jews, the first Israeli film telling the story of Egyptian Jews, unlike the dozens of novels that were published on this topic, Three Sisters (1970) – UK, Through A Glass Darkly (1961) - Sweden, Time (2006) – South Korea, Tin Men (1987) - US, Tirez sur le pianiste/Shoot the Piano Player (1960) – France, Titanic (1997) – US, To Be or Not to Be (1942/1983) - US, I enjoyed most the remake in 1983 with Mel Brooks and his wife Anne Bancroft, both were perfect, and the film was one of the funniest movies that I have ever seen, To Have and Have Not (1944) – US, Toi le venin (1958), France, directed by Robert Hossein, whom I saw at one of the plays he directed in Paris when he came after the performance on stage and talked to the public, Tokyo monogatari/Tokyo Story (1953) - Japan, Tom Sawyer (1973) – US, Too Big to Fail (2011) - US, Topaze (1936, 1951) - France, Top Hat (1935) - US, the ultimate musical comedy with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, singing and dancing to the tune of Irving Berlin's Cheek to Cheek, Topsy-Turvy (1999) - UK, Tosca (1976) – Italy, Touchez pas au grisbi (1954) – France, Touch of Evil (1958) - US, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) - US, The Trial (1993) – UK, Tristan und Isolde by Wagner (1995) – Germany, Triumph of the Spirit (1989) – US, Tune in Tomorrow…/La tia Julia y el escribidor (1990) – US, Turandot by Puccini (1987) – US, Twelfth Night (1996) – UK, 12 Angry Men (1957) - US, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) – US, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) – US, Tycoon (2002) – Russia.
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U – Un Ballo in Maschera (1975) – UK, The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) – US, a film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Milan Kundera, published in 1984. Director Philip Kaufman and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière portray the effect on Czechoslovak artistic and intellectual life during the 1968 Prague Spring of socialist liberalization preceding invasion by Soviet led Warsaw Pact and subsequent coup that ushered in hard-line communism. It portrays the moral, political, and psycho-sexual consequences for three bohemian friends: a surgeon Daniel Day-Lewis, and two female artists with whom he has a sexual relationship Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin, Un Chien Andalou/An Andalusian Dog (1929) – France, Uncle Vanya (1970) – Russia, (1963-UK), Un condamne a mort s'est echappe!/A Man Escaped (1956) – France, Unforgiven (1992) - US, Un homme et une femme/A Man and a Woman (1966) - France, I saw this film several times as it has impressed me so much with its new approach to film-making, directed by Claude Lelouche, with the outstanding actors Anouk Aimme and Jean-Louis Trintignant, Ulisse/Ulysses (1954) – Italy, Un long dimanche de fiancailles/A Very Long Engagement (2004) – France, The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) – US, The Untouchables (1987) – US, one of the best films on gangsters and policemen, truly a masterpiece, no wonder, as the director is Brian de Palma, David Mamet wrote the screenplay, and the leading actors are Kevin Costner, Robert de Niro and Sean Connery, Up (2009) – US.
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V – Vanya 42e rue/Vanya on 42nd Street (1994) – France, Va, vis et deviens/Live and Become (2005) – Ethiopia, Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) – Spain, Vincent Francois Paul et les autres (1974) – France, this is the "classic" French film, sophisticated yet simple, warm and detached, with the best actors – Yves Montand, Gerard Depardieu, Serge Reggiani, and Michel Piccoli. Piccoli is one of my most favorite actors. He has appeared in many different roles, from seducer to cop to gangster to Pope, in more than 170 movies. Piccoli has worked with Jean Renoir, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Lelouch, Jacques Demy, Claude Sautet, Louis Malle, Agnès Varda, Leos Carax, Luis Bu?uel, Costa-Gavras, Alfred Hitchcock, Marco Ferreri, Jacques Rivette, Otar Iosseliani, Nanni Moretti, Jacques Doillon, Mario Bava, Manoel de Oliviera, Claude Faraldo, Raúl Ruiz, Theodoros Angelopoulos and Alain Resnais, Violettes Imperiales/Violetas Imperiales/Imperial Violets (1952) – France, The Virgin Spring (1960) - Sweden, Viridiana (1961) – Spain, Vertigo (1958) - US, The Visit (1964) - US, Viva la liberta/Long Live Freedom (2013) – Italy, Vivre sa vie/My Life to Live (1962) – France, Volver (2006) – Spain, one of the best films written and directed by Pedro Almodovar. With two excellent actresses – Penelope Cruz and Carmen Maura. Drawing inspiration from the Italian neorealism of the late 1940s to early 1950s and the work of pioneering directors such as Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, and Pier Paolo Pasolini, Volver addresses themes like sexual abuse, loneliness and death, mixing the genres of farce, tragedy, melodrama, and magic realism, Voyage of the Damned (1976) – UK, Vu du pont/A View from the Bridge (1962) – France,
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W – Wadjda (2012) – Saudi Arabia in Arabic, an excellent film indeed, very interesting and moving, Walk on Water/Lalekhet al hamayim (2004) – Israel, Wall-E (2008) – US, Wall Street (1987) - US, one of the best films that I have ever seen first of all because the excellent actor Michael Douglas – Gordon Gekko, who has become the ultimate capitalist maximizing profits to the delight of Milton Friedman and ruinging the lives of all the others, as in the neoliberal regimes that I oppose so much. This was the backbone of my courses on business ethics as it gives in a nutshell most of the dilemmas of business, War and Peace (1956) – US, War and Remembrance (1988) – US, this film and The Winds of War are the best films that I have ever seen on the inter-world wars and the second world war, a very long saga, but interesting and thrilling from the beginning to the end, The War of the Worlds (1953) – US, Washington Square (1997) – US, Water (2005) – India, The Weeping Meadow (2004) – Greece, West Side Story (1961) - US, in the same decade I saw this excellent film and saw the musical on Broadway in June 1968, the first musical that I have seen in the US, Whale Rider (2002) – New Zealand, When Father Was Away On Business (1985) – Serbia, When Harry Met Sally… (1989) – US, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) – US, a masterpiece on stage and in film, The Wild Bunch (1969) - US, Wild Strawberries (1957) - Sweden, The Winds of War (1983) – US, Winter Sleep (2014) – Turkey, Witness for the Prosecution (1957) – US, The Wizard of Oz (1939) - US, Woman of the Year (1942) – US, The Women (1939) – US, Women in Love (1969) – UK, Woodstock (1970) – US, I saw Joan Baez show in New York long after her performance in this film, Working Girl (1988) - US, Wuthering Heights (1939) – US.
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X– The X-Files (1998)– US. An American science fiction thriller film directed by Rob Bowman.
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Y - Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) - US, an American biographical musical film about George M. Cohan, known as "The Man Who Owned Broadway". He is considered the father of American musical comedy. James Cagney, one of my favorite actors, was a fitting choice for the role of Cohan since, like Cohan, he was an Irish-American who had been a song-and-dance man early in his career. His unique style of half-singing and half-reciting the songs, reflected the style that Cohan himself used, Y tu mama tambien/And Your Mother Too (2001) – Mexico.
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Z - Z (1969) - Algeria, Costa Gavras is one of my favorite directors, and this film is one of his best, I had the privilege of hearing his lecture at the Haifa Film Festival, Zelary (2003) – Czech, Zero de conduite/Zero for Conduct (1933) – France, Ziegfeld Follies (1946) – US, Zorba the Greek (1964) – UK, one of the best films I have ever seen, directed by Cypriot Michael Cacoyannis and starring Anthony Quinn, one of my favorite actors, as the title character. It is based on the novel Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis, which I am still reading in Greek. The supporting cast includes Alan Bates, Lila Kedrova, Irene Papas and Sotiris Moustakas. And in the "waiting list" after we closed the polls we can find excellent films as The Five Pennies…
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The best films in Cory's list of films amount to 830, out of which 360 are the best of the best films, 5 times better than the 72 "virgins" offered to the terrorists, which proves that you don't have to go to heaven in order to get your rewards on a virtuous life – you can watch 360 films which are la crème de la crème of the film industry in all countries and you get paradise on earth. All the films have links to entries in Wikipedia, IMDb, and other sites, as well as the directors, scriptwriters, actors and actresses.
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What do we have in Cory's List? Silent films and talkies, black and white and color films, widescreen and 3-D films, short films and very long films, films from all over the world, but mainly from the leading countries in quality films – US, France, UK, Italy, Sweden, Japan… ?More than half of the films were produced more than 50 years ago or are based on books written and works composed more than 50 years ago, which shows either that the best films are the oldies until the end of the sixties (as in songs, literature, classical music…), or that I prefer the films that I have seen in my youth until the age of 25, which probably had a stronger impact on my life. My lists are the most cosmopolitan lists of films, as truly I am interested in films from a wide variety of countries, which I see in festivals and in Israel that is more open to cosmopolitan films, literature, and music – because the Jews came from more than a hundred countries in the diaspora and we are probably the most multi-cultural country in the world. Most of the films in my lists are quality films, but there is also a high proportion of "lesser quality" films, which were chosen because of the impact they had on my life, and because I enjoyed them very much. The reader may notice an "optical" error – that the American films are much more predominant than all the other films. We have to analyze it in view of the fact that almost all the films produced in India, China, Israel, Egypt, or Russia are films about those countries only and not films about other countries, while many American films are films dealing with other countries, as the US film industry is Universal (also MGM, RKO…), and deal with other countries as The African Queen, The Life of Emile Zola, Bel Ami, Titanic, Anna Karenina, Arch of Triumph, Hans Christian Andersen, Les Miserables, Schindler's List, Rhinoceros, Exodus, To Be or Not To Be, The Diary of Anne Frank, Doctor Zhivago, Don Quixote, Gigi, The Great Dictator, Julius Caesar, Stalag 17, For Whom The Bell Tolls, An Enemy of the People, The Three Musketeers, Frida, Fanny, Irma la douce, Island in the Sun, The Sheik, The Shop Around the Corner, etc.
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The films from the US amount to 379 or 46% of the total number of films in my list - 830. This percentage may seem very high but as stipulated before many of those films are truly cosmopolitan, about many other countries, as the American film industry – the largest in the world, at least in quality, is the most predominant film industry in the world. I lived most of my life in Israel, except 9 years in Egypt in my childhood, 1 year in France at Insead, and on the aggregate a few years in business, study and pleasure trips all over the world, some of the trips for one or two months. In Israel we are exposed mainly to American films, although in comparison to France, Italy or Russia, we see much more foreign films than local films in those countries, because there are many local quality films there, as compared to relatively very few Israeli films, that have become quality films only in the last decade or two. Nevertheless, in comparison to all the other lists that I have seen on the Internet, my list is the more cosmopolitan as the other lists comprise in many cases at least three quarter American films or even 100%, and in my list the American films amount to less than half. In the second place we find in my list 120 films from France, or 14% of the total number of films. This large number is objective and subjective as well – objective as I and many specialists believe that the French film industry is the best in the world, and the American percentage is much higher only because the American film industry is much larger than the French one. Subjective as I like much more French films, I was almost never disappointed by the quality of a French film, French is my mother tongue, most of the films that I have seen in my childhood in Egypt were French, and most of my business, pleasures and study trips were in Paris, where I saw many excellent French films.
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The British films amount to 86 or 10% of the total number of films. The British film industry is an excellent film industry, and I think that proportionately to the total number of films produced in the country there are more excellent British films and French films than American films. The British films are also relatively more cosmopolitan and many of them deal on topics which are not British. The Italian number of films amount to 61 or 7% to the total number of films. Many Italian films are quality films, among the best in the world, and in general I can say that the best directors, scriptwriters, actors and actresses are mostly American, French, British, and Italian. This does not mean that there are not excellent film-makers in other countries as Ingmar Bergman in Sweden or Akira Kurosawa in Japan, but those are only a few in comparison to the Americans, British, French and Italians. The total percentage of those four countries in my list amounts to 77%, more than three quarters. Still, my list is more cosmopolitan than most of the other lists, as the films from the other 43 countries (in total we have 47 countries in my list), amount to almost a quarter of the total number of films. Actually, the number of countries in my list could have been much more than 50 if I had included the excellent films that I have seen at the Haifa Film Festival and elsewhere from Georgia, Chile, Peru, Thailand, Iceland, Bulgaria, Morocco, Lebanon, etc., but I had to stop somewhere the list, otherwise I would have reached easily more than 1,000 excellent films that I have seen, and indeed there are more than a thousand if we add the list of the films with business ethics content and the list of 1955-1961.
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The second tier of films in my list include 9 countries with 6 to 20 films – 1% to 2% each from the total, namely – Germany – 20 (2%), Spain – 18,? Israel – 15, Sweden – 14, Russia – 11, Canada – 9 (1%), Japan – 8, Denmark – 6, Poland – 6. Altogether 13% of the total. This data is somewhat subjective, and I confess – I am not a professional critic/reviewer of films, I have not seen many excellent Japanese or Russian films that were not shown in Israel, and I also don't remember very well the names of Japanese or Russian films. I have no doubt that those film industries as well as most of the other industries in this segment (Sweden with Ingmar Bergman, Poland with Kieslowski, Germany with Wim Wenders, and Spain with Almodovar) are perceived by many critics as better than the Israeli film industry, yet I have included relatively more excellent Israeli films, because I live in Israel, and I enjoy much seeing Israeli films, even if sometimes they are not the best, as I have stated above that many films in my list are not quality films but films that I have enjoyed more than the others. In Israel we see relatively less films from those countries, I see them mainly in the Film Festivals, and I am aware that I have not seen most of the best ones, at least if I compare my list to the lists on the Internet. So, 13 countries have about 90% of the total number of films, and 34 countries have only 10%.
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In the third tier of countries we find films with 3-5 films, about 0.5% of the total films each: Australia – 5, Romania – 5, India – 5, Ireland – 5, China – 4, Mexico – 4, Austria – 4, Greece – 3, Argentina – 3, New Zealand – 3, South Korea – 3, Iran – 3. I am quite sure that here also there are hundreds of excellent films that I was not exposed to, mainly from India, China, South Korea and Argentina, but as I included in my list only films that I have seen they were not included. Finally, the countries with 1-2 films: Egypt, Portugal, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Turkey, Serbia, Hungary, Brazil – 2 films each. Ukraine, Slovakia, Armenia, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Senegal, Belgium, Ethiopia, Norway, Finland, South Africa, Algeria, Bosnia, Afghanistan – 1 film each. And I am aware that most of the countries deserve much more, but I have not seen enough quality films from there, and even so I have much more countries in my list than others. Nevertheless, as I want to be fair to the film industries from countries other than the leading ones in my list – US, France, UK, Italy – I bring here links to Internet Lists of their best films:
领英推荐
19. IMDb Most Voted Arabic-Language Feature Films (mainly from Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine)
20. IMDb Most Voted Dutch-Language Feature Films (mainly Netherlands, Belgium/Flanders)
21. IMDb Most Voted Portuguese-Language Feature Films (mainly from Portugal and Brazil)
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