Giovanni Marchini Camia

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Since we all agree this task is impossible, as well as problematic, I fiddled with the parameters and opted for full subjectivity, thinking it’ll make for a more meaningful selection. “All time” I took to mean my own lifetime; the list can certainly use some rejuvenating – Vertigo and Citizen Kane will be fine without my vote – and this seemed as fair an arbitrary timeframe as any. Plus, being a millennial, it’s fittingly self-absorbed. As a metric, instead of “greatest” (fatuous) or “favourite” (forever changing), I went for films that, upon first viewing, caused such a shock, they revolutionised my love and understanding of cinema. Uncle Boonmee might not be the film by Apichatpong I like most – if you ask me today, that’d be Syndromes and a Century – but it’s the first one I saw and it changed everything. Do I consider Jurassic Park an aesthetically and philosophically superior Spielberg film to, say, A.I.? Probably (definitely) not, but when my father took me to see it at age six and midway through the velociraptors kitchen scene I could no longer hold back the urge to pee, I preferred to go in my pants rather than sacrifice a second of what at that point was, by a considerable margin, the most exhilarating experience of my life. I have not voluntarily wet myself for any other film in the history of cinema, and that’s why Jurassic Park gets a spot on my ballot.