Serge Bromberg

Comments

Citizen Kane

Long considered the best film ever, I believe this masterpiece still deserves that qualification.

The Apartment

I do not believe in god, I only believe in Billy Wilder. Everything in this film is perfect, and it is much more difficult to achieve a film like this than many film that pretend to be more complex. Magic cannot be explained: this film is haunting…

L'Atalante

There is no other film like L'Atalante. Never has poetry been shown in cinema this way. This film is a musical poem, and a unique experience. A must.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Ford's best western, and a wonderfully crafted films with the best actors of the time. Some will go for his Technicolor masterpieces, but this one carries emotions like no other. And what film has a moral like "When the legend…"? This film is a legend, and certainly one of the films in my pantheon.

City Lights

No top ten would be complete without Chaplin. His first sound film tells us more about his craft, his vision, his cinema world than any other. There had to be one (and I hesitated with Gold Rush), but no… this is the one.

Duck Soup

Who would think a comedy of nonsense would make it in a top 10? Well, the Marx Brothers were amazing, Leo McCarey was a complete genius, and this film has no defect. Timing, comedy, acting, editing, nonsense. Think of it… this film has it all (and I am fairly certain I'll be the only one to include it in my selection).

King Kong

I wanted to include Melies' Trip to the Moon in my selection, but King Kong is the best horror / science fiction film ever, a masterpiece of animation, music, special effects… an obsessive film, that achieved perfection in 1933… a seminal film that will influence all the others. Never did the dream bring us as far (for its time). Higher… higher…

Partie de campagne

Who will include a short film in its selection? No one I guess; This simple and beautiful film does not look like a Renoir painting, but more like a Manet or a Bonnard. This film achieves perfection of feelings and simplicity. It is not easy to film life so close, so pure, so beautiful, and bring colours with black and white images. A ray of sunshine and beauty.

The Piano

A punch in the nose, a punch in the guts. A film as beautiful and crude as a piece by Mozart or a fight of martial arts. Never have we been so close to the tragedy of love, the impossibility of communication between a man and a woman. Savage, glorious, visionary, nouveau… the strong and sour cocktail of beauty and disaster.

Singin' in the Rain

Music, wit, glamour… the flagship of musical comedy, romance, the absolute masterpiece in technicolor. A smile, a dream, a melody… In this film we find everything that one can hope from a film, the real and unique magic of cinema!

Further remarks

Thank you for organizing this poll every 10 years. I tried to chose films that the others will not, I tried to be sincere and not too cerebral... It took me 3 month to finalise this list, and I now have 1,000 titles I would have liked to include.

Why don't you ask everyone their 100 preferred films? There would be fewer regrets, the choice would be much more open, and maybe the result less… expected.

All good. I cannot wait for the final result.