Emanuela Martini

Film critic
Italy

Voted for

FilmYearDirector
Citizen Kane1941Orson Welles
Nashville1975Robert Altman
The Red Shoes1948Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
North by Northwest1959Alfred Hitchcock
The Searchers1956John Ford
La dolce vita1960Federico Fellini
The Wild Bunch1969Sam Peckinpah
Some Like It Hot1959Billy Wilder
Pulp Fiction1994Quentin Tarantino
All about Eve1950Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Comments

Citizen Kane

1941 USA

The movie that brought cinema into the modern age. Any time I watch it I discover new ideas.

Nashville

1975 USA

The great American "novel" of the second half of the 20th century.

The Red Shoes

1948 United Kingdom

I could have chosen The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp or A Matter of Life and Death, but The Red Shoes is the quintessential European melodrama, likely the first example of auteur's blockbuster.

North by Northwest

1959 USA

The best of Hitchcock in one shot.

The Searchers

1956 USA

John Ford is cinema and The Searchers is Ford's poetic summary.

La dolce vita

1960 Italy, France

The synthesis of Italian cinema and of Fellini's vision.

The Wild Bunch

1969 USA

The cry of an era, and the best editing ever.

Some Like It Hot

1959 USA

One great comedy for all, the link between Bringing up Baby and The Big Lebowski

Pulp Fiction

1994 USA

A perfect script and probably the most influential narrative style for the new century's cinema.

All about Eve

1950 USA

From an almost forgotten and sometimes underrated auteur, a perfect, wicked, witty dramedy.

Further remarks

Ten are not enough. And, after 130 years, 20 wouldn't be enough. So in the end I think these are just some of my favourites, mostly those which made me fall in love with cinema. And tomorrow some titles would be different: maybe The Apartment instead of Some Like It Hot, or Peeping Tom or A Matter of LIfe and Death instead of The Red Shoes, or I would choose De Sica instead of Fellini. Sadly, I had to leave out some of my favorite (and most influential) directors: Melville and Cassavetes, Scorsese and Allen, Sirk and Fassbinder, Hawks and Truffaut, Coen brothers and Almodovar… and the good movies of the last three decades, Paul Thomas Anderson's included. But definitely my 11th title would be Bergman's Wild Strawberries and my 12th Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show.