Sergio M. Grmek Germani

Comments

I could have confirmed the list for the Poll 2012, of which I am still convinced. But since ten films are never enough (even if they are a stimulating limit for choosing the most indispensable ones and trying to give a coherent construction to the choice) I decided on the opposite to modify not only all ten films but also to choose ten other directors. A very painful choice especially for renouncing to Dreyer and Rossellini, of which I could have included almost every film, but also painful for giving up Leo McCarey (of which "My Son John" I felt the need in the new list). However I could now “replace” Lumière with Comerio who is his best follower. I lose Minnelli's "A Matter of Time" and Rossen's "Lilith" but I include the third for me most deeply moving film ever (Poggioli's one). I lose an Italian director I love, Giorgio Bianchi, without yet finding place for Matarazzo, Cottafavi, Zurlini. I lose the last Schroeter but I find space for two films of the new millennium, reinforcing in parallel the presence of silent works and of the great filmmakers who created cinema (but not yet Griffith, Dwan, King, Murnau). Finally, unfortunately, I lose two essential feminine presences (Šepit'ko and Farrokhzad) who I consider to be among the greatest filmmakers (and certainly not for reasons of politically correct quotas), without yet being able to include Tanaka Kinuyo and Ida Lupino: perhaps at the next Poll...