Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Great Movies - Roger Ebert

One of the world's most famous film critics chooses the 100 best films of all time. The book is a compilation of his columns written for the Chicago Suntimes. There are no films on the list that are boring, which goes to say a lot about the list. Because if you choose films like Birth of a Nation, which in the 1920s was a landmark film, then you end up making the list very boring. Ebert does well to give those sort of films a miss, carefully choosing movies which are both personal and popular choices. Mr Hulot's Holiday would be a rare example of a totally personal choice.
Ebert also has a prose that is a gift. Most critics writing about film have this high brow style that half the time you don't know what the hell they are talking about. Ebert keeps it simple, straightforward, interesting and gives you all the highlights. He also points out the stuff that is not so obvious.
In a second book, Ebert listed another 100 movies that are a must watch. All the reviews are available online here.