The other day a girl at work said that she 'doesn't watch TV or Movies that are not in colour'. And that remark reminded me about an incident from a few (well many, now that I think on it) years ago.
I had been discussing what the Greatest Movie Ever Made was, and had named a few candidates ..... Citizen Kane had been amongst them.
At the time, it was still regularly featured as being amongst the best films of all time .... in fact then it was usually listed as the number one film, but never lower than 3rd in any all time list. In fact as recently as 2011 when the film was 70 years old, it was still described as the greatest movie ever, by a number of web sites including the Financial Times. But many other critics still acclaim its legacy, mastery and influence ...
In more recent years sites such Empire On Line have placed the first film of The Godfather trilogy at number one, with Citizen Kane at number 46. The Internet Movie DataBase (IMDB), have it at number 6 (they also place The Godfather (1972) at number 1), while the British Film Institute (BFI) have Vertigo (1958) at number 1, with Citizen Kane at number 2.
In fact the BFI has a number of quirky choices in its top 50 greatest films list (a lot of which were shot in black and white film), so is a bit of an eccentric web list (in fact almost determinedly ignoring popular taste, and seemingly going for a film buff elitist listing).
However it still remains number one on some other lest popularist lists .... for instance the Metacritic listing which features the most critically acclaimed movies over time, as determined by the recognised critics reviews being aggregated, and then which scored films by their composite critical reception. i.e. the public's opinion doesn't count.
Now don't get me wrong, I get why fashions and tastes have changed over the decades, and in fact apart from the BFI listing of 'Veritigo', and others, which I think of as very left field selections of the best movies ever made .... much like the popular British film critic Mark Kermode, who still regularly asserts that the very dated and creaky horror movie 'The Exorcist' is the best movie ever made ... I understand why Citizen Kane slipped down most listings these days.
However the conversation with the girl at work who 'doesn't watch TV or Movies that are not in colour,' leads me to the suspicion that many great movies, that were not filmed in colour have dropped down the more popularity based listings, simply because many people won't watch them these days.
To be honest neither do I that often, but I am still a sucker for the Alastair Sim movies (the 'St Trinians' series, and 'Scrooge: A Christmas Carol'), which were all in BW as well as Jimmy Stewart in 'Its a wonderful Life' every Christmas.
..... All of which brings me back to that conversation with my staff of a few decades ago, while discussing the greatest movie ever made. I was hitting the same Black and White wall, just as I did a few days ago ... until one exasperated teen on my team said to me 'We don't remember the world when there wasn't any colour .... we don't even know how you got traffic lights to work when it was all black and white' .... I kid you not.
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| Citizen Kane .... Once Unanimously 'The Greatest' Movie Ever Made? |
I had been discussing what the Greatest Movie Ever Made was, and had named a few candidates ..... Citizen Kane had been amongst them.
At the time, it was still regularly featured as being amongst the best films of all time .... in fact then it was usually listed as the number one film, but never lower than 3rd in any all time list. In fact as recently as 2011 when the film was 70 years old, it was still described as the greatest movie ever, by a number of web sites including the Financial Times. But many other critics still acclaim its legacy, mastery and influence ...
In more recent years sites such Empire On Line have placed the first film of The Godfather trilogy at number one, with Citizen Kane at number 46. The Internet Movie DataBase (IMDB), have it at number 6 (they also place The Godfather (1972) at number 1), while the British Film Institute (BFI) have Vertigo (1958) at number 1, with Citizen Kane at number 2.
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| The Godfather Many Modern Critics Best Ever Movie |
In fact the BFI has a number of quirky choices in its top 50 greatest films list (a lot of which were shot in black and white film), so is a bit of an eccentric web list (in fact almost determinedly ignoring popular taste, and seemingly going for a film buff elitist listing).
However it still remains number one on some other lest popularist lists .... for instance the Metacritic listing which features the most critically acclaimed movies over time, as determined by the recognised critics reviews being aggregated, and then which scored films by their composite critical reception. i.e. the public's opinion doesn't count.
Now don't get me wrong, I get why fashions and tastes have changed over the decades, and in fact apart from the BFI listing of 'Veritigo', and others, which I think of as very left field selections of the best movies ever made .... much like the popular British film critic Mark Kermode, who still regularly asserts that the very dated and creaky horror movie 'The Exorcist' is the best movie ever made ... I understand why Citizen Kane slipped down most listings these days.
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| Citizen Kane A Better Movie Again If In Colour? |
However the conversation with the girl at work who 'doesn't watch TV or Movies that are not in colour,' leads me to the suspicion that many great movies, that were not filmed in colour have dropped down the more popularity based listings, simply because many people won't watch them these days.
To be honest neither do I that often, but I am still a sucker for the Alastair Sim movies (the 'St Trinians' series, and 'Scrooge: A Christmas Carol'), which were all in BW as well as Jimmy Stewart in 'Its a wonderful Life' every Christmas.
..... All of which brings me back to that conversation with my staff of a few decades ago, while discussing the greatest movie ever made. I was hitting the same Black and White wall, just as I did a few days ago ... until one exasperated teen on my team said to me 'We don't remember the world when there wasn't any colour .... we don't even know how you got traffic lights to work when it was all black and white' .... I kid you not.
That last remark reminds me of someone's horror when hearing about "recycled toilet paper" ! Some people just don't think things through.
ReplyDelete'Some people just don't think things through.' Correction, far too many people just don't think things through. Thanks for the comments Vroomfondel.
DeleteCitizen Kane is a tour de force and interestingly has never been remade. A testament to its brilliance. Maybe that's how you recognise a really great movie, when lesser directors fear to be compared with it?
ReplyDeleteHmm, interesting thought. Friends of mine going to watch the remake of 'Predator' tonight. They are expecting it to be worse than the original but better CGI. Thanks for the comment.
DeleteI caught a bit of the first Predator a while ago and found it a bit dated. Today's CGI is amazing but the script can still let the film down.
DeleteDoesn't Citizen Kane start with a camera flying through sign over a gate? That's a standard move in CGI these days.
Actually it starts with a gate and no trespass sign. An abandoned mansion in the distance with clouds scudding overhead. It doesn't fly through the scenes just cut to closer to the house.
DeleteGreat movie though.
Vroomfondel - That's the trouble with CGI it gets dated - In the first Star Wars the ships could barely turn.
DeleteHarry (Kane?) - Your probably right. I havent watched it for years.
Thanks both for the comments.