One of the most common sights in terms of any kind of film criticism are Top 10 lists.
It can be for more generalised things like movies, characters, genres, years, filmmakers, actors and so on, to others than can get downright specific and esoteric.
Though it’s a hallmark of any kind of film writing, filmmaker Martin Scorsese has revealed in a Time Magazine video interview that he’s not a fan and wants no part in the tradition.
He then goes on to explain why, and it comes down to how one defines the word favorite and how it applies:
“I’ve tried to make lists over the years of films I personally feel are my favorites, whatever that means, and then you find out that the word ‘favorite’ has different levels.
Films that have impressed you the most, as opposed to films you just like to keep watching, as opposed to those you keep watching and learning from, or experiencing anew.
So, they’re varied. And I’m always sort of against ’10 best’ lists. Well, yes, there’s Citizen Kane.’ That changed my life. He broke all of the rules. One of the things that [Orson] Welles said was one of the best things you can bring to filmmaking is ignorance. When they say you can’t do this, why not?”
Scorsese subsequently goes on to talk about Welles’ “Chimes at Midnight” and “The Trial” along with Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Barry Lyndon”.
Most of these films ended up on Scorsese’s personal ballot in last year’s Sight and Sound poll of the best films made with other titles on that list, including “The Leopard,” “Ikiru,” “The Red Shoes,” “Vertigo,” “The Searchers” and more.
As part of the same Time interview, Scorsese laments the way modern cinema has become “fragmented and broken up in a way”.
Scorsese’s new film “Killers Of The Flower Moon” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year and will have a theatrical worldwide release on October 20th.
