Kenji's "Canon": The Big 1000

Kenji's "Canon": The Big 1000's icon

Created by Fergenaprido.

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Kenji's MUBI list

"I’ve called this list a canon, cos the original intention was of a wide-ranging canon, including established “classics” but also balancing the domination by Hollywood with a geographical spread. Now i’ve thought better of reinforcing received wisdom and the position of many popular and major films which hardly need promoting and which i’m not so keen on. So it’s become a personal “canon” like Rosenbaum’s 1000. Notable films I intend to see can be found on my “Percy the Porcupine” list. I need to keep extending my viewing in neglected areas of the world- Africa, Latin America, the Balkans and parts of Asia should then be better represented.

We didn’t have a TV till i was 12. My first memory of going to the cinema was Fantasia- my introduction to the devil and dinosaurs. Then there was a film called Emil and the Detectives. My small town’s cinema closed when i was 7- TV was too strong a competitor-, my sole memory of films there of “red Indians” on a hill. The bigger films were at the grand metropolis of the county town of 3,000 people 20 miles away, or an even greater city of a few thousand more in the other direction. How i wept when the childcatcher caught them in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and the sky outside had changed, with castles hidden in the majestic domes of cumulo-nimbus. At 11, The Great Escape was the greatest adventure, at 12, El Cid. At 13, i joined the school film society. I gazed in awe at the naked female on a motorbike in Vanishing Point- more fun than that boring Wild Strawberries. In my mid teens, the best discoveries were North by Northwest and Fred Astaire. At uni, on a French course, my special subject was French Cinema of the 30s- Renoir and Pagnol.. but i really got obsessively hooked on world cinema once i’d bought a video player in the late 80s (ooh those Wenders road movies!) and John Kobal’s book The Top 100 Movies (see my list on that); Tarkovsky and Mizoguchi were new names to me. Soon i saw Andrei Rublev and the rain and light had changed. Then a few years on (less availability in those days) it was the turn of Sansho the Bailiff."

Notes:

#361 Teen Kanya (Three Daughters, 1961) only refers to the segment "Postmaster"
#471 Le plus vieux métier du monde (1967) only refers to the segment "Anticipation, ou l'amour en l'an 2000"
#671 Fanny och Alexander (1982) specifically refers to the television version

1007 entries because....

#6-10 Fantômas (5 episodes) counted as one entry
#339-341 Ningen no jôken trilogy counted as one entry
#603-605 La batalla de Chile trilogy counted as one entry
Kenji's list now has only 999 entries

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  1. 503 +2

    2001: A Space Odyssey

    1968, in 45 top lists Check
  2. 559 +2

    The Godfather

    1972, in 42 top lists Check
  3. 323 +1

    Vertigo

    1958, in 42 top lists Check
  4. 377 +2

    Lawrence of Arabia

    1962, in 40 top lists Check
  5. 167 -

    Casablanca

    1942, in 39 top lists Check
  6. 157 -

    Citizen Kane

    1941, in 39 top lists Check
  7. 794 +2

    Pulp Fiction

    1994, in 38 top lists Check
  8. 646 +2

    Apocalypse Now

    1979, in 37 top lists Check
  9. 175 -

    Double Indemnity

    1944, in 37 top lists Check
  10. 418 +2

    Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop...

    1964, in 37 top lists Check
  11. 239 -1

    Singin' in the Rain

    1952, in 37 top lists Check
  12. 215 -

    The Third Man

    1949, in 37 top lists Check
  13. 664 +2

    Blade Runner

    1982, in 36 top lists Check
  14. 207 -

    Ladri di biciclette

    1948 — a.k.a. Bicycle Thieves, in 36 top lists Check
  15. 41 -

    Metropolis

    1927, in 36 top lists Check
  16. 268 +1

    Shichinin no samurai

    1954 — a.k.a. Seven Samurai, in 36 top lists Check
  17. 45 -

    Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

    1927 — a.k.a. Sunrise, in 36 top lists Check
  18. 399 +3

    8½

    1963, in 35 top lists Check
  19. 79 -

    M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder

    1931 — a.k.a. M, in 35 top lists Check
  20. 778 +2

    Schindler's List

    1993, in 35 top lists Check
  21. 326 +1

    Some Like It Hot

    1959, in 35 top lists Check
  22. 224 -

    Sunset Blvd.

    1950 — a.k.a. Sunset Boulevard, in 35 top lists Check
  23. 81 -

    City Lights

    1931, in 34 top lists Check
  24. 39 -

    The General

    1926, in 34 top lists Check
  25. 276 +1

    The Night of the Hunter

    1955, in 34 top lists Check
  26. 652 +2

    Raging Bull

    1980, in 34 top lists Check
  27. 191 -

    It's a Wonderful Life

    1946, in 33 top lists Check
  28. 585 +2

    The Godfather Part II

    1974, in 32 top lists Check
  29. 590 +2

    Chinatown

    1974, in 31 top lists Check
  30. 759 +2

    Goodfellas

    1990, in 31 top lists Check
  31. 262 +1

    Rear Window

    1954, in 31 top lists Check
  32. 316 +1

    12 Angry Men

    1957, in 30 top lists Check
  33. 186 -

    The Best Years of Our Lives

    1946, in 30 top lists Check
  34. 853 +2

    Fa yeung nin wah

    2000 — a.k.a. In the Mood for Love, in 30 top lists Check
  35. 133 -

    La grande illusion

    1937 — a.k.a. The Grand Illusion, in 30 top lists Check
  36. 131 -

    Modern Times

    1936, in 30 top lists Check
  37. 330 +1

    North by Northwest

    1959, in 30 top lists Check
  38. 321 +1

    Touch of Evil

    1958, in 30 top lists Check
  39. 467 +2

    Andrey Rublyov

    1966 — a.k.a. Andrei Rublev, in 29 top lists Check
  40. 451 +2

    La battaglia di Algeri

    1966 — a.k.a. The Battle of Algiers, in 29 top lists Check
  41. 32 -

    The Gold Rush

    1925, in 29 top lists Check
  42. 485 +2

    The Graduate

    1967, in 29 top lists Check
  43. 104 -

    It Happened One Night

    1934, in 29 top lists Check
  44. 662 +2

    Raiders of the Lost Ark

    1981 — a.k.a. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, in 29 top lists Check
  45. 258 +1

    Le salaire de la peur

    1953 — a.k.a. The Wages of Fear, in 29 top lists Check
  46. 354 +2

    The Apartment

    1960, in 28 top lists Check
  47. 473 +2

    Bonnie and Clyde

    1967, in 28 top lists Check
  48. 460 +2

    Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo

    1966 — a.k.a. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, in 28 top lists Check
  49. 491 +1

    C'era una volta il West

    1968 — a.k.a. Once Upon a Time in the West, in 28 top lists Check
  50. 24 -

    Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens

    1922 — a.k.a. Nosferatu, in 28 top lists Check
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Last updated on Aug 13, 2017 by Fergenaprido; source