The Ten Greatest Films Ever Made

Subject guarantor:

Jitka HEJTMANOVÁ

Name of lecturer(s):

Jitka HEJTMANOVÁ

Learning outcomes of the course unit:

Best films ever made introduced by Ronald Bergan.

Mode of study:

Intensive two-day module

Prerequisites and co-requisites:

As preparation, in order to facilitate interaction among the students and the professor, it is necessaryl for students to have seen or to try to see as many of the top ten films as possible as well as others high up in the poll. Students are asked to make up their personal ten best list, uninfluenced by the Sight and Sound poll.

Recommended optional programme components:

Watching the films.

Course contents:

(Lecture given by Ronald Bergan)

Obviously, the title of the course is not to be taken literally. However, the decennial poll held since 1952 by the highly respected British film monthly magazine, Sight & Sound, could be considered the closest guide we have to a film canon. In a certain way, the poll, extending from silent cinema onwards, provides a snapshot of film history. Roger Ebert described it as „by far the most respected of the countless polls of great movies - the only one most serious movie people take seriously.“

The first ever poll was topped by Bicycle Thieves and the five subsequent polls (1962-2002) were won by Citizen Kane, which finally lost its number one position to Vertigo in 2012. Only La Regle du jeu (The Rules of the Game) has appeared in all seven of the magazine's top ten, though not much has changed in seven decades, with many of the same titles reappearing on the list.

Yet, many questions arise from this poll. What kind of conclusions about the state of cinema can we draw from it? Are there discernible elements that make these and other films great? Is there a common thread that runs through all of them? Why were such a small minority of films made after the 1960s named? Has cinema deteriorated in the last 50 years? Why have the same titles appeared every year since 1952? Is a canon desirable as a guide to quality? Should there be a distinction between commercial and „arthouse“ films? How important to a budding filmmaker is a wide knowledge of film history and a familiarity with the best films? I hope that all these questions and more will be answered and discussed during the two-day module.

In 2012, 846 critics, programmers, academics and distributors voted for the following:

1 Vertigo

2 Citizen Kane

3 Tokyo Story

4 Rules of the Game

5 Sunrise

6 2001: A Space Odyssey

7 The Searchers

8 Man with the Movie Camera

9 The Passion of Joan of Arc

10 Eight and a Half

In a separate poll, 358 directors voted for the following:

1 Tokyo Story

2= 2001: A Space Odyssey

2= Citizen Kane

4 Eight and a Half

5 Taxi Driver

6 Apocalypse Now

7 = The Godfather

7 = Vertigo

9 Mirror

10 Bicycle Thieves

Recommended or required reading:

As reading material, I unashamedly recommend my own book covering all aspects of cinema.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Film-Book-Ronald-Bergan/dp/0756686768

If unavailable, then the earlier (cheaper?) version may be found.

http://www.amazon.com/Film-Eyewitness-Companions-Ronald-Bergan/dp/0756622034

Planned learning activities and teaching methods:

module

Assessment methods and criteria:

100% attendance (attendance sheets given every morning and afternoon)

2-3 page essay reflecting the content of the module (ronald.bergan@gmail.com, the deadline is March 14)

As preparation, in order to facilitate interaction among the students and the professor, it is necessaryl for students to have seen or to try to see as many of the top ten films as possible as well as others high up in the poll. Students are asked to make up their personal ten best list, uninfluenced by the Sight and Sound poll.

Course web page:

Note:

Ronald Bergan (PhD Eng.Lit.) was born in South Africa and educated in England and the USA. During a number of years in France, he lectured on literature, theatre and film at the Sorbonne, the British Institute and the University of Lille. He has organised various seasons at the National Film Theatre (Sergei Eisenstein, Margaret Lockwood, Marcel Pagnol, Dustin Hoffman, Jean Renoir, United Artists, Anthony Perkins, Katharine Hepburn) in London, and has given talks there. He is a regular contributor to The Guardian and a number of other British national newspapers. He has read scripts for the European Screen Fund and been consultant and writer on a number of TV documentaries (eg. Jean Renoir - BBC Omnibus, Hermes Pan - RM Arts). He is a former Vice-President of FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) for which he has been president of the jury at numerous film festivals. He is president of Fedeora, a federation of European and Mediterranean film critics, and Artistic Director of MOFFEM (Montenegro Film Festival of the Mediterranean.) He has chaired and participated in many symposia on the cinema all over the world. He has held the Davidson Chair of Humanities at Florida International University in Miami, where he taught Film History and Theory, lectured at FAMU, the celebrated Prague films school and has published the following books:

Books by Ronadl Bergan: http://tinyurl.com/lk7lr84

Biographies:

The Coen Brothers (Orion Books, May 2000. Thunder?s Mouth, New York, July 2000) Translated into Japanese and Italian. Updated July 2005.

Francis Coppola- (Orion, September,1998, Thunder?s Mouth, New York, 1998). Translated into German.

Eisenstein: A Life in Conflict - (Little, Brown, December 1997. Overlook Press, New York, 1999.) Translated into Spanish

Jean Renoir: Projections of Paradise (Bloomsbury,1992. Overlook Press, New York,1993.) Translated into French and Japanese.

Dustin Hoffman (Virgin, 1991) Translated into French, Spanish, Polish and Czech

Beyond the Fringe and Beyond - a biography of Jonathan Miller. Alan Bennett, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. (Virgin, 1990)

Anthony Perkins: A Haunted Life (Little, Brown 1995)

Katharine Hepburn - An Independent Woman (Bloomsbury, 1996) Translated into French, Italian and German

The Life and Times of Laurel and Hardy (Greenwood, 1992)

The Life and Times of The Marx Brothers (Greenwood, 1992)

Reference:

The Film Book (Dorling Kindersley, October 2011)

?Isms: Understanding Cinema (Universe Publishing, March 2011)

François Truffaut Interviews (University of Mississippi Press, February 2008)

Eye Witness Companion Guide To Film (Dorling Kindersley, October 2006, worldwide in eight languages)

The Bloomsbury Foreign Film Guide (Bloomsbury, 1988. Update 1992. Faber USA, 1992)

The Great Theatres of London (Prion, 1987. Chronicle Books, USA, 1988)

A-Z of Movie Directors (Proteus, 1982)

Sports in the Movies (Proteus, 1982)

The United Artists Story (Octopus, 1986)

Glamorous Musicals (Octopus, 1984)

The MGM Story (Octopus, updates 1993, 1994)

Movie Mastermind (Hamlyn, 1984; Octopus 1986)

Great Love Scenes (Octopus Books, 1986)

Contributed to:

5001 Must-See Movies (Bounty Books, 2004)

The Radio Times Film Guide (Radio Times, 2000)

The Film 4 Film Guide (MacMillan, 2001)

Academy Award Winners (Prion, 1989, 1995)

The Movie Stars Story (Octopus, 1984)

The Chronicle of the Cinema (J.L. International Publishing, 1995)

Who?s Who in Hollywood (Bloomsbury, 1993)

Hollywood's Golden Age: A Guardian Book of Obituaries (Kindle Edition,2013)

In Progress:

Pugs, Mugs, Thugs and Floozies: A History of Boxing in the Movies

End Notes: Variations on the Theme of the Deaths of Composers

Scandal at the Savoy - screenplay

Reviews:

Eisenstein: A Life In Conflict

„A comprehensive and thoughtful biography“ - New York Times

„Excellent, well-researched and highly readable“ - Evening Standard

„Accessible, cogent biography... excellent and eye-opening book“ - Sight and Sound

„Carefully researched and highly readable“ - The Guardian

„Highly recommended, approachable and jargon-free“ - Time Out

„Lively and engaging... always interesting and well-informed... film buffs should thank Bergan“ - The Sunday Telegraph

„Bergan recreates the freshness of modernism... full of interesting material“ - Sunday Times

„An excellent biography“ - Literary Review

„An admirable biography... Bergan is first rate... his enthusiasm for the man and his work is infectious“ - The Times Literary Supplement

„Well-researched... It is to Bergan´s credit that he brings to us in all his complexity a man he clearly admires and places his work in its historical context as a way of explaining rather than apologising for it.“ - The Observer

„Bergan´s impressive, accessible book“ - Scotland on Sunday

„Mr Bergan´s lucid book is a reminder of both how great a director Eisenstein was and how much greater his achievement might have been, by showing the gap that existed between the magisterial wreckage of his surviving work and the even more astonishing concept of cinema which he was never fully permitted to realise.“ ? The Economist

Jean Renoir: Projections of Paradise

„A model biography“ - Daily Telegraph

„Bergan´s book seems the ideal biography - easy, graceful and unpretentious.“- LA Times

„Substantial, well-researched... Ronald Bergan creates a detailed, affectionate portrait... vividly realised“ - The Observer

„As thorough and generous-spirited as the artist it portrays“ - Sunday Telegraph

„Bergan has written a book that reads as well at the beach as it will in film class.“ - New York Newsday

Francis Coppola-

„Well-informed, engagingly written“ ? The Times

Dustin Hoffman

„Painstakingly researched and fascinating“ - Daily Mail

„Excellent... Great stuff“ - Sunday Express

„Informative and consistently entertaining... recommended for Hoffman fans and movie enthusiasts alike“ - Empire

Beyond the Fringe and Beyond

„Lively and illuminating“ - The Daily Telegraph

„Mr Bergan emerges as a master of comedy“ - The Spectator

„Bergan´s scintillating style makes it a joy to read“ - Mail on Sunday

Anthony Perkins: A Haunted Life

„A sympathetic and very perceptive account of the actor?s life... Bergan?s book is good at detailing Perkins?s career“ - Premiere

„A thorough work, interestingly illustrated, with a good filmography“ - Sight & Sound

„Bergan?s biography is highly readable and stylishly put together“ - The Sunday Times

Katharine Hepburn - An Independent Woman

„An affectionate but objective biography... as coffee books go, above average“ - Premiere

The Bloomsbury Foreign Film Guide

„A daunting task undertaken with intelligence and vigour“ - Monthly Film Bulletin.

„Well-researched, gracefully written... the perfect gift for the serious cinéaste“ - Sunday Express

The Great Theatres of London

„Boundless pleasure“ - Plays & Players

The United Artists Story

"A lively and informative book& - Films & Filming

The Coen Brothers

„Well researched and entertaining“ - Financial Times

„Ronald Bergan brings out the good humour and eccentricity of the Coens and their films“ ? The Economist

„Good on the technical aspects, the author also meticulously details references“ ? The Observer

„A blow-by-blow account of the making of each movie in turn? Bergan has interesting things to say about the input of the Coen´s collaborators ? and also provides entertaining quotations“ ? Sunday Telegraph

„The best assessment to date? you´ll discover all the relevant themes and variations in the life and work of this dynamic duo“ - Flicks

„The biography paints an interesting and comprehensive picture of the Coens and their work. Whether you?re a fan of The Fink or The Dude, getting to know these films better is definitely worthwhile ? some would say essential ? reading“ - Hotdog

„The biography? is the best way to sum up this distinctly odd couple“ ? Bath Chronicle

„Full of delicious details“ ? Alexander Walker, The Evening Standard

„Bergan shows a lucid appreciation of their movies and their originality as film-makers“ ? Dublin Sunday Tribune

Further information:

This course is an elective for all AMU students

Schedule for winter semester 2013/2014:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

Schedule for summer semester 2013/2014:

Date	Day	Time	Tutor	Location	Notes	No. of paralel
01.03.2014		09:30–17:30	HEJTMANOVÁ J.	Projekce FAMU Lažanský palác	in English, compulsory prerequisite! read more, please. Lecturer: Ronald Bergan	paralelka 1
28.02.2014		09:30–17:30	HEJTMANOVÁ J.	Učebna 2 Lažanský palác	in English, compulsory prerequisite! read more, please. Lecturer: Ronald Bergan	paralelka 1

The subject is a part of the following study plans:

• Erasmus (optional subject)