How many masterpieces are there?

Btw, I'm currently editing down/refining my list I posted yesterday.
Would be nice if it comes to 100, but if it doesn't it doesn't.

I just wanted to say one thing. I was just rereviewing LaLaLand*, fully expecting to remove it from my original masterpieces list, on the basis that many of the scenes (particularly those involving his band) look like cheap tat.

And the one thing is, this. I will NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER remove LaLaLand from my list of masterpieces. It has to be on for a matter of moments, and everything else in the world is forgotten. And if that isn't a masterpiece, then I don't know what is.

Sorry to have bothered you, we'll be back later with further news.


*I started at 1970, and will then go back and do the earlier decades.

less than one hundred, maybe lower

Revised list:

The Flying Train 1902 Germany -
Birth of a Nation 1915 USA DW Griffith**
J'Accuse 1919 France Abel Gance**
Way Down East 1920 USA DW Griffith**
The Phantom Carriage 1921 Sweden Victor Sjöström
The Great White Silence 1924 UK Herbert Ponting (documentary)**
The Adventures of Prince Achmed 1926 Germany Lotte Reinger
The General 1926 USA Buster Keaton
The Lodger 1927 UK Alfred Hitchcock
Metropolis 1927 Germany Fritz Lang**
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans 1927 USA F.W. Murnau
Napoleon 1927 France Fritz Lang Abel Gance
The Passion of Joan of Arc 1928 France Carl Theodor Dreyer
Blackmail 1929 UK Alfred Hitchcock
Pandora's Box 1929 Germany G.W. Pabst
Man With a Movie Camera 1929 USSR Dziga Vertov (documentary)
Salt for Svanetia 1930 USSR Mikhael Kalatazov
M 1931 Germany Fritz Lang
Limite 1931 Brazil Mário Peixoto
Vampyr 1932 Germany Carl Theodor Dreyer
A Night at the Opera 1935 USA Sam Wood
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1936 USA
The Adventures of Robin Hood 1938 USA Michael Curtiz
The Wizard of Oz 1939 USA Victor Fleming
Gone With the Wind 1939 USA Victor Fleming
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums 1939 Japan Kenji Mizoguchi
Citizen Kane 1941 USA Orson Welles
Ornamental Hairpin 1941 Japan Hiroshi Shimizu
Day of Wrath 1943 Denmark Carl Theodor Dreyer
Meshes of the Afternoon 1943 USA Maya Deren
Sanshiro Sugata 1943 Japan Akira Kurosawa
Rome, Open City 1945 Italy Roberto Rossellini
La Belle et La Bete 1946 France Jean Cocteau
Panique 1946 France Julien Duvivier
Out of the Past 1947 USA Jacques Tourneur
Bicycle Thieves 1948 Italy Vittorio De Sica
Late Spring 1949 Japan Yasujiro Ozu
The Third Man 1949 UK Carol Red
Stray Dog 1949 Japan Akira Kurosawa
Rear Window 1954 USA Alfred Hitchcock
Journey to Italy 1954 Italy Roberto Rossellini
On the Waterfront 1954 USA Elia Kazan
Pather Panchali 1955 India Satyijat Ray
La Pointe Courte 1955 France Agnès Varda
The Silent World 1956 France Louis Malle and Jacques Cousteau (documentary)
Bob Le Flambeur 1956 France Jean-Pierre Melville
Bridge On The River Kwai 1957 UK David Lean
12 Angry Men 1957 USA Sydney Lumet
The Music Room 1958 India Satyajit Ray
Touch of Evil 1958 USA Orson Welles
Elevator to the Gallows 1958 France Louis Malle
Anatomy of a Murder 1959 USA Otto Preminger
North by Northwest 1959 USA Alfred Hitchcock
The Naked Island 1960 Japan Kaneto Shindô
Psycho 1960 USA Alfred Hitchcock
Lola 1961 France Jacques Demy
Last Year at Marienbad 1961 France Alain Resnais
La Notte 1961 Italy Michaelangelo Antonioni
La Jetee 1962 France
Lawrence of Arabia 1962 UK David Lean
L'Eclisse 1962 Italy Michelangelo Antonioni
8/12 1963 Italy Federico Fellini
High and Low 1963 Japan Akira Kurosawa
The Leopard 1963 Italy Luciano Visconti
Onibaba 1964 Japan Kaneto Shindô
Soy Cuba 1964 USSR Mikhail Kalatozov
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg 1964 France Jacques Demy
Alphaville 1965 France Jean-Luc Godard
Le Bonheur 1965 France Agnès Varda
For a Few Dollars More 1965 Italy Sergio Leone
Au Hasard Balthazar 1966 France Robert Bresson
Blow Up 1966 UK/Italy Michelangelo Antonioni
Closely Watched Trains 1966 Czech Jirí Menzel
Bonnie and Clyde 1967 USA
The Graduate 1967 USA Mike Nichols
Dragon Inn 1967 Taiwan King Hu
2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 UK Stanley Kubrick
Once Upon a Time in the West 1968 USA Sergio Leone
Stolen Kisses 1968 France François Truffaut
Kuroneko/Black Cat 1968 Japan Kaneto Shindô
The Color of Pomegranates 1969 USSR/Armenia Sergey Paradzhanov
KES 1969 UK Ken Loach
McCabe and Mrs Miller 1971 USA Robert Altman
A Touch of Zen 1971 Taiwan King Hu
The Godfather 1972 USA Francis Ford Coppola
Le Cousin Jules 1973 France (documentary)
Mean Streets 1973 USA Martin Scorsese
The Godfather Part 2 1974 USA Francis Ford Coppola
Fear Eats the Soul 1974 Germany Rainer Fassbender
Chinatown 1974 USA Roman Polanski
Mirror 1975 USSR Andrei Tarkovsky
The Passenger 1975 Italy/Spain Michelangelo Antonioni
Barry Lyndon 1975 UK Stanley Kubrick
Killer of Sheep 1977 USA Charles Burnett
Apocalypse Now 1979 USA Francis Ford Coppola
Alien 1979 USA Ridley Scott
*Bodyheat 1981 USA Lawrence Kasdan
Koyaanisqatsi 1982 USA Godfrey Reggio (documentary)
The King of Comedy 1982 USA Martin Scorsese
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial 1982 USA Steven Spielberg
Entre Nous 1983 France Diane Kurys
L'Argent 1983 France Robert Bresson
Stranger Than Paradise 1984 USA
The Runner 1984 Iran Amir Naderi
Homecoming 1984 Hong Kong Yim Ho
*Taipei Story 1985 Taiwan Edward Yang
Blue Velvet 1986 USA David Lynch
*When Harry Met Sally 1989 USA Rob Reiner
For All Mankind 1989 USA Al Reinert (documentary)
Days of Being Wild 1990 Hong Kong Wong Kar-Wai
Blade Runner (Director's Cut) 1992 USA Ridley Scott
The Player 1992 USA Robert Altman
Rebels of the Neon God 1992 Taiwan Tsai Ming-liang
Vive L'Amour 1994 Taiwan Tsai Ming-liang
Voices Through Time 1996 Italy (documentary)
L.A. Confidential 1997 USA Curtis Hanson
Saving Private Ryan 1998 USA Steven Spielberg
In the Mood for Love 2000 Hong Kong Kar-Wai Wong
Donnie Darko 2001 USA Richard Kelly
Mulholland Drive 2001 USA David Lynch
Uzak 2002 Turkiye Nuri Bilge Ceylan
No Country for Old Men 2007 USA Joel and Ethan Cohen
Man on Wire 2008 UK James Marsh (documentary)
Wall-E 2008 USA Andrew Stanton
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia 2011 Turkiye Nuri Bilge Ceylan
The Master 2012 USA Paul Thomas Anderson
Frances Ha 2012 USA Noah Baumbach
The Look of Silence 2014 Indonesia Joshua Oppenheimer (documentary)
Virunga 2015 UK Orlando von Einsiedel (documentary)
La La Land 2016 USA Damien Chazelle
Embrace of the Serpent 2016 Colombia Ciro Guerra
Roma 2018 Mexico Alfonso Cuarón
Apollo 11 2019 USA Todd Douglas Miller (documentary)
The Lighthouse 2019 USA Robert Eggers
Diego Maradona 2019 UK Asif Kapadia (documentary)
Fire of Love 2022 France Sara Dosa (documentary)
Whitney Houston: A Concert For A New South Africa 2024 USA Pat Houston (documentary)

**I've not watched these ones in full yet.

50s now added.
60s to follow.

Donc, voila, mon liste est comme ca, finis.

Cent trent films.

Some supermasterpieces:

La Belle et La Bete 1946 France Jean Cocteau
Late Spring 1949 Japan Yasujiro Ozu
Journey to Italy 1954 Italy Roberto Rossellini
The Naked Island 1960 Japan Kaneto Shindô
La Jetee 1962 France
L'Eclisse 1962 Italy Michelangelo Antonioni
Le Cousin Jules 1973 France (documentary)
Uzak 2002 Turkiye Nuri Bilge Ceylan
The Lighthouse 2019 USA Robert Eggers

Very close. 45

00s 1
10s 2
20s 13
30s 10
40s 13
50s 14
60s 29
70s 14
80s 13
90s 8
00s 7
10s 11
20s 2
Total 137

Black and White 68 Colour 69
17 silent, 118 talkies, 2 singing.
USA 50, France 21, UK 13, Italy 12, Japan 9, Germany 7, Taiwan 4, USSR 4.

Directors:
Alfred Hitchcock 5
Michelangelo Antonioni 4
Akira Kurosawa 3
Francis Ford Copolla 3
Kaneto Shindô 3
Carl Theodor Dreyer 3
and the following with 2 each:
Robert Altman
Robert Bresson
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Jacques Demy
Victor Fleming
Abel Gance
DW Griffith
King Hu
Mikhail Kalatozov
Stanley Kubrick
Fritz Lang
David Lean
Sergio Leone
David Lynch
Tsai Ming-liang
Satyijat Ray
Roberto Rossellini
Martin Scorsese
Ridley Scott
Steven Spielberg
Agnès Varda
Orson Welles

For what it's worth, people have compiled a list of every single movie that received any vote in the most recent sight and sound poll (combining directors and critics, I think). Technically every single movie was in someone's top 10 greatest films of all time. That list is over 4000 movies (looks like 4420 of them).

And these lists are usually still just supposed to be launching points and not comprehensive (While I probably wouldn't classify all 4420 of those as "masterpieces," though it's not really clear what the term should mean to someone, I can think of other movies that I would think should be considered in the same level/categorization as those. And there are vast gaps of ignorance on my part of films I've never seen (can I even name a Bengali film not directed by Satyajit Ray? I cannot) that would probably yield a large number more. What I'm saying is, yeah, probably 10,000).

I think how you define masterpiece (which is subjective) is a factor, as well as your subjective opinion of particular films.

I was doing it largely on instinct when I came up with my 136, but off the top of my head, I was almost without exception (although there are a couple of exceptions) looking for something visually stunning, and also first rate acting. Ideally I wanted something which also moved the art of cinema on in some way, or in a handful of cases I settled for what I saw as the best example of a particular genre. And on top of that I needed a great immersive experience, a film that grabs you and pulls you in and has something truly exceptional about it.

Of the first 100 in that list you've linked, I am familiar with 91, and only included I think 31. A large number of others in there I actively considered but chose not to include. And that seems to be the highest ranked/most voted for 100 films.

I think that if you have the extremely restricted criteria I had, then it is just about possible to identify a list of masterpieces. Once you drop the requirements though it does become an impossibility with probably thousands, including goodness knows how many you have never heard of, being eligible.

It's interesting by the way that whilst I recognise that a couple of comments such as "42" etc are likely facetious, there do seem to be 3 broad schools of thought on the thread:
-c50-c150
-c200-c500
-several thousand/10,000+

https://letterboxd.com/moviescansave.../masterpieces/

a lot more to being a masterpiece?
a lot more to identifying a masterpiece?

Am pretty sure The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums is heading onto this list.

In spite of a very camp 45 year old guy playing the c19 year old romeo.

How many masterpieces are there not?

total films made - 138

Name each and every one

I'll leave that to somebody who is interested in non-masterpieces.

I'm only comfortable labelling two as such


2001
Passion of Joan of Arc


There is probably more, but I hope not too many. Masterpiece is a word to me that is both overused and has too much importance put on it.


For anything to be a masterpiece I think there needs to be some sort of consensus, and as soon as we start worrying about such a thing as that, the less I'm interested in what qualifies.


As for too much importance being put on the term, what I mean by this is there being any concern in a film meeting the expectations of perfection and influence and all of the other irrelevant markers of what being a maaterpiece entails. I personally would rather spend my time with dozens of flawed movies with scattered moments of transcedence, than one movie that nails every moment of its screen time.


To me these fleeting moments of connection a non masterpiece can generate in its audience has as much value of a movie that seems indisputably perfect. And it allows those artists who aren't good enough to ever make a masterpiece to be seen and heard. And usually, for me, their voices are way more interesting than those of the masters.

There's no way that 2001 is perfect!!

The movie I would think of as perfect would be The Naked Island and Late Spring.

Anyway, thanks for your contribution! We now have suggestions ranging from

2

to

at least 10,000

!!