EDDIE KONCZAL: The Ken Friends' Top 75 movies of all time

 







In the summer of 1998, the American Film Institute released its list of the 100 greatest films of all time.  Inspired by this, I polled the fellow members of the Ken Friends, an internet fan club of director/actor/writer Kenneth Branagh, best known for his brilliant film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays.  Below are the top 75 vote getters in the poll, which took place in July and August of 1998.  There are few surprises in the top 5, given the nature of the polling audience, but there are some interesting selections throughout the list.

(All films listed by director and year of release).
 

75 2001: a space odyssey (1968) directed by Stanley Kubrick
75 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) directed by Frank Capra
68 Joe vs. the Volcano (1990) directed by John Patrick Shanley
68 Barry Lyndon (1975) directed by Stanley Kubrick
68 Day for Night (1974) directed by Francois Truffaut
68 Mary Poppins (1964) directed by Robert Stevenson
68 The Nun's Story (1959) directed by Fred Zinnemann
68 Body and Soul (1947) directed by Robert Rossen
68 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
67 Singin' In the Rain (1952) directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
66 Young Frankenstein (1974) directed by Mel Brooks
62 Brazil (1985) directed by Terry Gilliam
62 Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) directed by Hector Babenco
62 Dr. Strangelove; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) directed by Stanley Kubrick
62 Pillow Talk (1959) directed by Michael Gordon
61 The Lion In Winter (1968) directed by Anthony Harvey
60 Cinema Paradiso (1989) directed by Giuseppe Tornatore
57 A Man for All Seasons (1966) directed by Fred Zinnemann
57 The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) directed by Alfred Hitchcock
57 Duck Soup (1933) directed by Leo McCarey
55 When Harry Met Sally (1989) directed by Rob Reiner
55 North by Northwest (1959) directed by Alfred Hitchcock
50 Heavenly Creatures (1994) directed by Peter Jackson
50 The Piano (1993) directed by Jane Campion
50 Dances with Wolves (1990) directed by Kevin Costner
50 Chariots of Fire (1981) directed by Hugh Hudson
50 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) directed by Milos Forman
49 Wuthering Heights (1939) directed by William Wyler
48 A Room With a View (1986) directed by James Ivory
47 Harvey (1950) directed by Henry Koster
46 Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights (1992) directed by Peter Kosminsky
45 Quiz Show (1994) directed by Robert Redford
43 Dead Man Walking (1995) directed by Tim Robbins
43 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) directed by Steven Spielberg
41 Twelfth Night; or, What You Will (1996) directed by Trevor Nunn
41 Peter's Friends (1992) directed by Kenneth Branagh
40 The Usual Suspects (1995) directed by Bryan Singer
39 Sense and Sensibility (1995) directed by Ang Lee
38 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974) directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones
37 Secrets & Lies (1996) directed by Mike Leigh
36 An Affair to Remember (1957) directed by Leo McCarey
35 Rebecca (1940) directed by Alfred Hitchcock
34 Emma (1996) directed by Douglas McGrath
33 E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) directed by Steven Spielberg
32 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) directed by Kenneth Branagh
31 The Remains of the Day (1993) directed by James Ivory
29 William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet (1996) directed by Baz Luhrmann
29 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) directed by Robert Mulligan
28 Rear Window (1954) directed by Alfred Hitchcock
27 The Godfather (1972) directed by Francis Ford Coppola
26 Casablanca (1943) directed by Michael Curtiz
25 It's a Wonderful Life (1946) directed by Frank Capra
24 Romeo & Juliet (1969) directed by Franco Zeffirelli
23 Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) directed by Frank Capra
22 The Princess Bride (1987) directed by Rob Reiner
21 Persuasion (1995) directed by Roger Michell
20 Amadeus (1984) directed by Milos Forman
19 Annie Hall (1977) directed by Woody Allen
18 Excalibur (1981) directed by John Boorman
17 The English Patient (1996) directed by Anthony Minghella
16 In the Bleak Midwinter (A Midwinter's Tale) (1996) directed by Kenneth Branagh
15 Star Wars (1977) directed by George Lucas
14 The Shawshank Redemption (1994) directed by Frank Darabont
13 The Empire Strikes Back (1980) directed by Irving Kershner
12 Othello (1995) directed by Oliver Parker
11 The Philadelphia Story (1940) directed by George Cukor
10 Titanic (1997) directed by James Cameron
9 Dead Poets Society (1989) directed by Peter Weir
8 Citizen Kane (1941) directed by Orson Welles
7 The Wizard of Oz (1939) directed by Victor Fleming
6 Schindler's List (1993) directed by Steven Spielberg
5 Gone with the Wind (1939) directed by Victor Fleming
4 Dead Again (1991) directed by Kenneth Branagh
3 Much Ado About Nothing (1993) directed by Kenneth Branagh
2 Henry V (1989) directed by Kenneth Branagh
1 Hamlet (1996) directed by Kenneth Branagh

Updated 27-Jun-2005