Wes Anderson Names the 10 Best Movies Ever Made
The legendary director’s fondness for French cinema was on full display.
Wes Anderson’s resume speaks for itself: his seminal movies — The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel, to name a few — have been lauded for their bold visual and narrative styles and dashes of quirkiness. His movies have graced several “best of” lists and garnered a heap of awards, but now, Anderson has shared what he thinks are the 10 best movies ever made.
Anderson took part in the British film magazine Sight and Sound‘s annual poll, which has been running since 1952 and taps influential figures from the film industry to share their opinions and tallies up the votes. He was joined by the Safdie Brothers, Barry Jenkins, Luca Guadagnino and Ari Aster, but, in true Wes Anderson fashion, none of the movies he selected ended up on the cumulative list. His choices were all from French cinema and described as “murky and depressing” by i-D. See his choices below.
La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)
Quai des Orfèvres (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1947)
The Earrings of Madame de… (Max Ophüls, 1953)
Vivre Sa Vie (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)
The Man Who Loved Women (François Truffaut, 1977)
Loulou (Maurice Pialat, 1980)
Vagabond (Agnès Varda, 1985)
Olivier, Olivier (Agnieszka Holland, 1992)
It All Starts Today (Bertrand Tavernier, 1999)
Kings and Queen (Arnaud Desplechin, 2004)
As for the films that did place on the cumulative list, first place went to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, while the other top three finishers were Citizen Kane, The Godfather and Tokyo Story. 2022’s top film, per the group, was Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.
If you’re looking to learn more about Sight and Sound‘s roundup of the greatest films of all time you can head to their website. Their “Greatest Films” print issue is available now as well.
Elsewhere in the world of Wes Anderson, a release date has been announced for his forthcoming Asteroid City film.
