Armond White

Comments

À bout de souffle

Godard's immortal male-female analysis will outlast gender fashion because it explores the depths of attraction and trust – and simultaneously innovates how cinema is made and watched.

Intolerance

Still the greatest film ever made because Griffith dared expand the possibilities of looking at humanity's potential throughout time.

Battleship Potemkin

Still exciting for its aesthetic innovations and Eisenstein's national vision which transcends political fashion. It matters now as art, not propaganda.

Nashville

The best American film of the sound era, best film of the vaunted 1970s – and still an unsurpassed panoply of human behaviour.

Lola

The exemplar of why we like stories, fantasies, movies because Demy realised our need to dream and the reality of desire expressed through how we aspire.

Further remarks

Participating in the Sight and Sound draws upon writing criticism and teaching film. Over time, these privileges challenge each other, which is the best way I can explain why my list changes over the years. Aside from several constant undeniable 'greats', other titles come forward as modern movie-watching experience meets the call of the past. That's why the exciting innovation of Battleship Potemkin moves in, despite fleeting political fashion, and the fascinating interpersonal attraction and trust in Breathless's immortal male-female analysis seems newly fresh and important. Both now as when those cinematic icons were first seen.