Sergio M. Grmek Germani

film critic, archivist, festival programmer
Italy

Voted for

FilmYearDirector
Terremoto di Messina1909Luca Comerio
KÖRKARLEN1921Victor Sjöström
MAT1926Vsevolod I. Pudovkin
Nous ne sommes plus des enfants1935Augusto Genina
Imitation of Life1934John M. Stahl
SISSIGNORA1941Ferdinando Maria Poggioli
Der LETZTE AKT1955G.W. Pabst
Young Cassidy1965Jack Cardiff
Triple agent2004Éric Rohmer
Torneranno i prati2014Ermanno Olmi

Comments

I could have confirmed the list for the Poll 2012, of which I am still convinced. But since ten films are never enough (even if they are a stimulating limit for choosing the most indispensable ones and trying to give a coherent construction to the choice) I decided on the opposite to modify not only all ten films but also to choose ten other directors. A very painful choice especially for renouncing to Dreyer and Rossellini, of which I could have included almost every film, but also painful for giving up Leo McCarey (of which "My Son John" I felt the need in the new list). However I could now “replace” Lumière with Comerio who is his best follower. I lose Minnelli's "A Matter of Time" and Rossen's "Lilith" but I include the third for me most deeply moving film ever (Poggioli's one). I lose an Italian director I love, Giorgio Bianchi, without yet finding place for Matarazzo, Cottafavi, Zurlini. I lose the last Schroeter but I find space for two films of the new millennium, reinforcing in parallel the presence of silent works and of the great filmmakers who created cinema (but not yet Griffith, Dwan, King, Murnau). Finally, unfortunately, I lose two essential feminine presences (Šepit'ko and Farrokhzad) who I consider to be among the greatest filmmakers (and certainly not for reasons of politically correct quotas), without yet being able to include Tanaka Kinuyo and Ida Lupino: perhaps at the next Poll...