Detailed

I hoped, with my recent 50 Greatest Films poll, to liven up the canon a little; to promote and highlight films that perhaps in the past haven’t received the acclaim and attention that they deserve. Unfortunately, I must concede that the final results didn’t really live up to this aim as they differed very little to countless other similar polls that have come before. But, of course, this was always likely to be the case. After all, If you ask people to present you with a list of the 50 greatest films, then that is most likely what they will do. And so it is that we arrive here at Beyond the Canon, a logical follow up to the “50 Greatest Films”.

I challenge you, should you be interested, to select up to 100 films that have been, in your opinion, underrepresented by cinema history. Below is a list of films that constantly reappear on greatest films lists; the established classics; the canon. Your task is to pick a list of films that mean more to you or that you believe to be more deserving of canonisation than these overly familiar titles.

It’s interesting to note that most people who took part in the 50 Greatest Films poll imposed restrictions upon themselves: the most common being restricting oneself to selecting just one or two films per filmmaker. This means that such wonderful films as The King of Comedy (1982), The Trial (1962), MASH (1970), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), countless Bergmans and Buñuels, and many other great but lesser films by the masters seldom get mentioned on these lists.

Other than the stipulated restriction of choice, everything else will be organised along the same lines as the 50 Greatest Films poll.

Send your list, along with any comments, bios, web addresses, etc. to onelinereview@hotmail.co.uk by the 30th of September.

….and the films that you can’t include:

(if you would like the list in a spreadsheet or word document, then just contact me)

The films in detail
Less detailed
Less detailed by director

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