Best Of The Millennium

In slightly over a century of existence, the cinema has already developed a rather rigid canon of classics. Whenever the American Film Institute or someone puts together their list of "The Greatest Films of All Time", it usually amounts to little more than a case of rounding up the usual suspects. Sure the order might change from time to time, but it's still the same movies. Back in 1962, Sight and Sound shook up the film world by placing 1960's L'Avventura second only to Citizen Kane on their once-a-decade poll. Last year when when their most recent poll was unveiled, only two films from the new millennium (In The Mood For Love and Mulholland Dr.) were able to even crack the top 50. We don't mean to demean the quality of the films commonly on these lists, but from the perspective of history this feels akin to making a list of the greatest paintings of all time where 98 of them are cave drawings and the Mona Lisa and Guernica get thrown in for good measure. How is a newer film ever supposed to get a fair shake when it has to go up against Battleship Potemkin and Tokyo Story every time out of the gate?

Don't worry. We aren't arguing that all of the accepted classics should be thrown out and abandoned. If you're a regular reader of this blog you know well how much we love classic film. What we are proposing is to just for a moment set aside the established canon so that we might see which films from the modern era have the potential to join that pantheon. In a mere 13 years the industry has changed radically: digital has moved from the arthouses to the multiplexes, 3D has given us new, immersive experiences and the web has allowed once-fringe voices to be heard by a worldwide audience. Even film financing and distributed have changed drastically. It's a whole new world, so why don't we try a whole new canon? Once again don't worry, the old one will still be there waiting for you.

If you're interested in participating in this little experiment, please reply to this post and tell us which ten modern films you think deserve to stand side by side with the old classics? You can also e-mail us or write to us on Facebook. The deadline to submit will be New Years Eve Saturday January 11th and the results will be announced early in 2014 Monday January 13th. Can't wait to see what you guys come up with!