Century of Films: Derek Malcom's Personal Best »

Derek Malcolm is President of the International Film Critics Association and writes widely on international cinema. He has been the lead film critic for The Guardian newspaper for over 30 years.

Invited by The Guardian newspaper to explore his choice of 100 films in the millennium in a weekly column spanning two years, film writer and critic Derek Malcolm set out on a project which has attracted much attention. This book is a critical celebration of unparalleled knowledge and understanding of what cinema can achieve. Malcolm not only pleases to filmgoers, but introduces readers to films that they may not yet have discovered.

Library Journal

Understated elegance informs the substance and style of Malcolm's 100 short essays on films that he could "not contemplate never seeing again." Selecting his favorite directors and limiting each to one film (not necessarily the most famous but rather "most typical" or "most surprising"), the longtime film critic for the London Guardian and current president of the International Film Critics Association has compiled a list that is widely representative of periods, countries, and styles. Page turners for film buffs and scholars alike, the essays abound with incisive comments, succinctly entertaining summaries, perceptive comparisons, allusions to influences and sources, relevant anecdotes about personalities, and a deeply informed, jargon-free joy in the art of film. Malcolm's commentary on favorites, whether familiar (works by Luis Bu$uel and Charlie Chaplin) or fresh (Blue Velvet and Raise the Red Lantern) recommend this informed, casually profound appreciation of films in the shifting contexts of the 20th century. Ann Fey, SUNY at Rockland Community Coll., Suffern Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Films Covered: The Travelling Players
• The Passenger, Ashes and Diamonds
• Days of Wrath
• Nanook of the North
• Vertigo
• The Time to Live and the Time to Die
• A Short Film About Killing
• Swing High, Swing Low
• Blue Velvet
• Man of the West
• A Night at the Opera
• Triumph of the Will
• Andrei Roublev
• Broadway Danny Rose
• LBJ and Others
• The Band Wagon
• Pickpocket
• Viridiana
• La Femme Infidele
• Monsieur Verdoux
• Beauty and the Beast
• Spirit of the Beehive
• The Marriage of Maria Braum
• Federico Fellini's 8 and a Half
• Young Mr. Lincoln
• Freaks
• Shock Corridor
• Rio
• Night of the Hunter
• Fires Were Started
• Paths of Glory
• Throne of Blood
• Sons of the Desert
• Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
• Brief Encounter
• WR: Mysteries of the Organism
• Madame de...
• Johnny Guitar
• The Tree of the Wooden Clogs
• Pandora's Box
• Pakeezah (Pure Heart)
• The Music Room
• La Collectionneuse
• The Rise to Power of Louis XIV
• Xala
• The Wind
• L'Atalante
• A Touch of Evil
• McCabe and Mrs. Miller
• Les Enfants du Paradis
• Apocalypse Now
• Fantasia
• Kind Hearts and Coronets
• A Bout de Souffle
• The Birth of a Nation
• The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
• The General
• Burden of Dreams
• Cuba Si!
• Le Samourai
• Closely Observed Trains
• The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums
• The King of Marvin Gardens
• The Third Man
• Salvatore Giuliano
• Raging Bull
• Greed
• The Crowd
• Double Indemnity
• Blanche
• The Bitter Tea of General Yen
• The Philadelphia Story
• Tokyo Story
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
• The Scarlett Empress
• Sullivan's Travels
• Jules et Jim
• Raise the Red Lantern