1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Encyclopedia
1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die is a film
reference book
edited by Steven Jay Schneider with original essays on each film contributed by over 70 film critics. It is a part of a series designed and produced by Quintessence Editions
, a London
-based company, and published in English language versions by Cassell Illustrated
(UK), ABC Books (the publishing division of Australian Broadcasting Corporation
), and Barron's
(USA). The first edition was published in 2003; the most recent edition was published in 2011. Contributors include Adrian Martin
, Jonathan Rosenbaum
, Richard Pena
, David Stratton
, and Margaret Pomeranz
.
Each title is accompanied by a brief synopsis and critique, some with photographs. Presented chronologically, the 7th edition begins with Georges Méliès
' A Trip to the Moon from 1902
; among the 21st century films included in the book are The Hurt Locker
, Avatar
, Fish Tank
, The King's Speech, and the Coen brothers
adaptation of True Grit
.
The book has been popular in Australia
, where it was the seventh best-selling book in the country for a week in April 2004 and was promoted alongside the presentation of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
's My Favourite Film
television special.
and The Mail on Sunday
, contributed the book foreword
; as of the "5th anniversary" edition over 70 critics contributed essays (of up to 500 words) on the films, including:
Geoff Andrew,
Linda Badley,
Kathryn Bergeron,
Garrett Chaffin-Quiway,
Roumiana Deltcheva,
Nezih Erdogan,
Jean-Michel Frodon
,
Chris Fujiwara,
Tom Gunning
,
Ernest Hardy
,
Aniko Imre,
Kyung Hyun Kim,
Frank Lafond,
Adrian Martin
,
Kim Newman
,
Devin Orgeron, Marsha Orgeron,
Richard Pena
,
Margaret Pomeranz
,
Jonathan Rosenbaum
,
David Stratton
,
Adisakdi Tantimedh,
Michael Tapper
,
Sam Umland,
Matt Venne,
Ginette Vincendeau
,
Andy Willis, and
Josephine Woll.
and SBS
ran 25 Films You Must See Before You Die which selected twenty five titles from the book and ran them once a week from March 1 to August 16, 2005.
The films chosen were:
channel showed 25 Docs You Must See Before You Die. Select documentaries were from the 1001 Movies book (in bold).
(cover: Black Swan
- US / Inception
- UK) (cover: Avatar) (cover: The Dark Knight
) (cover: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
) (cover: Return of the Jedi
) (cover: The Shining
) (cover: Psycho
) (cover: Psycho
)
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
reference book
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
edited by Steven Jay Schneider with original essays on each film contributed by over 70 film critics. It is a part of a series designed and produced by Quintessence Editions
Quintessence Editions Ltd.
Quintessence Editions Ltd. is a publishing company based in London which is the originator of the "1001 Before You Die" series. Typically, the titles in this series are intended as reference books. They are illustrated books authored by multiple contributors...
, a London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
-based company, and published in English language versions by Cassell Illustrated
Cassell Illustrated
Cassell & Co is a British book publishing house, founded in 1848 by John Cassell . In December 1998 Cassell & Co was bought by the Orion Publishing Group. In January 2002 Cassell imprints, including the Cassell Reference and Cassell Military were joined with the Weidenfeld imprints to form a new...
(UK), ABC Books (the publishing division of Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
), and Barron's
Barron's Educational Series
Barron's Educational Series, Inc. is an American test preparation company, founded in 1941 as a publisher of materials to help students to prepare for college entrance examinations, and that offers online college entrance exam preparation classes...
(USA). The first edition was published in 2003; the most recent edition was published in 2011. Contributors include Adrian Martin
Adrian Martin
Dr. Adrian Martin is an Australian film and arts critic from Melbourne. Dr. Martin is Associate Professor, Co-Director of the Research Unit in Film Culture and Theory and Head of Film and Television Studies at Monash University...
, Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum is an American film critic. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for the Chicago Reader from 1987 until 2008, when he retired at the age of 65...
, Richard Pena
Richard Peña
Richard Peña is the American film program director of the prestigious Film Society of Lincoln Center noted for his organization of the New York Film Festival, New Directors/New Films series and Scanners .-Early life:Interested in film at a very young age, when Richard was just 12 years old, he was...
, David Stratton
David Stratton
David James Stratton is an English- Australian film critic and television personality.-Life and career:Born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England in 1939, Stratton was sent to Hampshire to see out the war years with his grandmother, an avid filmgoer, where he was taken to the local cinemas regularly...
, and Margaret Pomeranz
Margaret Pomeranz
Margaret Pomeranz AM is an Australian film critic and television personality.-Early life:Pomeranz was born in 1944 in Waverley, a suburb of Sydney, and was educated at the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney in Croydon, the then newly opened Macquarie University, and the Playwright's Studio at...
.
Each title is accompanied by a brief synopsis and critique, some with photographs. Presented chronologically, the 7th edition begins with Georges Méliès
Georges Méliès
Georges Méliès , full name Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest cinema. He was very innovative in the use of special effects...
' A Trip to the Moon from 1902
1902 in film
The year 1902 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*March 10 - Circuit Court's decision disallows Thomas Edison from having a monopoly on motion picture technology....
; among the 21st century films included in the book are The Hurt Locker
The Hurt Locker
The Hurt Locker is a 2009 American war film about a three-man United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team during the Iraq War. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and the screenplay was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded as a journalist in 2004 with a US bomb...
, Avatar
Avatar (film)
Avatar is a 2009 American epic science fiction motion capture film written and directed by James Cameron, and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Joel David Moore, Giovanni Ribisi and Sigourney Weaver...
, Fish Tank
Fish Tank (film)
Fish Tank is a 2009 British drama film directed by Andrea Arnold. The film won the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. It also won the 2010 BAFTA for Best British Film. It was filmed in the Mardyke Estate in Havering, the town of Tilbury, and the A13, and funded by BBC Films and the UK...
, The King's Speech, and the Coen brothers
Coen Brothers
Joel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers...
adaptation of True Grit
True Grit (2010 film)
True Grit is a 2010 American Western film written and directed by the Coen brothers. It is the second adaptation of Charles Portis' 1968 novel of the same name, which was previously filmed in 1969 starring John Wayne. This version stars Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross and Jeff Bridges as U.S....
.
The book has been popular in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, where it was the seventh best-selling book in the country for a week in April 2004 and was promoted alongside the presentation of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
's My Favourite Film
My Favourite Film
My Favourite Film was a television special broadcast on the ABC on December 4, 2005. After public voting took place on the show's website, the special listed the top ten most popular films as chosen by voters, and these films were discussed and their rankings debated by a panel hosted by Margaret...
television special.
Contributors
Jason Solomons, who writes movie columns for The ObserverThe Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
and The Mail on Sunday
The Mail on Sunday
The Mail on Sunday is a British conservative newspaper, currently published in a tabloid format. First published in 1982 by Lord Rothermere, it became Britain's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper following the closing of The News of the World in July 2011...
, contributed the book foreword
Foreword
A foreword is a piece of writing sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between the writer of the foreword and the book's primary author or the story the book tells...
; as of the "5th anniversary" edition over 70 critics contributed essays (of up to 500 words) on the films, including:
Geoff Andrew,
Linda Badley,
Kathryn Bergeron,
Garrett Chaffin-Quiway,
Roumiana Deltcheva,
Nezih Erdogan,
Jean-Michel Frodon
Jean-Michel Frodon
Jean-Michel Frodon is a journalist, critic and historian of cinema.-Biography:Born Jean-Michel Billard, he writes with a borrowed pseudonym from "The Lord of the Rings." He has a masters degree and a DEA in history. He worked as an educator from 1971 to 1981. Next, he was a photographer from...
,
Chris Fujiwara,
Tom Gunning
Tom Gunning
Thomas Francis Gunning was a Major League Baseball catcher. He played all or part of six seasons in the majors, from 1884 until 1889, for the Boston Beaneaters, Philadelphia Quakers and Philadelphia Athletics....
,
Ernest Hardy
Ernest Hardy
Ernest George Hardy was a classicist and Principal of Jesus College, Oxford from 1921 to 1925.Hardy was born in Hampstead, England and was educated at Highgate School. He then went to Exeter College, Oxford from 1871 to 1875, where he was a scholar and achieved a double-first in Literae Humaniores...
,
Aniko Imre,
Kyung Hyun Kim,
Frank Lafond,
Adrian Martin
Adrian Martin
Dr. Adrian Martin is an Australian film and arts critic from Melbourne. Dr. Martin is Associate Professor, Co-Director of the Research Unit in Film Culture and Theory and Head of Film and Television Studies at Monash University...
,
Kim Newman
Kim Newman
Kim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...
,
Devin Orgeron, Marsha Orgeron,
Richard Pena
Richard Peña
Richard Peña is the American film program director of the prestigious Film Society of Lincoln Center noted for his organization of the New York Film Festival, New Directors/New Films series and Scanners .-Early life:Interested in film at a very young age, when Richard was just 12 years old, he was...
,
Margaret Pomeranz
Margaret Pomeranz
Margaret Pomeranz AM is an Australian film critic and television personality.-Early life:Pomeranz was born in 1944 in Waverley, a suburb of Sydney, and was educated at the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney in Croydon, the then newly opened Macquarie University, and the Playwright's Studio at...
,
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum is an American film critic. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for the Chicago Reader from 1987 until 2008, when he retired at the age of 65...
,
David Stratton
David Stratton
David James Stratton is an English- Australian film critic and television personality.-Life and career:Born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England in 1939, Stratton was sent to Hampshire to see out the war years with his grandmother, an avid filmgoer, where he was taken to the local cinemas regularly...
,
Adisakdi Tantimedh,
Michael Tapper
Michael Tapper
Michael Tapper is currently a member of Los Angeles band Fool's Gold. Previously, he was a member of the indie-rock band We Are Scientists, along with Keith Murray and Chris Cain, until November 2007. He played the drums for the band and also assisted with backing vocals...
,
Sam Umland,
Matt Venne,
Ginette Vincendeau
Ginette Vincendeau
Ginette Vincendeau is a French-born British-based academic who is a Professor of Film Studies at King's College London.Vincendeau was educated at the Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris III, gaining a degree in English and at the University of East Anglia, where she completed a doctorate in...
,
Andy Willis, and
Josephine Woll.
25 Movies You Must See Before You Die
In Australia, World MoviesWorld Movies
World Movies is an Australian subscription television channel dedicated to foreign films, available on Foxtel, Optus TV and Austar. The channel features foreign film, documentaries, independent cinema, and interviews with international movie stars....
and SBS
Special Broadcasting Service
The Special Broadcasting Service is a hybrid-funded Australian public broadcasting radio and television network. The stated purpose of SBS is "to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect...
ran 25 Films You Must See Before You Die which selected twenty five titles from the book and ran them once a week from March 1 to August 16, 2005.
The films chosen were:
- Seven Samurai (1954)
- The Rules of the GameThe Rules of the GameThe Rules of the Game is a 1939 French film directed by Jean Renoir about upper-class French society just before the start of World War II...
(1939) - Metropolis (1927)
- Dersu UzalaDersu Uzala (1975 film)Dersu Uzala is a 1975 Soviet-Japanese co-production film directed by Akira Kurosawa, his first non-Japanese-language film and his first and only 70 mm film. The film won the Grand Prix at the Moscow Film Festival and the 1975 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film...
(1975) - BlowupBlowupBlowup is a 1966 film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, his first English-language film.It tells of a British photographer's accidental involvement with a murder, inspired by Julio Cortázar's short story, "Las babas del diablo" or "The Devil's Drool" , translated also as Blow-Up, and by the life...
(1966) - The Seventh SealThe Seventh SealThe Seventh Seal is a 1957 Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set during the Black Death, it tells of the journey of a medieval knight and a game of chess he plays with the personification of Death , who has come to take his life. Bergman developed the film from his own play...
(1957) - The Battleship PotemkinThe Battleship PotemkinThe Battleship Potemkin , sometimes rendered as The Battleship Potyomkin, is a 1925 silent film directed by Sergei Eisenstein and produced by Mosfilm...
(1925) - 8½8½8½ is a 1963 Italian fantasy film directed by Federico Fellini. Co-scripted by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi, it stars Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi, a famous Italian film director...
(1963) - Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) (1928)
- KesKes (film)Kes is a 1969 British film from director Ken Loach and producer Tony Garnett. The film is based on the novel A Kestrel for a Knave, written by the Barnsley-born author Barry Hines in 1968...
(1969) - Breathless (1960)
- Mon OncleMon OncleMon Oncle is a 1958 film comedy by French filmmaker Jacques Tati. The first of Tati's films to be released in colour, Mon Oncle won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, a Special Prize at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign...
(1958) - Raise the Red LanternRaise the Red LanternRaise the Red Lantern is a 1991 film directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li. It is an adaption by Ni Zhen of the 1990 novel Wives and Concubines by Su Tong...
(1991) - Modern TimesModern Times (film)Modern Times is a 1936 comedy film by Charlie Chaplin that has his iconic Little Tramp character struggling to survive in the modern, industrialized world. The film is a comment on the desperate employment and fiscal conditions many people faced during the Great Depression, conditions created, in...
(1936) - Women on the Verge of a Nervous BreakdownWomen on the Verge of a Nervous BreakdownWomen on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is a 1988 Spanish black comedy film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Carmen Maura and Antonio Banderas...
(1988) - Boudu Saved from DrowningBoudu Saved from DrowningBoudu Saved from Drowning is a 1932 French film directed by Jean Renoir. Renoir wrote the film's screenplay, from the play by René Fauchois...
(1932) - SolarisSolaris (1972 film)Solaris is a 1972 film adaptation of the novel Solaris , directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is a meditative psychological drama occurring mostly aboard a space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris. The scientific mission has stalled, because the scientist crew have fallen to...
(1972) - City of God (2002)
- Breaking the WavesBreaking the WavesBreaking the Waves is a 1996 film directed by Lars von Trier and starring Emily Watson. Set in the Scottish Highlands in the early 1970s, it tells the story of an unusual young woman, Bess McNeill, and of the love she has for Jan, her husband. The film is an international co-production led by Lars...
(1996) - Last Tango in ParisLast Tango in ParisLast Tango in Paris is a 1972 Italian romantic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci which portrays a recent American widower who takes up an anonymous sexual relationship with a young, soon-to-be-married Parisian woman...
(1972) - Nosferatu, a Symphony of Terror (1922)
- Umberto D.Umberto D.Umberto D. is a 1952 Italian neorealist film, directed by Vittorio de Sica. Most of the actors were non-professional, including Carlo Battisti, who plays the title role...
(1952) - Three Colours: BlueThree Colors: BlueThree Colors: Blue is a 1993 French drama film written, produced, and directed by the acclaimed Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski. Blue is the first of three films that comprise The Three Colors Trilogy, themed on the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity; it is...
(1993) - The Battle of AlgiersThe Battle of Algiers (film)The Battle of Algiers is a 1966 war film based on occurrences during the Algerian War against French colonial occupation in North Africa, the most prominent being the titular Battle of Algiers. It was directed by Gillo Pontecorvo...
(1965) - Les Enfants du Paradis (1945)
25 Docs You Must See Before You Die
From April 3 to September 18, 2007, the Australian World MoviesWorld Movies
World Movies is an Australian subscription television channel dedicated to foreign films, available on Foxtel, Optus TV and Austar. The channel features foreign film, documentaries, independent cinema, and interviews with international movie stars....
channel showed 25 Docs You Must See Before You Die. Select documentaries were from the 1001 Movies book (in bold).
|
|
Editions
- Source: WorldCatWorldCatWorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...
(cover: Black Swan
Black Swan (film)
Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis. Its plot revolves around a production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet by a prestigious New York City company. The production requires a ballerina to...
- US / Inception
Inception
Inception: The Subconscious Jams 1994-1995 is a compilation of unreleased tracks by the band Download.-Track listing:# "Primitive Tekno Jam" – 3:23# "Bee Sting Sickness" – 8:04# "Weed Acid Techno" – 8:19...
- UK) (cover: Avatar) (cover: The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight (film)
The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed, produced and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is part of Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins...
) (cover: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 American adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is the second film in the Indiana Jones franchise and prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark . After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by a desperate village to find a mystical stone...
) (cover: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...
) (cover: The Shining
The Shining (film)
The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, co-written with novelist Diane Johnson, and starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. A writer, Jack Torrance, takes a job as an...
) (cover: Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
) (cover: Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
)
See also
- 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a musical reference book edited by Robert Dimery, first published in 2005. The most recent edition consists of a list of albums released between 1955 and 2010, part of a series from Quintessence Editions Ltd...
- 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die is a literary reference book compiled by over one hundred literary critics worldwide and edited by Peter Boxall, Professor of English at Sussex University, with an introduction by Peter Ackroyd. Each title is accompanied by a brief synopsis and critique...
External links
- 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die from Barron's Educational SeriesBarron's Educational SeriesBarron's Educational Series, Inc. is an American test preparation company, founded in 1941 as a publisher of materials to help students to prepare for college entrance examinations, and that offers online college entrance exam preparation classes...
, with A Peek Inside (ten sample essays from the book) - Official website of the "1001 Before You Die series," from Quintessence EditionsQuintessence Editions Ltd.Quintessence Editions Ltd. is a publishing company based in London which is the originator of the "1001 Before You Die" series. Typically, the titles in this series are intended as reference books. They are illustrated books authored by multiple contributors...
- Trailer of every movie on the list from previewfilms.net
- Complete list of all editions' movies on the 1001 list past and present from filmsquish.com
- The 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die Blog Club from filmsquish.com