Vatican's list 45 films
Encyclopedia
In 1995, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary
of cinema, the Vatican
compiled list 45 "greatest films" of all time. The 45 movies are divided into three categories: "Religion", "Values" and "Art".
Anniversary
An anniversary is a day that commemorates or celebrates a past event that occurred on the same day of the year as the initial event. For example, the first event is the initial occurrence or, if planned, the inaugural of the event. One year later would be the first anniversary of that event...
of cinema, the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
compiled list 45 "greatest films" of all time. The 45 movies are divided into three categories: "Religion", "Values" and "Art".
Category "Religion"
- Andrei Rublev (film)Andrei Rublev (film)Andrei Rublev , also known as The Passion According to Andrei, is a 1966 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky from a screenplay written by Andrei Konchalovsky and Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is loosely based on the life of Andrei Rublev, the great 15th century Russian icon painter...
(1966) - Babette's FeastBabette's FeastBabette's Feast is a 1987 Danish film directed by Gabriel Axel. The film's screenplay was written by Axel based on the story by Isak Dinesen , who also wrote the story which inspired the 1985 Academy Award winning film Out of Africa...
(1987) - Ben-HurBen-Hur (1959 film)Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic film directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston in the title role, the third film adaptation of Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The screenplay was written by Karl Tunberg, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry. The score was composed by...
(1959) - The Flowers of St. FrancisThe Flowers of St. FrancisThe Flowers of St. Francis is a 1950 film directed by Roberto Rossellini and co-written by Federico Fellini. The film is based on two books, 14th century book I Fioretti Di San Francesco Little Flowers of St...
(1950) - FrancescoFrancescoFrancesco is the most common name among males in Italy, and is the given name of:* Francesco Barbaro, , Venetian politician.* Francesco Sforza, , Italian condottiero and Duke of Milan...
(1989) - The Gospel According to St. MatthewThe Gospel According to St. MatthewThe Gospel According to St. Matthew may refer to:* Gospel of Matthew, one of the four Gospel accounts of the New Testament in the Bible.* The Gospel According to St. Matthew , a 1964 Italian film based on the Gospel, directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini....
(1966) - La Passion de Notre Seigneur Jesus-ChristVie et Passion du ChristVie et Passion du Christ is a 44-minute French silent film that was produced and released in 1903. As such, it is one of the earliest feature-length narrative films....
(1905) - A Man for All SeasonsA Man for All SeasonsA Man for All Seasons is a play by Robert Bolt. An early form of the play had been written for BBC Radio in 1954, and a one-hour live television version starring Bernard Hepton was produced in 1957 by the BBC, but after Bolt's success with The Flowering Cherry, he reworked it for the stage.It was...
(1966) - The MissionThe Mission- Film and theater :* The Mission , 1986 film by Roland Joffé* The Mission , a.k.a. Cheung fo, by Johnnie To* The Mission , 1980 German play by former East German playwright Heiner Müller, also known as The Task- Music :* The Mission , the original score album of the 1986 film by Ennio Morricone*...
(1986) - Monsieur VincentMonsieur VincentMonsieur Vincent is a 1947 French film about Vincent de Paul, the seventeenth century priest and charity worker. It depicts his struggle to help the poor in the face of obstacles such as the Black Death....
(1947) - NazarinNazarínNazarín is a 1959 Mexican film directed by Luis Buñuel and co-written between Buñuel and Julio Alejandro, adapted from the eponymous novel of Benito Pérez Galdós...
(1958) - OrdetOrdetOrdet is a 1955 Danish drama film, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer. It is based on a play by Kaj Munk, a Danish pastor, first performed in 1932...
(1954) - The Passion of Joan of ArcThe Passion of Joan of ArcThe Passion of Joan of Arc is a silent film produced in France in 1928. It is based on the record of the trial of Joan of Arc. The film was directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and stars Renée Jeanne Falconetti...
(1928) - The SacrificeThe SacrificeThe Sacrifice is a 1986 film, and the final film by Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky, who died shortly after completing it.-Synopsis:...
(1986) - Therese (1986)
Category "Values"
- Au Revoir les Enfants (1988)
- The Bicycle Thief (1949)
- The Burmese HarpThe Burmese Harpis a 1956 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Kon Ichikawa. It was based on a children's novel of the same name written by Michio Takeyama. It was Ichikawa's first film to be shown outside Japan, and is "one of the first films to portray the decimating effects of World War II from the point...
(1956) - Chariots of FireChariots of FireChariots of Fire is a 1981 British film. It tells the fact-based story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice....
(1981) - The DecalogueThe DecalogueThe Decalogue is a 1989 Polish television drama series directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski and co-written by Kieślowski with Krzysztof Piesiewicz, with music by Zbigniew Preisner...
(1988) - 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) - Gandhi (1982)
- IntoleranceIntolerance (film)Intolerance is a 1916 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era. The three-and-a-half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines each separated by several centuries: A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; a...
(1916) - It's a Wonderful LifeIt's a Wonderful LifeIt's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern....
(1946) - On the WaterfrontOn the WaterfrontOn the Waterfront is a 1954 American drama film about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb and Karl Malden. The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard...
(1954) - Open CityOpen cityIn war, in the event of the imminent capture of a city, the government/military structure of the nation that controls the city will sometimes declare it an open city, thus announcing that they have abandoned all defensive efforts....
(1945) - Schindler's ListSchindler's ListSchindler's List is a 1993 American film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on the novel Schindler's Ark...
(1993) - 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...
(1956) - The Tree of Wooden ClogsThe Tree of Wooden ClogsThe Tree of Wooden Clogs is a 1978 Italian film written and directed by Ermanno Olmi. The film concerns Lombard peasant life in a cascina of the late 19th century. It has some similarities with the earlier Italian neorealist movement, in that it focuses on the lives of the poor, and the parts...
(1978) - Wild StrawberriesWild StrawberriesWild Strawberries may refer to:* Wild strawberries, a common name for Fragaria vesca* Other uncultivated species in the genus Fragaria* Wild Strawberries , a 1957 film by Ingmar Bergman* Wild Strawberries , a Canadian pop music group...
(1958)
Category "Art"
- Citizen KaneCitizen KaneCitizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
(1941) - 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) - FantasiaFantasia (film)Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
(1940) - Grand Illusion (1937)
- La StradaLa StradaLa Strada is a 1954 Italian neorealist drama directed by Federico Fellini in which a naïve young woman is sold to a brutish man and goes on the road as a part of his itinerant show....
(1954) - The Lavender Hill MobThe Lavender Hill MobThe Lavender Hill Mob is a 1951 comedy film from Ealing Studios, written by T.E.B. Clarke, directed by Charles Crichton, starring Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway and featuring Sid James and Alfie Bass...
(1951) - The LeopardThe LeopardThe Leopard is a novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa that chronicles the changes in Sicilian life and society during the Risorgimento...
(1963) - Little WomenLittle WomenLittle Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott . The book was written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts. It was published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869...
(1933) - MetropolisMetropolis (film)Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist film in the science-fiction genre directed by Fritz Lang. Produced in Germany during a stable period of the Weimar Republic, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and makes use of this context to explore the social crisis between workers and...
(1927) - 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) - Napoleon (1927)
- Nosferatu (1922)
- StagecoachStagecoachA stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
(1939) - 2001: A Space Odyssey2001: A Space Odyssey (film)2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
(1968) - The Wizard of OzThe Wizard of Oz (1939 film)The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
(1939)