From André Bazin "The Stylistics of Robert Bresson" Cahiers du Cinema No. 3 June 1951 (page 19 my translation)

"I will make myself understood by proposing to the reader to imagine Le Diable au corps with mise-en-scene by Jean Vigo. "

Critics Best Films 1952 Sight and Sound

In 1952, inspired by the poll of filmmakers made by the Committee Festival Mondial du film et des Beaux arts of Belgique, the English film magazine Sight and Sound asked 85 film critics, 63 of whom submitted their lists. This is a sampling of some of those lists. Sight and Sound commented, "Most critics were unanimous in finding the question unfair. "

All 63 critics
1.....Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
2.....City Lights (Charles Chaplin)
.......The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin)
4.....Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
5.....Louisiana Story (Robert Flaherty)
......Intolerance (D W Griffith)
7.....Greed (Erich von Stroheim)
......Le Jour se leve (Marcel Carné)
.......The {Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodore Dreyer)
10....Brief Encounter (David Lean)
......Le Million (René Clair)
......La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir)

Lindsay Anderson
1.....Earth (Alexander Dovchenko)
2.....They Were Expendable (John Ford)
3.....Zéro de conduite/L'Atalante (Jean Vigo)
4.....The Childhood of Maxim Gorki (Mark Donskoy)
5.....The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford)
6.....Louisiana Story (Rober Flaherty)/ The River (Jean Renoir)
7.....Fires Were Started (Humphrey Jennings)
8.....La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir)
9.....Douce (Claude Autant-Lara)
......Antoine and Antoinette (Jacques Becker)
.......Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky)
10...Meet Me in St Louis (Vincente Minnelli)

Rudolph Arnheim
1.....The Wedding March (Erich von stroheim)
2.....City Lights (Charles Chaplin)
3.....The General (Buster Keaton/Clyde Bruckman)
4.....Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
5.....Road to Life (Nikolai Ekk)
6.....Our Dailly Bread (King Vidor)
7.....Sous les toits de Paris (René Clair)
8.....Man of Aran (Robert Flaherty)
9.....Bicyle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
10...Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa)


Alexander Astruc
1.....Sunrise (F W Murnau)
2.....October (Sergei Eisenstein)
3.....Foolish Wives (Erich von Stroheim)
4.....Nosferatu (F W Murnau)
5.....L'Age d'or (Luis Bunuel)
6.....Vampyr (Carl Theodore Dreyer)
7.....¡Que Viva Mexico! (Sergei Eisenstein)
8.....You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang)
9.....La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir)
10...The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)

André Bazin
1.....Les Vampires (Louis Feuillade)
2.....The Pilgrim (Charles Chaplin)
3.....Broken Blossoms (D W Griffith)
4.....Sunrise (F W Murnau)
5.....Greed (Erich von Stroheim)
6.....La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir)
7.....Le Jour se lève (Marcel Carné)
8.....The Little Foxes (William Wyler)
9.....Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson)
10...Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
André Bazin comments: "A series of personal awards, on critical reflection, rather than of original memories and impact. . ."

Georges Charensol
1.....The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin)
2.....Louisiana Story (Robert Flaherty)
3.....The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodore Dreyer)
4.....Le Million (René Clair)
5.....Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
6.....Brief Encounter (David Lean)
7.....They Shall Bear Witness (Victor Sjöström)
8.....Broken Blossoms (D W Griffith)
9.....Mother (Vsevolod Pudovkin)
10...Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson)

Louis Chauvet
1.....Man of Aran (Robert Flaherty)
2.....Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
3.....City Lights (Charles Chaplin)
4.....Le Million (René Clair)
5.....The Lost Patrol (John Ford)
6.....The Green Pastures (Marc Connelly/William Keighley)
7.....Brief Encounter (David Lean)
8.....All About Eve (Joseph L Mankiewicz)
9.....The Blue Express (Ilya Trauberg)
10...The Heiress (William Wyler)

Jacques Doniol-Valcroze
(no preferential order)
¡Que Viva Mexico! (Sergei Eisenstein)
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson)
Intolerance (D W Griffith)
La Terra Trema (Luchino Visconti)
Sunrise (F W Murnau)
The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodore Dreyer)
Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin)
The River (Jean Renoir)
Les Dernières Vacances (Roger Leenhardt)

Joseph-Marie Lo Duca
1.....The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodore Dreyer)
2.....Man of Aran (Robert Flaherty)
3.....The Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir)
4.....The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin)
5.....Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
6.....Greed (Erich von Stroheim)
7.....Les Enfants du paradis (Marcel Carné)
8.....Paisà (Roberto Rossellini)
9.....Henry V (Laurence Olivier)
10...Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)

Lotte Eisner
1.....Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin)
2.....The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin)
3.....The Birth of a Nation (D W Griffith)
4.....Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
5.....Greed (Erich von Stroheim)
6.....L'Age d'or (Luis Bunuel)
7.....Zéro de Conduite (Jean Vigo)
8.....Earth (Alexander Dovchenko)
9.....Tabu (F W Murnau)
10....Louisiana Story (Robert Flaherty)

Richard Griffith
"Order doesn't particularly mean anything"
Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty)
Intolerance (D W Griffith)
Moana (Robert Flaherty)
Warning Shadows (Arthur Robison)
Arsenal (Alexander Dovchenko)
So This is Paris (Ernst Lubitsch)
Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin)
Paris 1900 (Nicole Védrès)
Hallelujah (King Vidor)
The Wedding March (Erich von Stroheim)

Curtis Harrington
(not in preferential order)
Greed (Erich von Stroheim)
Zéro de Conduite (Jean Vigo)
La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir)
Vampyr (Carl Theodore Dreyer)
L'Age d'or (Luis Bunuel)
Dura Lex (Lev Kuleshov)
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (Edward F Cline)
À nous la liberté (René Clair)
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson)

Penelope Houston
(alphabetical order)
L'Atalante (Jean Vigo)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
City Lights (Charles Chaplin)
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson)
Earth (Alexander Dovchenko)
The General (Buster Keaton/Clyde Bruckman)
The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford)
Greed (Erich von Stroheim)
October (Sergei Eisenstein)
La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir)

Gavin Lambert
1.....Greed (Erich von Striheim)
2.....Earth (Alexander Dovchenko)
3.....L'Age d'or (Luis Bunuel)
4.....La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir)
5.....The Kid (Charles Chaplin)
6.....A Diary for Timothy (Humphrey Jennings)
7.....The Quiet Man (John Ford)
8.....Hallelujah (King Vidor)
9.....¡Que Viva Mexico! (Sergei Eisenstein)
10...Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson)

Karel Reisz
(alphabetical order)
All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone)
L'Atalante (Jean Vigo)
City Lights (Charles Chaplin)
Earth (Alexander Dovchenko)
Le Jour se lève (Marcel Carné)
Listen to Britian (Humphrey Jennings)
Miracle in Milan (Vittorio De Sica)
Los Olvidados (Luis Bunuel)
The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges)
Wagonmaster (John Ford)

Paul Rotha
1.....Greed (Erich von Stroheim)
2.....Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
3.....The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin)
4.....An Italian Straw Hat (René Clair)
5.....Turksib (Victor A Turin)
6.....Earth (Alexander Dovchenko)
7.....Kameradschaft (G W Pabst)
8.....L'Atalante (Jean Vigo)
9.....Open City (Roberto Rossellini)
10...Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)

Sight and sound 10 Best Films list from 1962, click here

"The Bernanos Letter"

I would like to remind readers here that I have written a long report "The Bernanos Letter" dealing with the controversy surrounding the writing of A Certain Tendancy of French Cinema which I published as a stand-alone blog.
The charge has been made that François Truffaut duped the screenwriter Pierre Bost into lending him the unproduced screenplay for "Diary of a country Priest" and then flamed him with it when he wrote the article A Certain Tendancy of French Cinema.
I examine that charge taking into account one piece of evidence which never seems to be considered, the letter which Georges Bernanos had written in 1947 explaining his reasons for refusing to allow that screenplay to be produced.
"The Bernanos Letter"

André Bazin Ten Best Films

1954
(no preferred order)
Gate of Hell (Teinosuke Kinugasa)
El (Luis Bunuel)
Robinson Crusoe (Luis Bunuel)
Chateaux en Espagne[El Torero] (René Wheeler)
Touchez pas au Grisbi (Jacques Becker)
From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinneman)
Romeo and Juliet (Renato Castellani)
The Living Desert (James Algar)
The Wild One (Laszlo Benedek)
Monsieur Ripois (René Clement)


1955
1.......Ordet (Carl Dreyer)
2.......La Strada (Federico Fellini)
3.......Voyage in Italy (Roberto Rossellini)
4.......The Big Knife (Robert Aldrich)
5.......French Cancan (Jean Renoir)
6.......Lola Montes (Max Ophuls)
7.......The Gold of Naples (Vittorio De Sica)
8.......Du Rififi chez les Hommes (Jules Dassin)
9.......The Man from Laramie (Anthony Mann)
10.....Les Mauvaises Rencontres (Alexander Astruc)


1956
1.......A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson)
2.......Il Bidone (Federico Fellini)
3.......Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray)
4.......Elena and her Men (Jean Renoir)
5.......Bus Stop (Joshua Logan)
6.......Senso (Lucchino Visconti)
7.......Smiles of a Summer Night (Ingmar Bergman)
8.,,,,,,L'Amore (Roberto Rossellini)
9.,,,,,,Gervaise (Rene Clement)
10.....The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock)


1957
1......The Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini)
2.......Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (Frank Tashlin)
3.......Porte des Lilas (Rene Clair)
4.......Torero (Carlos Velo)
5.......12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet)
6.......Sait-on Jamais (Roger Vadim)
7.......Street of Shame (Kenzo Mizoguchi)
8.......Aparijito (Satyajit Ray)
9.......The Criminal Life of Archibald Cruz (Luis Bunuel)
10.....Seven Men from Now (Budd Boetticher)


André Bazin died on November 11, 1958. One can begin to conjecture what his list for 1958 might have looked like from his ranking of films as reported in Cahiers' “conseil des dix” in those months that he did participate.


April
Bonjour Tristesse (Otto Preminger) --- 3 stars
Kanal (Andrej Wajda) --- 3 stars


June
Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati) --- 4 stars
This Angry Age (Rene Clement) --- 3 stars


July
Touch of Evil (Orson Welles) --- 4 stars
The Cranes are Flying (Mikhail Kalatozov) --- 4 stars


November
The Left-Handed Gun (Arthur Penn) --- 3 stars
Une Vie (Alexander Astruc) --- 3 stars
The Goddess (John Cromwell) --- 3 stars
En Cas du Malheur (Claude Autant-Lara) --- 3 stars

Rene Wheeler was for anyone who saw Bertrand Tavernier’s Laissez-Passer the character selling shoelaces who about an hour into film Jean Aurenche meets on a Paris sidewalk whom Aurenche brings to Continental studios to co-write the Fernandel film he has been assigned.
El Torero is one of only three films that directed. An earlier film of his Premières armes was credited according to the one user comment on the IMDb by François Truffaut with influencing him. Wheeler also collaborated on the screenplay for Rififi chez les Hommes which was highly regarded by the staff at Cahiers du Cinema. Wheeler also worked on some films that were disliked by those critics such as Les Salauds vont en enfer and "Méfiez-vous fillettes. Wheeler would once more in the mid-60s figure in some yearly Cahiers ten best lists. He co-scripted
Le Journal d'une femme en blanc with Jean Aurenche for director Claude Autant-Lara. Jean-Luc Godard rated that film third for the year 1965 and Jacques Rivette also listed the film.

Bazin is often written of for his love of animals.

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is what happens when you hang around with Jean-Luc Godard too much. Street of Shame is what happens when you hang around with Jacques Rivette too much.

Bonnie and Clyde, Arthur Penn’s most famous film, was first offered to François Truffaut, then to Godard and then to Truffaut again before Penn agreed to direct it.

Casque d"Or and the New Wave

If you think in terms of history it is not that difficult to understand. The original scenario for "Casque d'Or" was written in the late 1930s by Henri Jeanson. At various times in the next ten years, various directors, including, in 1946, Becker, had shown interest in the screenplay. In 1951, Becker came back into the project and his first act was to "bin" Jeanson's screenplay and start all over again. In 1953, Jacques Rivette and Francois Truffaut recorded their first interview with a director, that being an interview of Becker which was published in February 1954. Remember that Truffaut published "A Certain Tendency" in January 1954, in other words Truffaut was interviewing Becker at the same time he was writing that article. Speaking of Jeanson’s screenplay, Becker called it “effective” but too “literary”.
In other words, the case can be made that “Casque d’Or” was the first “New Wave” film because the director made the conscious effort to discard a “quality” screenplay in order to shoot it in a different way. Truffaut would write in Avant Scene Cinema in 1964, “When I or any of my fellow scenarists are in trouble, we often say to each other, “How about a “Casque d’Or” solution.”
The problem was that the public and critics in France in 1953 were expecting “Le Blé en herbe” or “La Rouge et la Noir” and did not know what to make of this film.
André Bazin in Cahiers du Cinema Septembre 1955 number 50 wrote:
“The unflinching admiration of some English critics , as well as that Truffaut and Rivette for “Casque d’Or” had more and more impressed me. I was, in sum, rather near letting myself be convinced that my reviews in 1952 were unjust and that the film deserves rehabilitation. what I am saying is less than the truth. I will say here that it is not only the best of Becker but also his most beautiful....I express here my having been confused by it. Regrets for “Casque d’Or” shall be added to those for “Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne” in the conscience of this critic.”
The English critics that Bazin talks about would be the young Sequence/Sight and Sound crew of the early 50s, thus Tony Richardson (“A Taste of Honey”) Karel Reisz (“Saturday Night and Sunday Morning”) with Lindsay Anderson (“This Sporting Life”) on point.
Of course when “Casque d’Or” was re-released in France in 1963, many of its admirers had released their own films and now, like Bazin, the public was no longer “confused by it”.