Values Films
• Gandhi, Richard Attenborough (1982, UK/USA/India)
• Intolerance, D. W. Griffith (1916, USA)
• Dekalog (Decalogue, or, Il Decalogo) (Note: Dekalog is a ten-part series of one-hour films.) Krzysztof Kieslowski (1988, Poland),
• Au Revoir, Les Enfants (Goodbye, Children), Louis Malle (1987, France)
• Dersu Uzala, Akira Kurosawa (1974, Japan)
• L’albero degli zoccoli (The Tree of the Wooden Clogs), Ermanno Olmi (1978, Italy/France)
• Roma, città aperta (Open City), Roberto Rossellini (1946, Italy)
• Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries), Ingmar Bergman (1957, Sweden)
• Det sjunde inseglet (The Seventh Seal), Ingmar Bergman (1957, Sweden)
• Chariots of Fire, Hugh Hudson (1981, UK)
• Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Thief), Vittorio de Sica (1948, Italy)
• It’s a Wonderful Life, Frank Capra (1946, USA)
• Schindler’s List, Steven Spielberg (1993, USA)
• On the Waterfront, Elia Kazan (1954, USA)
• Biruma No Tategoto (The Burmese Harp), Kon Ichikawa (1956, Japan)
Art Films
• 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick (1968, UK/USA)
• La Strada, Federico Fellini (1954, Italy)
• Citizen Kane, Orson Welles (1941, USA)
• Metropolis Fritz Lang (1927, Germany)
• Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin (1936, USA)
• Napoléon, Abel Gance (1927, Italy)
• 8 1/2, Federico Fillini (1963, Italy)
• La grande illusion (Grand Illusion), Jean Renoir (1937, France)
• Nosferatu, F. W. Murnau (1922, Germany)
• Stagecoach, John Ford (1939, USA)
• Il Gattopardo (The Leopard), Luchino Visconti (1963, Italy/France)
• Fantasia, (1940, USA)
• The Wizard of Oz, Victor Fleming (1939, USA)
• The Lavender Hill Mob, Charles Crichton (1951, UK)
• Little Women, George Cukor (1933, USA)
(Steven D. Greydanus does film criticism for a variety of media. He is the webmaster of the Decent Films Guide website. James Akin is a recognized Catholic author and apologist.)
(c) 2001 Steven D. Greydanus and James Akin. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Titled simply “Some Important Films,” this document is not meant to offer a set of definitive or magisterial “top fifteen” lists, nor to establish these particular films as definitely more worthwhile than any film that was not included. “Not all that deserve mention are included,” the pontifical council acknowledged in releasing the list.
Furthermore, in recognizing the merits of these particular films, the council by no means endorsed everything these films contain, or gave them any kind of imprimatur or blanket ecclesiastical approval. Movies, like other works of culture, are seldom if ever perfect. Even with good or important ones, the viewer must be able to think critically and sort out the good from the bad.
Thus, the films listed in, for instance, the “Values” category do possess special moral worth, but that doesn’t mean that they are perfect even with respect to moral content – and certainly not with respect to religious or artistic significance, which are not endorsed in any way. Likewise, there is no endorsement of the religious or moral ideas of the “Art” films; these films were included because they were landmarks in the art of cinematography, not because of religious or moral values.
For example, Kubrick’s landmark film 2001: A Space Odyssey is rightly recognized as an extraordinary cinematic achievement, but the council in no way endorses the secular worldview underlying that film’s non-theistic ascent-of-man mythology. The pontifical council also recognized the religious significance of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s The Gospel According to Matthew even though Pasolini himself was a Marxist.
Below are the forty-five films named on the Vatican film list, with their dates and countries of origin as listed in the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). A few of these films have been reviewed by Steven D. Greydanus' Decent Films Guide; those titles are linked to the appropriate reviews on his site.
Dubbed or subtitled versions for almost all of the foreign films are available for English speakers, and you will be surprised how many of them the major American video chains will have in stock.
So, what would you like to watch tonight?
Religion Films
• Andrei Rublev, Andrei Tarkowsky (1969, USSR)
• The Mission, Roland Joffé (1986, UK)
• La passion de Jeanne d’Arc (The Passion of Joan of Arc), Carl T. Dreyer (1928, France)
• La vie et la passion de Jésus Christ (Life and Passion of Christ, or, La Passion Pathe), Ferdinand Zecca (1903, France)
• Francesco, giullare di Dio (The Flowers of St. Francis / Francis, God’s Jester), Roberto Rossellini (1950, Italy)
• Il vangelo secondo Matteo (The Gospel According to Matthew), Pier Paolo Pasolini (1964, France/Italy)
• Thérèse, Alain Cavalier (1986, France)
• Ordet (The World), Carl T. Dreyer (1955, Denmark)
• Ofret (The Sacrifice), Andrei Tarkowsky (1986, Sweden/UK/France)
• Francesco (St. Francis of Assisi), Liliana Cavani (1989, Italy/Germany)
• Ben-Hur, William Wyler (1959, USA)
• Babettes gæstebud (Babette’s Feast), Gabriel Axel (1987, Denmark)
• Nazarín, Luis Buñuel (1958, Mexico)
• Monsieur Vincent, Maurice Cloche (1947, France)
• A Man for All Seasons, Fred Zinnemann (1966, UK)
