The BBC has decided to make an infidelity to the language of Shakespeare. The british channel went to see, the papuan manchu, Persian to belarusian: critics and scholars of cinema around the world have entrusted their favorite movies shot in all languages – except English. Results : one hundred films of 67 directors, from 24 countries in 19 different languages.

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The BBC has made it big: 209 criticism coming from 43 different countries have been interviewed. They are, for the most part, specialists of cinema in major national daily newspapers and in specialised journals, or university professors.

This is the masterpiece of Akira Kurosawa, The Seven Samurai , completed in 1954, which came in first place. Among the icons of the seventh art, Ingmar Bergman and Luis Buñuel hold the top of the basket with five films each present in the list. Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa and Andrei Tarkovsky are the heels with four films. Forty of the films of the ranking have been made in a decade blessed for the film: from 1950 to 1960.

A single african film is in the ranking: Touki Buki of the Senegalese Djibril Diop Mambéty, made in 1973. In contrast, the Far East is well-represented: 25 films in total are from Japan, China, Taiwan and South Korea.

27 films in the French language

But the language shines in this classification is the French. She won 27 places in the rankings. The Rule of the game of Jean Renoir and The 400 blows of Truffaut are among the first ten titles. Are these films iconic of a national cinema such as Children of paradise (46th) Marcel Carné, Hiroshima my love (90th) Alain Resnais, breathless (11th), and Contempt (60th) by Jean-Luc Godard, or The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (51st) of Jacques Demy. Atalante (50th) Jean Vigo or The Great Illusion (36th) of Jean Renoir are among the great classics.

In the titles of the most recent, the presence of Amélie of Jean-Pierre Jeunet (82nd) confirms the global success that the romantic comedy was received on its release in 2001. We also have a Nice Work (Claire Denis, released in 2000, a portrait of soldiers of the foreign legion in Djibouti.

Classification of French-language films

96. Shoah , Claude Lanzmann, 1985

91. there is hullaballoo , Jules Dassin, 1955

90. Hiroshima My Love , Alain Resnais, 1959

84. the discreet Charm of the bourgeoisie , Luis Buñuel, 1972

82. Le Fabuleux Destin d’amélie Poulain , Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001

81. Céline and Julie go boating , Jacques Rivette, 1974

80. Los Olvidados , Luis Buñuel,1950

77. The Conformist , Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970

75. Belle de jour , Luis Buñuel, 1967

74. Pierrot Le Fou , Jean-Luc Godard, 1965

69. Love , Michael Haneke, 2012

67. The Angel exterminator , Luis Buñuel, 1962

60. Contempt , Jean-Luc Godard, 1963

58. Madame de. .., Max Ophüls, 1953

55. Jules and Jim , François Truffaut, 1962

52. Au Hasard Balthazar , Robert Bresson, 1966

51. The umbrellas of Cherbourg , Jacques Demy, 1964

50. Atalante ,Jean Vigo, 1934

48. Viridiana , Luis Buñuel, 1961

46. Children of paradise , Marcel Carné, 1945

44. Cleo from 5 to 7 , Agnès Varda, 1962

43. Nice Work , Claire Denis, 1999

36. The Great Illusion , Jean Renoir, 1937

33. Playtime , Jacques Tati, 1967

11. breathless , Jean-Luc Godard, 1960

8. The 400 blows , François Truffaut, 1959

5. the Rules of The game , Jean Renoir, 1939

First audition Jean-Pierre Léaud for 400 blows of François Truffaut