Lawrence of Arabia, David Lean’s 1962 epic lensed by the late Freddie Young, has topped a list of milestone films in the art and craft of cinematography of the 20th century, as selected by members of the American Society of Cinematographers. The release of the list kicks off the commemoration of the society’s Centennial, which will be celebrated throughout 2019.
Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner, lensed by the late Jordan Cronenweth, and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 war film Apocalypse Now, shot by Vittorio Storaro, round out the top three films on the list. Storaro’s work on Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist is also in the top 10. Others include the lateGregg Toland’s work on Orson Welles’ classic Citizen Kane and Owen Roizman’s lensing of The French Connection.
The top 10 films are listed below, followed by a complete list of 100 films where the additional 90 titles are unranked as society members “wanted to call attention to the most significant achievements of the cinematographer’s art but not refer to one achievement as ‘better’ than another.”
Also on Tuesday, the City of Los Angeles will recognize ASC’s 100th anniversary with a proclamation, which is scheduled to be presented by City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell at the ASC’s historic Hollywood clubhouse. ASC members including president Kees van Oostrum and Centennial committee chair and past president Richard Crudo will also unveil a 100th anniversary seal at the building’s courtyard. A members-only reception and dinner will follow.
The top 10 films are:
1. Lawrence of Arabia (1962), shot by Freddie Young, BSC (Dir. David Lean)
2. Blade Runner (1982), shot by Jordan Cronenweth, ASC (Dir. Ridley Scott)
3. Apocalypse Now ( 1979), shot by Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
4. Citizen Kane (1941), shot by Gregg Toland, ASC (Dir. Orson Wells)
5. The Godfather (1972), shot by Gordon Willis, ASC (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
6. Raging Bull (1980), shot by Michael Chapman, ASC (Dir. Martin Scorsese)
7. The Conformist (1970), shot by Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC (Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci)
8. Days of Heaven (1978), shot by Nestor Almendros, ASC (Dir. Terrence Malick)
9. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), shot by Geoffrey Unsworth, BSC with additional photography by John Alcott, BSC (Dir. Stanley Kubrick)
10. The French Connection (1971), shot by Owen Roizman, ASC (Dir. William Friedkin)
And here’s the full list of the ASC’s top cinematography of the 20th century:
1927 Metropolis
1927 Napoleon
1927 Sunrise
1939 Gone With the Wind
1939 The Wizard of Oz
1940 The Grapes of Wrath
1941 Citizen Kane
1941 How Green Was My Valley
1942 Casablanca
1942 The Magnificent Ambersons
1947 Black Narcissus
1948 The Bicycle Thief
1948 The Red Shoes
1949 The Third Man
1950 Rashomon
1950 Sunset Boulevard
1954 On the Waterfront
1954 Seven Samurai
1955 The Night of the Hunter
1956 The Searchers
1957 Bridge on the River Kwai
1958 Touch of Evil
1958 Vertigo
1960 Breathless
1961 Last Year at Marienbad
1962 Lawrence of Arabia
1963 8 1⁄2
1963 Hud
1964 Dr. Strangelove
1964 I Am Cuba (Soy Cuba)
1965 Doctor Zhivago
1966 The Battle of Algiers
1966 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1967 Cool Hand Luke
1967 The Graduate
1967 In Cold Blood
1968 2001: A Space Odyssey
1968 Once Upon a Time in the West
1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
1969 Wild Bunch
1970 The Conformist
1971 A Clockwork Orange
1971 The French Connection
1971 Klute
1971 The Last Picture Show
1971 McCabe and Mrs. Miller
1972 Cabaret
1972 The Godfather
1972 Last Tango in Paris
1973 The Exorcist
1974 Chinatown
1974 The Godfather: Part II
1975 Barry Lyndon
1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
1976 All the President’s Men
1976 Bound for Glory
1976 Taxi Driver
1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1977 The Duellists
1978 Days of Heaven
1978 The Deer Hunter
1979 Alien
1979 All That Jazz
1979 Apocalypse Now
1979 Being There
1979 The Black Stallion
1979 Manhattan
1980 Raging Bull
1980 The Shining
1981 Chariots of Fire
1981 Das Boot
1981 Reds
1982 Blade Runner
1982 Fanny and Alexander
1983 The Right Stuff
1984 Amadeus
1984 The Natural
1984 Paris, Texas
1985 Brazil
1986 The Mission
1987 Empire of the Sun
1987 The Last Emperor
1987 Wings of Desire
1988 Mississippi Burning
1991 JFK
1991 Raise the Red Lantern
1992 Unforgiven
1992 Baraka
1993 Schindler’s List
1993 Searching for Bobby Fischer
1993 Trois Couleurs: Bleu
1994 The Shawshank Redemption
1995 Se7en
1996 The English Patient
1997 L. A. Confidential
1998 Saving Private Ryan
1998 The Thin Red Line
1999 American Beauty
1999 The Matrix
2000 In the Mood for Love
