About selecting his favorites from the collection, world-class cinematographer John Bailey ( Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters ) says, “One of the greatest challenges in trying to compile a list like this is to separate the objectively ‘great’ films from the subjectivity of ones that influenced me the most as I was forging my own way. This group looms large for me on both counts.” Bailey keeps a blog at the American Society of Cinematographers website.
Biography via Criterion.
The List
1
The Battle of Algiers
Gillo Pontecorvo
1966
122 min
2
Black Narcissus
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
1947
100 min
3
The Fire Within
Louis Malle
1963
108 min
4
The Wages of Fear
Henri-Georges Clouzot
1953
154 min
5
I fidanzati
Ermanno Olmi
1962
84 min
6
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Paul Schrader
1985
121 min
7tie
Rome Open City
Roberto Rossellini
1945
104 min
7tie
Paisan
Roberto Rossellini
1946
125 min
7tie
Germany Year Zero
Roberto Rossellini
1948
74 min
8
L’eclisse
Michelangelo Antonioni
1962
126 min
9
Contempt
UnavailableJean-Luc Godard
1963
103 min
10
The 400 Blows
François Truffaut
1959
99 min
11
The Rules of the Game
Jean Renoir
1939
110 min