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Top 10 films from 1940-1949

	TobiasXimenez's Rating	My Rating
1	Citizen Kane (1941, PG) How the hell did Orson Welles make an expressionist tone poem under the old studio system? For me, there is no disputing this film's quality and it's stature as a masterpiece. Orson Welles' debut will obviously always be a contender for the title of greatest film ever made. To me that notion is FILM AS A FINE ART 101 and if that's not crystal clear to you within the first five minutes of viewing KANE, well then I just feel sorry for you. You don't have to love it, but you should give it mad props for having one of the biggest pairs of cinematic balls ever. At least for permanently changing the language of film? Very few filmmakers before or after Welles have solidified the importance of the film-author's vision the way he did. Chaplin and D.W. Griffith are the small handful that come to mind. Orson Welles is one of the most bold and tragic figures in cinema history and KANE is his astonishing paradigm.
2	Ladri di Biciclette (The Bicycle Thief) (Bicycle Thieves) (1949, Unrated) Essential viewing for anyone seriously interested in the cinema.
3	Casablanca (1943, Unrated)
4	The Grapes of Wrath (1940, Unrated)
5	Laura (1944, Unrated)
6	It's a Wonderful Life (1946, Unrated)
7	Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise) (1945, Unrated)
8	The Third Man (1949, Unrated)
9	Germania Anno Zero (Germany Year Zero) (1949, Unrated)
10	The Red Shoes (1948, R)