Making lists is an activity moviegoers are fond of. Every year, the same ritual: compilation of the ten best films, with comparative analyses, debates, heated discussions. But what about the ultimate list of the most outstanding films in the history of cinema? That is to say, those films that must be seen, those that have forever transformed the art of cinema, but also our way of seeing a culture, of understanding the world as well as our own lives? This program aims to tackle this challenge with nearly eighty films, produced between 1916 and 1960, while waiting for your lists!
A lonely horseman, Shane, is taken in by a family of farmers. The wife, young son and neighbors soon fall under the spell of this newcomer who is as comfortable with farm tools as he is with a gun against a gang of violent ranchers.
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George Stevens
George Stevens was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for A Place in the Sun (1951) and Giant (1956). Born in Oakland, California, he worked in his parents' West Coast touring stock theater company as a child actor and stage manager. When cinema was replacing live theater, Stevens's parents relocated to Los Angeles. At the age of 17, he was hired as an assistant cameraman, working on several Western films produced by Hal Roach. Within three years, he became a cameraman on the Our Gang series. Impressed with his visual knowledge, Roach then appointed him to direct installments of The Boy Friends series. Stevens next moved to Universal Pictures, and then RKO Pictures. There, he directed several genre films, including Alice Adams (1935) starring Katharine Hepburn; Swing Time (1936) starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers; and Gunga Din (1939) starring Cary Grant. In 1941, during World War II, Stevens joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps and headed a film unit. Using his personal 16 mm film camera, he shot color footage of the Liberation of Paris and the entry of American soldiers into the Dachau concentration camp. He then returned to Hollywood and directed more serious films, starting with I Remember Mama (1948). Between 1951 to 1956, he directed his American Trilogy, which includes A Place in the Sun (1951), Shane (1953), and Giant (1956), before he directed widescreen biographical films, The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). His final film was The Only Game in Town (1970) starring Elizabeth Taylor and Warren Beatty.
