Nick Roddick

Film journalist; critic

Voted in the critics’ poll

Voted for

Badlands	1973	Terrence Malick
Brief Encounter	1945	David Lean
Celine and Julie Go Boating	1974	Jacques Rivette
dolce vita, La	1960	Federico Fellini
Ikiru	1952	Akira Kurosawa
Kings of the Road	1976	Wim Wenders
Long Goodbye, The	1973	Robert Altman
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid	1973	Sam Peckinpah
Règle du jeu, La	1939	Jean Renoir
Searchers, The	1956	John Ford

Comments

The criterion: emotional. It was never going to be ‘importance to film history’ because then it would have to include The Robe. Sure, aesthetic principles play their part, as I hope the list makes clear, but if I have to chose between a film I admire (The White Ribbon, La notte) and one which knocks my emotional socks off every time – like Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid – I will always go for that. Cool, calm and critical I’ve never been.