Edward Buscombe

We are all auteurists now, even those who tried to fight against it. So picking ten film titles is for me only a way of picking ten directors. Most of these films could have been substituted by other titles from the director’s oeuvre; thus instead of Psycho, it might have been Vertigo, Rear Window or North by Northwest. In choosing just ten directors, I feel guilt at leaving out so many who have given me so much pleasure: Buñuel, Chabrol, Coppola, Cukor, Kubrick, Malick, Minnelli, Wilder. The list could go on and on. There’s one exception that proves the rule; I don’t think Stanley Donen is one of the best ten directors there has ever been. But Singin’ in the Rain is so astonishing that it forced out The Bandwagon or An American in Paris. There are no new films here. The older one gets the less one is buffeted by the winds of fashion; or am I just a stick-in-the-mud? Well, I’ll stand by these titles. Age cannot wither them.