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Martin Scorsese’s top 15 films of all time revealed

The filmmaker's favourite is ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’

By Charlotte Krol

Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese. (Picture: Wikimedia Commons/Siebbi)

Martin Scorsese’s favourite films of all time have been revealed.

Sight and Sound magazine, which since 1952 has asked various filmmakers and critics every decade for their lists of the greatest films of all time, has now shared the ballots for its updated poll that was published in its winter 2022-23 issue.

The Taxi Driver and The Irishman filmmaker picked 2001: A Space Odyssey as his favourite movie of all time. Scorsese’s top 15 – in order – was: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), 8 ½ (1963), Ashes and Diamonds (1958), Citizen Kane (1941), Diary of a Country Priest (1951), Ikiru (1952), The Leopard (1963), Ordet (1955), Paisan (1946), The Red Shoes (1948), The River (1951), Salvatore (1962)
The Searchers (1956), Ugetsu Monogatari (1953), and Vertigo (1958).

Directed by Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey is widely regarded as one of the most influential films ever made. It was nominated for four Oscars and won the award for Best Special Visual Effects.

Scorsese, meanwhile, next heads up the western crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon.

The film is based on a series of murders in the Osage tribe in 1920s Oklahoma. Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Lily Gladstone and Brendan Fraser star in the forthcoming movie.

Killers of the Flower Moon is set for release in cinemas and on Apple TV+ later this year, however, no date has yet been set.

Meanwhile, in 2021 filmmaker Ridley Scott described superhero movies as “boring as shit”, claiming that their scripts are “not any fucking good”. His comments followed several conversations in recent years that have seen filmmakers like Scorsese and Denis Villeneuve dispute the artistic credibility of Marvel films.

Speaking to Deadline at the time, the Oscar-winning director said: “The best films are driven by the characters, and we’ll come to superheroes after this if you want, because I’ll crush it. I’ll fucking crush it. They’re fucking boring as shit.”

He continued: “Their scripts are not any fucking good. I think I’ve done three great scripted superhero movies. One would be Alien with Sigourney Weaver. One would be fucking Gladiator, and one would be Harrison Ford [from Blade Runner].

“They’re superhero movies. So, why don’t the superhero movies have better stories? Sorry. I got off the rail, but I mean, c’mon. They’re mostly saved by special effects, and that’s becoming boring for everyone who works with special effects, if you’ve got the money.”