OWFILM WORLD CUP Round 1: U.S.A. vs. Greece

By Laurent Kelly / June 11, 2010

First Round of OWFilm World Cup

Here it is, the first fixture of the Obsessed With Film World Cup, and it's the Greek cinema industry that drew the short straw by pulling Hollywood out of the hat right off the bat. Surely, there's only one outcome here?

Vote now for which film you want to see advance to the next round. Remember you are voting for YOUR OPINION on which film you prefer.

Tale of the Reel is after the jump;

The Godfather (1972)

OSCAR COUNT: (4), IMDB (9.2, #2), RT (100%), Empire Top 500 (#1)

Oscars - Best Picture, Best Director,Best Actor in a Leading Role. Best Adapted Screenplay

When it comes to audience reception, The Godfather truly has the best of both worlds. Not only is it deeply respected by film scholars and critics alike it is also almost universally adored by the mainstream public. Despite its artistic tone and steady, patient pacing Francis Ford Coppola€™s film seems to appeal to almost every type of male film demographic through every generation. The movie has strongly resonate themes of power, love, greed and betrayal in Coppola's approach to showing us the dark side of the American dream. The performances are flawless, the direction is perfectly controlled and almost every other line of dialogue is quotable. Capiche? Although fans of The Dark Knight screwed over The Godfather in order to inadvertently leapfrog The Shawshank Redemption into the new number one position on IMDB, the mafia classic has a mightily impressive resume on nearly every established film list out there. It was voted no 1 in Empire Magazine€™s 500 Greatest films of all time, number 2 on the Sight and Sound magazine€™s Director€™s Poll and came 3rd in the American Film Institute€™s List of the 100 greatest American films ever made. INTERESTING FACT: The baby being christened near the end of the film is played by Sofia Coppola - future director of Lost in Translation.

Never on Sunday (1960)

OSCAR COUNT: (1), IMDB (7.3), RT (86%), Empire Top 500 (not listed)

Oscars - Best Original Song

And The Godfather€™s unlucky first round opponent is Never on a Sunday which is a touching, €œhooker with a heart of gold€ story told in black-and-white about the growing relationship between a prostitute named Iyla and an American tourist named Homer. It is a very much a character dominated story with clever insights into human behaviour which it does whilst mirroring a number of classical Ancient Greek tales. Written, directed and starring Hollywood blacklisted director Julius Dassin who fled the country in the McCarthy era, the movie contains an incredible 35-minute sequence chronicling the a break-in, shot without a word of dialogue or note of music. The movie made a star out of his wife and lead actress Melina Mercouri that made her an international star and won her an Academy Award, in their third outing together. The Oscar winning title song has been covered by a number of famous artists including The Chordettes, Connie Francis and Petula Clark. INTERESTING FACT: The film features the first song from a foreign language movie to win an Oscar.WRITER€™S VERDICT: Never on Sunday is a lovely Sunday afternoon film which refreshingly takes the time to develop proper characters and patiently explore a range of human emotions. The Godfather however is just a stone cold classic in every way imaginable and deserves the obvious nod for the United States here.