Top 10 Biopics
Sean Penn stars as Harvey Milk—America's first major openly gay politican—in Gus Van Sant's new biopic Milk. TIME looks back at 80 years of "Based on the life of..." films.
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
An abbreviated biopic—the film focuses on Joan of Arc's last tortured hours—Carl Theodor Dreyer's silent masterpiece was lost twice in a fire before an original print was discovered in a janitor's closet in 1981. It's a beautiful and intimate film. As Roger Ebert writes, "There is not one single establishing shot...[it] is filmed entirely in closeups and medium shots." Rarely since has a film lingered over the face of its lead (Renee Jeanne Falconetti) with such single-minded obsession.
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