The problem with most lists is that they are based on extra-cinematic criteria—
not how good the film is but how much box office it did, how famous the stars
are, etc, and most are lists of top American films. Also, silent and pre-Code films
tend to be ignored as do films from the 30s, 40s, and 50s. And lousy recent films
are added just because they are recent, like Titanic. Aermican films also tended
to be overrepresented and some great American directors never make it (lie Sam
Fuller).
Here is a good list (of a 1,000 films) to work with:
http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000.htm
I would delete all the Spielberg and Lucas films. Ditto almost all of David Lean
and all of Robert Zemeckis. I also disagree with most of their Powell and
Pressburger selections.
Here is another pretty good list:
http://www.listology.com/flogged/list/1001-movies-you-must-see-you-die
It's not ranked--just a list of films in chronological order.
Here is a bad list:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/related_feature
s/top_100_films/
The worst list I’ve seen is the American Film Institute’s AFI 100 Years...100
Movieshttp://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/movies.aspx
My list below includes foreign and American films and is based strictly on
whether the film is good in aesthetic terms. I have excluded musicals because I
don’t like them. The Godfather is excluded because I don’t like it. Ditto for The
Conversation (vastly overrated) and many other films on top 100 lists such as On
the Waterfront.
My interests lie primarily in directors (Godard, Rivette, Renais, Bresson, Renoir,
Vigo, Mann, Hitchcock, Lang, Marker, Roeg, Polanksi (up through The Tenant),
Zulawski, Kieslowski, Tarkovsky, Tarr, Pasolini, Rossellini, Brakhage, Snow,
Rohmer, Melville, Clouzot, Murnau, Ford, Walsh, Bergman, Ulmer, Wise, Hawks,
Fellini (some of), Kurosawa, Bunuel, Keaton, Maurice Pialat, Aldrich,
Cronenberg, Quay Brothers, Chaplin, Dreyer, Visconti, Vertov, Lubitsch, Jarman,
Einsenstein, Kubrick, Chabrol, James Whale, Aki Kaurismaki, Peckinpah,
Fuller, de Sica, the Dardenne Brothers, Ray, Bertolucci, Powell and Pressburger,
Ken Russell, Losey, Sirk, Tourneur, Lynch, Truffaut (some), Antonioni, Wong Kar
Wai (up through In the Mood for Love and nothing since), Welles, Arnofsky,
Herzog, Fassbinder, De Palma (early), and genres (film noir, psychological or
political thriller, surrealism, disaster films, horror films), years (Hollywood films
made in 1939) or decades (1970s).
Some producers are very important too, like Thalberg, Selznick, and Val Lewton.
Here are the films I watch repeatedly and that I think you should see someday in
no particular order either because they are canonical or I like them (or both),
compiled over a long period of time not in order of the moment a film was
included:
Caine Mutiny
Das Boot
The Duelists
Stage Fright
Providence (Renais)
Muriel
The Last Mistress (Breillat)
Vagabond (Varda)
Devil and Daniel Webster
Sid and Nancy
Walker
Kes
The Hulk (Ang Lee)
The Vanishing
In a Lonely Place
A Nous la liberte
Under the Roofs of Paris
Deliverance
The Wrestler
Closely Watched Trains
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Thief of Baghdad
Pinocchio
Johnny Got his Gun
A Walk with Love and Death
Wiseblood
Palm Beach Story
Hail the Conquering Hero
Sir Arne’s Treasure
Lost Horizon
Chunking Express
Throne of Blood
Alexander Nevsky
In the Mood for Love
Imitation of Life (both versions)
Broken Blossoms
Chelsea Girls
Mystery of the Wax Museum (de Toth)
Amazing Shrinking Man
Man with the X-Ray Eyes
Il Posto
Enthuziam (Vertov)
To Be or Not To Be
Hamlet (Sven gade)
Henry V (Olivier)
Night Porter
Battle of Algiers
Rabid
Rosetta
L’Enfant (Dardennes)
Diary of a Lost Girl
The River (Borzage)
Regeneration (Walsh)
Prisoner of Zenda (Ronald Colman)
A Tale of Two Cites (Jacques Tourneur storming the Bastille sequence)
We Will Not Grow Old Together
The Man without a Past
The Ice Storm
Ariel
Hamlet Goes Business
Man on a Wire
The Last Emperor
Bright Star
Becoming Jane
Chimes at Midnight
Mr. Arkadin
Journey into Fear
Berlin Express
Crossfire
Dead Man (because of Neil Young’s soundtrack)
Dark Passage
Playtime
Glass Key
Murder My Sweet
This Gun for Hire
The Set Up
They Drive by Night
Border incident
Far Country
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Apache
The Tin Star
The Furies
Stage Fright
The Number 17 (Hitchcock)
Robo Cop
Starship Troopers
Battle of Chile
Charge of the Light Brigade (both versions)
Far from the Madding Crowd
Gods and Monsters
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Night of the Living Dead
La Belle Noiseuse
Ecstasy
El Topo
Day for Night
Ikuru
Dog Day Afternoon
Samurai Trilogy
The Russian Ark
Final Destination
Final Destination 2
Final Destination 3
The Final Destination 3D
Man Who Fell To Earth
Body Double Femme Fatale
Dressed to Kill
Bright Star
Valerie her week of Wonders
Herostratus
Taxi Driver
Raging Bull
Mean Streets
Zulu
Dark City
13th Floor
Wreckmeister Harmonium
Battle of Britain
Rules of the Game
Science is Fiction
Tous les Matins du Monde
Moliere (Ariane Mnouchkine)
L’important c’est d’aimer
Red
White
Blue
Blind Chance
Miller’s Crossing
Blood of a Poet
La belle et la bete (Cocteau)
A Winter’s Tale (Rohmer)
Adele H.
The Bride Wore Black
La chambre verte
Waterloo Bridge James Whale)
The Invisible Man
La Bete Humaine
Grand Illusion
Rebecca
Notorious
Horseman on the Roof (uncut version, region 2)
Cyrano de Bergerac (with Depardieu)
Rebel Without a Cause
Bullit
In the Realm of the Senses
Empire of Passion
Artemisia
Double Indemnity
You Only Live Once
Rancho Notorious
The Train
Sword of Doom
Mad Detective
Audition
Gilda
Kiss Me Deadly
Return of Frank James
Fantastic Planet
Jan Svankmajer (BFI)
Imitation of Life (both versions)
Mildred Pierce
Petrified Forest
Of Human Bondage
Stella Dallas
Now, Voyager
Dark Victory
All Abut Eve
Marked Woman
Carnival of Souls
All About Eve
Postman Always Rings Twice (original)
Othello (Welles)
Hotel (Figgis)
Dead Ringers
Freaks
Grand Hotel
Pick Up on South Street
Hamlet (Olivier)
Macbeth (Polanski)
Aguirre, Wrath of God
Nanook of the North
Savage Innocents
Johnny Guitar
Amateur (1994)
Macbeth (Polanski)
Encounters at the End of the World
Written on the Wind
Far From Heaven
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
All That Heaven Allows
House on Telegraph Hill
The Jazz Singer
A Cottage on Dartmoor
Citizen Kane
Metropolis
Casablanca
North by Northwest
Edison (DVD collection)
Melies (DVD collection)
Lumiere Bothers
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Harold Lloyd (DVD collections)
Marx Brothers (DVD collections), esp. Duck Soup
W.C. Fields (DVD collections), esp. The Bank Dick
Wizard of Oz
Lost Highway
Blue Velvet
Wild at Heart
Inland Empire
Mulholland Drive
La Strada
Rowland V. Lee, Son of Frankenstein
Victor Erice, Spirit of the Beehive (1973)
Cornel Wilde The Naked Prey
Budd Boetticher, Behind Locked Doors (1948)
John Frankenheimer, The Train (1964)
Fred Zinnemann, The Search (1948)
High Noon
Dirty Harry
The Red Desert
Shock Corridor
The Big Red One
The Naked Kiss
Videodrome
Requiem for a Dream
L’avventura
L’eclisse
Il Posto
Germany Year Zero
Paisan
Rome Open City
Life of St. Francis
Bicycle Thieves
400 Blows
Salo
Overlord
Missing
Z
Samuel Fuller White Dog (1982)
Spellbound
Nightmare Alley
Ministry of Fear
The Cabient of Dr. Caligari
Blue Angel
Scarlet Empress
The Letter
Greed
Foolish Wives
Sunset Boulevard
Queen Christina
La Jetee
Vertigo
Sans Soleil
Sunset (Murnau)
Out of the Past
Planet of the Apes
The Omega Man
Jaws
Marathon Man
The French Connection
Bringing Up Baby
Double Life of Veronique
The Philadelphia Story
Marriage of Maria Braun
In a Year of Thirteen Moons
Meet John Doe
Gone with the Wind
Showgirls
The Tin Drum
Tabu
Faust
Kenneth Anger
Stan Brakhage
Michael Snow
Decasia
F for Fake
Niebelungen
M
Testament of Dr Mabuse (all three Lang versions, plus Chabrol’s Dr M)
Paris Burning
Night and Fog
Toute la Memoire du Monde
Contempt
Hara-kiri
Detour
Lady from Shanghai
Big Sleep
Maltese Falcon
D.O.A. (original)
I Want to Live!
Random Harvest
The Thing (Howard Hawks)
Airport 1975
Alphaville
Breathless
Pierrot le Fou
Detective
Notre Musuqie
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her
A Woman is a Woman
Le Petit Soldat
Prenom Carmen
Weekend
Made in the USA
Celine and Julie Go Boating
Last Year at Marienbad
Hiroshima mon amour
Birth of a Nation
Snow White
Seven Samurai
Searchers
Young Mr. Lincoln
Stagecoach
Fallen Idol
The Third Man
The Bold and the Beautiful (Minelli)
Shane
Red River
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence
Marnie
Man of the West
Manhunt
39 Steps
Saboteur
Sabotage
Young and Innocent
The Lady Vanishes
Duel in the Sun
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Unforgiven
The Lodger
Le Corbeau
Children of Paradise
La Silence de la Mer
Army of Shadows
Deuxième Souffle
The General (Keaton)
Le Samourai
October
Strike
Battleship Potemkin
Man with a Movie Camera
Enthusiasm (Vertov)
Un Chien Andalou
L’Age d’Or
The Desert of the Tartars
Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Diary of a Chambermaid
La Ceremonie
Belle du Jour
Repulsion
Discrete Object of Desire
Viridiana
Exterminating Angel
Criminal Life of Archibald de la Cruz
House on the River
Night of the Hunter
Day of Wrath
Vampyr
Wages of Fear
Historie(s) du Cinema
Raisin in the Sun
Beau Geste
Gunga Din
Four Feathers
Wings
Captains Courageous
Hell’s Angels
Adventures of Robin Hood
Children of Paradise
The Boy with Green Hair
Markereta Lazarova
Mother Joan of the Angels
Joyless Street
Cobra Verde
Munity on the Bounty (Laughton / Gable)
It Happened One Night
Thn Man series
The Great Escape
Anne of the Indies
5,000 Fingers of Dr. T
The Stepford Wives (Katherine Ross)
Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
The Vanishing
Jacob’s Laddder
Cat People Ghost Ship
I Walked with a Zombie
The Sign of the Cross
Mr. Death
The Saragossa Manuscript
Threepenny Opera
Pandora’s Box
City Girl
The Man from Laramie
Days of Heaven
Badlands
Intolerance
Haxan
Phantom Carriage
The White Ribbon
Funny Games (both versions)
Inglourious Basterds
Hitler Dead or Alive
The Game
Zodiac
Se7en
Fight Club
The Tenant
Destiny
Seventh Seal
Wild Strawberries
Fanny and Alexander
Clockwork Orange
2001: A Space Odyssey
Spartacus
Ben-Hur
Persona
Summer of Monica
The Magician
81/2
City of Women
1900
Besieged
The Edge of the World
Border Radio
Napoleon (Gance)
Monty Python and the holygrail
Radio On
Mildred Pierce
The Lady Eve
Drums Along the Mohawk
The Leopard
Au hazard balthassar
Diary of a Country Priest
The Passenger
Blow Up
Blow Out
All the President’s Men
Klute
Parallax View
King Kong
Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein
The Invisible Man
Master and Commander
Walkabout
Performance
Gimme Shelter
Woodstock
Monterey Pop
Triumph of the Will
Draughtsman’s Contract
Psycho
Peeping Tom
Sisters
Phantom of the Paradise
Carrie
Easy Rider
Five Easy Pieces
The Shining
Streetcar Named Desire
Straw Dogs
The Devils
Wild Bunch
A Canterbury Tale
Wuthering Heights
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Four Frightened People
No Country for Old Men
Lawrence of Arabia
I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
Some Like It Hot
White Heat
Scarface (Howard Hawks version)
Sullivan’s Travels
My Darling Clementine
The Best years of Our Lives
City Lights
Barry Lyndon
Fantasia
Finding Nemo
The Red Shoes
Once Upon a Time in the West
Ivan the Terrible
Solaris
Andrei Rublev
The Mirror (Tarkovsky)
Valley of the Bees
Modern Times
The Gold Rush
El Cid
Gladiator
Raw Deal
The Tall T
T-Men
Wild Child
Breaking the Waves
Blade Runner
Naked City
Jean Vigo, L’Atlante and Zero de Conduite
The Edge of the World
If . . .
The Golem
O Lucky Man
Brief Encounter
The Last of England
Flash Gordon (the serial)
Caravaggio
Blue
Jubilee
Wittgenstein
Safe
Rio Bravo
Super Star: The Karen Carpenter Story
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Night and the City
Thieves Highway
Miss Mend
Day of the Jackal
The Wicker Man (original)
Caligula (unrated)
The Servant
L’argent
Asphalt
Waxworks
Les Vampyres (Feuillade)
Fantomas (Feuillade)
Judex (Feuillade)
Judex (Franju)
Yojimbo Sanjuro
Nuit Rouges (Franju)
Rashomon
Gosford Park
Samurai Assassin
On Borrowed Time
Odds Against Tomorrow
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Chinatown
Spiral Staircase
Don’t Look Now
Bad Timing
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