* The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Dreyer, France, 1927)
* Metropolis (Fritz Lang, Germany, 1927)
* M (Fritz Lang, Germany, 1931)
* L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, France, 1934) +++++
* The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, France, 1939) +++++
* The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, US, 1939)
* Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, US, 1941)
* To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch, US, 1942)
* Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, US, 1943)
* To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, US, 1944)
* Children of Paradise (Marcel Carne, France, 1945)
* Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, US, 1946)
* It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, US, 1946)
* Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, France, 1946)
* The Third Man (Carol Reed, UK, 1949) +++++
* Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1951)
* Ikuru (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1952)
* Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1953)
* The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot, France, 1953)
* Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, US, 1954) +++++
* Rififi (Jules Dassin, France, 1956)
* The Searchers (John Ford, US, 1956)
* Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, US, 1957)
* A Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, US, 1958)
* Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, US, 1958)
* La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, Italy, 1959)
* North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, US, 1959)
* Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, US, 1959)
* L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1960)
* The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, US, 1962)
* An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (Robert Enrico, France, 1962)
* High and Low (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1963)
* Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, UK, 1963)
* Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, US, 1964)
* A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, UK, 1964)
* The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, Italy, 1966)
* Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, US, 1967)
* Cool Hand Luke (Stuart Rosenberg, US, 1967)
* 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, US, 1968) +++++
* Claire's Knee (Eric Rohmer, France, 1970)
* Little Big Man (Arthur Penn, US, 1970)
* M*A*S*H (Robert Altman, US, 1970)
* Patton (Franklin J. Schaffner, US, 1970) ++++++++++
OK, while it may not be an artistic masterpiece of
cinema, Patton is still a great freaking movie; I never get tired of watching it.
That is all.
* Dirty Harry (Don Seigel, US, 1971)
* Duel (Steven Spielberg, US, 1971)
* The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, US, 1971)
* Les Deux Anglaises (Francois Truffant, France, 1971)
* The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, US, 1972) +++++
* Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, Germany, 1972)
* American Graffiti (George Lucas, US, 1973)
* Paper Moon (Peter Bogdanovich, US, 1973)
* Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, US, 1974)
* Chinatown (Roman Polanski, US, 1974) +++++
* The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, US, 1974)
* The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, US, 1974) +++++
* The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Joseph Sargent, US, 1974)
* Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, US, 1974)
* Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, UK, 1975)
* Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, US, 1975)
* Jaws (Steven Spielberg, US, 1975)
* Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones, UK, 1975)
* The Passenger (Michelangelo Antonioni, France-Italy-US-Spain, 1975)
* All the President's Men (Alan J. Pakula, US, 1976)
* Stroszek (Werner Herzog, Germany, 1977)
* The Last Wave (Peter Weir, Australia, 1977)
* The In-Laws (Arthur Hiller, US, 1979)
* Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen, West Germany, 1981)
* Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, US, 1982)
* The Verdict (Sidney Lumet, US, 1982)
* Local Hero (William Forsyth, UK, 1983)
* Amadeus (Milos Forman, US, 1984)
* Blood Simple (Joel Coen, US, 1984)
* Brazil (Terry Gilliam, US, 1985)
* Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (Tim Burton, US, 1985)
* Aliens (James Cameron, US, 1986)
* House of Games (David Mamet, US, 1987)
* The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, US, 1987)
* Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, US, 1989)
* Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant, US, 1989)
* Flirting (John Duigan, Australia, 1989)
* Glory (Edward Zwick, US, 1989)
* Ju Dou (Yimou Zhang, China, 1989)
* Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Steven Soderbergh, US, 1989)
* Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, US, 1990)
* Miller's Crossing (Joel Coen, US, 1990)
* Reversal of Fortune (Barbet Schroeder, US, 1990)
* Damage (Louis Malle, UK & France, 1992)
* Delicatessen (Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France, 1992)
* Proof (Jocelyn Moorhouse, Australia, 1992)
* Raise the Red Lantern (Yimou Zhang, China, 1992)
* Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, US, 1993)
* The music videos of Michel Gondry (1990's - present)
* Three Colours: Red (Krszystof Kieslowski, France-Switzerland-Poland, 1994)
* The White Balloon (Jafar Panahi, Iran, 1995)
* Lone Star (John Sayles, US, 1996)
* The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen, US, 1998) ("Where's the money, Lebowski??)
* The Insider (Michael Mann, US, 1999)
* The Matrix (Andy & Larry Wachowski, US, 1999)
* The Straight Story (David Lynch, US, 1999)
* Yi Yi (A One and a Two) (Edward Yang, Taiwan, 1999)
* My Voyage to Italy (Martin Scorsese, US, 1999)
* O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Joel Coen, US, 2000)
* You Can Count on Me (Kenneth Lonergan, US, 2000)
* In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong, 2000)
* The Gleaners and I (Agnes Varda, France, 2001)
* Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, US, 2001)
* The Fast Runner (Atanarjuat) (Zacharias Kunuk, Canada, 2001)
* Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, 2002)
* 24 Hour Party People (Micheal Winterbottom, UK, 2002)
* Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Peter Weir, US, 2003)
* The Station Agent (Thomas McCarthy, US, 2003)
* Big Fish (Tim Burton, US, 2003)
* Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Nick Park & Steve Box, UK, 2005)
* 49 Up (Michael Apted, UK, 2005) - ...and all the past films in the Up Series as well.
* When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (Spike Lee, US, 2006)
* The Departed (Martin Scorsese, US, 2006)
* Sweet Land (Ali Selim, US, 2006)
* The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel, US, 2007)
* Protagonist (Jessica Yu, US, 2007)
* Once (John Carney, Ireland, 2007)
* Goodbye Solo (Ramin Bahrani, US, 2008)
* Man on Wire (James Marsh, UK, 2008)
* Tulpan (Sergey Dvortsevoy, Kazakhstan, 2008)
* Departures (Yojiro Takita, Japan, 2008)
* Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt, US, 2008)
* Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, US, 2009)
* God's Architects (Zack Godshall, US, 2009)
* Despicable Me (Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud, US, 2010)
not quite the greatest films of all time, or perhaps nowhere near the greatest, but I like them:
In no particular order:
Goldfinger, Five Million Years to Earth, Yellow Submarine, Mississippi Masala,
This is Spinal Tap, Control, Weekend, The Right Stuff, The Cool School, Stranger than Fiction, Night of the Hunter, The War of the Worlds (the original, not the horrible Spielberg remake), Animal House, When We Were Kings,
Le Mepris (Contempt), Lantana, Zero Dark Thirty, Beverly Hills Cop, An Education, The Wind WIll Carry Us, The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, The Visitor, Magnolia, Talladega Nights, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (AKA Every Man For Himself and God Against All), Y Tu Mama Tambien, Sergio Leone's "Dollars" trilogy, Office Space, Raising Arizona, Donnie Darko, Monsters, Inc.,
The Hours, Hot Fuzz, End of the Tour, Persepolis, Rachel Getting Married, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, In Bruges, Ghost World, True Grit (the 2010 Coen Brothers remake), Casino Royale (2006 version), The Best Years of Our Lives, Russian Ark, Moonlighting (not the TV series Moonlighting), Secretariat, Argo, From Russia With Love,
Les Diaboliques (the original, not the remake), I'm Not There, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Inside Man, Forbidden Games, Trading Places, The Five Obstructions, The Motorcycle Diaries, Cat People (the original, not the remake), Tropic Thunder, Amores Perros, 61*, Duck Soup,
Ruby in Paradise, Schindler's List, 25th Hour, Masculin-Feminin, Superbad, A Night at the Opera, The Shawshank Redemption, Garden State, The Shining,
Breaking Away, The Player, My Architect, L.A. Confidential, John Adams (HBO mini-series), Intolerable Cruelty, Lost in Translation, The French Connection, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Amelie, Stranger Than
Paradise, Kundun, Babe (i.e. the one with the talking pig), The Road Warrior, The Birds, Raging Bull,
Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, My Favorite Year, The Andromeda Strain, To Kill a Mockingbird,
SLC Punk, Touchez Pas au Grisbi, Sideways, Airplane, Miracle, Pan's Labyrinth, American Splendour, Toy Story, What's Up, Doc?, A Man Escaped, Sunset Boulevard,
A Christmas Story, Annie Hall, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Hustler, The Royal Tenenbaums, Hud, I Claudius (made for TV),
Malcolm X, Lars and the Real Girl, Performance, Batman Begins, The Incredibles, The Bad News Bears, Eyes Wide Shut (I understand why it drives
people nuts, but I think it was one of Kubrick's best), Mystery Train, The African
Queen, The Cowboys, Andrei Rublev, Clerks, The Untouchables, Terminator 2, Raiders of the Lost
Ark, Alien, The Ice Storm, Go Fish, Shaun of the Dead, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, Rainman, Rushmore, Gosford Park,
Comfort and Joy, Lonesome Dove (made for TV), Double Indemnity, and I'm a sucker for Good
Will Hunting. (And if George Lucas had quit in 1977, I'd have the original Star Wars. Where's
Chaplin? I dunno; a genius, yes, but his work could get annoyingly cute at times. Call it the McCartney syndrome.)
