GREATEST MOVIES OF ALL TIME
By: WTOP Film Critic Jason Fraley
Table of Contents
1) American Cinema 101 (Hollywood Essentials)
2) World Cinema 101 (Foreign Flicks From Abroad)
3) Best of the Rest (Silents, Docs, Shorts, Animation)
AMERICAN CINEMA 101
Blending art and entertainment with Popcorn on the Fives and Auteurs in Between.
1. ‘The Godfather’ (1972-1974) - Francis Ford Coppola
As a combined work— Part I baptism to Part II betrayal — Coppola’s operatic tragedy of sons
who become their fathers (unrivaled Pacino evolving into iconic Brando & DeNiro) is a saga
“you can’t refuse,” exposing corruption at all levels. It’s so brilliant it won Best Picture — twice.
2. ‘Vertigo’ (1958) - Alfred Hitchcock
Critics & crowds didn’t grasp upon release, but Hitchcock’s obsessions are on full display in this
spiraling tragedy of lost love. A circling kiss in green light to Herrmann’s score? Cinematic bliss.
3. ‘Casablanca’ (1942) - Michael Curtiz
“Play it, Sam.” “We’ll always have Paris.” “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.” You won’t find better
dialogue or themes as Rick represents a reluctant U.S. in WWII, sacrificing for Ilsa & Laszlo.
4. ‘Chinatown’ (1974) - Roman Polanski
Robert Towne’s script is perfect, as Jack Nicholson loses nose investigating neo-noir scandal to
intoxicating Jerry Goldsmith score, shocking Faye Dunaway twist, fatalistic John Huston finale.
5. ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ (1946) - Frank Capra
Its reputation as a holiday classic doesn’t do it justice, for Frank Capra’s masterpiece of magical
realism is a Dickensian tale of George Bailey’s suicide averted by Americana community bonds.
6. 'Citizen Kane’ (1941) - Orson Welles
Orson Welles invented cinematic language with deep-focus photography and non-linear Rosebud
plot. Holds the key to unlocking film theory: every shot has a symbolic idea in its mise-en-scene.
7. ‘The Searchers’ (1956) - John Ford
John Wayne gives career role as “soul searcher.” Only way to save niece from Comanches is to
save self from prejudice. John Ford paints bookends with secret mise-en-scene affair in between.
8. ‘Raging Bull’ (1980) - Martin Scorsese
Marty’s masterpiece features exquisite and symbolic in-ring boxing sequences and arguably the
greatest performance of all time by Robert DeNiro, whose paranoia alienates everyone he loves.
9. ‘The Graduate’ (1967) - Mike Nichols
Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross & Anne Bancroft form bizarre love triangle as Ben, Elaine &
Mrs. Robinson, while Nichols directs with scuba symbolism and Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack.
10. ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939) - Victor Fleming
No film will ever have a bigger pop-culture impact than Oz, as Judy Garland melts the Wicked
Witch down the Yellow Brick Road while singing cinema’s greatest song: “Over the Rainbow.”
11. ‘Schindler’s List’ (1993) - Steven Spielberg
Liam Neeson is sensational as Nazi defector Oskar Schindler, saving 1,200 Jews from Holocaust,
Ralph Fiennes is a horrific Amon Goeth and Ben Kingsley brings us to tears: “The list is life.”
12. ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ (1952) - Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
It’s impossible not to smile as Donald O’Connor does pratfalls in “Make Em Laugh,” Debbie
Reynolds belts “Good Morning” & Gene Kelly splashes in Technicolor puddles for the title song.
13. ‘Psycho’ (1960) - Alfred Hitchcock
Audiences screamed so loud at Janet Leigh’s shower that they couldn’t hear Bernard Herrmann’s
famed slashing theme, leaving dutiful mama’s boy Norman Bates to pick up the shocking pieces.
14. ‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994) - Quentin Tarantino
Boasting badass dialogue, fractured narrative, genre homages and killer soundtrack, Tarantino
influenced filmmaking for next 20 years with dream cast: Jackson, Travolta, Thurman & Willis.
15. ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ (1981) - Steven Spielberg
Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones instantly became the greatest action-adventure hero of all time,
outrunning boulders, braving snake pits and surviving the spirits of the Ark of the Covenant.
16. ‘Sunset Boulevard’ (1950) - Billy Wilder
Wilder’s gothic masterpiece is a cynical look at aging Hollywood stars, as Gloria Swanson’s
Norma Desmond leaves Bill Holden floating face-down before she’s “ready for her close-up.”
17. ‘All About Eve’ (1950) - Joseph L. Mankiewicz
“Fasten your seat belts!” Broadway backstabbing was never more delicious than Bette Davis
fending off Anne Baxter and enduring George Sanders’ snarky theatre critic Addison DeWitt.
18. ‘Rear Window’ (1954) - Alfred Hitchcock
Suspenseful murder mystery is voyeuristic allegory on filmmaking process, as Jimmy Stewart
cuts from window to window with his eyes, oblivious to the answer behind him (Grace Kelly).
19. ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ (1975) - Milos Forman
This masterpiece swept Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress & Screenplay with an all-time
Nurse Ratched villain and Jack Nicholson hero, whose defeat inspires another to triumph.
20. ‘Star Wars’ (1977-1980) - George Lucas
After American Graffiti, Lucas introduced more beloved characters than any franchise: Darth
Vader, Luke Skywalker, Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2D2, C3PO, Yoda & Obi-Won Kenobi.
21. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ (1962) - Robert Mulligan
Gregory Peck turned Atticus Finch into the AFI’s top hero, teaching Scout & Jem to walk in
other people’s skin to defend Tom Robinson and respect Boo Radley (Robert Duvall in debut).
22. ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991) - Jonathan Demme
The only “horror” Best Picture, Jodie Foster is badass as Clarice Starling, braving night-vision
lair to slay Buffalo Bill with the help of AFI’s top villain Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins).
23. ‘Double Indemnity’ (1944) - Billy Wilder
The same year as Otto Preminger’s Laura, Billy Wilder directed the greatest film noir ever as
Edward G. Robinson cracks murder plot by Fred MacMurray & femme fatale Barbara Stanwyck.
24. ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ (1994) - Frank Darabont
If lists are part democracy, this IMDB champ deserves high praise as Andy Dufresne bucks the
prison a la Cool Hand Luke to find redemption alongside Morgan Freeman’s heavenly narration.
25. ‘Jaws’ (1975) - Steven Spielberg
The quintessential summer blockbuster put Spielberg on the map, as a malfunctioning shark
robot forced him to create terrifying underwater P.O.V.s set to John Williams’ two-note score.
26. ‘On the Waterfront’ (1954) - Elia Kazan
After his Streetcar breakthrough, Marlon Brando reunited with Method mentor Elia Kazan as
Terry Malloy, who “coulda been a contender” battling Lee J. Cobb on the corrupt union docks.
27. ‘Annie Hall’ (1977) - Woody Allen
Nation fell for Diane Keaton in inventive rom-com, using split-screens, out-of-body experiences,
subtitles of character thoughts, animated visions and famous figures stepping in from off screen.
28. ‘GoodFellas’ (1990) - Martin Scorsese
The fan-favorite flick of all Scorsese fans finds Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Robert DeNiro & Lorraine
Bracco living the high mob life until it all comes crashing down to bittersweet piano of “Layla.”
29. The American Trilogy: 'A Place in the Sun, Shane, Giant’ (1951-1956) - George Stevens
Giant is the superior epic to Gone With the Wind for having more moral courage than any film on
racial/gender equality, completing Stevens’ trilogy of moody A Place in the Sun & mythic Shane.
30. ‘Gone With the Wind’ (1939) - Victor Fleming
The highest grossing movie of all time is unfortunately on wrong side of history in its nostalgia,
but Scarlett O’Hara & Rhett Butler “frankly don’t give a damn” as cinema’s most fiery lovers.
31. ‘The Wild Bunch’ (1969) - Sam Peckinpah
Peckinpah turned violent Western into bloody ballet with daring cuts, shifting speeds, scorpion
symbolism and a deep cast of William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan & Ben Johnson.
32. ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ (1968) - Roman Polanski
In the greatest supernatural horror movie ever made, John Cassavetes makes a deal with the devil
for Mia Farrow to birth the Antichrist, cultivated by neighbors Ruth Gordon & Sidney Blackmer.
33. ‘Some Like it Hot’ (1959) - Billy Wilder
“Nobody’s perfect,” but this comedy is. Wilder’s gem inspired Tootsie & Mrs. Doubtfire as Jack
Lemmon & Tony Curtis cross-dress to flee mobsters, falling for a never-better Marilyn Monroe.
34. ‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979) - Francis Ford Coppola
Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” enters Vietnam as Martin Sheen moves upriver to kill
Brando’s Col. Kurtz, while Robert Duvall smells “Napalm in the morning” to Wagner’s music.
35. ‘Forrest Gump’ (1994) - Robert Zemeckis
Don’t let Tom Hanks’ dunce act fool ya. Forrest & Jenny try to make sense of U.S. history in a
deceptively deep journey. Ebert: “Not only magical entertainment, but actually sort of profound.”
36. ‘Network’ (1976) - Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet steers Paddy Chayefsky’s killer script predicting salacious cable news, featuring a
mad-as-hell Peter Finch & William Holden diagnosing Faye Dunaway as television incarnate.
37. ‘Cool Hand Luke’ (1967) - Stuart Rosenberg
“Failure to communicate!” Shawshank & Cuckoo’s Nest owe their anti-conformity to Paul
Newman’s career role (just ahead of The Verdict) in greatest Christ allegory ever put on film.
38. ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ (1967) - Arthur Penn
Warren Beatty & Faye Dunaway proved how Bonnie & Clyde captured Depression imaginations
with their mantra, “We rob banks,” until the fatalistic bloody finish brilliantly presented by Penn.
39. ‘It Happened One Night’ (1934) - Frank Capra
Two (hitchhiker) thumbs up for pre-Mr. Smith Capra creating rom-com genre as Walls of Jericho
split Clark Gable & Claudette Colbert, sweeping Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress & Script.
40. ‘Rocky’ (1976) - John G. Alvidsen
The greatest underdog story ever told, this 1976 Best Picture was a box office smash with hands
raised above those Philly steps and a Rocky-Adrian love story with the final words: “I love you.”
41. ‘West Side Story’ (1961) - Robert Wise
Rival gangs the Sharks & Jets snapped their way into Broadway and Hollywood history, as Tony
& Maria brought Romeo & Juliet to New York City alongside Rita Moreno and George Chakiris.
42. ‘Do the Right Thing’ (1989) - Spike Lee
Spike Lee spits the “double truth, Ruth,” as racial tensions boil over in the Brooklyn summertime
for an epithet montage and a Radio Raheem riot, all set to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power.”
43. ‘Blazing Saddles’ (1974) - Mel Brooks
Co-written by Richard Pryor, Mel Brooks delivers the most laugh-out-loud comedy of all time as
Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens, Madeline Kahn roast the Old West.
44. ‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’ (1948) - John Huston
“We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!” John Huston directed his father Walter to an Oscar and tops
Maltese Falcon & African Queen with Bogie’s greedy Fred C. Dobbs lost in a hellfire campfire.
45. ‘The Sound of Music’ (1965) - Robert Wise
The “hills are alive” for this timeless musical, featuring an unforgettable Julie Andrews fresh off
an Oscar for Mary Poppins, teaching the Von Trapp children the famous tunes of “Do, Re, Mi.”
46. ‘Taxi Driver’ (1976) - Martin Scorsese
“You talkin’ to me?” Robert DeNiro is terrifying as alienated cabbie Travis Bickle, stalking
Cybill Shepherd & Albert Brooks before saving teen Jodie Foster from Harvey Keitel’s pimp.
47. ‘Groundhog Day’ (1993) - Harold Ramis
After giving us Animal House, Caddyshack, Vacation & Ghostbusters, Harold Ramis invented
his most genius premise: Bill Murray reliving the same day over and over in Punxsutawney, PA.
48. ‘Blue Velvet’ (1986) - David Lynch
Before American Beauty, wonderfully weird Lynch (Twin Peaks) plunged Kyle MacLachlan &
Laura Dern into suburbia’s dark underbelly of nightmarish Dennis Hopper & Isabella Rossellini.
49. ‘Nashville (1975) - Robert Altman
Respect for Altman (M*A*S*H, McCabe & Mrs. Miller) grows with each repeat viewing, as 24
main characters weave a star-studded country-music mosaic set to Keith Carradine’s “I’m Easy.”
50. ‘Titanic’ (1997) - James Cameron
Screw the haters. Let’s see them win a record 11 Oscars with a Top 5 grosser of all-time. James
Cameron’s disaster romance is “king of the world” for giving us Leo DiCaprio & Kate Winslet.
51. ‘Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid’ (1969) - George Roy Hill
Before The Sting, Hill cast Paul Newman & Robert Redford in Western buddy comedy with B.J.
Thomas’s song, William Goldman’s superb script and the namesake for the Sundance Film Fest.
52. ‘Fargo’ (1996) - The Coen Brothers
Big Lebowski is their funniest. No Country is their most suspenseful. Fargo is the best of both
worlds with snowy atmosphere, imitable accents and a hero for all time in Marge Gunderson.
53. ‘Duck Soup’ (1933) - Leo McCarey
Two years before A Night at the Opera, the Marx Brothers delivered their comic masterpiece
with political anarchy in Freedonia and a side-splitting mirror scene with Groucho vs. Harpo.
54. ‘White Heat’ (1949) - Raoul Walsh
After The Public Enemy & Yankee Doodle Dandy, James Cagney’s “dirty rat” gangster persona
peaked with Cody Jarrett, distrusting “coppers” and shouting, “Made it, Ma! Top of the world!”
55. ‘Back to the Future’ (1985) - Robert Zemeckis
Time-travel crowd pleaser finds Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) sending Marty McFly (Michael
J. Foxx) back to 1955 to make his parents (Lea Thompson & Crispin Glover) fall back in love.
56. ‘The Philadelphia Story’ (1940) - George Cukor
Labeled box office poison after Bringing Up Baby, Katharine Hepburn rebounded with her best
role across Cary Grant & Jimmy Stewart in rom-com classic remade as the musical High Society.
57. ‘Se7en’ (1995) - David Fincher
“What’s in the box?” David Fincher (Fight Club) is dark perfection with this Seven Deadly Sins
warning of moral decay starring Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow & Kevin Spacey.
58. ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ (1962) - John Frankenheimer
Eerily foreshadowing JFK’s assassination, Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey & Angela Lansbury
give career performances, while Frankenheimer directs fabulous opening brainwash sequence.
59. ‘North By Northwest’ (1959) - Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock’s most entertaining film boasts an uber-charming Cary Grant as the ultimate “wrong
man” on the run, fleeing crop dusters, wooing Eva Marie Saint and scaling Mount Rushmore.
60. ‘The Sixth Sense’ (1999) - M. Night Shyamalan
Bruce Willis carries a movie filled with suspense, while Haley Joel Osment and Toni Collette
bond over his chilling secret (“I see dead people”), building to the greatest twist of all time.
61. ‘His Girl Friday’ (1940) - Howard Hawks
The newspaper biz also makes for classic screwball comedy, as Howard Hawks reunites with his
Bringing Up Baby star Cary Grant for rapid-fire repartee with proto-feminist Rosalind Russell.
62. ‘All the President’s Men’ (1976) - Alan J. Pakula
Decades before Spotlight, Robert Redford & Dustin Hoffman exposed Watergate as Woodward
& Bernstein in a political thriller mining Deep Throat suspense despite us knowing the ending.
63. ‘The Tree of Life’ (2011) - Terrence Malick
The elusive Terrence Malick (Badlands, Days of Heaven) built the most mind-blowing film since
2001, juxtaposing Sean Penn, Brad Pitt & Jessica Chastain against the formation of the universe.
64. ‘High Noon’ (1952) - Fred Zinnemann
Gary Cooper & Grace Kelly star in what’s both an archetypal Western and a subversive take on
McCarthyism, featuring Tex Ritter’s “Do Not Forsake Me” in real-time dread of ticking clocks.
65. ‘E.T. The Extra Terrestrial’ (1982) - Steven Spielberg
“E.T. phone home” became a pop culture phenomenon in the most immortal kids movie ever
made, making us misty as Elliott and sister Drew Barrymore bid farewell to their alien friend.
66. ‘The Exorcist’ (1973) - William Friedkin
After his Best Picture French Connection, William Friedkin directed the scariest film ever with
Max von Sydow’s exorcist, Ellen Burstyn’s concerned mother and Linda Blair’s horrific demon.
67. ‘The Shop Around the Corner’ (1940) - Ernst Lubitsch
The original You’ve Got Mail saw handwritten letters between Jimmy Stewart & Margaret
Sullavan, epitomizing the “Lubitsch Touch” after gems like Trouble in Paradise and Ninotchka.
68. ‘When Harry Met Sally’ (1989) - Rob Reiner
Reiner cranked out hits (Stand By Me, Princess Bride, Misery, A Few Good Men), but his best
saw Billy Crystal & Meg Ryan in perfect rom-com script by Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle).
69. ‘Midnight Cowboy’ (1969) - John Schlesinger
Better than Easy Rider, it remains only X-rated Best Picture as Jon Voight loses his innocence to
John Barry score, Harry Nilsson song and Dustin Hoffman’s famous improv: “I’m walkin’ here!”
70. ‘Airplane!’ (1980) - David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker
Naked Gun team spoofs everything from Saturday Night Fever to From Here to Eternity with
drinking problems, glue sniffing, cockpit banter and Leslie Nielsen’s “Don’t call me Shirley.”
71. ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (1998) - Steven Spielberg
With all due respect to Patton, this is the best WWII movie ever made, from the D-Day invasion
to the sniper showdown to the final bridge battle. Without this, there’d be no Band of Brothers.
72. ‘Deliverance’ (1972) - John Boorman
Beyond the “Dueling Banjos,” it’s a master warning on what Burt Reynolds calls man’s “rape of
nature,” as tires squeal through the wilderness to brave a river before it becomes a man-made
lake.
73. ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ (2004) - Michel Gondry
Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich) reached his creative zenith by erasing the romantic
memories of Jim Carrey & Kate Winslet beside Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood & Kirsten Dunst.
74. ‘Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) - Blake Edwards
Between Roman Holiday & My Fair Lady, iconic Audrey Hepburn inspired decades of fashion
with Capote's themes & Mancini's "Moon River." Flaw: Mickey Rooney's offensive Yunioshi.
75. ‘Apollo 13’ (1995) - Ron Howard
“Houston, we have a problem.” After his John Glenn in The Right Stuff, Ed Harris returned to
NASA mission control to save Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon & Bill Paxton in Ron Howard’s best.
76. ‘The Great Escape’ (1963) - John Sturges
Few films are as fun as this P.O.W. escape by Steve McQueen, James Garner, James Coburn,
Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson & Donald Pleasance backed by Elmer Bernstein’s score.
77. 'Sullivan's Travels' (1941) - Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges (The Lady Eve, Palm Beach Story) sends Joel McCrea undercover as a hobo for
prestige pic O Brother Where Art Thou, but bumps into Veronica Lake, learns power of laughter.
78. ‘The Big Lebowski' (1998) - The Coen Brothers
Three future Oscar winners (Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman) join John
Goodman, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro & Sam Elliott in cult-classic revenge for Dude’s rug.
79. 'There Will Be Blood' (2007) - Paul Thomas Anderson
The year Cormac McCarthy became No Country for Old Men, Upton Sinclair became this blood-
for-oil allegory as Daniel Day-Lewis abandoned his child to declare, "I drink your milkshake!"
80. 'Ben-Hur' (1959) - William Wyler
Wyler (Best Years of Our Lives) directs Charlton Heston in thrilling chariot race & never once
shows Jesus’ face in sword-and-sandal epic of Biblical proportions, tied for a record 11 Oscars.
81. ‘Black Swan' (2010) - Darren Aronofsky
After Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky directed a companion piece to The Wrestler with
Natalie Portman's deadly duality as a bloody ballet dancer seeking "perfection" with Swan Lake.
82. 'Tootsie' (1982) - Sydney Pollack
Like art collectors, cinephiles can say, "That's a Pollack." Dustin Hoffman cross-dresses for TV
soap in script by Larry Gelbart (M*A*S*H), Barry Levinson (Diner) & Elaine May (Birdcage).
83. 'Scarface' (1983) - Brian DePalma
Oliver Stone (Platoon) & Brian DePalma (Carrie) move Hawks' gangster from ‘20s Chicago to
'80s Miami, as coked-up Al Pacino ruins Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert Loggia, F. Murray Abraham.
84. 'Boyhood' (2014) - Richard Linklater
Combining nostalgia (Dazed & Confused) with incremental shooting (Before trilogy), Linklater
creates time capsule shot in annual installments over 12 years as his cast grows before our eyes.
85. 'King Kong' (1933) - Merian C. Cooper & Ernest Schoedsack
Meticulous stop-motion gives the beast a soul that CGI can’t match from the T-Rex fight to the
Empire State Building. Inspired Godzilla, Jurassic Park and of course Peter Jackson’s remake.
86. ‘Twelve Years a Slave' (2013) - Steve McQueen
After Roots & Glory, it framed diversity debate with long-take lynchings, Ejiofor perseverance,
Fassbender evil, Cumberbatch cowardice & Nyong'o horror. Hard to watch. Impossible to forget.
87. ‘American Hustle' (2013) - David O. Russell
One day we’ll look back on this troupe (Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, Brad Cooper, Christian
Bale, Jeremy Renner) as dazzling artifice with “feet-up" tilts, swirling kisses and symbolic lyrics.
88. ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’ (1944) - Vincente Minnelli
The film that birthed Liza Minnelli, director Vincente Minnelli (An American in Paris) fell for
Judy Garland, framing her over four seasons, namely “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
89. ‘A Woman Under the Influence’ (1974) - John Cassavetes
This crowning achievement by indie pioneer John Cassavetes stars his real-life wife Gena
Rowlands in a performance for the ages as Mabel, slowly losing her mind alongside Peter Falk.
90. ‘Batman/Dark Knight/Birdman’ (1989-2014) - Tim Burton/Chris Nolan/A.G. Iñárritu
Michael Keaton bookended superhero craze with Burton’s Batman & Iñárritu’s satire Birdman.
In between, Nolan defined the genre by directing Heath Ledger to a posthumous Oscar as Joker.
91. 'Rebel Without a Cause' (1955) - Nicholas Ray
Stylized auteur of Johnny Guitar made James Dean martyr for a generation with deadly "chickie
runs," Natalie Wood stargazing and dutch-angle gender swaps by parents still “tearing us apart."
92. ‘Good Will Hunting' (1997) - Gus Van Sant
Gus Van Sant made Matt Damon (Bourne) & Ben Affleck (Argo) Oscar-winning forces for a
generation, while offering an eternal hug for the late great Robin Williams ("It's not your fault").
93. ‘Swing Time’ (1936) - George Stevens
A year after Top Hat danced "Cheek to Cheek," Swing Time was the Astaire-Rogers masterpiece
as Fred sang "The Way You Look Tonight" & Ginger twirled to sparkling "Never Gonna Dance."
94. ‘Written on the Wind' (1954) - Douglas Sirk
Initially dismissed as a schmaltzy soap opera, Sirk's signature melodrama sizzles with Lauren
Bacall, Rock Hudson, Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone's deadly mambo & phallic oil derrick.
95. 'Jerry Maguire' (1996) - Cameron Crowe
Voted a WGA Top Script, Crowe (Fast Times, Say Anything, Almost Famous) creates the ultimate
date movie with famous lines & career turns by Tom Cruise, Renee Zellweger, Cuba Gooding Jr.
96. ‘Fatal Attraction' (1987) - Adrian Lyne
Kirk’s son Michael Douglas won Oscar with Gordon Gekko’s ”Greed is good” the same year he
proved "adultery is deadly” when Glenn Close wouldn't be ignored, inspiring many a Gone Girl.
97. ‘Out of the Past’ (1947) - Jacques Tourneur
Essential film noir makes Spartacus hero Kirk Douglas the baddie and Cape Fear villain Robert
Mitchum the hero as Jane Greer appears in Acapulco sun and lures her prey into dark beach nets.
98. ‘Philadelphia’ (1993) - Jonathan Demme
12 years before Brokeback Mountain, Denzel Washington diagnosed our “fear of homosexuals,”
Tom Hanks gave a face to red-ribbon AIDS epidemic, bookended by Springsteen & Neil Young.
99. ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ (1967) - Stanley Kramer
The same year In the Heat of the Night declared, “They call me Mr. Tibbs," Sidney Poitier broke
interracial marriage barriers as tearful Hepburn watched dying Tracy's farewell in last film
together.
100. ‘Planes, Trains & Automobiles’ (1987) - John Hughes
Breakfast Club is his most important, Ferris Bueller his most fun, but Hughes' finest saw Steve
Martin & John Candy trying to get home for holidays (i.e. Home Alone) with a bittersweet twist.
101. ‘The Royal Tenenbaums' (2001) - Wes Anderson
From Rushmore to Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes is an auteur of quirky dialogue, X-Y axis camera
moves & a tone ranging bittersweet ("Needle in Hay") to transcendent (Mordecai’s “Hey Jude").
WORLD CINEMA 101
Country of origin based on primary funding source.
1. ‘La Dolce Vita’ (1960) - Federico Fellini (Italy)
When I close my eyes and picture world cinema, I see Anita Ekberg in that fountain, shouting
“Marcello!” as Fellini contrasts the sacred (helicopter crucifix) and the profane (“paparazzi”).
2. ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ (1962) - David Lean (UK)
Omar Sharif appears out of a mirage & Peter O’Toole blows out a match into a sunrise, as Lean’s
epic WWI masterpiece shows just how the Middle East was carved up into its present-day chaos.
3. ‘Tokyo Story’ (1953) - Yasujiro Ozu (Japan)
Filmed in floor-level static shots, Ozu’s patient masterpiece evokes universal themes of rural
parents who visit Tokyo to spend time with their kids, who are tragically too busy for them.
4. ‘Breathless’ (1959) - Jean-Luc Godard (France)
With a pulp crime story by Francois Truffaut, director Jean-Luc Godard shattered filmmaking
conventions, jump-cutting his way through a romance between Michel Poiccard & Jean Seberg.
5. ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1968) - Stanley Kubrick (UK)
HAL 9000 is the only semblance of a plot in an ambitiously thematic film charting mankind’s
evolution from apes to starships seeking Monolith moments of mind-blowing enlightenment.
6. ‘The Good, The Bad & The Ugly’ (1966) - Sergio Leone (Italy)
Clint Eastwood rose to fame as the silent-but-deadly Man With No Name, playing the “Good” to
Lee Van Cleef’s “Bad” & Eli Wallach’s “Ugly” with Ennio Morricone’s legendary Western score.
7. ‘The Third Man’ (1949) - Carol Reed (UK)
From its ferris-wheel speech to its sewer finale, few films are more thrilling than Joseph Cotten
investigating the death of his friend (Orson Welles) in shady postwar Vienna set to a zither score.
8. ‘The Rules of the Game’ (1939) - Jean Renoir (France)
Film cameras have never moved so fluidly than the sweeping long-takes here, charting the
French bourgeois life in the run-up to WWI as the rich and poor collide at a French chateau.
9. ‘Persona’ (1966) - Ingmar Bergman (Sweden)
This experimental masterpiece opens inside a film projector and later replays the same scene
from two perspectives: Bibi Andersson’s nurse & Liv Ullman’s patient, whose personas meld.
10. ‘The Seven Samurai’ (1954) - Akira Kurosawa (Japan)
Remade by Hollywood as The Magnificent Seven, Kurosawa created a global box-office hit with
slow-motion battles and symbolic windmills turning with full-circle childhood abandonment.
11. ‘8 1/2’ (1963) - Federico Fellini (Italy)
After directing six features and three “half films” (two shorts and a co-directed effort), Fellini
made his 8 1/2 film into a wonderfully surreal autobiography about his fears of director’s block.
12. ‘The Red Shoes’ (1948) - Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger (UK)
Long before Black Swan, ballerina Moira Shearer danced in Hans Christian Andersen’s magical
shoes in the most mesmerizing dance numbers put on film, showing the deadly price of great art.
13. ‘Les Diabolique’ (1955) - Henri-Georges Clouzot (France)
Hitchcock was reportedly frustrated when Clouzot beat him to securing the rights to the novel
Les Diabolique, predating Psycho with its own chilling bathroom suspense and shocking twist.
14. ‘Bicycle Thieves’ (1948) - Vittorio di Sica (Italy)
The undisputed champ of Italian Neorealism, Bicycle Thieves gets naturalistic performances by
non-actors in post-WWII Italy as a blue-collar man and his son search for their stolen bike.
15. ‘Jules and Jim’ (1962) - Francois Truffaut (France)
Few love triangles are as awkwardly adorable as Jules (Oskar Werner), Jim (Henri Serre) and the
love of their lives Catherine (Jeanne Moreau), sprinting in men’s clothes with a pencil mustache.
16. ‘Ugetsu’ (1953) - Kenji Mizoguchi (Japan)
If you want to learn how to direct, watch Mizoguchi’s poetic camera and imagery as a poor fool
yearns to become a samurai, while another falls for a mysterious woman with haunting secrets.
17. ‘Contempt’ (1963) - Jean-Luc Godard (France)
Busy with his director (Fritz Lang), a screenwriter (Michel Piccoli) seems indifferent to advances
by producer (Jack Palance) against his wife (Brigette Bardot), sparking the king of marital fights.
18. ‘M’ (1930) - Fritz Lang (Germany)
After silent epics like Metropolis, Lang’s pioneering sound effort was a revelation, casting Peter
Lorre as a whistling child murder lurking in shadows and marked with a chalk “M” on his back.
19. ‘The Battle of Algiers’ (1966) - Gillo Pontecorvo (Algeria)
This cinema-verite piece is the ultimate look at guerrilla warfare, as Algerians fight for freedom
from France in a film so poignant that it was screened to Iraq War officers to explain insurgency.
20. ‘City of God’ (2002) - Fernando Meirelles & Katia Lund (Brazil)
It’s The Wire meets Central Station as two boys grow up in the same violent neighborhood of
Rio de Janeiro but take different paths as a creative photographer and a desperate drug dealer.
21. ‘The Conformist’ (1970) - Bernardo Bertolucci (Italy)
Never have I seen such exquisite cinematography than this tale of Mussolini fascism, as a fair-
weather Italian (Jean-Louis Trintignant) agrees to assassinate his old teacher turned dissident.
22. ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’ (1959) - Alain Resnais (France)
A masterpiece of the French New Wave, Emmanuel Riva stars as a French actress shooting a war
film in post-war Hiroshima who sleeps with a Japanese architect, sharing differing takes on war.
23. ‘The Seventh Seal’ (1957) - Ingmar Bergman (Sweden)
In one of the most ingenious premises ever, a Knight of the Crusades (Max von Sydow) plays
chess with the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague, told with Bergman’s signature bleak style.
24. ‘Ordet’ (1955) - Carl Theodore Dreyer (Denmark)
You’ll feel born again watching a Danish patriarch hold together his three sons: one is agnostic
with a pregnant wife, another swoons with puppy love, and the other claims to be Jesus himself.
25. ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ (1957) - David Lean (UK)
This whistling Best Picture gave Alec Guinness his career role as a British colonel leading his
men to build a bridge in a Japanese P.O.W. camp, while William Holden tries to blow it up.
26. ‘Blow-Up’ (1966) - Michelangelo Antonioni (Italy)
Like Rear Window, Antonioni follows a fab London pop-art photographer who thinks he’s
captured a park murder, influencing everything from The Omen to Blow-Out to Austin Powers.
27. ‘Cache’ (2005) - Michael Haneke (France)
Michael Haneke is a cinephile’s dream from Funny Games to The White Ribbon to Amour, but
his best is Cache about a married couple unnerved by surveillance tapes left on their front porch.
28. ‘Rashomon’ (1950) - Akira Kurosawa (Japan)
Not only did this film introduce Japanese cinema to the world, it shattered narrative conventions
by exploring a heinous crime told by unreliable narrators from four different points of view.
29. ‘The Earrings of Madam De…’ (1953) - Max Ophuls (France)
Hollywood’s Letter from an Unknown Woman is to die for, but Ophuls’ global masterpiece boasts
dazzling camera moves in a tale of earrings passed from person to person in 19th century Paris.
30. ‘Amelie’ (2001) - Jean-Pierre Jeunet (France)
Audrey Tatou stole our hearts as she melted into puddles as the naive yet mischievous Amelie,
first seeking vigilante justice then deciding to help others, finding a quirky love in the process.
31. ‘The 400 Blows’ (1959) - Francois Truffaut (France)
This French New Wave classic is the first in a series of films starring Jean-Pierre Leaud as
Antoine Doinel, Truffaut’s autobiographical proxy of a neglected boy in a life of petty crime.
32. ‘In the Mood for Love’ (2000) - Wong Kar-Wai (Hong Kong)
After Chungking Express & Happy Together, Wong Kar-Wai directed a gorgeous film as two
neighbors bond over suspicions their spouses are having affairs, vowing to keep things plutonic.
33. ‘Three Colors Trilogy: Blue, White, Red’ (1993-1994) - Krzysztof Kieslowski (France)
Not only does each color represent a color of the French flag, it sets a tone for themes of liberty,
equality and fraternity in a trilogy anchored by Juliette Binoche, Julie Delpy and Irene Jacob.
34. ‘Breaking the Waves’ (1996) - Lars von Trier (Denmark)
On the cusp of his Dogme 95 movement, Danish guru Lars von Trier cast Emily Watson in one
of cinema’s best performances, talking to God about sexual desires with her paralyzed husband.
35. ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ (1975) - Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones (UK)
Hands down one of the funniest films ever made, Monty Python delivers one classic scene after
another: coconut gallops, dead collections, flesh-wound battles, rabid rabbits & inquisitive trolls.
36. ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ (2006) - Guillermo del Toro (Spain)
Set in 1944 Spain, a young bookworm escapes her Falangist military stepfather and plunges into
creepy yet captivating fantasy world mixing Jim Henson’s Labyrinth with Alice in Wonderland.
37. ‘The Apu Trilogy’ (1955-1959) - Satyajit Ray (India)
While Rudyard Kipling’s parents were colonial Brits, Satyajit Ray was born of Bengali blood in
Calcutta, bringing India to the world with Pather Panchali, Aparajito and The World of Apu.
38. ‘Brief Encounter’ (1945) - David Lean (UK)
What’s wrong with a good old-fashioned love story? Lean directs to perfection as Celia Johnson
falls for a stranger (Trevor Howard) at a railway station, tempting her to cheat on her husband.
39. ‘Talk to Her’ (2002) - Pedro Almodovar (Spain)
Its title comes from two men caring for two women in deep comas — “talk to her” to keep her
alive — offering a surrealist clue to a most shocking revelation that will unnerve you to the core.
40. ‘The Shining’ (1980) - Stanley Kubrick (UK)
“Here’s Johnny!” Kubrick weaves tricycle Steadicams, Room 237 secrets, “Red Rum” mirrors
and garden labyrinths for brilliant horror as Jack Nicholson can check out but can never leave.
41. ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (1946) - Jean Cocteau (France)
Long before the animated Disney musical, poet-turned-director Jean Cocteau made Belle’s tears
turn into diamonds in a magical gothic fable of handy candelabras and a different fate for Gaston.
42. ‘Wild Strawberries’ (1957) - Ingmar Bergman (Sweden)
There’s something hypnotic about this look at an aging professor traveling to receive an honorary
degree, only to be forced to confront his empty existence after living a life being cold to others.
43. ‘The Leopard’ (1963) - Luchino Visconti (Italy)
Epically staged, gorgeously shot and brilliantly acted, this Palme d’Or winner stars Burt
Lancaster as an aristocrat trying to preserve his family during social upheaval in 1860s Sicily.
44. ‘Wings of Desire’ (1987) - Wim Wenders (Germany)
Don’t expect the Hollywood romance of City of Angels. The original is less melodramatic as a
black-and-white angel becomes a human in color after falling for a mortal near the Berlin Wall.
45. ‘Alien’ (1979) - Ridley Scott (UK)
“In space, no one can hear you scream.” H.R. Giger’s biomechanical aliens burst from chests for
horrific science friction, but were no match for feminist icon Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver).
46. ‘The Wages of Fear’ (1953) - Henri-Georges Clouzot (France)
Clouzot puts on a master class of tension with each spinning tire and each gear shift as four men
are hired to transport explosive nitroglycerine over rocky terrain across South America. Kaboom.
47. ‘Don’t Look Now’ (1973) - Nicolas Roeg (UK)
After working with Roger Corman on Poe’s Masque of Red Death, Roeg made his own horror
adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier about parents grieving the death of young daughter in Venice.
48. ‘L’Avventura’ (1960) - Michelangelo Antonioni (Italy)
Initially booed at Cannes, it won the Grand Jury Prize just days later as Antonioni sets up a
missing person mystery that’s never explained, instead exploring relationships in the aftermath.
49. ‘Trainspotting’ (1996) - Danny Boyle (UK)
Before Requiem for a Dream & Breaking Bad there was this drugged-out gem by Danny Boyle
(Slumdog Millionaire) starring Ewan McGregor as a hallucinating heroine addict in Edinburgh.
50. ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (2001-2003) - Peter Jackson (New Zealand)
Shot succesively in New Zealand’s gorgeous countryside, this epic fantasy trilogy changed CGI
filmmaking with its forced perspective of Hobbits and motion-capture by Andy Serkis’ Gollum.
51. ‘La Grand Illusion’ (1937) - Jean Renoir (France)
Shawshank & The Great Escape simply wouldn’t exist without Renoir’s groundbreaking gem
about French soldiers imprisoned in a seemingly impenetrable German P.O.W. camp in WWI.
52. ‘Ashes & Diamonds’ (1958) - Andrzej Wajda (Poland)
After a Polish uprising against the Nazis in Kanal, Wajda delivered his undisputed masterpiece
of a Resistance fighter ordered to kill a Communist former colleague on the last day of WWII.
53. ‘The Gospel According to St. Matthew’ (1964) - Pier Paolo Pasolini (Italy)
No gospel portrait ever got closer to the meaning of Christ than this gritty portrait as a marxist
avant-la-lettre, making modern-day televangelists sound more like the judgmental Pharisees.
54. ‘Au Hasard Balthazar’ (1966) - Robert Bresson (France)
Bresson is hailed for a number of films (A Man Escaped, Pickpocket, Mouchette), but his best is
this patient Christ allegory following a saintly donkey passed from one abusive owner to another.
55. ‘A Clockwork Orange’ (1971) - Stanley Kubrick (UK)
Malcolm McDowell terrifies as Alex DeLarge, a charismatic delinquent in future Britain who
commits crimes to Ludwig Van before undergoing aversion therapy to rid society of all crime.
56. ‘Cinema Paradiso’ (1988) - Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy)
Like The Purple Rose of Cairo, this is the ultimate love note to cinema, as a filmmaker recalls
his childhood when he fell for the movies during a friendship with a local theater projectionist.
57. ‘A Separation’ (2011) - Asghar Farhadi (Iran)
Peyman Moaddi & Leila Hatami are gripping as a married Iranian couple debating whether to
raise their daughter in a different country or stay in Iran to care for a parent with Alzheimer’s.
58. ‘Das Boot’ (1981) - Wolfgang Petersen (Germany)
A decade before The Hunt for Red October, Petersen delivered the ultimate submarine movie on
a claustrophobic WWII German U-Boat, ranging from underwater boredom to absolute terror.
59. ‘L’Atalante’ (1934) - Jean Vigo (France)
He died way too young at age 29, but left us masterpieces of the early sound era that scholars
will pour over for decades from Zero for Conduct to L’Atalante about a couple on an ocean liner.
60. ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ (1968) - Sergio Leone (Italy)
After American heroes like Tom Joad, Juror #8 & Wyatt Earp, Henry Fonda gave his best role as
Leone’s ruthless villain Frank across Jason Robards’ Cheyenne & Charles Bronson’s Harmonica.
61. ‘The Deer Hunter’ (1978) - Michael Cimino (UK)
Produced by EMI for Robert DeNiro, Meryl Streep & Christopher Walken in 3 parts: blue-collar
wedding, Vietnam Russian Roulette, wounded warriors. Juicy subplot: who is the real father?
62. ‘Let the Right One In’ (2008) - Tomas Alfredson (Sweden)
This stylish horror flick boasted a warm heart as a bullied boy finds strength, love and revenge
through a peculiar child vampire, who unleashes blood red on the snowy banks of Stockholm.
63. ‘Rome, Open City’ (1945) - Roberto Rossellini (Italy)
This postwar drama, alongside Germany Year Zero, pioneered the Italian Neorealism movement
by shooting guerrilla style before wooing Ingrid Bergman in Stromboli, Europe ’51 & Paisan.
64. ‘Central Station’ (1998) - Walter Salles (Brazil)
Before chronicling Che Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries, Walter Salles followed the journey
of a former school teacher who helps a spunky young boy find the absent father he never knew.
65. ‘Doctor Zhivago’ (1965) - David Lean (UK)
From a Boris Pasternak novel with an iconic Maurice Jarre score, this snowy epic is exquisitely
directed by David Lean for a sweeping romance between gorgeous Julie Christie & Omar Sharif.
66. ‘Repulsion’ (1965) - Roman Polanski (UK)
If Knife in the Water was a nuanced Polish nail-biter, Repulsion went for the jugular. Its themes
of rape & violence haunt Polanski, but Catherine Deneuve deserves recognition for performance.
67. ‘Playtime’ (1967) - Jacques Tati (France)
Tati created the French version of Chaplin’s Little Tramp as Monsier Hulot, his best being this
highbrow comedy wandering with American tourists around Paris’ emerging hi-tech buildings.
68. ‘Aguirre: The Wrath of God’ (1972) - Werner Herzog (Germany)
Herzog pioneered his own docudrama style as Klaus Kinski goes increasingly insane as Don
Lope de Aguirre leading a 16th century Spanish expedition in search of the mythical El Dorado.
69. ‘The Piano’ (1993) - Jane Campion (New Zealand)
Holly Hunter won the Oscar as a mute woman sent to 1850s New Zealand with her daughter
(Oscar-winning Anna Paquin) for an arranged marriage before being courted by Harvey Keitel.
70. ‘Gladiator’ (2000) - Ridley Scott (UK)
“Are you not entertained?” Russell Crowe got the role of a lifetime battling tigers and gladiators
in the Roman Coliseum at the mercy of Joaquin Phoenix’s thumb turned up or down as Emperor.
71. ‘Mad Max’ (1979-2015) - George Miller (Australia)
Before Lethal Weapon & Braveheart, Mel Gibson rose to stardom in George Miller’s apocalyptic
action classic, spawning badass sequels like The Road Warrior and Mad Max: Fury Road.
72. ‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie’ (1972) - Luis Buñuel (France)
After Spanish & French gems Viridiana & Belle de Jour, Bunuel made magnum opus with
plotless, surrealist dreams involving six middle-class folks constantly interrupted during a meal.
73. ‘The Spirit of the Beehive’ (1973) - Victor Erice (Spain)
7-year-old girl becomes obsessed with Karloff’s Frankenstein as dad tends beehives and mom
longs for soldier. Erice paints honeycomb family unit as allegory for 1940 Spanish civil war.
74. ‘The Elements Trilogy: Fire, Earth, Water’ (1996-2005) - Deepa Mehta (India)
Powerful series seeking to reform India’s patriarchal society, grappling with arranged marriage,
religious strains during the formation of Pakistan, and widows scorned by suicide and misogyny.
75. ‘Full Metal Jacket’ (1987) - Stanley Kubrick (UK)
Kubrick’s profound anti-war statement opens with side-splitting boot camp by R. Lee Ermey,
then turns on a dime with Private Pyle to send us into the war zone in Vietnam. Unforgettable.
76. ‘Solaris’ (1972) - Andrei Tarkovsky (Soviet Union)
Pack your patience but prepare for a mind-blowing experience as a psychologist is sent to a
space station orbiting distant planet Solaris, which causes his dead wife to reappear beside him.
77. ‘Suspiria’ (1977) - Dario Argento (Italy)
Italian Giallo horror finds Dario Argento at his bloody stylized best, paving the way for many
Halloween slashers with this tale of a tortured freshman at a ballet school run by a witch coven.
78. ‘Run Lola Run’ (1998) - Tom Tykwer (Germany)
This ticking time-bomb of a movie sends Franka Potente sprinting in three alternate outcomes,
each giving her just 20 minutes to raise 100,000 Deutschmarks after a botched money delivery.
79. ‘The Vanishing’ (1988) - George Sluizer (Netherlands)
This Dutch original is far superior to the Hollywood remake about a young couple on vacation,
where the girlfriend goes missing and the boyfriend begins receiving letters from the abductor.
80. ‘Goldfinger’ (1964) - Guy Hamilton (UK)
James Bond is a British institution spanning Sean Connery, Roger Moore & Daniel Craig. Its
best shaken-not-stirred entry remains Goldfinger, inspiring irresistible Austin Powers spoofs.
81. ‘Room’ (2015) - Lenny Abrahamson (Ireland)
Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay carry this claustrophobic Irish drama about the abduction of a
mother and child who live in a tiny shed with a skylight their only window to the outside world.
82. ‘The Crying Game (1992) - Neil Jordan (UK)
Irish-born filmmaker Neil Jordan delivered cinema’s most shocking twist with this crime drama
about a British soldier (Forest Whitaker) kidnapped by an IRA terrorist, who falls for his lover.
83. ‘Oldboy’ (2003) - Chan-wook Park (South Korea)
Few twists are more disturbing on a gut level than this South Korean action-thriller about a man
who has only five days to find his captor after being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years.
84. ‘Downfall’ (2004) - Oliver Hirschbiegel (Germany)
Bruno Ganz delivers career performance as Adolf Hitler, showing Nazi dictator’s final outrage in
a Berlin bunker with war-room scenes that became the stuff of internet viral video legend.
85. ‘Dr. Strangelove’ (1964) - Stanley Kubrick (UK)
After Paths of Glory & Spartacus, Kubrick left Hollywood for London for remainder of career
starting with political satire of Peter Sellers in triple role across Slim Pickens & George C. Scott.
86. ‘La Haine’ (1995) - Mathieu Kassovitz (France)
Daring film follows three young men (Jewish gangster, Arab Maghrebi, Afro-French boxer) in a
suburban ghetto of France over the span of 24 hours with a title meaning “Hatred breeds hatred.”
87. ‘Son of Saul’ (2015) - László Nemes (Hungary)
Horrors of charred remains lurk off screen as Hungarian Holocaust drama keeps tight 4:3 frame
on head and shoulders of protagonist, who salvages body of a young victim as his adopted son.
88. ‘Dead Ringers’ (1988) - David Cronenberg (Canada)
Cronenberg explored bodily mutations in Videodrome & The Fly before his most twisted work,
starring Jeremy Irons in a dual role as twin gynecologists with drugged-out sexual perversions.
89. ‘Cleo from 5 to 7’ (1962) - Agnes Varda (France)
French New Wave tale of hypochondriac waiting for cancer test results made Varda a pioneering
female filmmaker, paving the way for Kathryn Bigelow (Hurt Locker) & Ava DuVernay (Selma).
90. ‘The Red Curtain Trilogy’ (1992-2001) - Baz Luhrmann (Australia)
Australian gem Strictly Ballroom introduced the world to his flashy style, while Romeo + Juliet
(DiCaprio & Danes) and Moulin Rouge! (McGregor & Kidman) epitomized post-modernism.
91. ‘Black Narcissus’ (1947) - Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger (UK)
Gorgeous color cinematography highlights symbolic tale of sexually repressed nuns, featuring a
devout Deborah Kerr, mad Kathleen Byron and a sideplot romance with Sabu & Jean Simmons.
92. ‘Secrets & Lies’ (1996) - Mike Leigh (France)
Palme d’Or winner finds black woman (Marianna Jean-Baptiste) reconnecting with white birth
mother (Brenda Blethyn), building to ensemble master class in climatic birthday party sequence.
93. ‘Ex Machina’ (2015) - Alex Garland (UK)
Erotic thriller is instant sci-fi classic as Oscar Isaac’s mad scientist invites Domhnaal Gleeson to
a remote bunker to elicit human qualities from A.I. robot played by entrancing Alicia Vikander.
94. ‘Closely Watched Trains’ (1966) - Jiri Menzel (Czechoslovakia)
While Milos Forman (Loves of a Blond) successfully crossed into Hollywood, Menzel is prime
figure of Czech New Wave in this comedy of teen train dispatcher seeking first sexual encounter.
95. ‘Gojira’ (1954) - Ishiro Honda (Japan)
Godzilla was Japan’s answer to King Kong, an international box office monster that sprang from
real concerns in a sci-fi commentary on the disastrous effects of atomic bombs dropped on Japan.
96. ‘The Umbrellas of Cherbourg’ (1964) - Jacques Demy (France)
After Vincente Minnelli’s Americanized view in An American in Paris & Gigi, Demy created
France’s own gorgeous, heartbreaking musical with Catherine Deneuve & Nino Castelnuovo.
97. ‘Snowpiercer’ (2013) - Joon-ho Bong (South Korea)
After his acclaimed The Host, director Joon-ho Bong presents class warfare in post-apocalyptic
train car, as Chris Evans defies Tilda Swinton to fight his way to Ed Harris in the front car.
98. ‘The Shakespeare Trilogy’ (1944-1955) - Laurence Olivier (UK)
Hailed as the finest actor of stage and screen, Laurence Olivier produced, directed and starred in
the ultimate examples of bringing plays to film with trilogy of Henry V, Hamlet and Richard III.
99. ‘Fitzcarraldo’ (1962) - Werner Herzog (Germany)
Ambitious Herzog cast Klaus Kinski & Claudia Cardinale to haul a steamship over a mountain in
the Peruvian jungle in notoriously difficult shoot chronicled in documentary Burden of Dreams.
100. ’Gravity’ (2013) - Alfonso Cuarón (UK)
Don’t let 3D-IMAX appeal of George Clooney fool you. Sandra Bullock evolves backward from
howling in space to crawling out of sea after intense long-takes by Cuarón (Children of Men).
101. ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ (2000) - Ang Lee (Taiwan)
Ang Lee nominated for Globe (Sense & Sensibility) and Palme d’Or (The Ice Storm) before this
international wire-fu sensation, paving way for Oscars with Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi.
BEST OF THE REST
Not every film fits medium of live-action feature-length narrative talkies.
SILENT FEATURES
1. Gold Rush / City Lights / Modern Times (1925-36) - Charlie Chaplin
2. The General (1927) – Buster Keaton
3. Man with a Movie Camera (1929) - Dziga Vertov
4. Sunrise (1927) – F.W. Murnau
5. Battleship Potemkin (1925) – Sergei Eistenstein
6. Nosferatu (1922) – F.W. Murnau
7. Metropolis (1927) – Fritz Lang
8. The Crowd (1928) – King Vidor
9. Greed (1924) – Erich von Stroheim
10. The Birth of a Nation / Intolerance (1915-16) - D.W. Griffith
DOCUMENTARIES
1. Night and Fog (1955) - Alain Resnais
2. The Thin Blue Line (1988) - Erroll Morris
3. Up (1984-2012) - Paul Almond & Michael Apted
4. Hoop Dreams (1994) - Steve James
5. Titicut Follies (1967) - Frederick Wiseman
6. Grizzly Man (2005) – Werner Herzog
7. Salesman (1968) – Albert & David Maysles
8. Man on Wire (2008) – James Marsh
9. Bowling for Columbine (2002) - Michael Moore
10. Triumph of the Will (1935) - Leni Riefenstahl
SHORTS
1. Sherlock Jr. (1924) – Buster Keaton
2. Un Chien Andalou (1929) - Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali
3. The Red Balloon (1956) – Albert Lamorisse
4. La Jetee (1962) - Chris Marker
5. The Lunch Date (1989) – Adam Davidson
6. The Music Box (1932) - James Parrott
7. Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) – Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid
8. Disorder in the Court (1936) - Preston Black
9. Coffee & Cigarettes (1986-1993) – Jim Jarmusch
10. A Trip to the Moon (1902) – Georges Melies
ANIMATION
1. Snow White & Seven Dwarfs (1937) – Walt Disney
2. Toy Story (1995) – John Lasseter
3. Spirited Away (2001) – Hayao Miyazaki
4. The Lion King (1994) – Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff
5. Beauty & the Beast (1991) – Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
6. Pinocchio (1940) - Walt Disney
7. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) – Bob Zemeckis
8. Shrek (2001) – Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson
9. Cinderella (1950) - Walt Disney
10. Finding Nemo (2003) – Andy Stanton, Lee Unkrich
