- There is a 10-year moratorium on all new films so you will not yet find films from 2009-now on this list
| 1. The Searchers- Ford |
| 2. Apocalypse Now- F. Coppola |
| 3. 2001: A Space Odyssey- Kubrick |
| 4. Raging Bull- Scorsese |
| 5. Citizen Kane- Welles |
| 6. Blade Runner – R. Scott |
| 7. Vertigo- Hitchcock |
| 8. The Passion of Joan of Arc- Dreyer |
| 9. Stalker – Tarkovsky |
| 10. Tokyo Story- Ozu |
| 11. 8 1/2 – Fellini |
| 12. The Godfather – F. Coppola |
| 13. In the Mood for Love – Kar-Wai Wong |
| 14. Bicycle Thieves- De Sica |
| 15. La Dolce Vita- Fellini |
| 16. Lawrence of Arabia- Lean |
| 17. Seven Samurai- Kurosawa |
| 18. Sunrise- Murnau |
| 19. Jules and Jim- Truffaut |
| 20. Breathless- Godard |
| 21. Breaking the Waves – von Trier |
| 22. Goodfellas – Scorsese |
| 23. Rashoman- Kurosawa |
| 24. The Godfather Part II – F. Coppola |
| 25. Intolerance- Griffith |
| 26. Nostalgia – Tarkovsky |
| 27. The Rules of the Game- Renoir |
| 28. Battleship Potemkin- Eisenstein |
| 29. Touch of Evil- Welles |
| 30. Pulp Fiction – Tarantino |
| 31. The Magnificent Ambersons- Welles |
| 32. Taxi Driver- Scorsese |
| 33. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover – Greenaway |
| 34. Persona- Bergman |
| 35. Psycho- Hitchcock |
| 36. I Am Cuba- Kalatozov |
| 37. Children of Men – Cuaron |
| 38. Gertrud- Dreyer |
| 39. A Clockwork Orange- Kubrick |
| 40. Red Desert- Antonioni |
| 41. Aguirre, the Wrath of God – Herzog |
| 42. The Third Man- Reed |
| 43. The Thin Red Line- Malick |
| 44. There Will Be Blood – P. T. Anderson |
| 45. The Earrings of Madame De… – Ophuls |
| 46. Manhattan- Allen |
| 47. Days of Heaven – Malick |
| 48. Blue Velvet – Lynch |
| 49. Do the Right Thing – S. Lee |
| 50. Magnolia – P.T. Anderson |
| 51. City Lights- Chaplin |
| 52. M- Lang |
| 53. The 400 Blows- Truffaut |
| 54. Metropolis- Lang |
| 55. Nosferatu- Murnau |
| 56. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari- Wiene |
| 57. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly- Leone |
| 58. The End of Summer- Ozu |
| 59. The Seventh Seal- Bergman |
| 60. The Shining – Kubrick |
| 61. Nashville – Altman |
| 62. Cries and Whispers – Bergman |
| 63. Casablanca- Curtiz |
| 64. The Pornographers – Imamura |
| 65. The Wild Bunch- Peckinpah |
| 66. Once Upton a Time in the West – Leone |
| 67. Werckmeister Harmonies – Tarr |
| 68. Brazil – Gilliam |
| 69. Mulholland Drive – Lynch |
| 70. Pierrot le Fou – Godard |
| 71. The Trial- Welles |
| 72. Gone With the Wind- Fleming |
| 73. Shoot the Piano Player – Truffaut |
| 74. Stagecoach- Ford |
| 75. L’Avventura – Antonioni |
| 76. The Blue Angel- von Sternberg |
| 77. Heat- M. Mann |
| 78. Punch-Drunk Love – P.T. Anderson |
| 79. Rear Window- Hitchcock |
| 80. Early Summer- Ozu |
| 81. The Graduate- M. Nichols |
| 82. Juliet of the Spirits- Fellini |
| 83. A Man Escaped- Bresson |
| 84. It’s a Wonderful Life- Capra |
| 85. Lola Montes- Ophuls |
| 86. Annie Hall- Allen |
| 87. Dekalog – Kieslowski |
| 88. The Conformist – Bertolucci |
| 89. Paths of Glory- Kubrick |
| 90. Lost in Translation – S. Coppola |
| 91. JFK – Stone |
| 92. The Wizard of Oz- Fleming |
| 93. Viridiana- Bunuel |
| 94. The Passenger – Antonioni |
| 95. Barry Lyndon- Kubrick |
| 96. Chinatown- Polanski |
| 97. Fitzcarraldo – Herzog |
| 98. Boogie Nights – P.T. Anderson |
| 99. The Grand Illusion- Renoir |
| 100. The Big Sleep- Hawks |
| 101. The Birth of a Nation- Griffith |
| 102. Singin’ in the Rain- Donen, Kelly |
| 103. North By Northwest- Hitchcock |
| 104. The Royal Tenenbaums – W. Anderson |
| 105. Notorious- Hitchcock |
| 106. Rome, Open City- Rossellini |
| 107. Dead Man – Jarmusch |
| 108. Chungking Express – Kar-Wai Wong |
| 109. Bringing Up Baby- Hawks |
| 110. Suspiria- Argento |
| 111. Rio Bravo- Hawks |
| 112. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford – Dominik |
| 113. Jaws- Spielberg |
| 114. Rosemary’s Baby- Polanski |
| 115. La Strada – Fellini |
| 116. Fargo – Coen |
| 117. Late Spring- Ozu |
| 118. The General- Keaton |
| 119. Umberto D- De Sica |
| 120. L’Eclisse- Antonioni |
| 121. A Woman Under the Influence – Cassavetes |
| 122. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid – Peckinpah |
| 123. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie- Bunuel |
| 124. Fanny and Alexander – Bergman |
| 125. Dead Ringers – Cronenberg |
| 126. The Conversation- F. Coppola |
| 127. Raiders of the Lost Ark – Spielberg |
| 128. Syndromes and a Century – Weerasethakul |
| 129. Amarcord – Fellini |
| 130. Mean Streets- Scorsese |
| 131. Cool Hand Luke- Rosenberg |
| 132. Pickpocket- Bresson |
| 133. Rocco and His Brothers- Visconti |
| 134. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg- Demy |
| 135. White Heat- Walsh |
| 136. Wild Strawberries- Bergman |
| 137. Modern Times- Chaplin |
| 138. Sunset Boulevard – Wilder |
| 139. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp- Powell & Pressburger |
| 140. Written on the Wind- Sirk |
| 141. Black Narcissus- Powell & Pressburger |
| 142. Eyes Wide Shut – Kubrick |
| 143. Contempt- Godard |
| 144. Le Plaisir- Ophuls |
| 145. The Cranes Are Flying- Kalatozov |
| 146. Intentions of Murder – Imamura |
| 147. The Scarlett Express- von Sternberg |
| 148. The Music Room- S. Ray |
| 149. Hannah and Her Sisters- Allen |
| 150. Once Upon a Time in America – Leone |
| 151. Rumble Fish – F. Coppola |
| 152. Fight Club – Fincher |
| 153. The Big Lebowski – Coen |
| 154. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid- Roy Hill |
| 155. Back to the Future – Zemeckis |
| 156. A Zed & Two Noughts – Greenaway |
| 157. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest- Forman |
| 158. Double Indemnity- Wilder |
| 159. Star Wars- Lucas |
| 160. Schindler’s List – Spielberg |
| 161. Before Sunset – Linklater |
| 162. Performance – Roeg |
| 163. Don’t Look Now – Roeg |
| 164. Kings of the Road – Wenders |
| 165. Blue – Kieslowski |
| 166. Andrei Rublev- Tarkovsky |
| 167. Amadeus – Forman |
| 168. The Sacrifice – Tarkovsky |
| 169. Repulsion- Polanski |
| 170. The Empire Strikes Back – Kershner |
| 171. Red River- Hawks |
| 172. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre- Huston |
| 173. Cache – Haneke |
| 174. The Bridge on the River Kwai- Lean |
| 175. Strangers on a Train- Hitchcock |
| 176. Kill Bill – Tarantino |
| 177. Johnny Guitar- N. Ray |
| 178. Malcolm X – S. Lee |
| 179. Zodiac – Fincher |
| 180. Alien- R. Scott |
| 181. The Lord of the Rings – Jackson |
| 182. Y Tu Mama Tambien – Cuaron |
| 183. Ran – Kurosawa |
| 184. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters – Schrader |
| 185. It Happened One Night- Capra |
| 186. Dancer in the Dark – von Trier |
| 187. Dr. Strangelove- Kubrick |
| 188. Crimes and Misdemeanors – Allen |
| 189. Blow Out – De Palma |
| 190. Midnight Cowboy- Schlesinger |
| 191. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance- Ford |
| 192. Broken Flowers – Jarmusch |
| 193. The New World – Malick |
| 194. The Exorcist- Friedkin |
| 195. My Darling Clementine- Ford |
| 196. The Piano – Campion |
| 197. Out of the Past- Tourneur |
| 198. Red – Kieslowski |
| 199. Germany Year Zero- Rossellini |
| 200. No Country For Old Men – Coen |
| 201. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial – Spielberg |
| 202. Network- Lumet |
| 203. Bonnie and Clyde- Penn |
| 204. The Gold Rush- Chaplin |
| 205. Sherlock Jr. Keaton |
| 206. High Noon- Zinnemann |
| 207. The French Connection- Friedkin |
| 208. The Silence of the Lambs – Demme |
| 209. Raise the Red Lantern – Yimou Zhang |
| 210. Dog Day Afternoon – Lumet |
| 211. McCabe & Mrs. Miller- Altman |
| 212. Aliens – Cameron |
| 213. Veronika Voss – Fassbinder |
| 214. Love Me Tonight- Mamoulian |
| 215. Morocco- von Sternberg |
| 216. Rushmore – W. Anderson |
| 217. Unforgiven – Eastwood |
| 218. Seven – Fincher |
| 219. Los Olvidados- Bunuel |
| 220. The Manchurian Candidate- Frankenheimer |
| 221. Diabolique- Clouzot |
| 222. The Apartment- Wilder |
| 223. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Gondry |
| 224. Down by Law – Jarmusch |
| 225. The Grapes of Wrath- Ford |
| 226. The Bride of Frankenstein- Whale |
| 227. The Deer Hunter – Cimino |
| 228. Harold and Maude- Ashby |
| 229. Requiem for a Dream – Aronofsky |
| 230. L.A. Confidential – Hanson |
| 231. Crash – Cronenberg |
| 232. The Crime of Monsieur Lange- Renoir |
| 233. Solaris- Tarkovsky |
| 234. The Dark Knight – Nolan |
| 235. Saving Private Ryan – Spielberg |
| 236. Lost Highway – Lynch |
| 237. The Mirror- Tarkovsky |
| 238. The Maltese Falcon- Huston |
| 239. On the Waterfront- Kazan |
| 240. La Bête Humaine- Renoir |
| 241. Talk to Her – Almodovar |
| 242. 25th Hour – S. Lee |
| 243. My Fair Lady- Cukor |
| 244. Pinocchio- Sharpsteen |
| 245. Greed- von Stroheim |
| 246. The Hill- Lumet |
| 247. MASH- Altman |
| 248. Moulin Rouge! – Luhrmann |
| 249. The Quiet Man- Ford |
| 250. Letter from an Unknown Woman- Ophuls |
| 251. Doctor Zhivago- Lean |
| 252. Weekend- Godard |
| 253. Blow-Up – Antonioni |
| 254. Winter Light- Bergman |
| 255. Strike- Eisenstein |
| 256. Great Expectations- Lean |
| 257. La Chienne- Renoir |
| 258. Casino – Scorsese |
| 259. The Parallax View – Pakula |
| 260. The Sweet Smell of Success – Mackendrick |
| 261. Groundhog Day – Ramis |
| 262. Wild at Heart – Lynch |
| 263. Million Dollar Baby – Eastwood |
| 264. Badlands- Malick |
| 265. Some Like It Hot- Wilder |
| 266. The Last Laugh- Murnau |
| 267. La Notte- Antonioni |
| 268. Foolish Wives- von Stroheim |
| 269. Le Million- Clair |
| 270. His Girl Friday- Hawks |
| 271. Diner – Levinson |
| 272. A Matter of Life and Death- Powell & Pressburger |
| 273. Yojimbo- Kurosawa |
| 274. L’Atalante – Vigo |
| 275. Throne of Blood- Kurosawa |
| 276. Mon Oncle- Tati |
| 277. Floating Weeds- Ozu |
| 278. West Side Story- Wise |
| 279. The Leopard- Visconti |
| 280. The Virgin Spring- Bergman |
| 281. Pan’s Labyrinth – del Toro |
| 282. Barton Fink – Coen |
| 283. Le Samourai- Melville |
| 284. Playtime- Tati |
| 285. Reservoir Dogs – Tarantino |
| 286. An Autumn Afternoon- Ozu |
| 287. The Last of the Mohicans – M. Mann |
| 288. The Exterminating Angel- Bunuel |
| 289. The Night of the Hunter – Laughton |
| 290. A Hen in the Wind- Ozu |
| 291. Cleo from 5 to 7 – Varda |
| 292. Five Easy Pieces – Rafelson |
| 293. The Shawshank Redemption – Darabont |
| 294. American Beauty – Mendes |
| 295. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days – Mungiu |
| 296. Rope- Hitchcock |
| 297. Cabaret – Fosse |
| 298. Carnal Knowledge – M. Nichols |
| 299. Journey to Italy- Rossellini |
| 300. A History of Violence – Cronenberg |
| 301. The Fountain – Aronofsky |
| 302. Mabuse: The Gambler – Lang |
| 303. Sansho the Bailiff – Mizoguchi |
| 304. Anatomy of a Murder- Preminger |
| 305. Shadow of a Doubt- Hitchcock |
| 306. The 47 Ronin- Mizoguchi |
| 307. 1900 – Bertolucci |
| 308. Atonement – J. Wright |
| 309. All About Eve- Mankiewicz |
| 310. Mystic River – Eastwood |
| 311. Traffic – Soderbergh |
| 312. The Lady From Shanghai- Welles |
| 313. Memento – Nolan |
| 314. Out of Sight – Soderbergh |
| 315. Miller’s Crossing – Coen |
| 316. The Man Who Fell to Earth- Roeg |
| 317. La Ronde- Ophuls |
| 318. Elevator to the Gallows – Malle |
| 319. Kes- Loach |
| 320. Letter Never Sent- Kalatozov |
| 321. The Last Tango in Paris- Bertolucci |
| 322. There Was a Father- Ozu |
| 323. The Man with the Golden Arm- Preminger |
| 324. Pather Panchali- S. Ray |
| 325. Aparajito- S. Ray |
| 326. Halloween- Carpenter |
| 327. All the President’s Men- Pakula |
| 328. Blood Simple – Coen |
| 329. The Nights of the Cabiria- Fellini |
| 330. All that Heaven Allows- Sirk |
| 331. La Pointe Courte – Varda |
| 332. The Departed – Scorsese |
| 333. American Psycho – Harron |
| 334. Paisan- Rossellini |
| 335. Charulata- S. Ray |
| 336. A Fistful of Dollars- Leone |
| 337. The Son – Dardenne |
| 338. 2046 – Kar-Wai Wong |
| 339. L’enfant – Dardenne |
| 340. Full Metal Jacket – Kubrick |
| 341. Army of Shadows – Melville |
| 342. The Birds- Hitchcock |
| 343. Ordet- Dreyer |
| 344. The 39 Steps- Hitchcock |
| 345. A Story of Floating Weeds- Ozu |
| 346. Beauty and the Beast- Cocteau |
| 347. Ivan the Terrible Part II- Eisenstein |
| 348. Twelve Monkeys – Gilliam |
| 349. Carrie – De Palma |
| 350. To Have and Have Not- Hawks |
| 351. Ivan the Terrible Part I- Eisenstein |
| 352. For a Few Dollars More- Leone |
| 353. Le Bonheur – Varda |
| 354. October- Eisenstein |
| 355. Jurassic Park – Spielberg |
| 356. Terminator 2: Judgement Day – Cameron |
| 357. The Crowd- Vidor |
| 358. The Road Warrior – G. Miller |
| 359. I Vitelloni- Fellini |
| 360. Pickup on South Street- Fuller |
| 361. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie- Cassavetes |
| 362. The Big Parade- Vidor |
| 363. Marie Antoinette – S. Coppola |
| 364. Naked Lunch – Cronenberg |
| 365. The Wind- Sjöström |
| 366. The World of Apu- S. Ray |
| 367. Bob le Flambeur- Melville |
| 368. Duck Soup- McCarey |
| 369. Trouble in Paradise- Lubitsch |
| 370. Hunger – McQueen |
| 371. Gosford Park – Altman |
| 372. The Circus- Chaplin |
| 373. The English Patient – Minghella |
| 374. Vampyr- Dreyer |
| 375. Ossessione – Visconti |
| 376. Shane- Stevens |
| 377. Chimes at Midnight- Welles |
| 378. The Fly – Cronenberg |
| 379. One from the Heart – F. Coppola |
| 380. The Celebration – Vinterberg |
| 381. Day of Wrath- Dreyer |
| 382. El- Bunuel |
| 383. Stranger Than Paradise – Jarmusch |
| 384. The Long Goodbye- Altman |
| 385. Lady Snowblood – Fujita |
| 386. King Kong- Cooper |
| 387. The Lion King – Allers & Minkoff |
| 388. Peeping Tom- Powell |
| 389. Satan’s Tango – Tarr |
| 390. Ugetsu- Mizoguchi |
| 391. The Silence- Bergman |
| 392. Amores Perros – Iñárritu |
| 393. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – A. Lee |
| 394. Mr. Hulot’s Holiday- Tati |
| 395. The Talented Mr. Ripley – Minghella |
| 396. Fort Apache- Ford |
| 397. The Red Shoes- Powell & Pressburger |
| 398. The Lady Eve- P. Sturges |
| 399. Trainspotting – Boyle |
| 400. Two Women – De Sica |
| 401. Meet Me in St. Louis- Minnelli |
| 402. Easy Rider- Hopper |
| 403. The Age of Innocence – Scorsese |
| 404. Ivan’s Childhood- Tarkovsky |
| 405. A Star is Born- Cukor |
| 406. The Life of Oharu- Mizoguchi |
| 407. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors – Parajanov |
| 408. Naked- Leigh |
| 409. Husbands and Wives – Allen |
| 410. A.I. Artificial Intelligence – Spielberg |
| 411. Broadway Danny Rose – Allen |
| 412. Spirited Away – Miyazaki |
| 413. Scenes From a Marriage – Bergman |
| 414. How Green Was My Valley- Ford |
| 415. Day for Night- Truffaut |
| 416. Shoeshine- De Sica |
| 417. Lola- Demy |
| 418. The Piano Teacher – Haneke |
| 419. Sullivan’s Travels- P. Sturges |
| 420. The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum – Mizoguchi |
| 421. The 3 Penny Opera- Pabst |
| 422. Dazed and Confused – Linklater |
| 423. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me – Lynch |
| 424. All that Jazz- Fosse |
| 425. The Insider – M. Mann |
| 426. The Elephant Man – Lynch |
| 427. The Marriage of Maria Braun – Fassbinder |
| 428. My Night at Maud’s – Rohmer |
| 429. Code Unknown – Haneke |
| 430. The Philadelphia Story- Cukor |
| 431. The Wild Child- – Truffaut |
| 432. The Last Picture Show – Bogdanovich |
| 433. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul – Fassbinder |
| 434. The Thing – Carpenter |
| 435. A Streetcar Named Desire- Kazan |
| 436. Detective Story- Wyler |
| 437. Ben-Hur- Wyler |
| 438. Othello- Welles |
| 439. The Darjeeling Limited – W. Anderson |
| 440. The Shop Around the Corner- Lubitsch |
| 441. Detour- Ulmer |
| 442. The Best Years of our Lives- Wyler |
| 443. Imitation of Life- Sirk |
| 444. Videodrome – Cronenberg |
| 445. Belle De Jour- Bunuel |
| 446. Safe – Haynes |
| 447. Distant Voices, Still Lives – Davies |
| 448. Die Hard – McTiernan |
| 449. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington- Capra |
| 450. The Battle of Algiers- Pontecorvo |
| 451. Wall-E – Stanton |
| 452. The Usual Suspects – Singer |
| 453. Ikiru- Kurosawa |
| 454. The Big Heat- Lang |
| 455. Gun Crazy- Lewis |
| 456. Lola – Fassbinder |
| 457. Mystery Train – Jarmusch |
| 458. The Palm Beach Story- P. Sturges |
| 459. My Dinner with Andre – Malle |
| 460. The Terminator – Cameron |
| 461. In a Lonely Place- N. Ray |
| 462. Vengeance is Mine – Imamura |
| 463. Berlin Alexanderplatz – Fassbinder |
| 464. Rebel Without a Cause- N. Ray |
| 465. Two English Girls – Truffaut |
| 466. Titanic – Cameron |
| 467. Pigs and Battleships – Imamura |
| 468. Gunga Din- Stevens |
| 469. Dawn of the Dead – Romero |
| 470. The Hustler- Rossen |
| 471. Accattone – Pasolini |
| 472. Purple Noon- Clement |
| 473. The Reckless Moment- Ophuls |
| 474. The Miracle of Morgan Creek- P. Sturges |
| 475. Being John Malkovich – Jonze |
| 476. O Brother, Where Art Thou? – Coen |
| 477. Henry V- Olivier |
| 478. Laura- Preminger |
| 479. Amelie – Jeunet |
| 480. Fallen Angel- Preminger |
| 481. The Roaring Twenties- Walsh |
| 482. Brief Encounter- Lean |
| 483. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – M. Nichols |
| 484. Children of Paradise- Carne |
| 485. Scarlet Street- Lang |
| 486. Destiny- Lang |
| 487. Tom Jones- Richardson |
| 488. Stardust Memories – Allen |
| 489. Scarface – De Palma |
| 490. The Outlaw Josey Wales – Eastwood |
| 491. Dick Tracy – Beatty |
| 492. La Haine – Kassovitz |
| 493. Taste of Cherry – Kiarostami |
| 494. Days of Being Wild – Kar-Wai Wong |
| 495. Eraserhead – Lynch |
| 496. Election- Payne |
| 497. The Player – Altman |
| 498. The Hurt Locker – Bigelow |
| 499. The Bourne Ultimatum – Greengrass |
| 500. Nosferatu the Vampyre – Herzog |
- DIRECTORS WITH MULTIPLE FILMS
10- Hitchcock
9- Bergman, Ozu
8- Kubrick, Ford
7- Fellini, Scorsese, Tarkovsky, Welles, Spielberg, Allen, Coen, Lynch
6- F. Coppola, Antonioni, Hawks, Kurosawa, Ophuls, Truffaut, Bunuel, Lang, Altman, Cronenberg
5- Renoir, Leone, Dreyer, Lean, Eisenstein, Powell, Jarmusch, S. Ray, Mizoguchi, Fassbinder
4- P.T. Anderson, Godard, Malick, Chaplin, Wilder, Rossellini, De Sica, Kar-Wai Wong, Imamura, Eastwood, Preminger, P. Sturges
3- Murnau, Polanski, Herzog, von Sternberg, Fincher, Kieslowski, S. Lee, Tarantino, Kalatozov, Roeg, Lumet, Bertolucci, Capra, W. Anderson, Visconti, M. Mann, M. Nichols, Sirk, Tati, Varda, Melville, Haneke, De Palma, N. Ray, , Cukor, Wyler
2- Griffith, R. Scott, Peckinpah, Greenaway, von Trier, Bresson, Cuaron, Keaton, Forman, Friedkin, Huston, Gilliam, S. Coppola, Tarr, Cassavetes, von Stroheim, Aronofsky, Nolan, Demy, Linklater, Pakula, Fleming, Walsh, Soderbergh, Kazan, Dardenne, Vidor, Fosse, Carpenter, Minghella, Malle, Lubitsch, Stevens
This is a fantastic collection, and I haven’t even watched some of them. Great Job for getting this done though. Now for the complaining bit: No love for Kramer vs Kramer, it’s my favorite film and a magnificent one at it. Frenzy, Rainman, Bram Stoker Dracula, Rainman , An affair to remember and Oldboy should be there as well. So could Prestige and the Machinist.
thanks AP. Let me ask you this is- Kramer vs. Kramer your “favorite” film or the one you think is the best? Or both? I like all the films you mention here, all of them in the archives (i need to see “the machinst” again because that one isn’t) but the closest one to this list would be “oldboy”. I’m excited to revisit that one.
Surprised I’m the first to say this, but no Fight Club?
Good. Most overrated movie ever. I know it’s not an all time critical darling but it has the most annoying fanbase, mostly internet non-film buffs born between 1980 and 1990 that have been convinced since the day they saw it that it’s the best movie ever.
Honestly though this is an outstanding list. I don’t agree with every film here, but you’ve got most of my favorites as well as the majority of the ones I consider among the 100 “best”. That top ten is marvelous. Can’t argue with anything there.
I really kind of gave up on objective film ranking a while back because I tend to want to take my criteria more seriously than humanly possible, at least without someone paying me very well to take years crunching every single number in regards to box office, influence, impact, longevity, acting, directing, writing, cinematography, etc. In protest of that idea I came to the conclusion that even if two huge film buffs like you and me both did all that we would still come up with different lists because even determining criteria and the weight each one holds, the and deciding what gets the edge in cases when it’s a close call or there’s not enough documentation, is subjective. Anyhow, here’s my personal top 10, in which I fully admit these are my personal favorites but as a result truly consider them the ten best films ever made, because the only criteria for greatness I can really use is how much the film affects me personally, whether it’s through pure entertainment, visual pleasure, intellectual stimulation or emotional manipulation.
1. City Lights (1931, Chaplin)
2. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Dreyer)
3. The Godfather Part II (1974, Coppola)
4. Vertigo (1958, Hitchcock)
5. Melancholia (2011, Von Trier)
6. Vivre Sa Vie (1962, Godard)
7. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1972, Fassbinder)
8. The Third Man (1949, Reed)
9. Stalker (1979, Tarkovsky)
10. Persona (1966, Bergman)
This is basically off the top of my head and I’m the type of person who could rewatch anything from Citizen Kane to Dumb and Dumber, from Salo to There Will Be Blood, from The Searchers to Sweet Sweetback’s Badass Song (all of the aforementioned films are no brainer top 100 picks for me), and if that was the perfect film for that moment in time they could skyrocket to near the top of this list. I only really consider the top 2 untouchable, at least by anything I’ve already seen. Maybe one day I’ll come across something on their level but I have a hard time believing anything could beat the two silent classics. Chaplin is my favorite person in cinematic history and while I could honestly fill my top 5 with his films it’s his masterpiece that finally settled as the most complete of his films for me. Meanwhile Falconetti carries Dreyer’s film with a performance that blew me away like no other actor has. With anyone else in that role it’s a historic film, well shot for its time but not really worth a second look outside of an educational context. But with her it’s a must see film that hits me where it hurts the most.
@Jason– thanks for the comment, the kind words and for sharing your list- what a great group of films! I saw caught Joan of Arc again last week and will be moving it up the next time I update my list and admire the boldness of putting Melancholia in there already. That is a truly special film as well.
At the risk of annoying you here I have to point out that I do have Fight Club in the top 500- it’s at #152 actually. I don’t think it’s the best movie ever (I have many films, even from the 1990’s, ahead of it) but I do think Fincher is a great auteur. I hear you on the annoying fanbase– but I don’t think it’s fair to factor that in.
As far as objective film ranking— very interesting topic. So the goal of the website here and my lists isn’t to get into fights about whether something is ranked #1 or #2 or anything- it’s to admire and discuss it all— and i do not think there is an objective top 10 or top 100. Cinema lovers, even if they agree on criteria, will have slightly (i think that’s a key word) different lists. I do think many people use the wrong criteria (I would get box office out of there, along with who has an annoying fan base for a start) but many care more about a film’s message than I do for a start. But what if we looked at this the other way? It’s certainly not entirely subjective either, right? I mean look at how many films you and I have in common and we’re talking about 100 years of cinema with thousands of movies released every year yet many lists from all of us on this page include the same films and directors over and over. That is not a coincidence. I think I have learned a great deal about cinema in the past 20 years and I work hard at it. This is a progression, an evolution and I think my list is better now than it was 5 years ago and if i continue to work at it and study it’ll be better 5 years from now. I think we’re closer to having an objective ranking than a completely subjective/random scenario. If someone comes up and tells me that The Passion of Joan of Arc is a bad movie I’ll tell them they are flat out wrong. Everyone can have an opinion but those opinions are not equal.
100% agree with you.
« but many care more about a film’s message than I do for a start. »
Now, I know why you underestimate The Wolf of Wall-Street haha (joking 🙂 )
Kramer vs Kramer is one of my favorite films, it won’t be near the Top of my list but I will make space for it in the Top 100. And Justice for all is another film that comes to mind, so does 12 Angry men which I believe is Lumets best work. I guess, I just have a thing for courtroom dramas.
Another interesting bit is that Spielberg top film is Jaws which comes in at 113. Not that I have much to disagree, but I still find it quite remarkable.
Thanks again AP– courtroom drama– i love them, too even if my top 500 doesn’t make much room for them. I think mainly it’s because the best directors don’t typically work in that sub-genre– Preminger’s “Anatomy of a Murder” is here and i think it’s the best… Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory” has sections that are like a courtroom drama i guess
Spielberg. I’m guessing you find it interesting because there isn’t one in the top 100? or that it’s because I selected “jaws” as the best? It may take me awhile to get to him but i do have 5 of his films in the top 235 which i think is the sign of a very remarkable filmmaker. For years i was convinced “Raiders” was the best– but i’m pretty confident “Jaws” is his best now
first off i love movies and really enjoy your whole website. but i must say that i disagree with your sentiment that actors arent artists. forgive me if im wrong on your beliefs. actors are artists . i also reject director as auteur theory unless in films such as 2001 i feel actors are more central and i love directors dont get me wrong im an aspiring actor .
@m — Thanks for the comment and am happy to hear you love movies and my website here. You’re entitled to your opinion of course but you are incorrect if you don’t believe in the director as auteur theory. There are exceptions of course but those exceptions are not the rule. Acting is an element of what makes a great piece of cinema– much like film score or lighting– it can be exceptional, weak, or yes, indeed, artistic— but the director using those individual elements to create. Look no further than 2018’s “Roma” from Cuaron. He takes a non-professional actor as his lead and gives us a great work of art, a solid performance, and the best film of the year.
Where is the stranger? Orson Welles is the greatest artist involved in film, and this picture is equal to Citizen Kane. He is the best actor ever and secondarily the best director ever
@M – thanks again here for visiting the site and the comment– I love Welles (he’s a far better director than actor) but “The Stranger” is equal to “Citizen Kane”? That’s not correct.
Well sorry. I don’t know if it is equal. But definitely a masterpiece. Kane has a better story and my third favorite acted scene of all time (first is Ian Mckellen tomorrow soliloquy from Macbeth and second James Stewart praying in wonderful life). The scene is where kane is begging susan not to go and the acting, the eyes, the saddness, is,just plain brilliant acting. But noir is my favorite genre. These are both two of the greatest movies ever. Also kane has a better story and better cinematography but I like the music in stranger better and I also love the story, along with edward g Robinson’s character, and acting, as the noir detective type. Thank you for answering, i love this website
Raging Bull should be at least three places higher. The montage in the movie, with the freeze frames of the fights and the color weddings for de niro and pesci, the pool fight with moriarty is the greatest moment in the history of the artform of cinema, maybe in art history
@M- thanks for the comment here on “Raging Bull”– I’m a big admirer of the film. The critical consensus has “Taxi Driver” slightly higher and if you just talk to people who aren’t film buffs the consensus for Scorsese is pretty easily “Goodfellas”– but I’ve always thought “Raging Bull” was, ever so slightly, Scorsese’s best work (though all three are fabulous films)– so it’s nice to hear from someone who agrees.
my top 50
1) raging bull
2) wizard of oz
3)terminator
4)pulp fiction
5)2001
6) steve jobs
7) Up
8)annie hall
9)citizen kane
10)its a wonderful life
11) the kid
12)the departed
13)carrie
14)no country
15)x men days of the future past
16)star wars episode IV
17)the searchers
18)revenge of the sith
19)chinatown
20) raiders of the lost ark
21)godfather
22)fistful of dollars
23)moonstruck
24)roma
25)logan
26)schindlers list
27)dr strangelove
28)blue velvet
29)mulan
30)purple rose of cairo
31)punch drunk love
32)an astronomers dream (1989)
33)magnificent ambersons
34)blakkklansman
35)halloween (1978)
36)return of the jedi
37)empire strikes back
38)sixth sense
39)gone with the wind
40)indescretion of an american wife
41)aviator
42)cape fear
43)yellow submarine
44)dhobi ghot
45)terminator 2:judgement day
46) toy story 3
47)grave of the fireflies
48)passion of joan of arc
49)metropolis
50)gattaca
@ M Thanks for sharing your top 50— I’ll pick one i have a problem with and on I admire— I’m very happy to see your inclusion of Leone’s “A Fistful of Dollars” — I think he continues to be an underrated filmmaker and I find it baffling that this film continues to be left off the critics’ consensus top 1000 http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_all1000films_table.php …. my problem film here is “X-Men: Days of Future Past”– I saw it twice, thought it was fine, but have 45 films ranked ahead of it…. from 2014. haha.
I love days of the future past. I used to watch it every day. I don’t think it is near the same visual experience as kubrick or hitchcock. But it is personal for myself, and has great acting.
Great list but i find a problem with 10 year moratorium. If you talk about including Tokyo story by Ozu in top 10 of all time for not only its message on humanity but also the mise en scenes which anyone would want hanging up on their walls. Then what about Roma. I love ozu and Tokyo story but i believe roma has a better narrative, acting, and when it comes to cinematography, camera movements and photography in the definition roma would be a clear top 10 of all time films. It’s not in mine, because there are movies I’ve grown up with, or are more personal to me or I like their narrative better but Roma is strong candidate for best visual experience ever (after the Sistine chapel perhaps) and I don’t think it needs to wait a decade for these accolades thrown upon it. Thanks (also speaking of visual, gone with the wind should be higher)
@ Bobby– thanks for the comment and feedback on the moratorium– it’s a solid point. I don’t have a really good answer for you and i adore “Roma”– I guess I’d just say i prefer to let the newer films breath a little and see them, 2-3 times and unpack them for awhile. I do have a spot for more recent films: http://thecinemaarchives.com/2019/03/27/the-best-films-of-the-decade-thus-far-2010-2018/ and best directors, actors and actresses in the world right now http://thecinemaarchives.com/2019/02/15/best-directors-in-the-world-2019/ here http://thecinemaarchives.com/2019/02/17/best-actors-in-the-world-2019/ and here http://thecinemaarchives.com/2019/02/18/best-actresses-in-the-world-2019/ .
I guess I’d just say i’m not in a rush. I take the top 500 very seriously and sort of like making films wait their turn. Don’t you think you’d be better at doing a top 10 of 1998 or 2008 than you would a top 10 of 2018? Anyways, I certainly do.
Great list as always! One day I hope to garner up the courage to create a top 500 films list, but I’ll need to watch more movies first. I figured I’d share my top 10. I’ve remade it recently, and since it’s a top 10 and there are just so many great movies, I kind of broke some of it into categories.
10. The Big Lebowski (Coen, 1998)
9. PlayTime (Tati, 1967)
8. Sunrise (Murnau, 1927)
7. Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979)
6. Mulholland Drive (Lynch, 2001)
5. Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
4. Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)
3. The Mirror (Tarkovsky, 1975)
2. Persona (Bergman, 1966)
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
I very badly wanted to include both Kieslowski’s ‘Dekalog’ and Lanzmann’s ‘Shoah’ on my list, but for the soul reason that I didn’t feel like taking any of my current 10 off, I decided I just wouldn’t count them because neither technically could as “films”, and instead a TV Miniseries and a Documentary respectfully.
Edit: I initially had explanations for each film I added on the list, which I consider to be pretty important when looking at the specific films I chose, but I think it the website wasn’t letting me post it because it was too long.
Edit #2: Citizen Kane should be #3, moving The Mirror to #4 and Tokyo Story to #5
@ Leo — spectacular list.. thanks for sharing. I love the inclusion of “Apocalypse Now” and “2001”- which are my #2 and #3. I can’t quite get on board with “Playtime” and “The Mirror” but many cinema enthusiasts share your opinion of them so perhaps there’s work for me to do here on both.
Thanks! That could be true on “PlayTime” and “The Mirror”, but I could also see why you wouldn’t get behind them. They seem to be pretty polarizing films by nature. I’ve showed plenty of friends “PlayTime” and very few of them respond to it in the same way I do.
For what it’s worth Leo, I find Playtime to be a perfect film and one of the greatest achievements in the history of cinematic mise-en-scene… perhaps THE greatest.
And the turn in the final act as the alienated dystopia gradually transforms into an exuberant bacchanal, has such an ineffable quality… it achieves transcendence.
Couldn’t agree more, my friend
1. Andrei Rublev (1966)
2. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
3. Three Colors : Red (1994)
4. Stalker (1979)
5. Rear Window (1954)
6. There Will Be Blood (2007)
7. 12 Angry Men (1957)
8. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
9. Mulholland Dr. (2001)
10. Touch of Evil (1958)
11. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
12. No Country for Old Men (2007)
13. Red Beard (1965)
14. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
15. F for Fake (1973)
16. The Apartment (1960)
17. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
18. Paths of Glory (1957)
19. Unforgiven (1992)
20. Psycho (1960)
21. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
22. La Haine (1995)
23. Her (2013)
24. American History X (1998)
25. Pulp Fiction (1994)
26. Taxi Driver (1976)
27. Scenes from a Marriage (1974)
28. Double Indemnity (1944)
29. Seven Samurai (1954)
30. Vertigo (1958)
31. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
32. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
33. The Tree of Life (2011)
34. Persona (1966)
35. Three Colors : Blue (1993)
36. Solaris (1972)
37. The Godfather (1972)
38. The Godfather : Part 2 (1974)
39. Eraserhead (1977)
40. Synecdoche, New York (2008)
41. Ikiru (1952)
42. Chinatown (1974)
43. Citizen Kane (1941)
44. A Serious Man (2009)
45. Phantom Thread (2017)
46. Barry Lyndon (1975)
47. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
48. Three Colors : White (1994)
49. Mystic River (2003)
50. Oldboy (2003)
@Packson– thanks for sharing your list. Really impressive! I’ll pick one i like and one i don’t…. I’m not sure about “Phantom Thread” yet- i need to see it again– but its your #2 rated PT Anderson, right? Boy— I can’t go there yet-.have it 5th. One I do love is “Mystic River”. it isn’t quite in my top 50 but i think it’s very underrated by most cinephiles so i’m happy to see it here.
@Drake
I feel like “Phantom thread” is one of the best executed films ever with two main actors shinning in very demanding roles. When you have an idea like this, margin for error is almost non existent when it comes to writting, directing, acting..and i feel like everybody delievered. I appreciate the level of skill needed to make a film like this.
As for the ranking among PTA’s films, i have it over “Magnolia” and “Punch-drunk Love”. “The Master” is a good film, but, in my humble opinion, not as good as you have it on this website. I will never understand the appeal of Scorsese-type films so “Boogie Nights” is not my cup of tea.
Btw this website is unbelievable and although i disagree on some of these rankings (give my man Kieslowski some respect lol), it’s really impressive to make a database like this and demands great respect. As a young cinephile, i get really inspired by all of the knowledge displayed here. Hope my English was good enough.
@Packson . Your English is better than mine. Thank you again for the comment and for the kind works regarding the website. I look forward to seeing “Phantom Thread” again– the third visit for “The Master” was key for me. I think it has a lot more in common, artistically, with “There Will Be Blood” than many give it credit for.
As for Kieslowski– doing his page http://thecinemaarchives.com/2019/05/22/the-42nd-best-director-of-all-time-krzysztof-kieslowski/ was eye-opening. I had forgotten (it’s been awhile) how stunning the imagery was. I look forward to working his way through his entire body of work in the next 3-6 months.
Why don’t you understand the appeal of Scorsese films? Is it the violence or bad words that put you off?
Vanilla Sky. I feel it could be the greatest film in the artform’s history. It might not be Tokyo Story with the mise en scene (though the mise en is great) or have Citizen Kane’s influence (cult classic status though). But I can’t can’t say it isn’t visual mastery. Penelope Cruz, jason lee, kurt russell, everyone else all great in the movie. The acting from Cruise is expressionist, like Falconetti, and the script is very good. It is like Magnolia in its soundtrack, and the use of good vibrations by the beach boys is second only to clockwork orange (singin in the rain). The reason this is maybe the greatest though is not those. Crowe as an auteuer decided to make a film about the transendence of love, it even transcends reality. And also about the dangers of wealth and naturalization. I’m surprised it isn’t in top 300 at the very least, except this isn’t a must see or a highly recommended, its an absolute masterpiece.
@Reynolds — thanks for visiting the site and the comment. I think “Vanilla Sky” is superb and you have a passionate defense of it here. I’ve seen the film 20 times and when i was first studying cinema i thought it was a masterpiece as well. It isn’t. Crowe just isn’t a visual master (though i love some stand-alone scenes like surrealistic scene of Cruise running down an empty Times Square) and I think you’d have an uphill battle that would have to be based more on personal taste and feelings than objective artistic criticism and evaluation if you were trying to argue he’s an artist on the same level as Ozu, Welles or Kubrick. I’d be interested to see if you still feel this way after studying film more and continue to watch some of the other films on my top 500. I love the “Good Vibrations” comment though- that is a fantastic scene and use of music. Thanks again.
Ok I always change up my top 10 list because I just love so many films so I decided I’ll do it this way, put films together that I feel tie with each other, are equal, for example raging bull and taxi driver, i have a bunch of films in these ties and im still missing films i love like fistful of dollars and sixth sense. and of course the whole first six star wars films would be up there.
1. The Wizard Of Oz- Fleming/ Breaking Bad (television series)- Gilligan
2. Raging Bull/ Taxi Driver- Scorsese
3. Searchers- Ford/ Star Wars (1977)- Lucas/ Annie Hall- Allen/ Revenge Of The Sith- Lucas
4. Once Upon A Time In America- Leone/ Schindler’s List- Spielberg/ The Kid- Chaplin/ Where To Invade Next- Moore/ Citizen Kane- Welles/Godfather- Coppola/ Gone With The Wind-Fleming
5. Pulp Fiction- Tarantino/ Raiders Of The Lost Ark- Spielberg/ Grave Of The Fireflies- Takahata/ Joker- Phillips/ Terminator- Cameron
6. Vanilla Sky- Crowe/ O Brother Where Art Thou- Coen Brothers/ Do The Right Thing- Lee/ Apocylypse Now- Coppola
7. Cloud Atlas- Wachowski/ Return Of The King- Jackson/ Carrie- DePalma/ The Stand- Garris (TV Miniseries)
8. Clockwork Orange- Kubrick/ Blue Velvet-Lynch/ Chinatown- Polanski/ 2001- Kubrick/ Ad Astra- Grey/ Up- Docter/ Dr. Strangelove- Kubrick/ metropolis-lang
9. Meyerowitz Adventures- Baumbach/ Punch-Drunk Love/ Passion Of Joan Of Arc- Dreyer/ Roma- Cuaron/ Silence Of The Lambs
10.Broken Blossoms- Griffith/ Steve Jobs- Boyle/ Logan- Mangold/ 8 Mile- Hanson/ Days Of The Future Past- Singer/ Halloween- Carpenter/ Purple Rose Of Cairo/ Yellow Submarine- dunning/ 81/2- fellini/ vertigo- hitchcock
so that was a lot. i want to see if i can narrow it down, absolutely no ties (gonna be very hard) and i started putting films tied with higher films to give space that i dont like as much as some others, like i like steve jobs better than joker but i dont know if either is in my top 10. here goes, and i wont include breaking bad even though it to me is equal slightly less or better than oz. anyways since these are only ten ill put reasons
1. The Wizard Of Oz- a beautiful film about love friendship and childhood acted to perfection great songs amazing screenplay directing, straight up genius, judy garland gives the best performance on celluloid
2.taxi driver/raging bull- ok this is the only tie on this list but these two films are brilliant all around acting music directing editing screenplay and meditations on lonliness, raging bull i think has the greatest last ten minutes aand beginning in history
3. once upon a time in america- in my opinion de niros best performance the music narrative and direction mise en scene are about as good as it gets a meditation
4. searchers- an absolute masterpiece,music, the direction and story, the story the story the story, MOSE freaking HARPER, and mainly perhaps, john wayne in an alltime great performance and hunter’s characters are the most interesting relationship in film history, and the ending as well
5. pulp fiction- the script as good as mainly willis travolta jackson and thurman as well as everyone else is
6. cloud atlas- not as entertaining as star wars or visual as 2001 but the narrative is as human as ive seen and this masterpiece is super ambitious
7. blue velvet- the story and juxtaposition
8. annie hall- great comedic woody allen performance and screenplay keaton is great but she is not why its top ten
9. meyerowitz stories- dialogue, best of hoffman sandler stiller thompson and everyone else in it, narrative genius
10.steve jobs- a shakespearean film which to me gets all the reasons for praise another sorkin script, social network got except an extra layer, that it was about a father and his love for his daughter, a modern masterpiece
@M– thank you for sharing both lists. There’s a good mixture of older works and more recent 2010’s decade stuff. Having said that- I’m not sure you have the right films from the 2010’s decade. Cloud Atlas, Steve Jobs and The Meyerowitz Story. The rest of your films are 7-8 are widely considered classics and in the canon (and very high on my list). The newer ones you won’t find on many of the decade’s list of the best cinema from those critics. Why do you think that is? I’m not saying the critics (or I) am always right— I’m just observing that the older ones you agree with them— and the newer ones you don’t. Any idea why?
i think cloud atlas because it is super ambitious and has something to say about humanity, how big life is, and how there is much repetition and suffering in life, but through the struggle can come a beautiful overture. same reason for meyerowitz, i liked formal touches like the title cards and the script was great, actors were very good, natural dialogue. but to me the best part of meyerowitz was the sense of family, how sandler and stiller wrecked the old man’s car when they found out he violated their sister. steve jobs i thought had a lot of humanity in it as well, as he was a prick but when it came down to his daughter in the end he showed he cared.i do like style over substance films, but my absolute favorite i think the things like acting, and scripts, directing, cinematography, possibly music, it should be formally very good, but i am definitely gonna go with a film with a good lesson on humanity. also iam an actor myself so to me well acted films like meyerowitz and fassbender in steve jobs, or the ensemble of cloud atlas are much appreciated by me.
@M. You are passionate about your picks– as you should be. Thanks for giving me some insight into why you are so high on these three films specifically.
An amazing ranking bro. I would like to know when you will update your count until 2019.
@Richi– thank you for the comment and for visiting the site. So in February — that’s when I’ll do a page for 2019 with my top 10, best performances of the year, etc. I won’t be updating this page for awhile- a year or two and I always wait 10 years to include new films in the top 500. For example, I’ll probably update this page in 2021 and will include films from 2010 and earlier.
Been reading this website for over a year now. Never commented before though. Just wanted to say that this is my favourite website on the internet and your knowledge of film is unparalleled. Seems as if you have seen basically every movie ever and the rankings are superb. Great mix between the classics, foreign films, indie films and the 21st century in all your rankings. The best thing is too that i find myself agreeing with basically all your rankings. For eg. I have PTA’s best as There Will be blood but also not sure if Punch drunk love is his best work because its so goddamn good. Then i go magnolia closely followed by boogie nights. The master is 5 but definitely need another watch )only once). Agree Stalker is Tarkovsky’s best. Even stuff like The Searchers and Apocalypse now i don’t personally have them in my top 10 but they are clearly MP’s and Apocalypse Now is top 20. I like to think of myself as a cinephile but you make me look like i know nothing. So so so appreciate the fact that you watch every kind of movies too. Like the silent films of the 20s, unknown foreign stuff, 7 hour long Tarr films. Literally everything. I haven’t watched as many movies as I’d liked to have in the previous year due to other things happening in my life however i used to watch about 4-5 films a week. Would love to know your thoughts on the Irishman? I personally think its a fantastic sombre look at the gangster life and just life in general. The last 30min is what elevates this movie from very good to great i think. Scorsese rankings: 1. taxi driver 2. goodfellas. 3. raging bull 4. the departed 5. the Irishman 6. mean streets 7. casino 8. the wolf of wall street 9. the king of comedy 10. silence. Thank you for writing such great articles on such a fantastic page. i do have a top 10 movies all time list but haven’t updated it in over a year.
Been reading this website for over a year now. Never commented before though. Just wanted to say that this is my favourite website on the internet and your knowledge of film is unparalleled. Seems as if you have seen basically every movie ever and the rankings are superb. Great mix between the classics, foreign films, indie films and the 21st century in all your rankings. The best thing is too that i find myself agreeing with basically all your rankings. For eg. I have PTA’s best as There Will be blood but also not sure if Punch drunk love is his best work because its so goddamn good. Then i go magnolia closely followed by boogie nights. The master is 5 but definitely need another watch )only once). Agree Stalker is Tarkovsky’s best. Even stuff like The Searchers and Apocalypse now i don’t personally have them in my top 10 but they are clearly MP’s and Apocalypse Now is top 20. I like to think of myself as a cinephile but you make me look like i know nothing. So so so appreciate the fact that you watch every kind of movies too. Like the silent films of the 20s, unknown foreign stuff, 7 hour long Tarr films. Literally everything. I haven’t watched as many movies as I’d liked to have in the previous year due to other things happening in my life however i used to watch about 4-5 films a week. Would love to know your thoughts on the Irishman? I personally think its a fantastic sombre look at the gangster life and just life in general. The last 30min is what elevates this movie from very good to great i think. Scorsese rankings: 1. taxi driver 2. goodfellas. 3. raging bull 4. the departed 5. the Irishman 6. mean streets 7. casino 8. the wolf of wall street 9. the king of comedy 10. silence. Thank you for writing such great articles on such a fantastic page. i do have a top 10 movies all time list but haven’t updated it in over a year.
@Joel– I really appreciate the kind words here about the site. I started this as just sort of a notepad for my ramblings and have been pleasantly surprised by all the positive comments like yours. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Scorsese as well. My ranking is really close to yours (I’d move Age of Innocence in there- it’s very underrated). So I’ve now seen The Irishman twice now. It is superb– here are my thoughts on it: http://thecinemaarchives.com/2019/12/09/the-irishman-2019-scorsese/
My Top Ten Of All Time as of right now is
1.Taxi Driver
2.Pulp Fiction
3.Magnolia
4.Spiderman 2
5.The Master/Manhattan
6.Chinatown
7.LA Confidential
8.Mean Girls (I love this film to death and I don’t care what anyone says)
9.Jackie Brown
10.Inception
HM: Agent Cody Banks( A guilty pleasure lol I watched this all the time as a kid), The Lion King, Fargo, Rush Hour 1 And 2, Alice doesn’t live here anymore, Blue Jasmine, There Will Be Blood, The Shawshank Redemption,And Home Alone 2 among others
@Randy— thanks for sharing. I think i owe the Spiderman’s (including Spiderman 2) another visit. I like most of the films here for sure- great choices. Almost all of these are in the last few decades and in English. Do you have any plans to go farther back? Foreign films? Or have you seen them and just don’t think they qualify?
Also any suggestions I’m open to anything?
I have plans on going back eventually I want to explore more films from the 70s to new Before going into the golden age of Hollywood and other foreign films(I have seen Strangers on a train and Notorious from Hitchcock and enjoyed them both, I eventually will later explore more Hitchcock) I have also seen a clockwork orange and enjoyed that so I can’t wait to explore more Kubrick.
@ Randy– sounds good. I was just wondering. Yeah, I think the way to do it is to work your way back (and expanding outside of English language films). Some directors are more accessible (less difficult) than others. I’d stay away from like Bresson, Dreyer, Tarkovsky and Ozu for awhile. I think even Welles is a little tougher. It took me a long time. I think Hitchcock and Howard Hawks are good places to start. Some of the French New Wave is pretty accessible (Shoot the Piano Player, The 400 Blows from Truffaut). I think Rashomon is right there, too. It’s shorter, has an ambitious structure. Long story short— I think the best way to do it is to go step by step and not try to dive all the way in at once… if you’ve never seen a film from the 60’s pick something like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid– great screenplay, entertaining narrative, in color…
I finally made a list..hurrah
(1) The Godfather (Part 1): Francis Ford Coppola.
(2) The Searchers: John Ford
(3) 2001: A Space Odyssey- Stanley Kubrick
(4) Intolerance: David Griffith
(5) Passion of Joan of Arc: Dreyer.
(6) Apocalypse Now: Francis Ford Coppola
(7) Tree of Life: Terrence Malick.
(8) The Godfather (Part 2): Francis Ford Coppola.
(9) Raging Bull: Martin Scorsese.
(10) Andrei Rublev: Andrei Tarkovsky
(11) Lawrence of Arabia: David Lean.
(12) Breaking the Waves: Lars Von Trier.
(13) The Seventh Seal: Ingmar Bergman.
(14) Once Upon a Time in America: Sergio Leone.
(15) La Dolce Vita: Federico Fellini.
(16) Goodfellas: Martin Scorsese.
(17) In the mood for Love: Wong.
(18) Punch Drunk Love: Paul Thomas Anderson.
(19) Pierrot Le Fou: Jean Luc Goddard.
(20) Cries and Whispers: Ingmar Bergman
Thanks for the suggestion I’ve Seen the first Godfather, Parts Of The second one, Breaking the waves,Once Upon a Time in America, And Raging Bull. I’ll look into the rest.
@AP—– so this list….it’s perfection. Thank you so much for sharing. I might like it more than my own list. haha. I want to ask you for a top 10 of this decade when you’re ready.
I will kinda expand on the choices here.. Have opted for films which aim for the sky. Chinatown is the most perfect film I have seen.. top to bottom. But, Apocalypse and Lawrence have a higher ceiling even if they do meander at times.. Same with Once Upon and Tree of Life. Splitting hairs between all time great films but that’s what we are doing, I guess
Btw, when are you reviewing the Irishman and Marriage Story. The latter was a bit bland at times but both very very good films.
Also, I caught Astra and i think it takes the year. You were spot on with your review.
Hey can you do a List Of The 100 Greatest Movie Performances Of All Time?
@Randy– thanks for all the comments. You’ve really been a great addition to so many of these pages and discussions. Thank you. I’ve had this request before and I’ve thought about it. I will do it at some point but my real work is holding me hostage a bit and with my free time my interest tends towards the films and directors instead of acting… but yeah– i want to get to it. Do you have a top 5 or 10 you can share?
I have a Top 3 lol
1. The Master
2.Moonlight
3.La La Land
@ Drake- haha. You are too sweet.. You are my facorite reviewer and i have gained a lot from reading your work. You have a list for the decade sans 2019 and we are mostly on the same page except The Master which i can’t get into at all.
Recent viewings of American Hustle and Phantom Thread have given me pause, but i am prettty close to getting my list done. Will post it by the end of the year hopefully. Keep up the good work. You are great.
@AP– ahh well thank you. Yes- please let me know when you have a list for the decade. I’m waiting till Feb/March to update mine but yeah if there’s something out there I’ve missed I want to prioritize and a recommendation from you would change that.
Here’s a Topic Idea What are the biggest Oscar Snubs Of The 21st Century ? Some big ones include
Inside Llewelyn Davis for best picture
Before Sunset and Midnight for Best Picture
Jim Carrey for Best Actor for eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind for Best Picture
Zodiac for Best Picture
Paul Dano for Best Supporting Actor for There Will Be blood
The Master for best picture
Oscar Isaac for Best Actor for Inside Llewelyn Davis
The Dark Knight for Best Picture
The 25th Hour for Best Picture
Adam Driver for Best Actor for Paterson
Uma Thurman for Kill Bill 1 and 2 for best Actress
Kill Bill 1 and 2 for Best Picture
A History Of Violence for Best Picture
The Royal Tenebaums for Best Picture
Memento for Best Picture
Mulholland Drive for Best Picture
Naomi Watts for Best Actress for Mulholland Drive
Children of Men for Best Picture
I could go on and on it’s crazy how many great films are snubbed each year
@Randy — I’m on board with these. I can’t imagine I could do a better job than what you’ve done here. Good work! I love the Oscars when they get it right (or close to right like in 2006 I was thrilled with The Departed winning even if Children of Men is superior). But I stopped losing sleep over their wrong choices long ago. My opinion is you have to be patient and year after year and decade after decade the correct (better) films eventually rise to the top.
Hey Drake why do you think of the Golden Globe Nominations?
@Randy. I love watching the Globes. As a TV show– better than the Oscars most years. I’ve got mixed feelings here on the noms. I’m a supporter of Joker, think it’s underrated by many critics, so I’m happy to have it with some surprise nominations. Irishman and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood deserve every nom (I’m actually on board with the no nom for De Niro and noms for Pacino and Pesci). I haven’t had a chance at Marriage Story, 1917, Little Women and many others… so we’ll see. I’m disappointed not to see Ad Astra at all… ditto for Midsommar… two of the years very best films that should be represented in most of these categories.
Why are you on aboard with Deniro not getting a nomination?
@Randy. I just wasn’t blown away by De Niro like I was with Pesci and Pacino. De Niro didn’t do anything wrong. I just think if you’re the center of a 3 1/2 hour top 5 of the year quality movie (at least) directed by Scorsese I should be blown away. I’ve got De Niro behind not only Pacino, Pesci, but Phoenix, DiCaprio, Pitt… and Pitt.. perhaps even Kang-ho Song and Banderas as well… There have been a lot of great performances in a lot of great films this year. De Niro’s isn’t at the top.
What’s your top mâle performances of the Year ?
My top 10 :
1. Adam Driver (Marriage Story)
2. Brad Pitt (Ad Astra)
3. Al Pacino (The Irishman)
4. Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon…)
5. Joaquin Phœnix (Joker)
6. Joe Pesci (The Irishman)
7. Brad Pitt (Once Upon…)
8. Antonio Banderas (Pain & Glory)
9. Kang-ho Song (Parasite)
10. Robert de Niro (The Irishman)
@KidCharlemagne…. So i haven’t sat down and went through them (except for the little quick exercise based on Randy’s question on De Niro above) but you’re hitting all the ones I’d list for the most part. You and I are aligned. Wht a great year! look at those! I usually wait until February to do my “best of the year” page with my top 10 and best performances- both male and female. I still haven’t seen so many films like 1917, Little Women, Uncut Gems, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Atlantics, etc.
Ah yes, Sandler & Hanks are contenders, that’s true.
Here are my Top 10 Male Performances Of The Year:
1. Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood)
2. Adam Driver (Marriage Story)
3. Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood)
4. Al Pacino (The Irishman)
5. Joe Pesci (The Irishman)
6. Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)
7. Matt Damon (Ford V. Ferrari)
8. Robert De Niro (The Irishman)
9. Daniel Craig (Knives Out)
10. Jake Gyllenhaal (Velvet Buzzsaw)
Honourable Mentions: Eddie Murphy (Dolemite Is My Name), Wesley Snipes (Dolemite Is My Name), Alan Alda (Marriage Story), Chris Evans (Knives Out), Brad Pitt (Ad Astra)
Things I Should Probably Point Out:
1. I haven’t seen that many movies this year… Specifically, Uncut Gems, Dolor y Gloria, Parasite, The Lighthouse or Waves… All of which I hear have very strong male performances.
2. Yes, I do rates DiCaprio’s acting higher than Driver’s… although that is somewhat personal taste.
3. I loved Matt Damon in Ford V Ferrari – but I thought Bale’s work, in the same film, was very weak and an example of overacting. I know, a lot of critics don’t agree with that.
4. Craig and Gyllenhaal’s roles are something I haven’t seen either do before. Knives Out is a great movie, in my opinion – probably about a MS on your scale… And Craig masters the role of the detective, who plays somewhat dumb, but is very clever – essentially, an American Poirot – it’s better than Branagh’s Murder On The Orient Express, and I liked that film quite a bit. Velvet Buzzsaw is R/HR for me – Gyllenhaal makes it for me, very engaging actor.
5. Dolemite Is My Name is not fine art, but is very watchable for me – mostly due to the performances… HR on your scale, for me.
6 – I wasn’t as big a fan of Ad Astra as everyone else, but I do appreciate it’s stunning cinematography, the alternate take on the space movie and Brad Pitt’s stoic and restrained portrayal.
@Jeff — thanks for the comment, list and level of detail here. I loved Damon in Ford v. Ferrari too. I thought both he and Bale (so we disagree here) were superb. I’m a fan of Craig and Gyllenhaal’s work as well. We’ve hit a lot of the best performances here but I’ll had Tom Burke to the mix for his work in The Souvenir. He’s exceptional.
Hi Drake,
Yes, I’ve heard many great things about The Souvenir.
Ford V Ferrari is a weird one. I currently reside in the UK – it’s called Le Mans ’66 over here… But it’s weird. Everyone I know who’s into cinema dislike the performance of Bale, in spite of the many critics who like it… It’s a weird one, for sure. And usually I like Bale – I especially loved his role in American Hustle, although I am not a big fan of his work in American Psycho.
May I ask… as I’m fairly I’ve not seen this film in the Archives… what you think of Drew Goddard’s Bad Times At The El Royale – released last year?
@Jeff…. interesting. Yeah I thought Bale was good and he has good reviews (he’s up for an SAG award, and for a Golden Globe). I adore him in American Psycho as well.
I saw Bad Times at the El Royale. I thought it was fine– not a bad way to spend an evening– but I did find enough in it to put it in the archvies. Do you think I missed something? Did you like it?
Le Mans ‘66. Same here (France)
It’s weird… I really, really loved Bad Times At The El Royale – I’d probably have it as a low MP on your scale, honestly. I get why a lot of people don’t love it. But it is a genre film, through and through. And it’s probably the most fun I had watching a movie in a cinema in 2018. I’m probably slightly bias as I would rank Jeff Bridges as being, definitely, one of the best actors of all-time – his performances in Fearless, Thunderbolt & Lightfoot, The Big Lebowski, True Grit, Crazy Heart and Hell Or High Water are mind-blowing to me – and this is without mentioning other great performances of his, which I haven’t the time to go through lol.* I, also, thought Cynthia Erivo gave a terrific performance. Lewis Pullman was great in his role. And Chris Hemsworth gave a came for the ages. The cinematography was engaging, as was the script. I, also, have to give credit for the use of music in the film – the use of Bernadette by The Four Tops was particularly striking to me. Granted, I can understand why you might not like him.
*If I was gonna do a Top Actors of all-time, it’d probably be DiCaprio as No. 1, followed by Bridges, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Cary Grant, Paul Newman and Clint Eastwood, in no particular order – in years to come, it would be possible that Bradley Cooper, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal, Mahershala Ali and Oscar Isaac would find a place on my list, but it depends on what their future output is like.
@Jeff— interesting. Perhaps I’ll throw Bad Times at the El Royale back in the queue to see again. Thanks for sharing your analysis here.
And that is, for sure, a very fine list of the best actors of all-time. No Brando? Or maybe you don’t go back that far? And I like the crop of “years to come” names you have here too. How about Adam Driver? Daniel Kaluuya? Just another couple of names that are at or near the top right now.
Hey Drake what do you think the Best Decade for Movies is?
@Randy– really good question. I’ve given this a lot of thought. I think it’s the 1960’s. Each and every decade has a lot to offer and some parts of the world or countries disappear and then come alive at different times… but I just think during the 1960’s we had the highest concentration of the most talented directors doing great work. We had the French New Wave, Fellini/Antonioni’s best work. We have Bergman’s best work, Kubrick’s best work, and even a masterpiece from the older generation of great auteurs like Welles, Ford, Hitchcock Dreyer and Ozu. I only have 1 1960’s film in my top 10 (2001) but by every other metric (top 100, top 500) I have more 1960’s films than any other decade. #2 would be the 1970’s.
Okay good answer now I’ll ask you the opposite what do you think the worst decade for cinema is?
@Randy– Well I believe in auteur cinema (director as artist). It’s no coincidence that most of my reviews and blog posts center around the director’s achievement. So I follow that theory and I think there were less great artists working the medium from the 1940’s, 1930’s, and 1920’s and 1910’s. Griffith was great in the 1910’s, Murnau and Eisenstein in the 1920’s, Renoir in the 1930’s, and a handful in the 1940’s like Wells and Powell and Pressburger, Rossellini— but I do think there are more of these great directors from 1950’s-now. So of the more modern decades I think the 1980’s may be the weakest and if you go all the way back I guess I’d say the 1930’s (i don’t count the 1910’s because there just isn’t enough to qualify). There are outliers, great directors and artists (some I don’t mention here) in every decade but if you forced me to answer that would be my answer– 1930’s overall and 1980’s if you’re looking for a more modern answer.
Well, I think the thing for me with Brando is that I don’t really love his performance in Apocalypse Now (I haven’t seen any of his work on the Godfather or prior – the only supposedly great performance of his I’ve is Apocalypse Now), so I’m not a big fan, so far. (I’ve only seen a certain amount of movies – I am only 18, at the moment and am only recently emerging as a cinephile, so it’ll probably be a long while before I end up as well-read as you). The thing about the to-come actors I’ve listed is that I’ve loved, at least, two of their performances. So with Oscar Isaac, for example, I have 3 – Inside Llewyn Davis, A Most Violent Year and Ex Machina. Mahershala Ali, I have 2 – Moonlight (he makes this movie a great one, in my opinion, in spite of Barry Jenkins’ superb direction) and Green Book (Movie is HR, at best, but his performance is mesmerising in a way that I haven’t seen an actor be since Hoffman in The Master). Ryan Gosling was one I was tempted to put on the main list. His body of work in this decade is astounding – Blue Valentine, Drive and La La Land are the three highlights, but he is immensely charismatic and funny in The Nice Guys and Crazy, Stupid, Love. His performance in The Place Beyond The Pines is underrated and is one of the best parts of one of my favourite movies of all time (this one really connected with me, for some reason). However, his work in First Man is offputting a little to me – I thought the movie was visually stunning, but his acting was too dry this time. And I wasn’t as big a fan of 2049 as everyone else. To be fair to Gosling, though, I thought his performance was good, albeit not great.
Anyway, to answer your question, which is what I was gonna do before I went on a tangent (sorry lol), the issue with Kaluuya and Driver for me is that- actually, there’s two issues – but the main one for me is that they only have one truly masterful performance each. Kaluuya – Get Out. Driver – Marriage Story. Although, in all fairness, they are very good in Widows and BlacKKKlansman – but not masterful. The other problem with them both is is that, in a weird way, in spite of them both being fairly engaging, they do not have the charisma of the others, which is, usually, what makes an actor stand out for me. For example, in Ex Machina, it’s hard to look away from Oscar Isaac, just because of his phenomenal screen presence in it. The same goes for most of the roles of the actors on that list. They dominate the movies they’re in, but, also, have a way of bringing up the other actors around them. This is a a key asset I find in many of the great actors. I.e. Bridges in The Big Lebowski gets tons and tons of laughs and is one of the great performances of cinema, but the entirety of that ensemble, also, shines.
I don’t know. I feel like I’ve gone on a mega-tangent. Haha sorry.
@Jeff. This is great. I love the passion. I got really interested in cinema around 1999 so I’ve been keeping lists and doing this type of stuff for a long time.
Yep. Hopefully you work your way back over time and watch more Brando and appreciate his stuff. I disagree with the Apocalypse Now take but you aren’t alone. I just think that role needs a big presence/actor and you don’t get any bigger than Brando.
I agree with you on Gosling. He’s on my list of the best actors of all-time already at a young age (along with many of the other names you list here like Dicaprio who was in my top 20 all-time already– and that was prior to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
I’d add Driver’s work in Paterson to the mix. It’s a different (quieter) kind of film/performance (Jarmusch is a different (but exception) type of of director but among the best performances of 2016. And for me i think Kaluuya’s Get Out/Widows is stronger than Ali’s Moonlight/Green Book. Widows is just so much better than Green Book (that’s a big factor) and although Kaluuya is in a supporting role– he’s mesmerizing.
I think you are right about Brando, probably. I feel like I’ll have more of an appreciation for his role in Apocalypse Now (it’s a movie I love), after I view his career. That sort of role needs a sort of backcatologue of knowledge, with the actor. In a way, similar to Newman in Road To Perdition. I should definitely watch Streetcar Named Desire, as I am currently studying the play.
As much as I love DiCaprio in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, I think his best performance might be The Wolf Of Wall Street – no one else could probably play that and it is an absolute tour-de-force that rules the movie.
I haven’t seen Paterson yet, so I couldn’t comment. When I watched Widow, when it was first released actually, it didn’t make much of an impact on me. I feel like I should give it a second shot at some point, as I very much enjoy Hunger and loved 12 Years A Slave – Chiwetel Ejoifer and Lupita N’Yongo blow me away in it. I, actually, didn’t mind Green Book. I prefered it to quite a few of the candidates at that year’s Oscars – granted there were better movies that year (even if I haven’t seen Roma or Cold War yet lol) like The Favourite (Rachel Weisz – so good), BlacKKKlansman (Spike Lee’s mastery of so many cinematic techniques is incredible, I still think he is a somewhat underrated director, especially for his work on Inside Man) and A Star Is Born (Bradley Cooper is mindblowing).
I like the « auteur » in Brando works. He often played violent characters who get hit,beat. As he punishes himself.
Viva Zapata, On The Waterfront, One-Eyed Jacks, Mutiny on the Bounty, The Chase, Reflections in a Golden Eye. What ? He’s a sado-maso or something ?
Cruise often played character with daddy issues. What if Brando was a daddy. Kill the father. It’s oedipus. The best representation,use of that is The Godfather.
@KidCharlemagne– fascinating. I hadn’t picked up on all of those trends. Thanks for the insight here.
You should do a list of the worst films of all time.
@Randy– haha this one is all you. It would be fun in a way but I don’t want to spend my time on bad films.
Hey Drake do you use the Criterion Collection? If so what titles do you like, and what Titles can you recommend me Personally I have Punch Drunk Love,Inside Llewyn Davis, and Broadcast News(I believe I have another but I can’t remember off the top of my head).
@Randy. it’s changed over the years. I signed up for and currently subscribe to the Criterion Channel right now as a streaming service. I’d certainly recommend it to anyone– i love it. I have a bunch of old DVD’s still but rarely use them– I’m mostly streaming (Criterion Channel. Netflix, Amazon Prime and a bunch of Cable movie channels) and then I still get the old fashion snail mail Netflix so i can grab a bluray copy of something for a few days. I don’t really buy many dvd’s or blurays anymore. Criterion does such a good job but it isn’t cheap. I’d try to focus on tough to find dvd’s or ones that you wish you could see on the big screen but can’t. Anything Malick, Kubrick, Tarkovsky would be the first ones I’d seek out. I’m currently looking into getting Heaven’s Gate from Michael Cimino as i’m tired of waiting for it.
Twice a year (July and November/December I believe?) Barnes and Nobles has a 50% off Criterion sale. I’ve taken advantage of this to add a few dozen to my collection over the years.