The greatest Black&White films
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1.
Battleship Potemkin
(1925)
A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resulting street demonstration which brought on a police massacre. (75 mins.)
Director: S.M. Eisenstein
2.
Metropolis
(1927)
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences. (153 mins.)
Director: Fritz Lang
3.
October (Ten Days that Shook the World)
(1928)
In documentary style, events in Petrograd are re-enacted from the end of the monarchy in February of... (142 mins.)
Director: G. Aleksandrov, S. M. Eisenstein
4.
All Quiet on the Western Front
(1930)
A young soldier faces profound disillusionment in the soul-destroying horror of World War I. (136 mins.)
Director: Lewis Milestone
5.
The 39 Steps
(1935)
A man in London tries to help a counterespionage agent. But when the agent is killed and he stands accused, he must go on the run to both save himself and also stop a spy ring trying to steal top secret information. (86 mins.)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
6.
Stagecoach
(1939)
A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo and learn something about each other in the process. (96 mins.)
Director: John Ford
7.
The Great Dictator
(1940)
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel has a doppelganger, a poor but kind Jewish barber living in the slums, who one day is mistaken for Hynkel. (125 mins.)
Director: Charles Chaplin
8.
Citizen Kane
(1941)
Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance. (119 mins.)
Director: Orson Welles
9.
Casablanca
(1942)
Set in unoccupied Africa during the early days of World War II: An American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications. (102 mins.)
Director: Michael Curtiz
10.
Shoeshine
(1946)
Two boys make money by shining shoes in the streets of Rome in postwar Italy. When they become involved in a burglary, the police come looking for them. (93 mins.)
Director: Vittorio De Sica
11.
Bicycle Thieves
(1948)
A man and his son search for a stolen bicycle vital for his job. (93 mins.)
Director: Vittorio De Sica
12.
Seven Samurai
(1954)
A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves. (207 mins.)
Director: Akira Kurosawa
13.
La Strada
(1954)
A carefree girl is sold to a traveling entertainer, consequently enduring physical and emotional pain along the way. (108 mins.)
Director: Federico Fellini
14.
12 Angry Men
(1957)
A dissenting juror in a murder trial slowly manages to convince the others that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court. (96 mins.)
Director: Sidney Lumet
15.
Paths of Glory
(1957)
When soldiers in WW1 refuse to continue with an impossible attack, their superiors decide to make an example of them. (88 mins.)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
16.
The Seventh Seal
(1957)
A man seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague. (96 mins.)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
17.
The 400 Blows
(1959)
Intensely touching story of a misunderstood young adolescent who left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime. (99 mins.)
Director: François Truffaut
18.
Psycho
(1960)
A Phoenix secretary steals $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother. (109 mins.)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
19.
Night of the Living Dead
(1968)
A group of people hide from bloodthirsty zombies in a farmhouse. (96 mins.)
Director: George A. Romero
20.
Lolita
(1962)
A middle-aged college professor becomes infatuated with a 14-year-old nymphet. (152 mins.)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
21.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
(1964)
An insane general starts a process to nuclear holocaust that a war room of politicians and generals frantically try to stop. (95 mins.)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
22.
Young Frankenstein
(1974)
Dr. Frankenstein's grandson, after years of living down the family reputation, inherits granddad's castle and repeats the experiments. (106 mins.)
Director: Mel Brooks
23.
Raging Bull
(1980)
An emotionally self-destructive boxer's journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring, destroys his life outside it. (129 mins.)
Director: Martin Scorsese
24.
Schindler's List
(1993)
In Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis. (195 mins.)
Director: Steven Spielberg
25.
The Artist
(2011)
A silent movie star meets a young dancer, but the arrival of talking pictures sends their careers in opposite directions. (100 mins.)
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
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