Just after my top 150... the best of the best
A list of movies you cannot avoid... Always a pleasure to see it again, and again. I hope it will give a good reminder, or wish-list.
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1.
Seven Samurai
(1954)
A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves. (207 mins.)
Director: Akira Kurosawa
2.
Once Upon a Time in the West
(1968)
Epic story of a mysterious stranger with a harmonica who joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad. (175 mins.)
Director: Sergio Leone
3.
The General
(1926)
When Union spies steal an engineer's beloved locomotive, he pursues it single handedly and straight through enemy lines. (107 mins.)
Director: Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton
4.
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
5.
Rear Window
(1954)
A wheelchair bound photographer spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder. (112 mins.)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
6.
North by Northwest
(1959)
A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive. (136 mins.)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
7.
The Wages of Fear
(1953)
In a decrepit South American village, men are hired to transport an urgent nitroglycerine shipment without the equipment that would make it safe. (131 mins.)
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
8.
Diabolique
(1955)
The wife of a cruel headmaster and his mistress conspire to kill him, but after the murder is committed, his body disappears, and strange events begin to plague the two women. (114 mins.)
Director: H.G. Clouzot
9.
Lawrence of Arabia
(1962)
Epic rumination on a flamboyant and controversial British military figure and his conflicted loyalties during wartime service. (216 mins.)
Director: David Lean
10.
The Maltese Falcon
(1941)
A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.
Director: John Huston
11.
Psycho
(1960)
A young woman steals $40,000 from her employer's client, and subsequently encounters a young motel proprietor too long under the domination of his mother. (109 mins.)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
12.
Strangers on a Train
(1951)
A psychotic socialite confronts a pro tennis star with a theory on how two complete strangers can get away with murder...a theory that he plans to implement. (101 mins.)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
13.
Vertigo
(1958)
A San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her. (128 mins.)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
14.
Touch of Evil
(1958)
Stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in Mexican border town. (95 mins.)
Director: Orson Welles
15.
Cinema Paradiso
(1988)
A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist. (155 mins.)
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
16.
Das Boot
(1981)
The claustrophobic world of a WWII German U-boat; boredom, filth, and sheer terror. (149 mins.)
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
17.
Divorce Italian Style
(1961)
A married Sicilian baron falls in love with his cousin and vows to wed her, but with divorce illegal he must concoct a crime of passion to do away with his wife. (105 mins.)
Director: Pietro Germi
18.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
(1920)
Dr. Caligari's somnambulist, Cesare, and his deadly predictions.
Director: Robert Wiene
19.
The Night of the Hunter
(1955)
A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery. (93 mins.)
Director: Charles Laughton
20.
Out of the Past
(1947)
A private eye escapes his past to run a gas station in a small town, but his past catches up with him. Now he must return to the big city world of danger, corruption, double crosses and duplicitous dames. (97 mins.)
Director: Jacques Tourneur
21.
Brief Encounter
(1945)
Meeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband. (86 mins.)
Director: David Lean
22.
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
23.
Arsenic and Old Lace
(1944)
A drama critic learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are homicidal maniacs, and that insanity runs in his family. (118 mins.)
Director: Frank Capra
24.
Harvey
(1950)
Elwood P. Dowd is a mild-mannered, pleasant man, who just happens (he says) to have an invisible friend resembling a 6-foot rabbit. (104 mins.)
Director: Henry Koster
25.
The Exterminating Angel
(1962)
The guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave. (95 mins.)
Director: Luis Buñuel
26.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
(1975)
Upon arrival at a mental institution, a brash rebel rallies the patients together to take on the oppressive Nurse Ratched, a woman more a dictator than a nurse. (133 mins.)
Director: Milos Forman
27.
Letter from an Unknown Woman
(1948)
A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember whom may hold the key to his downfall. (86 mins.)
Director: Max Opuls
28.
La Dolce Vita
(1960)
A series of stories following a week in the life of a philandering paparazzo journalist living in Rome. (174 mins.)
Director: Federico Fellini
29.
Freaks
(1932)
A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance. (64 mins.)
Director: Tod Browning
30.
The Wizard of Oz
(1939)
Dorothy Gale is swept away to a magical land in a tornado and embarks on a quest to see the Wizard who can help her return home. (101 mins.)
Director: Victor Fleming
31.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
(1958)
Brick, an alcoholic ex-football player, drinks his days away and resists the affections of his wife, Maggie. His reunion with his father, Big Daddy, who is dying of cancer, jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son. (108 mins.)
Director: Richard Brooks
32.
Life Is Beautiful
(1997)
A Jewish man has a wonderful romance with the help of his humour, but must use that same quality to protect his son in a Nazi death camp. (116 mins.)
Director: Roberto Benigni
33.
Lifeboat
(1944)
Several survivors of a torpedoed ship find themselves in the same boat with one of the men who sunk it. (97 mins.)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
34.
The African Queen
(1951)
In Africa during WW1, a gin-swilling riverboat owner/captain is persuaded by a strait-laced missionary to use his boat to attack an enemy warship. (105 mins.)
Director: John Huston
35.
My Neighbor Totoro
(1988)
When two girls move to the country to be near their ailing mother, they have adventures with the wonderous forest spirits who live nearby. (86 mins.)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
36.
The Day the Earth Stood Still
(1951)
An alien lands and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets. (92 mins.)
Director: Robert Wise
37.
Stray Dog
(1949)
During a sweltering summer, a rookie homicide detective tries to track down his stolen Colt pistol. (122 mins.)
Director: Akira Kurosawa
38.
Annie Hall
(1977)
Neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditsy Annie Hall. (93 mins.)
Director: Woody Allen
39.
Incendies
(2010)
Twins journey to the Middle East to discover their family history, and fulfill their mother's last wishes. (130 mins.)
Director: Denis Villeneuve
40.
The Invisible Man
(1933)
A scientist finds a way of becoming invisible, but in doing so, he becomes murderously insane. (71 mins.)
Director: James Whale
41.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
(1984)
Warrior/pacifist Princess Nausicaä desperately struggles to prevent two warring nations from destroying themselves and their dying planet. (117 mins.)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
42.
A Time to Love and a Time to Die
(1958)
In 1944, a company of German soldiers on the Russian front are numbed by the horrors and hardships of... (132 mins.)
Director: Douglas Sirk
43.
Barry Lyndon
(1975)
An Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's position in 18th Century aristocracy. (184 mins.)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
45.
Castle in the Sky
(1986)
A young boy and a girl with a magic crystal must race against pirates and foreign agents in a search for a legendary floating castle. (124 mins.)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
46.
Manhattan
(1979)
A divorced New Yorker currently dating a high-schooler brings himself to look for love in the mistress of his best friend instead. (96 mins.)
Director: Woody Allen
47.
Le Deuxieme Souffle
(1966)
Gustave Minda, better known as Gu, a dangerous gangster, escapes from jail. He goes to Paris to join Manouche and other friends... (150 mins.)
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
48.
And Then There Were None
(1945)
Based on a novel and subsequent stage play by Agatha Christie; ten people are invited to an isolated island, only to be killed one-by-one. Could one of them be the killer? (97 mins.)
Director: Rene Clair
49.
The Secret in Their Eyes
(2009)
A retired legal counselor writes a novel hoping to find closure for one of his past unresolved homicide cases and for his unreciprocated love with his superior - both of which still haunt him decades later. (129 mins.)
Director: Juan José Campanella
50.
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
(1980)
As Luke trains with Master Yoda to become a Jedi, his friends evade the Imperial fleet under the command of Darth Vader who is obsessed with turning Skywalker to the Dark Side. (124 mins.)
Director: Irvin Kershner
51.
The Pianist
(2002)
A Polish Jewish musician struggles to survive the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto of World War II. (150 mins.)
Director: Roman Polanski
52.
Thieves' Highway
(1949)
A war-veteran-turned-truck driver attempts to avenge the crippling and robbing of his father at the hands of an amoral produce scofflaw. (94 mins.)
Director: Jules Dassin
53.
Play Time
(1967)
Monsieur Hulot has to contact an American official in Paris, but he gets lost in the maze of modern... (115 mins.)
Director: Jacques Tati
54.
The Deer Hunter
(1978)
An in-depth examination of the way that the Vietnam war affects the lives of people in a small industrial town in the USA. (182 mins.)
Director: Michael Cimino
55.
The Intouchables
(2011)
After he becomes a quadriplegic from a paragliding accident, an aristocrat hires a young man from the projects to be his caretaker. (112 mins.)
Director: Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano
56.
Repulsion
(1965)
Left alone when her sister goes on vacation, a young beauty finds herself besieged on all sides by the demons of her past. (105 mins.)
Director: Roman Polanski
57.
Being There
(1979)
Chance, a simple gardener, has never left the estate until his employer dies. His simple TV-informed utterances are mistaken for profundity. (130 mins.)
Director: Hal Ashby
58.
The Narrow Margin
(1952)
A woman planning to testify against the mob must be protected against their assassins on the train trip from Chicago to Los Angeles. (71 mins.)
Director: Richard Fleischer
59.
Othello
(1952)
Desdemona, daughter of a Venetian aristocrat, elopes with Moorish military hero Othello, to the great resentment of Othello's envious underling Iago... (90 mins.)
Director: Orson Welles
60.
The Thing
(1982)
Scientists in the Antarctic are confronted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of the people that it kills. (109 mins.)
Director: John Carpenter
61.
Departures
(2008)
A newly unemployed cellist takes a job preparing the dead for funerals. (130 mins.)
Director: Yôjirô Takita
62.
Amarcord
(1973)
A series of comedic and nostalgic vignettes set in a 1930s Italian coastal town. (123 mins.)
Director: Federico Fellini
63.
Purple Noon
(1960)
Tom Ripley is a talented mimic, moocher, forger and all-around criminal improviser; but there's more to Tom Ripley than even he can guess. (118 mins.)
Director: René Clément
64.
Full Metal Jacket
(1987)
A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow Marine recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting set in 1968 in Hue, Vietnam. (116 mins.)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
65.
Eyes Without a Face
(1960)
A brilliant surgeon, Dr. Génessier, helped by his assistant Louise, kidnaps nice young women. He removes... (88 mins.)
Director: Georges Franju
66.
Meet John Doe
(1941)
A man needing money agrees to impersonate a nonexistent person who said he'd be committing suicide as a protest, and a political movement begins. (122 mins.)
Director: Frank Capra
67.
Secrets & Lies
(1996)
Successful black woman traces her birth mother to a lower-class white woman, who denies it; emotions run high as everyone's secrets are exposed. (142 mins.)
Director: Mike Leigh
68.
The Trial
(1962)
An unassuming office worker is arrested and stands trial, but he is never made aware of his charges. (118 mins.)
Director: Orson Welles
69.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
(1964)
An umbrella shop girl is separated from her mechanic boyfriend when he is called for military service. Alone, she faces a life altering decision. (91 mins.)
Director: Jacques Demy
70.
Closely Watched Trains
(1966)
An apprentice train dispatcher at a village station seeks his first sexual encounter and becomes despondent when he is unable to perform. (93 mins.)
Director: Jirí Menzel
71.
5 Centimeters Per Second
(2007)
Told in three interconnected segments, we follow a young man named Takaki through his life as cruel winters, cold technology, and finally, adult obligations and responsibility converge to test the delicate petals of love.
Director: Makoto Shinkai
72.
About Elly
(2009)
It's a story about three Iranian families who are traveling to North of Iran in order that they can... (119 mins.)
Director: Asghar Farhadi
73.
Belle de Jour
(1967)
A frigid young housewife decides to spend her midweek afternoons as a prostitute. (101 mins.)
Director: Luis Bunuel
74.
L.A. Confidential
(1997)
As corruption grows in 1950s LA, three policemen - the straight-laced, the brutal, and the sleazy - investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice. (138 mins.)
Director: Curtis Hanson
75.
The Crime of Monsieur Lange
(1936)
A man and a woman arrive in a cafe-hotel near the belgian frontier. The customers recognize the man from the police's description... (80 mins.)
Director: Jean Renoir
76.
Farewell My Concubine
(1993)
The story of two men, who met as apprentices in the Peking Opera, and stayed friends for over 50 years. (171 mins.)
Director: Kaige Chen
77.
The Straight Story
(1999)
An old man makes a long journey by tractor to mend his relationship with an ill brother. (112 mins.)
Director: David Lynch
78.
Kiki's Delivery Service
(1989)
A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service. (103 mins.)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
79.
The Tenant
(1976)
In Paris, the shy bureaucrat Trelkovsky rents an old apartment without bathroom where the previous tenant... (126 mins.)
Director: Roman Polanski
80.
Carnival of Sinners
(1943)
Roland Brissot bought for a nickel a talisman that gives him love, fame and wealth. The talisman is a cut left hand... (78 mins.)
Director: Maurice Tourneur
81.
Fireworks
(1997)
A police officer leaves the force in the face of harrowing personal and professional difficulties. Spiraling into a depression he makes questionable decisions. (103 mins.)
Director: Takeshi Kitano
82.
A Prophet
(2009)
A young Arab man is sent to a French prison where he becomes a mafia kingpin. (155 mins.)
Director: Jacques Audiard
83.
Persepolis
(2007)
Poignant coming-of-age story of a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution. (96 mins.)
Director: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi
84.
Brazil
(1985)
A bureaucrat in a retro-future world tries to correct an administrative error and himself becomes an enemy of the state. (132 mins.)
Director: Terry Gilliam
85.
Hour of the Wolf
(1968)
An artist in crisis is haunted by nightmares from the past in Ingmar Bergman's only horror film, which takes place on a windy island... (90 mins.)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
86.
WALL·E
(2008)
In the distant future, a small waste collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind. (98 mins.)
Director: Andrew Stanton
87.
All About My Mother
(1999)
Young Esteban want to become a writer and also to discover the identity of his father, carefully concealed by the mother Manuela. (101 mins.)
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
88.
Lolita
(1962)
A middle-aged college professor becomes infatuated with a 14-year-old nymphet. (152 mins.)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
89.
Porco Rosso
(1992)
The adventures of a 1920's bush pilot who just happens to look like a humanoid pig. (94 mins.)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
90.
Gran Torino
(2008)
Disgruntled Korean War vet Walt Kowalski sets out to reform his neighbor, a young Hmong teenager, who tried to steal Kowalski's prized possession: his 1972 Gran Torino. (116 mins.)
Director: Clint Eastwood
91.
Dancer in the Dark
(2000)
An east European girl goes to America with her young son, expecting it to be like a Hollywood film. (140 mins.)
Director: Lars Von Trier
92.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
(2004)
A couple undergo a procedure to erase each other from their memories when their relationship turns sour, but it is only through the process of loss that they discover what they had to begin with. (108 mins.)
Director: Michel Gondry
93.
Shoot the Piano Player
(1960)
Charlie Kohler is a piano player in a bar. The waitress Lena is in love with him. One of Charlie's brother...
Director: François Truffaut
94.
Duel
(1971 TV Movie)
A business commuter is pursued and terrorized by a malevolent driver of a massive tractor-trailer. (90 mins.)
Director: Steven Spielberg
95.
Les Tontons Flingueurs
(1963)
Ex-gangster Fernand (Lino Ventura) receives a call from a dying friend, a mob boss nicknamed "The Mexican"... (105 mins.)
Director: Georges Lautner
96.
King & Country
(1964)
During World War I, an army private is accused of desertion during battle. The officer assigned to defend him at his court-martial finds out there is more to the case than meets the eye.
Director: Joseph Losey
97.
Cat People
(1942)
An American man marries a Serbian immigrant who fears that she will turn into the cat person of her homeland's fables if they are intimate together. (73 mins.)
Director: Jacques Tourneur
98.
The Taste of Tea
(2004)
A spell of time in the life of a family living in rural Tochigi prefecture, north of Tokyo. Though her husband is busy working at an office... (143 mins.)
Director: Katsuhito Ishii
99.
Se7en
(1995)
Two detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his modus operandi. (127 mins.)
Director: David Fincher
100.
When Father Was Away on Business
(1985)
Tito's break-up with Stalin in 1948 marked the beginning of not only confusing, but also very dangerous years for many hard-core Yugoslav communists... (136 mins.)
Director: Emir Kusturica
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