Current top 200
by Catrician | created - 15 Dec 2012 | updated - 02 Dec 2017 | Public"of course, there is nothing one can say about cinema other than it is such."
I've been attempting to see a broad range of films throughout my film buff life and this is an assorted list of favourites. I love all of these films, and they've all struck some sort of chord with me. Being as how I like these films the most, they are also the ones I consider the best, at least of what I've seen. But why no Godfather Part II? Why no Rules of the Game or Vertigo? Because they have not stuck chords with me as the films on this list have. I've taken most of my recommendations from a very small group of people, in addition to the They Shoot Pictures' list as well as Sight and Sound, and various recommendations I've read in books or critical reviews (typically those of Godard, Rosenbaum, Slant Magazine or Cahiers du cinema). Enjoy your journey.
Stats:
11:
Jean-Luc Godard
6:
Jacques Rivette
5:
Lars von Trier
Stanley Kubrick
4:
Federico Fellini
John Ford
Robert Bresson
Akira Kurosawa
3:
Chantal Akerman
Bela Tarr
Carl Dreyer
Andrei Tarkovsky
David Lynch
Orson Welles
2:
Richard Linklater
Sion Sono
Tobe Hooper
Pete Watkins
Kenneth Lonergan
Fritz Lang
Alain Resnais
Darren Aronofsky
Paul Verhoeven
Abbas Kiarostami
Sergio Leone
Terrence Malick
James Cameron
Nicholas Ray
Jean Cocteau
Harmony Korine
Stan Brakhage
Peter Greenaway
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1. Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)
Unrated | 193 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A mysteriously linked pair of young women find their daily lives preempted by a strange boudoir melodrama that plays itself out in a hallucinatory parallel reality.
Director: Jacques Rivette | Stars: Juliet Berto, Dominique Labourier, Bulle Ogier, Marie-France Pisier
Votes: 6,355 | Gross: $0.03M
Celine and Julie Go Boating is everything cinema should be; fresh, innovative, creative, funny...It's one of the most layered films I've ever seen, and even after over a dozen or so viewings, it's lost none of its power to astonish me with its creativity, depth, or hilarity. Sure, there are deep serious films. Mulholland Drive, Dogville, and The Tree of Life (which are all in my top 20) are deeply layered and are exquisite in their own ways. But no other film is as much of a joy to watch as Celine and Julie Go Boating. "Get this, Alice: it's really wonderland".
2. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Not Rated | 89 min | Drama
In post-war Italy, a working-class man's bicycle is stolen, endangering his efforts to find work. He and his son set out to find it.
Director: Vittorio De Sica | Stars: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell, Elena Altieri
Votes: 175,122 | Gross: $0.33M
There are no words for Bicycle Thieves that do it justice. There is no need to interpret its various ins-and-outs. It is a film that can stand on its own like no other - a film which is stark and lays out its message right in the context and direct implications of the plot. I could talk for days about the acting, the staging, the script, etc. But why bother? Just see the film for yourself. It doesn't take a genius to realize its sheer perfection.
3. Les Misérables (1934)
Not Rated | 281 min | Drama
The lives of numerous people over the course of 20 years in 19th century France, weaved together by the story of an ex-convict named Jean Valjean on the run from an obsessive police inspector, who pursues him for only a minor offense.
Director: Raymond Bernard | Stars: Harry Baur, Charles Vanel, Paul Azaïs, Max Dearly
Votes: 1,970
Similar to Bicycle Thieves, words aren't useful when describing Les Miserables. I will say, though, that this is a film which is the best possible adaptation for a book; not just for Les Miserables, but for any book in general. It's heartbreaking, beautiful, thrilling, funny, and shot perfectly. Its emotional effect is overwhelming, not to mention its astounding production value and framing.
4. The Thing (1982)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Richard Masur
Votes: 466,486 | Gross: $13.78M
The Thing may seem like an oddball in a list full of Godard, Rivette, and Fellini; but make no mistake: The Thing is cinematic bliss, as concentrated a horror film as there ever was. The effects are mind-blowing, literally the most amazing I've ever seen. But the fact of the matter is this: The Thing is scary, it's paranoia at its finest and represents a balance of mood horror and gore.
5. The Mother and the Whore (1973)
210 min | Drama, Romance
The chauvinist Alexandre balances relationships with several women in the post-1968 intellectual scene of Paris.
Director: Jean Eustache | Stars: Bernadette Lafont, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Françoise Lebrun, Isabelle Weingarten
Votes: 6,684
I believe Eustache's "La maman et la putain" to be the best film ever created, along with Metropolis. Leaud gives his absolute best performance here, and the two women aren't far behind him. It's a film that can toy with your emotions and get under your skin before the inevitable devastating climax of concealed and repressed energy by all the leads. I believe it is the film that many envision but few are able to make; Eustache was given such creative freedom that it's impossible to imagine the film as any less.
6. City of God (2002)
R | 130 min | Crime, Drama
In the slums of Rio, two kids' paths diverge as one struggles to become a photographer and the other a kingpin.
Directors: Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund | Stars: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Matheus Nachtergaele, Phellipe Haagensen
Votes: 800,898 | Gross: $7.56M
An epic of crime and entertainment, City of God is far and away the best movie of the 21st century and who knows what will be needed to make a more compelling movie.
7. La Dolce Vita (1960)
Not Rated | 174 min | Comedy, Drama
A series of stories following a week in the life of a philandering tabloid journalist living in Rome.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée, Yvonne Furneaux
Votes: 78,192 | Gross: $19.52M
Fellini's masterpiece La Dolce Vita is satire at its best; it succeeds on both dimensions as an allegory as well as playing on Fellini's ability to tell a simple story, which he does effortlessly.
8. The Tree of Life (2011)
PG-13 | 139 min | Drama, Fantasy
The story of a family in Waco, Texas in 1956. The eldest son witnesses the loss of innocence and struggles with his parents' conflicting teachings.
Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken
Votes: 184,103 | Gross: $13.30M
Sprawling, beautiful, and Malick's magnum opus, it's one of the greatest films ever made due to the emotional impact. While I don't love the last part of it, what comes before it brings it the pure beauty of the world in one of the most honest movies ever made.
9. Satantango (1994)
Not Rated | 439 min | Drama
On the eve of a large payment, residents of a collapsing collective farm see their plans turn into desolation when they discover that Irimiás, a former co-worker who they thought was dead, is returning to the community.
Director: Béla Tarr | Stars: Mihály Vig, Putyi Horváth, László feLugossy, Éva Almássy Albert
Votes: 12,571
The mood set in Satantango is absolutely genius, the comedy is there when it is necessary, and the symbolism is amazing. Its length seems to fly by.
10. Wax, or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees (1991)
85 min | Documentary, Drama, Sci-Fi
A man recalls the story of how his bees implanted in him a bee television, causing him to lose all perception of space, time, and self in the deserts of the American West.
Director: David Blair | Stars: Father Bessarion, David Blair, William S. Burroughs, Florence Ormezzano
Votes: 455
11. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
R | 133 min | Drama
In the Fall of 1963, a Korean War veteran and criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, where he rallies up the scared patients against the tyrannical nurse.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco
Votes: 1,072,172 | Gross: $112.00M
Besides La Dolce Vita, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is probably the greatest Comedy-Drama ever made, and it features some of the best acting of the 1970s, along with sharp political statements that still ring today.
12. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
G | 149 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi
After uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter
Votes: 719,331 | Gross: $56.95M
A work of art. A story. A revolutionary idea. A handful of new and breathtaking special effects. A new way to make film happen. A Space Odyssey.
13. Casablanca (1942)
PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 605,892 | Gross: $1.02M
Everything that can be said about the masterpiece that is Casablanca has already been said. It's a fun movie, yet it also tells a story that was for its time revolutionary.
14. Dogville (2003)
R | 178 min | Crime, Drama
A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado community in exchange for labor, but when a search visits the town she finds out that their support has a price.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany, Lauren Bacall, Harriet Andersson
Votes: 158,623 | Gross: $1.53M
There are some films rich in subtext with details, ones that forego a plot in order to make statements. I enjoy these films. I like Persona, Jeanne Dielman, etc. But Dogville is special. It gives emotional significance and has a bitter, angst-filled plot crafted both amateurishly and with extreme attention to detail.
15. A Brighter Summer Day (1991)
Not Rated | 237 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Based on a true story, primarily on a conflict between two youth gangs, a 14-year-old boy's girlfriend conflicts with the head of one gang for an unclear reason, until finally the conflict comes to a violent climax.
Director: Edward Yang | Stars: Chang Chen, Lisa Yang, Kuo-Chu Chang, Elaine Jin
Votes: 12,764
16. Mulholland Drive (2001)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
After a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Jeanne Bates
Votes: 383,749 | Gross: $7.22M
Mulholland Dr. has been spoken about for ages, it's about the epitome of the modern film buff culture. Even if you haven't seen it, you've seen it. But what I love most about Mulholland Dr. is how Lynch is able to incorporate emotion - deep, draining emotion - into a non-structured film and get a sense of tragedy from it. One of the most depressing films I've seen, and one of the few films I'd call depressing below the surface level. Modern Shakespeare.
17. Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
Passed | 91 min | Drama, Romance
An elderly couple are forced to live hundreds of miles apart when they lose their house and none of their five children will take both parents in.
Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi, Fay Bainter, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 9,507
18. Sling Blade (1996)
R | 135 min | Drama
Karl Childers, a simple man hospitalized since his childhood murder of his mother and her lover, is released to start a new life in a small town.
Director: Billy Bob Thornton | Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, J.T. Walsh, John Ritter
Votes: 98,796 | Gross: $24.48M
Sling Blade is my favourite pure drama film because of its performances, its realism, and the flat-out beauty of it. Few films come close to this one in terms of emotional impact. It also seems to reject sentimentality with its self-awareness.
19. Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947)
Approved | 99 min | Drama, Fantasy
After learning how to look inside himself, a poetic bum sells people vivid dreams.
Director: Hans Richter | Stars: Jack Bittner, Libby Holman, Josh White, Norma Cazanjian
Votes: 943
It would make an incredible triple viewing of Daisies, Dreams That Money Can Buy, and Celine and Julie Go Boating. Three quasi-surrealist films that give me more joy than just about anything else, really. Oh there's plenty to analyze in Dreams, but you can also just let yourself go in the gorgeous cinematography, the flawless script, the music, it all just gets overwhelming. The fact it was made in '47 is all the more incredible.
20. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Not Rated | 131 min | Drama
A bitter, aging couple, with the help of alcohol, use their young houseguests to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other over the course of a distressing night.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, Sandy Dennis
Votes: 79,895
Emotion on the screen. The American "La maman et la putain" told over the course of a night.
21. La Jetée (1962)
Not Rated | 28 min | Short, Drama, Romance
The story of a man forced to explore his memories in the wake of World War III's devastation, told through still images.
Director: Chris Marker | Stars: Étienne Becker, Jean Négroni, Hélène Chatelain, Davos Hanich
Votes: 37,054
A film of such creativity and beauty, a film able to make use of images quite literally, and utilizes its minimalism so much so that, when the minimalism stops, the film reaches immense heights. A masterpiece among masterpieces and likely the greatest of all short films.
22. Elephant (2003)
R | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Several ordinary high school students go through their daily routine as two others prepare for something more malevolent.
Director: Gus Van Sant | Stars: Elias McConnell, Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, John Robinson
Votes: 97,231 | Gross: $1.23M
More ins-and-outs than Mulholland Drive, Elephant is minimalism at its finest. Van Sant is able to create an hour of discussion from an image, and there are a lot of images in Elephant. Does Van Sant want us to forget about Columbine? Does he point at causes? Does he want to show life at its most beautiful before tragedy, or life at its most mundane?
23. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
R | 229 min | Crime, Drama
A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan 35 years later, where he must once again confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.
Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Treat Williams
Votes: 377,635 | Gross: $5.32M
Beautiful, passionate, and deeply flawed. Once Upon a Time in America is a sort of "Tree of Life" of crime movies in these ways. De Niro turns in a very good performance along with James Woods, and the film overall is able to utilize its aesthetics to benefit its running time and plot.
24. Barry Lyndon (1975)
PG | 185 min | Adventure, Drama, War
An Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's aristocratic position in 18th-century England.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger
Votes: 183,025
25. 8½ (1963)
Not Rated | 138 min | Drama
A harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, Claudia Cardinale, Sandra Milo
Votes: 125,165 | Gross: $0.05M
26. Gummo (1997)
R | 89 min | Comedy, Drama
Lonely residents of a tornado-stricken Ohio town wander the deserted landscape trying to fulfill their boring, nihilistic lives.
Director: Harmony Korine | Stars: Nick Sutton, Jacob Sewell, Lara Tosh, Jacob Reynolds
Votes: 38,239 | Gross: $0.02M
27. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
R | 81 min | Horror, Mystery
Three film students vanish after traveling into a Maryland forest to film a documentary on the local Blair Witch legend, leaving only their footage behind.
Directors: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez | Stars: Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard, Bob Griffin
Votes: 285,449 | Gross: $140.54M
28. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Passed | 114 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer | Stars: Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, André Berley, Maurice Schutz
Votes: 60,646 | Gross: $0.02M
Falconetti.
29. As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000)
288 min | Documentary, Biography
Director Jonas Mekas provides an intimate glimpse of his personal life by constructing a feature length narrative from over 30 years of private home movie footage.
Director: Jonas Mekas | Stars: Jonas Mekas, Stan Brakhage, Robert Breer, Hollis Frampton
Votes: 1,461
One of a select handful of films I can safely say changed my life. A beautiful, wonderful film, meant to be seen in a single viewing, alone or with family, and to enjoy the love of life.
30. Paths of Glory (1957)
Approved | 88 min | Drama, War
After a failed attack on a German position, a general orders three soldiers, chosen at random, court-martialed for cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready
Votes: 212,214
31. Au hasard Balthazar (1966)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama
The story of a mistreated donkey and the people around him. A study on saintliness and a sister piece to Bresson's Mouchette.
Director: Robert Bresson | Stars: Anne Wiazemsky, Walter Green, François Lafarge, Jean-Claude Guilbert
Votes: 22,813 | Gross: $0.04M
The best directed film I've ever seen. Bresson's mastery of aesthetics (the spacing between characters is easily the best...ever) is at full-force here, and Bresson blends some of his most traditional values: Rural Drama and Crime Drama. Balthazar represents, possibly, Bresson's descent into cynicism; just a mere seven years after his barely-hopeful Pickpocket. A masterpiece on every level.
32. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
R | 137 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her ten year old son John from an even more advanced and powerful cyborg.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick
Votes: 1,173,754 | Gross: $204.84M
33. You Can Count on Me (2000)
R | 111 min | Drama
A single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her struggling, rarely seen younger brother returns to town.
Director: Kenneth Lonergan | Stars: Laura Linney, Matthew Broderick, Amy Ryan, Michael Countryman
Votes: 31,416 | Gross: $9.18M
34. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
PG | 91 min | Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table embark on a surreal, low-budget search for the Holy Grail, encountering many, very silly obstacles.
Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones | Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam
Votes: 570,171 | Gross: $1.23M
35. The Princess Bride (1987)
PG | 98 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
A bedridden boy's grandfather reads him the story of a farmboy-turned-pirate who encounters numerous obstacles, enemies and allies in his quest to be reunited with his true love.
Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Robin Wright, Chris Sarandon
Votes: 450,882 | Gross: $30.86M
36. Breaking the Waves (1996)
R | 159 min | Drama
Oilman Jan is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when Jan urges her to have sex with another.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård, Katrin Cartlidge, Jean-Marc Barr
Votes: 71,550 | Gross: $4.04M
Breaking the Waves is a sentimental film, a category of film I have many issues with. Yet it's just too beautiful, Emily Watson is too perfect, the landscapes are unforgettable, and the docu-drama aspect is creative and timely. Thank you, Lars.
37. Contempt (1963)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama, Romance
A French writer's marriage deteriorates while working on Fritz Lang's version of "The Odyssey", as his wife accuses him of using her to court favor with the film's brash American producer.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Brigitte Bardot, Jack Palance, Michel Piccoli, Giorgia Moll
Votes: 36,029 | Gross: $0.04M
Godard's opus, and one of the best films of the 60s, Contempt is an overwhelmingly beautiful, emotionally harrowing experience which is, in many ways, a summary of everything the angst-filled Godard felt in 1963. Comments on cinematography, the relation of producer to director, the relation of both to a film, the relation of man to woman, the breakdown of aesthetics which was to be used in psychology...Truly one of the greatest films of all time.
38. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
PG | 115 min | Drama, Mystery
During a rural summer picnic, a few students and a teacher from an Australian girls' school vanish without a trace. Their absence frustrates and haunts the people left behind.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Rachel Roberts, Anne-Louise Lambert, Vivean Gray, Helen Morse
Votes: 41,027 | Gross: $0.23M
39. Marketa Lazarová (1967)
Not Rated | 162 min | Drama, History, Romance
A grim portrayal of the shift from Paganism to Christianity in medieval central Europe - as a young virgin promised to God is kidnapped and raped by a marauder who her religious father seeks to kill in return.
Director: Frantisek Vlácil | Stars: Josef Kemr, Magda Vásáryová, Nada Hejna, Jaroslav Moucka
Votes: 6,023
40. Love Exposure (2008)
Unrated | 237 min | Action, Comedy, Drama
A bizarre love triangle forms between a young Catholic upskirt photographer, a misandric girl and a manipulative cultist.
Director: Sion Sono | Stars: Takahiro Nishijima, Hikari Mitsushima, Sakura Andô, Yutaka Shimizu
Votes: 15,898
41. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
R | 83 min | Horror
Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.
Director: Tobe Hooper | Stars: Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain
Votes: 183,580 | Gross: $30.86M
42. Girl Walk // All Day (2011 Video)
75 min | Music
Follows a day in the life of the Girl as she dances her way through New York to Girl Talk's "All Day".
Director: Jacob Krupnick | Stars: Anne Marsen, Dai Omiya, John Clayton Doyle, Luciano Acuna Jr.
Votes: 444
43. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
PG | 130 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 499,059
44. Napoleon (1927)
330 min | Biography, Drama, History
A film about the French general's youth and early military career.
Director: Abel Gance | Stars: Albert Dieudonné, Vladimir Roudenko, Edmond Van Daële, Alexandre Koubitzky
Votes: 8,794
45. Ran (1985)
R | 160 min | Action, Drama, War
In Medieval Japan, an elderly warlord retires, handing over his empire to his three sons. However, he vastly underestimates how the new-found power will corrupt them and cause them to turn on each other...and him.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryû
Votes: 136,162 | Gross: $4.14M
46. Greed (1924)
Not Rated | 140 min | Drama, Thriller, Western
The sudden fortune won from a lottery fans such destructive greed that it ruins the lives of the three people involved.
Director: Erich von Stroheim | Stars: Gibson Gowland, Zasu Pitts, Jean Hersholt, Dale Fuller
Votes: 10,757 | Gross: $0.16M
47. Citizen Kane (1941)
PG | 119 min | Drama, Mystery
Following the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.'
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 465,882 | Gross: $1.59M
48. Pierrot the Fool (1965)
Not Rated | 110 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Pierrot escapes his boring society and travels from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea with Marianne, a girl chased by hit-men from Algeria. They lead an unorthodox life, always on the run.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Graziella Galvani, Aicha Abadir
Votes: 36,934
49. The Lusty Men (1952)
Passed | 113 min | Action, Drama, Sport
Retired rodeo champion Jeff McCloud agrees to mentor novice rodeo contestant Wes Merritt against the wishes of Merritt's wife who fears the dangers of this rough sport.
Directors: Nicholas Ray, Robert Parrish | Stars: Susan Hayward, Robert Mitchum, Arthur Kennedy, Arthur Hunnicutt
Votes: 3,655
50. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Not Rated | 106 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
A doomed female hitchhiker pulls Mike Hammer into a deadly whirlpool of intrigue, revolving around a mysterious "great whatsit".
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez
Votes: 22,076
51. Secret Defense (1998)
170 min | Crime, Drama
Sylvie, a 30-year-old scientist, has to dig deeper and deeper into her own background.
Director: Jacques Rivette | Stars: Sandrine Bonnaire, Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Grégoire Colin, Laure Marsac
Votes: 961
52.
Tous les garçons et les filles de leur âge... (1993–1994)
Episode:
Portrait d'une jeune fille de la fin des années 60 à Bruxelles
(1994)
59 min | Drama
A semi autobiographical look at a young woman, like the director herself, growing up in Belgium in the heady era of the late 1960s.
Director: Chantal Akerman | Stars: Circé Lethem, Julien Rassam, Joëlle Marlier, Cynthia Rodberg
Votes: 397
53. Edvard Munch (1974 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 210 min | Biography, Drama, History
This biopic of Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch focuses on the influences that shaped his art, his devastating affair with a married woman that will haunt him for the rest of his life
Director: Peter Watkins | Stars: Geir Westby, Gro Fraas, Kerstii Allum, Eric Allum
Votes: 3,375 | Gross: $0.04M
54. Magnolia (1999)
R | 188 min | Drama
An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Tom Cruise, Jason Robards, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Votes: 328,411 | Gross: $22.46M
55. Blue Velvet (1986)
R | 120 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern
Votes: 215,658 | Gross: $8.55M
56. La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000)
345 min | Drama, History, War
In this war drama blurring the lines between documentary and fiction, the working class and the bourgeoisie of 19th century Paris are interviewed and covered on television, before and during a tragic workers' class revolt.
Director: Peter Watkins | Stars: Eliane Annie Adalto, Pierre Barbieux, Bernard Bombeau, Maylis Bouffartigue
Votes: 1,336
57. Lamentations a Monument for the Dead World (1985)
437 min | History, Mystery
Like Ezekiel's vision in the valley of dry bones, a typos of a new beginning. In among all the feelings of loss and deprivation occur intimations of the final culbute general, of the ... See full summary »
Director: R. Bruce Elder | Stars: Michael Cartmell, Robert Fothergill, Kristina Jones, David King
Votes: 38
58. The Addiction (1995)
Not Rated | 82 min | Drama, Horror
A New York philosophy grad student turns into a vampire after getting bitten by one, and then tries to come to terms with her new lifestyle and frequent craving for human blood.
Director: Abel Ferrara | Stars: Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken, Annabella Sciorra, Edie Falco
Votes: 11,520 | Gross: $0.30M
59. The Match Factory Girl (1990)
Not Rated | 69 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A woman's terribly dull life is upended by a one-night stand pregnancy, causing her to seek retribution.
Director: Aki Kaurismäki | Stars: Kati Outinen, Elina Salo, Esko Nikkari, Vesa Vierikko
Votes: 11,644
60. A Place in the Sun (1951)
Passed | 122 min | Drama, Romance
A poor boy gets a job working for his rich uncle and ends up falling in love with two women.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, Anne Revere
Votes: 24,757
61. American Beauty (1999)
R | 122 min | Drama
A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.
Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley
Votes: 1,210,785 | Gross: $130.10M
62. First Name: Carmen (1983)
R | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Music
A woman involved with a terrorist group becomes dangerously close to the police officer guarding the bank they plan to rob.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Maruschka Detmers, Jacques Bonnaffé, Myriem Roussel, Christophe Odent
Votes: 4,508
63. All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Passed | 89 min | Drama, Romance
An upper-class widow falls in love with a much younger, down-to-earth nurseryman, much to the disapproval of her children and criticism of her country club peers.
Director: Douglas Sirk | Stars: Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead, Conrad Nagel
Votes: 16,624
64. The Color of Pomegranates (1969)
Not Rated | 79 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life of the Armenian poet Sayat-Nova, from childhood to death: his spiritual journey, artistic endeavors, and inner conflicts within the cultural and historical context of Armenia. Hailed as revolutionary by Mikhail Vartanov.
Director: Sergei Parajanov | Stars: Sofiko Chiaureli, Melkon Alekyan, Vilen Galstyan, Gogi Gegechkori
Votes: 13,541
65. Before Sunrise (1995)
R | 101 min | Drama, Romance
A young man and woman meet on a train in Europe, and wind up spending one evening together in Vienna. Unfortunately, both know that this will probably be their only night together.
Director: Richard Linklater | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Andrea Eckert, Hanno Pöschl
Votes: 339,201 | Gross: $5.54M
66. L.A. Confidential (1997)
R | 138 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
As corruption grows in 1950s Los Angeles, three policemen - one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy - investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice.
Director: Curtis Hanson | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger
Votes: 617,708 | Gross: $64.62M
67. Trouble Every Day (2001)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
Two American newlyweds in Paris experience a love so strong, it almost devours them.
Director: Claire Denis | Stars: Vincent Gallo, Tricia Vessey, Béatrice Dalle, Alex Descas
Votes: 9,304 | Gross: $0.01M
68. Window Water Baby Moving (1959)
13 min | Documentary, Short
Stan Brakhage films the birth of his first child, Myrrena.
Director: Stan Brakhage | Stars: Stan Brakhage, Myrrena Schwegmann, Jane Wodening
Votes: 2,457
69. Pulse (2001)
R | 119 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Two groups of people discover evidence that suggests spirits may be trying to invade the human world through the Internet.
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Stars: Haruhiko Katô, Kumiko Asô, Koyuki, Kurume Arisaka
Votes: 25,583 | Gross: $0.05M
70. I, You, He, She (1974)
86 min | Drama
'Je' is a girl voluntarily lock up in a room. 'Tu' is the script. 'Il' is a lorry driver. 'Elle' is the girlfriend.
Director: Chantal Akerman | Stars: Chantal Akerman, Niels Arestrup, Claire Wauthion
Votes: 2,964
71. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)
NC-17 | 124 min | Crime, Drama
At Le Hollandais gourmet restaurant, every night is filled with opulence, decadence and gluttony. But when the cook, a thief, his wife and her lover all come together, they unleash a shocking torrent of sex, food, murder and revenge.
Director: Peter Greenaway | Stars: Richard Bohringer, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Alan Howard
Votes: 41,733 | Gross: $7.72M
72. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Approved | 178 min | Adventure, Western
A bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.
Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè
Votes: 811,030 | Gross: $6.10M
73. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Approved | 123 min | Drama, Western
A senator returns to a Western town for the funeral of an old friend and tells the story of his origins.
Director: John Ford | Stars: James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin
Votes: 82,272
74. Metropolis (1927)
Not Rated | 153 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
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.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge
Votes: 185,486 | Gross: $1.24M
75. Melancholia (2011)
R | 135 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgård
Votes: 195,854 | Gross: $3.03M
76. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson
Votes: 236,392
77. Stalker (1979)
Not Rated | 162 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
A guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky | Stars: Alisa Freyndlikh, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Nikolay Grinko
Votes: 144,709 | Gross: $0.23M
78. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
R | 116 min | Drama, War
A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio, Adam Baldwin
Votes: 790,245 | Gross: $46.36M
79. The Road (1954)
Not Rated | 108 min | Drama
A care-free girl is sold to a traveling entertainer, consequently enduring physical and emotional pain along the way.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina, Richard Basehart, Aldo Silvani
Votes: 66,574
80. 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967)
Not Rated | 87 min | Comedy, Drama
A day in the life of a Parisian housewife/prostitute, interspersed with musings on the Vietnam War and other contemporary issues.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Jean-Luc Godard, Yves Beneyton, Juliet Berto, Helena Bielicic
Votes: 8,522 | Gross: $0.10M
Godard hesitantly (or playfully (or both)) mulls on politics, life, sex, and their relation to one another. His most provocative Pre-Weekend film and one of his best, 2 or 3 Things is a landslide of ideas with just enough coherence to make it work.
81. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
R | 102 min | Drama
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep..
Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans
Votes: 898,604 | Gross: $3.64M
82. Dancer in the Dark (2000)
R | 140 min | Crime, Drama, Musical
An Eastern European US immigrant with a love for musicals has to cope with the gradual loss of her vision.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Björk, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare
Votes: 116,787 | Gross: $4.18M
83. Bigger Than Life (1956)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama
A seriously-ill schoolteacher becomes dependent on a "miracle" drug that begins to affect his sanity.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau, Robert F. Simon
Votes: 8,145
84. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Passed | 129 min | Drama
An Oklahoma family, driven off their farm by the poverty and hopelessness of the Dust Bowl, joins the westward migration to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charley Grapewin
Votes: 99,930 | Gross: $0.06M
85. Seven Samurai (1954)
Not Rated | 207 min | Action, Drama
Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki
Votes: 366,751 | Gross: $0.27M
86. L'Atalante (1934)
Not Rated | 89 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Newly married couple Juliette and a ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'atalante along with the captain's first mate Le père Jules and a cabin boy.
Director: Jean Vigo | Stars: Dita Parlo, Jean Dasté, Gilles Margaritis, Louis Lefebvre
Votes: 17,467
87. Memories of Underdevelopment (1968)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama
A Cuban man cycles through his opinions and memories as the threat of foreign invasion intensifies and the rest of his family moves to Miami.
Director: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea | Stars: Sergio Corrieri, Daisy Granados, Eslinda Núñez, Omar Valdés
Votes: 4,771 | Gross: $0.03M
88. Taxi Driver (1976)
R | 114 min | Crime, Drama
A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks
Votes: 920,455 | Gross: $28.26M
89. High and Low (1963)
Not Rated | 143 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An executive of a Yokohama shoe company becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped by mistake and held for ransom.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Yutaka Sada, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyôko Kagawa
Votes: 53,170
90. Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Not Rated | 93 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A beautiful young woman takes her father's place as the prisoner of a mysterious beast, who wishes to marry her.
Directors: Jean Cocteau, René Clément | Stars: Jean Marais, Josette Day, Mila Parély, Nane Germon
Votes: 28,077 | Gross: $0.30M
91. Rififi (1955)
Not Rated | 118 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Four men plan a technically perfect crime, but the human element intervenes...
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Jean Servais, Carl Möhner, Robert Manuel, Janine Darcey
Votes: 36,835 | Gross: $0.06M
92. The Cremator (1969)
Not Rated | 95 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Set in Central Europe during World War II, a demented cremator believes cremation relieves earthly suffering and sets out to save the world.
Director: Juraj Herz | Stars: Rudolf Hrusínský, Vlasta Chramostová, Jana Stehnová, Milos Vognic
Votes: 10,771
93. Claire's Knee (1970)
GP | 105 min | Drama, Romance
On lakeside summer holiday, a conflicted older man is dared to have a flirt with two beautiful teenage half-sisters despite his betrothal to a diplomat's daughter and the fact that the girls have boyfriends.
Director: Éric Rohmer | Stars: Jean-Claude Brialy, Aurora Cornu, Béatrice Romand, Laurence de Monaghan
Votes: 12,490 | Gross: $0.04M
94. The Hart of London (1970)
80 min | Documentary
A surreal sequence of images of nature and London, Ontario, life and death.
Director: Jack Chambers
Votes: 452
95. Dog Star Man (1964)
78 min
An experimental film from Stan Brakhage in which a man and his dog ascend a wooded mountain.
Director: Stan Brakhage | Stars: Stan Brakhage, Jane Wodening
Votes: 1,219
Pure beauty, frantic filmmaking, with a shout of desperation to the viewer. Brakhage's optimum fusion and his perfect mix of painting, abstract, and narrative.
96. Our Music (2004)
80 min | Drama
An indictment of modern times divided into three "kingdoms": "Enfer" ("Hell"), "Purgatoire" ("Purgatory") and "Paradis" ("Paradise").
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Sarah Adler, Nade Dieu, Rony Kramer, Jean-Christophe Bouvet
Votes: 3,118 | Gross: $0.14M
97. Melancholia (2008)
Not Rated | 450 min | Drama
Three people engage in a strange therapy to get away from their agonies.
Director: Lav Diaz | Stars: Angeli Bayani, Perry Dizon, Roeder Camanag, Dante Perez
Votes: 555
98. Children of Paradise (1945)
Not Rated | 189 min | Drama, Romance
The theatrical life of a beautiful courtesan in 1830s Paris and the four men who love her.
Director: Marcel Carné | Stars: Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur, Pierre Renoir
Votes: 21,167
99. Liquid Sky (1982)
R | 112 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
A small, heroin seeking UFO lands on a Manhattan roof, observes a bizarre, drug addicted fashion model and sucks endorphin from her sexual encounters' brains.
Director: Slava Tsukerman | Stars: Anne Carlisle, Paula E. Sheppard, Susan Doukas, Otto von Wernherr
Votes: 6,858
100. Hail Mary (1985)
Not Rated | 72 min | Drama
A college student gets pregnant without having intercourse, affecting people close and unrelated to her in different ways.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Myriem Roussel, Thierry Rode, Philippe Lacoste, Manon Andersen
Votes: 3,728
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