Favourite Films


1) The Red Shoes (Michael Powell / Emeric Pressburger, 1948)

*************


2) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

*************
 

3) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)

************* 


4) Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

************* 


5) Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

************* 
 

6) Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donan / Gene Kelly, 1952)

*************

 
7) Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1926)

************* 

 
8) The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939)

************ 


9) Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)

************* 


10) The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)

************* 


11) Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

*************


12) Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)

*************


13) King Kong (Cooper/Schoedsack, 1933)

*************

 
14) Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967)

*************

 
15) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

*************

 
16) Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)

************* 


17) The Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)

*************


18) City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931)

*************

 
19) Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)

*************

 
20) Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)

*************

 
21) The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

************* 


22) The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)

*************

 
23) Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)

*************

 
24) Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)

*************


25) The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)

************* 


26) His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940) 

************* 


27) Black Narcissus (Michael Powell / Emeric Pressburger, 1947)

***********


28) M. Hulot's Holiday (Jacques Tati, 1953) 

************* 
 

29) Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)

*************


30) A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)

*************


31) The General (Buster Keaton / Clyde Bruckman, 1926)

*************


32) Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder, 1950)

*************


33) Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985)

************* 


34) Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)

************* 


35) Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1950)

*************


36) Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)

************* 


37) Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)

*************


38) Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932)

*************


39) Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

*************


40) High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)

*************


41) The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959)

*************


42) Blow Out (Brian De Palma, 1981)

************* 


43) Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)

*************


44) Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)

*************


45) Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 1957)

*************


46) Leave Her to Heaven (John M. Stahl, 1945)

*************


47) Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)

************* 


48) The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

*************


49) Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955)

*************


50) Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)

************


51) Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

************* 


52) Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001)

*************


53) The Last Laugh (F.W. Murnau, 1924)

*************


54) Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993)

*************


55) In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)

*************


56) Cairo Station (Youssef Chahine, 1958)

*************


57) The Lady From Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947)

*************


58) Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter, 1976)

*************


59) The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

*************


60) A Canterbury Tale (Michael Powell / Emeric Pressburger, 1944)

*************


61) Smiles of a Summer Night (Ingmar Bergman, 1955)

*************


62) Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)

*************


63) The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)

*************


64) Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973)

*************


65) Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959)

*************


66) Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)

*************


67) The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, 1925)

*************


68) Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946)

*************


69) The Killing (Stanley Kubrick, 1956)

*************


70) Make Way For Tomorrow (Leo McCarey, 1937)

*************


71) Rififi (Jules Dassin, 1955)

*************


72) The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953)

************* 


73) House (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977)

*************


74) Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)

************* 


75) I Walked With a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)

*************


76) Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979)

*************


77) Seventh Heaven (Frank Borzage, 1927)

*************  


78) Limelight (Charles Chaplin, 1952)

*************  


79) Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968)

************* 


80) Black Orpheus (Marcel Camus, 1959)

*************


81) Viaggio in Italia (Roberto Rossellini, 1954)

*************


82) Samson and Delilah (Cecil B. DeMille, 1949)  

************


83) The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Powell / Pressburger, 1943)

*************


84) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920)

*************


85) Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, 1971)

*************


86) Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)

*************


87) Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy, 1933)

************* 


88) The Last Flight (William Dieterle, 1930)

************* 


89) Phantom of the Paradise (Brian De Palma, 1974)

*************


90) Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997)

*************


91) The White Hell of Pitz Palu (Arnold Fanck / G.W. Pabst, 1929)

*************


92) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)

*************


93) Safe in Hell (William A. Wellman, 1931)

************* 


94) Fritz Lang's Indian Epic (Fritz Lang, 1959)

************* 


95) Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981)

************* 


96) Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)

************* 


97) Electra Glide in Blue (James William Guercio, 1973)

************* 


98) Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962)

************* 


99) The Thief of Bagdad (Powell / Berger / Whelan, 1940)

*************


100) Targets (Peter Bogdanovich, 1968)

************* 

13 comments:

Charlie said...

Interesting and all over the place. I'm not bold enough to put my Top 25 Movies on the internet...

FolkTalesUrbanLegends said...

Interesting list. No movies from 80s, one movie from 90s and nothing as well from 00s.

Kevyn Knox said...

The 1980's are the least interesting decade cinematically for me. They will be represented as soon as I extend the list (plan on steadily extending it to a top 100 throughout the summer). A particular black and white boxing film as well as TWO dystopian future stories will eventually be added (one of these probably as soon as this weekend). As for the 2000's, at least two of these will be coming soon as well.

Kevyn Knox said...

Specifics after Top 40:

28 US films
5 UK films
3 French
2 Italian
1 Swedish
1 Japanese

1920's - 2 films
1930'3 - 5 films
1940's - 7 films
1950's - 13 films
1960's - 5 films
1970's - 4 films
1980's - 2 films
1990's - 2 films

None from this century or pre 1920's

Stabford Deathrage said...

I Walked With A Zombie, Black Narcissus, Blow Out and House! What a great list. Thanks for posting it.

readerman said...

I've never attempted to do a top 100 list, but it would include many of yours. Nice job. I know like yours, mine would have more B&W than color. The first ones to come to mind that you left off are any of the Noriko Trilogy films with Setsuko Hara (Toyko Story, Late Spring, Early Summer). I love those as well as The Cranes are Flying, a great Russian film. I'd also have more Chaplin. If you are interested in my top 13 Westerns, click on my blog at http://wyatts-classics.bolgspot.com/

MP said...

For some years I've been wanting to do some kind of a list like this and this is a painful exercise. I think I might have to do something like a top 250 to be entirely happy with my choices... I like that you many films that are not so obvious choices like The Thief of Bagdad or Cairo Station.
I would have guessed you'd include Dogville...

Kevyn Knox said...

Readerman - I thoroughly enjoyed all three of those Ozu films, but the Ozu that came closest to making the cut was An Autumn Afternoon, the director's final film. The Cranes are Flying, along with I Am Cuba, are two Russians that would end up making my Top 200 for sure. As for Chaplin, a third one, The Kid, just missed out.

Michaël - Thanx. Yeah, it was tough narrowing this down to just 100. I am going to add a top 1000 list then as well, but in chronological order w/ the top 100 in bold. That should be up and running by December 1st. And Dogville would be in a top 200, maybe even top 150.

Kevyn Knox said...

The Particulars as of 09/07/12:

USA - 69
UK/GB - 8
France - 8
Italia - 4
Germany - 4
Japan - 3
Sweden - 2
Hong Kong - 1
Egypt - 1

1920's - 8
1930's - 10
1940's - 18
1950's - 29
1960's - 10
1970's - 13
1980's - 6
1990's - 3
2000's - 3

B&W/Colour - 53/47

Very classic Hollywood-Heavy

Anonymous said...

Where does Cinema Paradiso ranks in your opinion?

Kevyn Knox said...

To fit Cinema Paradiso in here, I would probably have to extend this list to several thousand - at least.

'nuff said.

Chris said...

Lots of solid choices ! A couple here to add to my list (Lime Light, and C Blimp)

If you loved Blow Out (1981), you might appreciate Berberian Sound Studio (2012). Especially if you like arthouse horror.

Bill Gregory said...

Such a great list, and site. I just discovered both tonight, and I look forward to reading about your quest. In looking over your favorite films list here, I would say that I have about 80% of these on Blu-ray. I've just been introduced to Powell & Pressburger after seeing The Black Narcissus. I recently got the Criterion Blu of The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp. That looks like a real treat.

I hope you will pick this back up, and revisit your quest. I think I'm going to start on the list of 1,000 myself. I suspect I've seen a good portion of it already.

Best!

Bill Gregory