This is a list of the 100 films I deem to be the best ever made, an exercise which has taken me about five days and led to some fairly heated argument, tears, tantrums and occasional bouts of violence (all with myself I hasten to add).
The biggest single issue was representation and balance, I didnt want particular directors dominating the list (I think Hitch and Godard top the league table in this respect with 3 a piece) additionally I tried to resist a cultural bias though there inevitably is one (the U.S dominates with the U.K second, how predictable I am) Also to my shame there is only, I think 4 female directors on the list a statistic which I believe magnifies the imbalance between gender that exists in film making today and historically.
I also didnt want to just include the films that routinely appear on best film lists just for the sake of it and tried to make the list as personal as possible although a lot of the usual suspects are on display (although not in fact The Usual Suspects. Or Casablanca for that matter)
Also, the filmakers I left off the list; Walter Salles,Andrea Arnold,Alexander Payne, Shane Meadows, Wes Anderson, David Fincher, Lynne Ramsay, Elia Kazan, Ken Loach, Sergio Leone, Michael Winterbottom, Bernardo Bertolucci, Sam Peckinpah.
I get the feeling that if I did the same thing tomorrow they would all be on it.
I have included some films that I know people will disagree with. Jailhouse Rock? For me its the cinematic equivalent of catching lightning in a bottle, true charisma caught on celluloid, and a reminder that Presley was capable of setting the screen alight with his sheer magnetism. Its also a cracking good yarn. The Vikings? A film that will always remind me of watching movies as a little kid with my mum and falling in love with cinema (and Janet Leigh) thrilling, over the top, wildly melodramatic and a hell of a lot of fun.
I also enjoyed pinning the badge of greatness on some films which many of us love but are rarely acknowledged as classics hence the inclusion of the 'Evil Dead 2', 'When Harry met Sally' and 'Back to the Future', movies that I believe will still make people smile in 100 years time. And then theres the films which I just love and I dont care if other people do.
I guess thats the whole point though, film is such an intensely personal artform, each flicker, each fade out, each frame bursting with endless interpretations and limitless possibilities, that it can only truly gain meaning and validation in the eye of the beholder. Here is my top 100.
Title
|
Director
|
Country
|
Year
| |
1
|
2001:A Space Odyssey
|
Stanley Kubrick
|
U.K
|
1968
|
2
|
Vertigo
|
Alfred Hitchcock
|
U.S.A
|
1958
|
3
|
Stalker
|
Andrei Tarkovsky
|
Soviet Union
|
1979
|
4
|
M
|
Fritz Lang
|
Germany
|
1931
|
5
|
Apocalypse Now
|
Francis Ford Coppola
|
U.S.A
|
1979
|
6
|
Paris, Texas
|
Wim Wenders
|
U.S.A
|
1984
|
7
|
Annie Hall
|
Woody Allen
|
U.S.A
|
1977
|
8
|
This is Spinal Tap
|
Rob Reiner
|
U.S.A
|
1984
|
9
|
The Wizard of Oz
|
Victor Fleming
|
U.S.A
|
1939
|
10
|
Black Narcissus
|
Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger
|
UK
|
1947
|
Le Mepris
|
Jean Luc Godard
|
France
|
1963
| |
Brief Encounter
|
David Lean
|
U.K
|
1945
| |
Metropolis
|
Fritz Lang
|
Germany
|
1927
| |
The Elephant Man
|
David Lynch
|
U.S.A
|
1980
| |
In The Mood for Love
|
Wong Kar Wai
|
China
|
2000
| |
Double Indemnity
|
Billy Wilder
|
U.S.A
|
1944
| |
The Third Man
|
Carol Reed
|
U.K
|
1949
| |
Intolerance
|
D.W Griffith
|
U.S.A
|
1916
| |
Bicycle Thieves
|
Vittorio De Sica
|
Italy
|
1948
| |
Badlands
|
Terence Malick
|
U.S.A
|
1973
| |
Weekend
|
Jean Luc Godard
|
France
|
1967
| |
Targets
|
Peter Bogdanovich
|
U.S.A
|
1968
| |
Wild Strawberries
|
Ingmar Bergman
|
Sweden
|
1957
| |
The Shining
|
Stanley Kubrick
|
U.S.A
|
1980
| |
Solaris
|
Andrei Tarkovsky
|
Soviet Union
|
1972
| |
Psycho
|
Alfred Hitchcock
|
U.S.A
|
1960
| |
Sunset Boulevard
|
Billy Wilder
|
U.S.A
|
1950
| |
Capturing the Friedmans
|
Andrew Jarecki
|
U.S.A
|
2003
| |
Naked
|
Mike Leigh
|
U.K
|
1993
| |
Airplane
|
Abrahams/Zucker/Zucker
|
U.S.A
|
1980
| |
Salaam Bombay
|
Mira Nair
|
India
|
1988
| |
Withnail and I
|
Bruce Robinson
|
U.K
|
1987
| |
The Vanishing
|
George Sluizer
|
Netherlands
|
1988
| |
Goodfellas
|
Martin Scorsese
|
U.S.A
|
1991
| |
Raiders of the Lost Ark
|
Steven Spielberg
|
U.S.A
|
1981
| |
The Thing
|
John Carpenter
|
U.S.A
|
1982
| |
Manhattan
|
Woody Allen
|
U.S.A
|
1979
| |
City of God
|
Fernando Meirelles/Katia Lund
|
Brazil
|
2002
| |
Wild at Heart
|
David Lynch
|
U.S.A
|
1990
| |
Meshes of the Afternoon
|
Maya Deren
|
U.S.A
|
1943
| |
Peeping Tom
|
Michael Powell
|
U.K
|
1960
| |
The Seventh Seal
|
Ingmar Bergman
|
Sweden
|
1957
| |
Freaks
|
Tod Browning
|
U.S.A
|
1932
| |
The 400 Blows
|
Francois Truffaut
|
France
|
1959
| |
Rear Window
|
Alfred Hitchcock
|
U.S.A
|
1954
| |
The Masque of the Red Death
|
Roger Corman
|
U.S.A/UK
|
1964
| |
The Wind
|
Victor Sjostrom
|
U.S.A
|
1928
| |
Seven Samurai
|
Akira Kurosawa
|
Japan
|
1954
| |
Do the Right Thing
|
Spike Lee
|
U.S.A
|
1989
| |
Biutiful
|
Alejandro Innaritu
|
Mexico/Spain
|
2010
| |
Jaws
|
Steven Spielberg
|
U.S.A
|
1975
| |
Don’t Look Back
|
D.A Pennebaker
|
U.S.A
|
1967
| |
It Happened One Night
|
Frank Capra
|
U.S.A
|
1934
| |
Orphee
|
Jean Cocteau
|
France
|
1950
| |
Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer
|
Nick Broomfield
|
U.K
|
2003
| |
Requiem for a dream
|
Darren Aranofsky
|
U.S.A
|
2000
| |
Chinatown
|
Roman Polanski
|
U.S.A
|
1974
| |
Nosferatu
|
F.W Murnau
|
Germany
|
1922
| |
Pulp Fiction
|
Quentin Tarantino
|
U.S.A
|
1994
| |
Les Yeux Sans Visage
|
Georges Franju
|
France
|
1960
| |
The Life of Brian
|
Terry Jones
|
U.K
|
1979
| |
Talk to Her
|
Pedro Almodovar
|
Spain
|
2002
| |
The Exorcist
|
William Friedkin
|
U.S.A
|
1973
| |
When Harry met Sally
|
Rob Reiner
|
U.S.A
|
1989
| |
Brazil
|
Terry Gilliam
|
U.K
|
1985
| |
The Evil Dead 2
|
Sam Raimi
|
U.S.A
|
1987
| |
The Innocents
|
Jack Clayton
|
U.K
|
1961
| |
The Last Waltz
|
Martin Scorsese
|
U.S.A
|
1978
| |
The Gospel according to Saint Matthew
|
Pier Paolo Pasolini
|
Italy
|
1964
| |
Don’t Look Now
|
Nicolas Roeg
|
U.K
|
1973
| |
La Haine
|
Mathieu Cassovitz
|
France
|
1995
| |
Citizen Kane
|
Orson Welles
|
U.S.A
|
1958
| |
Nil by Mouth
|
Gary Oldman
|
U.K
|
1997
| |
The Hustler
|
Robert Rossen
|
U.S.A
|
1961
| |
There Will Be Blood
|
Paul Thomas Anderson
|
U.S.A
|
2007
| |
Oliver Twist
|
David Lean
|
U.K
|
1948
| |
The Empire Strikes Back
|
Irvin Kershner
|
U.S.A
|
1980
| |
The Searchers
|
John Ford
|
U.S.A
|
1956
| |
Videodrome
|
David Cronenberg
|
U.S.A
|
1983
| |
Cache
|
Michael Haneke
|
France
|
2005
| |
The Kid
|
Charles Chaplin
|
U.S.A
|
1921
| |
The Godfather
|
Francis Ford Coppola
|
U.S.A
|
1972
| |
Tell No one
|
Guillaume Canet
|
France
|
2006
| |
High Plains Drifter
|
Clint Eastwood
|
U.S.A
|
1973
| |
A Bout de Souffle
|
Jean Luc Godard
|
France
|
1960
| |
The Big Lebowski
|
Joel/Ethan Coen
|
U.S.A
|
1998
| |
Blade Runner
|
Ridley Scott
|
U.S.A
|
1982
| |
Jailhouse Rock
|
Richard Thorpe
|
U.S.A
|
1957
| |
35 Shots of Rum
|
Claire Denis
|
France
|
2008
| |
Delicatessen
|
Marc Caro/Jean Pierre Jeunet
|
France
|
1991
| |
Taxi Driver
|
Martin Scorsese
|
U.S.A
|
1976
| |
The Night of the Hunter
|
Charles Laughton
|
U.S.A
|
1955
| |
The Producers
|
Mel Brooks
|
U.S.A
|
1968
| |
E.T
|
Steven Spielberg
|
U.S.A
|
1982
| |
Stop Making Sense
|
Jonathan Demme
|
U.S.A
|
1984
| |
Alien
|
Ridley Scott
|
U.S.A
|
1979
| |
Three Colours: Red
|
Krzysztof Kieslowski
|
France
|
1994
| |
Kiss me deadly
|
Robert Aldrich
|
U.S.A
|
1955
| |
The Vikings
|
Richard Fleischer
|
U.S.A
|
1958
| |
Back to the Future
|
Robert Zemeckis
|
U.S.A
|
1985
|
