I found more than 40 lists of the Best Films of All Time online and in books and magazines and combined them into one meta-list. The results are below: every movie on at least four of the original source lists, organized by rank (that is, with the movies on the most lists at the top). Movies on the same number of lists are arranged in chronological order. I have used the English-language titles, in most cases, unless the movie is commonly referred to in the US by its non-English title. For a chronological list of the movies on the list, go here. For a version of list organized by director, go here.
Note: These are not my personal opinions and I have not seen all these films (yet).
On 35 lists
Citizen Kane (US, 1941) Dir: Orson Welles
On 33 lists
Singin’ in the Rain (US, 1952) Dir: Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen
Seven Samurai (Japan, 1954) Dir: Akira Kurosawa
Vertigo (US, 1958) Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Psycho (US, 1960) Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Pulp Fiction (US, 1994) Dir: Quentin Tarantino
On 32 lists
The Godfather (US, 1972) Dir: Francis Ford Coppola
Apocalypse Now (US, 1979) Dir: Francis Ford Coppola
On 31 lists
Casablanca (US, 1942) Dir: Michael Curtiz
Some Like It Hot (US, 1959) Dir: Billy Wilder
On 30 lists
Taxi Driver (US, 1976) Dir: Martin Scorsese
On 29 lists
2001: A Space Odyssey (US/UK, 1968) Dir: Stanley Kubrick
On 28 lists
Bicycle Thieves (Italy, 1948) Dir: Vittorio de Sica
Tokyo Story (Japan, 1953) Dir: Yasujiro Ozu
Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope) (US, 1977) Dir: George Lucas
On 27 lists
The Rules of the Game (France, 1939) Dir: Jean Renoir
Rashomon (Japan, 1950) Dir: Akira Kurosawa
The 400 Blows (France, 1959) Dir: François Truffaut
Breathless (France, 1960) Dir: Jean-Luc Godard
Blade Runner (US, 1982) Dir: Ridley Scott
On 26 lists
Gone With the Wind (US, 1939) Dir: Victor Fleming
The Wizard of Oz (US, 1939) Dir: Victor Fleming
The Searchers (US, 1956) Dir: John Ford
North by Northwest (US, 1959) Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
8 1/2 (Italy, 1963) Dir: Federico Fellini
Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (US/UK, 1964) Dir: Stanley Kubrick
On 25 lists
M (Germany, 1931) Dir: Fritz Lang
All About Eve (US, 1950) Dir: Joseph Mankiewicz
On the Waterfront (US, 1954) Dir: Elia Kazan
Rear Window (US, 1954) Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Alien (US, 1979) Dir: Ridley Scott
Raging Bull (US, 1980) Dir: Martin Scorsese
The Shining (US/UK, 1980) Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Goodfellas (US, 1990) Dir: Martin Scorsese
On 24 lists
Metropolis (Germany, 1927) Dir: Fritz Lang
The Maltese Falcon (US, 1941) Dir: John Huston
Sunset Blvd. (US, 1950) Dir: Billy Wilder
The Seventh Seal (Sweden, 1957) Dir: Ingmar Bergman
La Dolce Vita (Italy, 1960) Dir: Federico Fellini
Lawrence of Arabia (UK, 1962) Dir: David Lean
Chinatown (US, 1974) Dir: Roman Polanski
Jaws (US, 1975) Dir: Steven Spielberg
Annie Hall (US, 1977) Dir: Woody Allen
Raiders of the Lost Ark (US, 1981) Dir: Steven Spielberg
Do The Right Thing (US, 1989) Dir: Spike Lee
In the Mood for Love (China, 2000) Dir: Wong Kar-Wai
Spirited Away (Japan, 2001) Dir: Hayao Miyazaki
On 23 lists
Battleship Potemkin (USSR, 1925) Dir: Sergei Eisenstein
Grand Illusion (France, 1937) Dir: Jean Renoir
Double Indemnity (US, 1944) Dir: Billy Wilder
The Third Man (UK, 1949) Dir: Carol Reed
Pather Panchali (India, 1955) Dir: Satyajit Ray
12 Angry Men (US, 1957) Dir: Sidney Lumet
Touch of Evil (US, 1958) Dir: Orson Welles
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (West Germany, 1972) Dir: Werner Herzog
The Godfather Part II (US, 1974) Dir: Francis Ford Coppola
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (US, 1975) Dir: Miloš Forman
On 22 lists
It’s a Wonderful Life (US, 1946) Dir: Frank Capra
L’Avventura (Italy, 1960) Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni
The Battle of Algiers (Italy/Algeria, 1966) Dir: Gillo Pontecorvo
Persona (Sweden, 1966) Dir: Ingmar Bergman
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (US, 1982) Dir: Steven Spielberg
Schindler’s List (US, 1993) Dir: Steven Spielberg
On 21 lists
The General (US, 1926) Dir: Clyde Bruckman & Buster Keaton
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (US, 1927) Dir: F.W. Murnau
Duck Soup (US, 1933) Dir: Leo McCarey
Rome, Open City (Italy, 1945) Dir: Roberto Rossellini
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (US, 1948) Dir: John Huston
The Night of the Hunter (US, 1955) Dir: Charles Laughton
The Apartment (US, 1960) Dir: Billy Wilder
Andrei Rublev (USSR, 1966) Dir: Andrei Tarkovsky
The Conformist (Italy/France, 1970) Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci
Pan’s Labyrinth (Mexico/Spain, 2006) Dir: Guillermo del Toro
On 20 lists
L’Atalante (France, 1934) Dir: Jean Vigo
The Grapes of Wrath (US, 1940) Dir: John Ford
Sansho the Bailiff (Japan, 1954) Dir: Kenji Mizoguchi
The Wild Bunch (US, 1969) Dir: Sam Peckinpah
Back to the Future (US, 1985) Dir: Robert Zemeckis
Mulholland Drive (US, 2001) Dir: David Lynch
On 19 lists
The Passion of Joan of Arc (France, 1928) Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Notorious (US, 1946) Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
The Best Years of Our Lives (US, 1946) Dir: William Wyler
Ugetsu Monogatari (Japan, 1953) Dir: Kenji Mizoguchi
Hiroshima, Mon Amour (France/Japan, 1959) Dir: Alain Resnais
Jules and Jim (France, 1962) Dir: Francois Truffaut
To Kill a Mockingbird (US, 1962) Dir: Robert Mulligan
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Italy, 1966) Dir: Sergio Leone
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (France/Italy/Spain, 1972) Dir: Luis Buñuel
Ran (Japan, 1985) Dir: Akira Kurosawa
The Silence of the Lambs (US, 1990) Dir: Jonathan Demme
Fargo (US, 1996) Dir: Joel & Ethan Coen
On 18 lists
Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror (Germany, 1922) Dir: F.W. Murnau
It Happened One Night (US, 1934) Dir: Frank Capra
Modern Times (US, 1936) Dir: Charlie Chaplin
Children of Paradise (France, 1945) Dir: Marcel Carné
The Red Shoes (UK, 1948) Dir: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Sweet Smell of Success (US, 1957) Dir: Alexander Mackendrick
The Graduate (US, 1967) Dir: Mike Nichols
Bonnie and Clyde (US, 1967) Dir: Arthur Penn
A Clockwork Orange (UK/US, 1971) Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Mean Streets (US, 1973) Dir: Martin Scorsese
The Spirit of the Beehive (Spain, 1973) Dir: Victor Erice
Nashville (US, 1975) Dir: Robert Altman
The Shawshank Redemption (US, 1994) Dir: Frank Darabont
Toy Story (US, 1995) Dir: John Lasseter
On 17 lists
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Germany 1920) Dir: Robert Wiene
City Lights (US, 1931) Dir: Charlie Chaplin
His Girl Friday (US, 1940) Dir: Howard Hawks
A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven) (UK, 1946) Dir: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Ikiru (Japan, 1952) Dir: Akira Kurosawa
The Earrings of Madame de… (France/Italy, 1953) Dir: Max Ophüls
Wild Strawberries (Sweden, 1957) Dir: Ingmar Bergman
Paths of Glory (US, 1957) Dir: Stanley Kubrick
The Bridge on the River Kwai (UK/US, 1957) Dir: David Lean
The Leopard (Italy, 1963) Dir: Luchino Visconti
Playtime (France, 1967) Dir: Jacques Tati
Rosemary’s Baby (US, 1968) Dir: Roman Polanski
Once Upon a Time in the West (Italy/US, 1968) Dir: Sergio Leone
Badlands (US, 1973) Dir: Terence Malick
This is Spinal Tap (US, 1984) Dir: Rob Reiner
Close-Up (Iran, 1990) Dir: Abbas Kiarostami
Groundhog Day (US, 1993) Dir: Harold Ramis
L.A. Confidential (US, 1997) Dir: Curtis Hanson
On 16 lists
King Kong (US, 1933) Dir: Merian Cooper & Ernest Schoedsack
Bride of Frankenstein (US, 1935) Dir: James Whale
Stagecoach (US, 1939) Dir: John Ford
The Lady Eve (US, 1941) Dir: Preston Sturges
Brief Encounter (UK, 1945) Dir: David Lean
The Wages of Fear (France/Italy, 1953) Dir: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Viridiana (Spain/Mexico, 1961) Dir: Luis Buñuel
Au Hasard Balthazar (France, 1966) Dir: Robert Bresson
Belle de Jour (France, 1967) Dir: Luis Buñuel
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Belgium/France, 1975) Dir: Chantal Akerman
All the President’s Men (US, 1976) Dir: Alan J. Pakula
Killer of Sheep (US, 1977) Dir: Charles Burnett
The Deer Hunter (US, 1978) Dir: Michael Cimino
The Empire Strikes Back (Star Wars: Episode V) (US, 1980) Dir: Irvin Kershner
Shoah (France, 1985) Dir: Claude Lanzmann
Blue Velvet (US, 1986) Dir: David Lynch
Reservoir Dogs (US, 1992) Dir: Quentin Tarantino
Unforgiven (US, 1992) Dir: Clint Eastwood
Three Colors: Red (France/Poland/Switzerland, 1994) Dir: Krzysztof Kieślowski
Saving Private Ryan (US, 1998) Dir: Steven Spielberg
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (New Zealand/US, 2001) Dir: Peter Jackson
On 15 lists
The Gold Rush (US, 1925) Dir: Charlie Chaplin
Bringing Up Baby (US, 1938) Dir: Howard Hawks
The Great Dictator (US, 1940) Dir: Charlie Chaplin
The Big Sleep (US, 1946) Dir: Howard Hawks
My Darling Clementine (US, 1946) Dir: John Ford
Beauty and the Beast (France, 1946) Dir: Jean Cocteau
Los Olvidados (The Young and the Damned) (Mexico, 1950) Dir: Luis Buñuel
Mr. Hulot’s Holiday (France, 1953) Dir: Jacques Tati
La Strada (Italy, 1954) Dir: Federico Fellini
Rebel Without a Cause (US, 1955) Dir: Nicholas Ray
The World of Apu (India, 1959) Dir: Satyajit Ray
West Side Story (US, 1961) Dir: Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins
The Manchurian Candidate (US, 1962) Dir: John Frankenheimer
Contempt (France, 1963) Dir: Jean-Luc Godard
Night of the Living Dead (US, 1968) Dir: George Romero
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (US, 1969) Dir: George Roy Hill
The Last Picture Show (US, 1971) Dir: Peter Bogdanovich
Solaris (USSR, 1972) Dir: Andrei Tarkovsky
The Exorcist (US, 1973) Dir: William Friedkin
Don’t Look Now (UK/Italy, 1973) Dir: Nicholas Roeg
The Conversation (US, 1974) Dir: Francis Ford Coppola
Barry Lyndon (UK/US, 1975) Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (US, 1977) Dir: Steven Spielberg
Days of Heaven (US, 1978) Dir: Terence Malick
Wings of Desire (West Germany/France, 1987) Dir: Wim Wenders
Raise the Red Lantern (China, 1991) Dir: Zhang Yimou
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (US, 2004) Dir: Michel Gondry
On 14 lists
Greed (US, 1924) Dir: Erich von Stroheim
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (US, 1937) Dir: David Hand, et al.
The Philadelphia Story (US, 1940) Dir: George Cukor
Rebecca (US, 1940) Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
To Be or Not To Be (US, 1942) Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Kind Hearts and Coronets (UK, 1949) Dir: Robert Hamer
Umberto D (Italy, 1952) Dir: Vittorio de Sica
Nights of Cabiria (Italy, 1957) Dir: Federico Fellini
Ashes and Diamonds (Poland, 1958) Dir: Andrzej Wajda
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (US, 1962) Dir: John Ford
A Hard Day’s Night (UK, 1964) Dir: Richard Lester
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (France, 1964) Dir: Jacques Demy
Blow-Up (Italy/UK/US, 1966) Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (US, 1971) Dir: Robert Altman
Fanny and Alexander (Sweden/France/West Germany, 1982) Dir: Ingmar Bergman
Amadeus (US, 1984) Dir: Miloš Forman
Brazil (UK/US, 1985) Dir: Terry Gilliam
Come and See (USSR, 1985) Dir: Elem Klimov
Cinema Paradiso (Italy, 1988) Dir: Giuseppe Tornatore
The Decalogue (Poland, 1988) Dir: Krzysztof Kieślowski
The Piano (New Zealand/Australia/France, 1993) Dir: Jane Campion
Seven (US, 1995) Dir: David Fincher
The Usual Suspects (US, 1995) Dir: Bryan Singer
The Big Lebowski (US, 1998) Dir: Joel & Ethan Coen
The Matrix (US, 1999) Dir: The Wachowskis
Yi Yi: A One and a Two (Taiwan, 2000) Dir: Edward Yang
Amélie (France/Germany, 2001) Dir: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (New Zealand/US, 2003) Dir: Peter Jackson
On 13 lists
Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Through the Ages (US, 1916) Dir: D.W. Griffith
Sherlock, Jr. (US, 1924) Dir: Buster Keaton
Man with a Movie Camera (USSR, 1929) Dir: Dziga Vertov
Trouble in Paradise (US, 1932) Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
The Adventures of Robin Hood (US, 1938) Dir: Michael Curtiz
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (UK, 1943) Dir: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Meet Me in St. Louis (US, 1944) Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Out of the Past (US, 1947) Dir: Jacques Tourneur
A Streetcar Named Desire (US, 1951) Dir: Elia Kazan
Viaggio in Italia (Voyage to Italy) (Italy/France, 1953) Dir: Roberto Rossellini
The Band Wagon (US, 1953) Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Ben-Hur (US, 1959) Dir: William Wyler
The Hustler (US, 1961) Dir: Robert Rossen
Last Year at Marienbad (France/Italy, 1961) Dir: Alain Resnais
The Exterminating Angel (Mexico, 1962) Dir: Luis Buñuel
La Jetée (France, 1962) Dir: Chris Marker
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (US, 1974) Dir: Tobe Hooper
Network (US, 1976) Dir: Sidney Lumet
Aliens (US, 1986) Dir: James Cameron
Trainspotting (UK, 1996) Dir: Danny Boyle
The Celebration (Denmark, 1998) Dir: Thomas Vinterberg
American Beauty (US, 1999) Dir: Sam Mendes
City of God (Brazil, 2002) Dir: Fernando Meirelles
There Will Be Blood (US, 2007) Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson
On 12 lists
L’Âge d’Or (France, 1930) Dir: Luis Buñuel
Top Hat (US, 1935) Dir: Mark Sandrich
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (US, 1939) Dir: Frank Capra
Sullivan’s Travels (US, 1941) Dir: Preston Sturges
The Palm Beach Story (US, 1942) Dir: Preston Sturges
Great Expectations (UK, 1946) Dir: David Lean
Strangers on a Train (US, 1951) Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
The Big Heat (US, 1953) Dir: Fritz Lang
Roman Holiday (US, 1953) Dir: William Wyler
Diabolique (France. 1955) Dir: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Pickpocket (France, 1959) Dir: Robert Bresson
Rio Bravo (US, 1959) Dir: Howard Hawks
Peeping Tom (UK, 1960) Dir: Michael Powell
Rocco and his Brothers (Italy/France, 1960) Dir: Luchino Visconti
The Sound of Music (US, 1965) Dir: Robert Wise
Pierrot le Fou (France, 1965) Dir: Jean-Luc Godard
Point Blank (US, 1967) Dir: John Boorman
Cool Hand Luke (US, 1967) Dir: Stuart Rosenberg
My Night at Maud’s (France, 1969) Dir: Éric Rohmer
The French Connection (US, 1971) Dir: William Friedkin
Cabaret (US, 1972) Dir: Bob Fosse
Last Tango in Paris (Italy/France, 1972) Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci
American Graffiti (US, 1973) Dir: George Lucas
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (West Germany, 1974) Dir: Rainer Maria Fassbinder
A Woman Under the Influence (US, 1974) Dir: John Cassavetes
Celine and Julie Go Boating (France, 1974) Dir: Jacques Rivette
Dog Day Afternoon (US, 1975) Dir: Sidney Lumet
Rocky (UK, 1976) Dir: John G. Avildsen
The Marriage of Maria Braun (West Germany, 1979) Dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
All That Jazz (US, 1979) Dir: Bob Fosse
Airplane! (US, 1980) Dir: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker & Jerry Zucker
Fitzcarraldo (West Germany, 1982) Dir: Werner Herzog
Tootsie (US, 1982) Dir: Sydney Pollack
The King of Comedy (US, 1983) Dir: Martin Scorsese
Die Hard (US, 1988) Dir: John McTiernan
Taste of Cherry (Iran, 1997) Dir: Abbas Kiarostami
Caché (Hidden) (France/Austria/Germany/Italy, 2005) Dir: Michael Haneke
On 11 lists
Napoléon (France, 1927) Dir: Abel Gance
Un Chien Andalou (France, 1929) Dir: Luis Buñuel & Salvador Dali
All Quiet on the Western Front (US, 1930) Dir: Lewis Milestone
The 39 Steps (UK, 1935) Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
The Lady Vanishes (UK, 1938) Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
The Thief of Bagdad (UK, 1940) Dir: Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan
The Magnificent Ambersons (US, 1942) Dir: Orson Welles
Shadow of a Doubt (US, 1943) Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Ivan the Terrible, Part I (USSR, 1944) Dir: Sergei Eisenstein
Laura (US, 1944) Dir: Otto Preminger
Paisan (Italy, 1946) Dir: Roberto Rossellini
Diary of a Country Priest (France, 1951) Dir: Robert Bresson
High Noon (US, 1952) Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Shane (US, 1953) Dir: George Stevens
Ordet (Denmark, 1955) Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Written on the Wind (US, 1956) Dir: Douglas Sirk
Aparajito (India, 1956) Dir: Satyajit Ray
Anatomy of a Murder (US, 1959) Dir: Otto Preminger
Cléo from 5 to 7 (France, 1962) Dir: Agnès Varda
The Birds (US, 1963) Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Italy, 1964) Dir: Pier Paolo Pasolini
My Fair Lady (US, 1964) Dir: George Cukor
Goldfinger (UK, 1964) Dir: Guy Hamilton
Doctor Zhivago (UK/Italy, 1965) Dir: David Lean
The Producers (US, 1968) Dir: Mel Brooks
If… (UK, 1968) Dir: Lindsay Anderson
Midnight Cowboy (US, 1969) Dir: John Schlesinger
Easy Rider (US, 1969) Dir: Dennis Hopper
M*A*S*H (US, 1970) Dir: Robert Altman
The Long Goodbye (US, 1973) Dir: Robert Altman
Amarcord (Italy, 1973) Dir: Federico Fellini
The Mother and the Whore (France, 1973) Dir: Jean Eustache
Paris, Texas (West Germany/France, 1984) Dir: Wim Wenders
On 10 lists
The Birth of a Nation (US, 1915) Dir: D.W. Griffith
The Last Laugh (Germany, 1924) Dir: F.W. Murnau
Pandora’s Box (Germany, 1929) Dir: G.W. Pabst
Earth (USSR, 1930) Dir: Alexander Dozvenko
Zero for Conduct (France, 1933) Dir: Jean Vigo
Alexander Nevsky (USSR, 1938) Dir: Sergei Eisenstein
Fantasia (US, 1940) Dir: Ben Sharpsteen, David Hand, et al.
Black Narcissus (UK, 1946) Dir: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Red River (US, 1948) Dir: Howard Hawks
La Terra Trema (Italy, 1948) Dir: Luchino Visconti
In a Lonely Place (US, 1950) Dir: Nicholas Ray
Orpheus (France, 1950) Dir: Jean Cocteau
An American in Paris (US, 1951) Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Johnny Guitar (US, 1954) Dir: Nicholas Ray
A Star is Born (US, 1954) Dir: George Cukor
East of Eden (US, 1955) Dir: Elia Kazan
Bob le Flambeur (France, 1955) Dir: Jean-Pierre Melville
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (US, 1956) Dir: Don Siegel
A Man Escaped (France, 1956) Dir: Robert Bresson
Imitation of Life (US, 1959) Dir: Douglas Sirk
Spartacus (US, 1960) Dir: Stanley Kubrick
L’Eclisse (Italy, 1962) Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni
Le Samouraï (France/Italy, 1967) Dir: Jean-Pierre Melville
Z (France/Algeria, 1969) Dir: Costa-Gavras
Five Easy Pieces (US, 1970) Dir: Bob Rafelson
Performance (UK, 1970) Dir: Donald Cammell & Nicholas Roeg
Dirty Harry (US, 1971) Dir: Don Siegel
Walkabout (UK/Australia, 1971) Dir: Nicolas Roeg
Cries and Whispers (Sweden, 1972) Dir: Ingmar Bergman
Day for Night (France, 1973) Dir: François Truffaut
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (UK, 1975) Dir: Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones
Mirror (USSR, 1975) Dir: Andrei Tarkovsky
Saturday Night Fever (US, 1977) Dir: John Badham
Being There (US, 1979) Dir: Hal Ashby
Manhattan (US, 1979) Dir: Woody Allen
Stalker (USSR, 1979) Dir: Andrei Tarkovsky
The Elephant Man (US/UK, 1980) Dir: David Lynch
The Big Red One (US, 1980) Dir: Samuel Fuller
Scarface (US, 1983) Dir: Brian De Palma
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (US, 1988) Dir: Robert Zemeckis
Crimes and Misdemeanors (US, 1989) Dir: Woody Allen
La Belle Noiseuse (France/Switzerland, 1991) Dir: Jacques Rivette
Breaking the Waves (Denmark/UK, 1996) Dir: Lars von Trier
Beau Travail (France, 1999) Dir: Claire Denis
The Lives of Others (Germany, 2006) Dir: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Mad Max: Fury Road (Australia/US, 2015) Dir: George Miller
Moonlight (US, 2016) Dir: Barry Jenkins
On 9 lists
Nanook of the North (US, 1922) Dir: Robert J. Flaherty
Frankenstein (US, 1931) Dir: James Whale
The Public Enemy (US, 1931) Dir: William Wellman
Freaks (US, 1932) Dir: Tod Browning
My Man Godfrey (US, 1936) Dir: Gregory La Cava
The Awful Truth (US, 1937) Dir: Leo McCarey
Ninotchka (US, 1939) Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Pinocchio (US, 1940) Dir: Ben Sharpsteen & Hamilton Luske
Dumbo (US, 1941) Dir: Ben Sharpsteen
To Have and Have Not (US, 1944) Dir: Howard Hawks
Odd Man Out (UK, 1947) Dir: Carol Reed
Monsieur Verdoux (US, 1947) Dir: Charlie Chaplin
White Heat (US, 1949) Dir: Raoul Walsh
The Asphalt Jungle (US, 1950) Dir: John Huston
The Day the Earth Stood Still (US, 1951) Dir: Robert Wise
The African Queen (US, 1951) Dir: John Huston
Ace in the Hole (The Big Carnival) (US, 1951) Dir: Billy Wilder
Forbidden Games (France, 1952) Dir: René Clément
Pickup on South Street (US, 1953) Dir: Samuel Fuller
Rififi (France, 1955) Dir: Jules Dassin
Throne of Blood (Japan, 1957) Dir: Akira Kurosawa
The Cranes are Flying (USSR, 1957) Dir: Mikhail Kalatozov
Mon Oncle (France, 1958) Dir: Jacques Tati
Shadows (US, 1959) Dir: John Cassavetes
Shoot the Piano Player (France, 1960) Dir: François Truffaut
Shock Corridor (US, 1963) Dir: Samuel Fuller
Woman in the Dunes (Japan, 1964) Dir: Hiroshi Teshigahara
Chimes at Midnight (Falstaff) (Spain/Switzerland, 1965) Dir: Orson Welles
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (US, 1966) Dir: Mike Nichols
Closely Watched Trains (Czechoslovakia, 1966) Dir: Jiří Menzel
Daisies (Czechoslovakia, 1966) Dir: Věra Chytilová
Weekend (France, 1967) Dir: Jean-Luc Godard
In the Heat of the Night (US, 1967) Dir: Norman Jewison
Faces (US, 1968) Dir: John Cassavetes
Le Boucher (France, 1970) Dir: Claude Chabrol
W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (Yugoslavia, 1971) Dir: Dušan Makavejev
Get Carter (UK, 1971) Dir: Mike Hodges
Deliverance (US, 1972) Dir: John Boorman
The Sting (US, 1973) Dir: George Roy Hill
Young Frankenstein (US, 1974) Dir: Mel Brooks
In the Realm of the Senses (Japan, 1976) Dir: Nagisa Oshima
Eraserhead (US, 1977) Dir: David Lynch
Dawn of the Dead (US, 1978) Dir: George Romero
Atlantic City (France/Canada, 1980) Dir: Louis Malle
Heimat (West Germany, 1984) Dir: Edgar Reitz
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Spain, 1988) Dir: Pedro Almodóvar
Sátántangó (Hungary/Germany/Switzerland, 1994) Dir: Béla Tarr
The Thin Red Line (US, 1998) Dir: Terence Malick
Magnolia (US, 1999) Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson
All About My Mother (Spain, 1999) Dir: Pedro Almodóvar
Gladiator (US, 2000) Dir: Ridley Scott
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (US, 2001) Dir: Steven Spielberg
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (US/New Zealand, 2002) Dir: Peter Jackson
Brokeback Mountain (US, 2005) Dir: Ang Lee
The Dark Knight (US, 2008) Dir: Christopher Nolan
Boyhood (US, 2014) Dir: Richard Linklater
Get Out (US, 2017) Dir: Jordan Peele
On 8 lists
Broken Blossoms (US, 1919) Dir: D.W. Griffith
The Crowd (US, 1928) Dir: Rouben Mamoulian
42nd Street (US, 1933) Dir: Lloyd Bacon & Busby Berkeley
The Scarlet Empress (US, 1934) Dir: Josef von Sternberg
The Thin Man (US, 1934) Dir: W.S. Van Dyke
Swing Time (US, 1936) Dir: George Stevens
Une Partie de Campagne (A Day in the Country) (France, 1936) Dir: Jean Renoir
Make Way for Tomorrow (US, 1937) Dir: Leo McCarey
Olympia 1. Teil: Fest der Völker (Germany, 1938) Dir: Leni Riefenstahl
Olympia 2. Teil: Fest der Schönheit (Germany, 1938) Dir: Leni Riefenstahl
Only Angels Have Wings (US, 1939) Dir: Howard Hawks
Le Jour Se Lève (France, 1939) Dir: Marcel Carné
The Bank Dick (US, 1940) Dir: Edward F. Cline
The Shop Around the Corner (US, 1940) Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Yankee Doodle Dandy (US, 1942) Dir: Michael Curtiz
Now, Voyager (US, 1942) Dir: Irving Rapper
I Know Where I’m Going! (UK, 1945) Dir: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Detour (US, 1945) Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer
Mildred Pierce (US, 1945) Dir: Michael Curtiz
On the Town (US, 1949) Dir: Gene Kelley & Stanley Donen
The Quiet Man (US, 1952) Dir: John Ford
From Here to Eternity (US, 1953) Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (US, 1953) Dir: Howard Hawks
Kiss Me Deadly (US, 1955) Dir: Robert Aldrich
Smiles of a Summer Night (Sweden, 1955) Dir: Ingmar Bergman
Ivan the Terrible, Part II (USSR, 1958) Dir: Sergei Eisenstein
Yojimbo (Japan, 1961) Dir: Akira Kurosawa
The Servant (UK, 1963) Dir: Joseph Losey
Mary Poppins (US, 1964) Dir: Robert Stevenson
Repulsion (UK, 1965) Dir: Roman Polanski
The Color of Pomegranates (USSR, 1968) Dir: Sergei Parajanov
Memories of Underdevelopment (Cuba, 1968) Dir: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
Tristana (Spain/France/Italy, 1970) Dir: Luis Buñuel
Harold and Maude (US, 1971) Dir: Hal Ashby
A Touch of Zen (Taiwan, 1971) Dir: King Hu
Blazing Saddles (US, 1974) Dir: Mel Brooks
Picnic at Hanging Rock (Australia, 1975) Dir: Peter Weir
The Outlaw Josey Wales (US, 1976) Dir: Clint Eastwood
Suspiria (Italy, 1977) Dir: Dario Argento
Halloween (US, 1978) Dir: John Carpenter
The Tree of Wooden Clogs (Italy, 1978) Dir: Emanno Olmi
Monty Python’s Life of Brian (UK, 1979) Dir: Terry Jones
The Tin Drum (West Germany/Poland/France, 1979) Dir: Volker Schlöndorff
Mon Oncle d’Amerique (France, 1980) Dir: Alain Resnais
L’Argent (France, 1983) Dir: Robert Bresson
The Right Stuff (US, 1983) Dir: Philip Kaufmann
Platoon (US, 1986) Dir: Oliver Stone
The Princess Bride (US, 1987) Dir: Rob Reiner
Moonstruck (US, 1987) Dir: Norman Jewison
The Killer (Hong Kong, 1989) Dir: John Woo
Beauty and the Beast (US, 1991) Dir: Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise
Farewell My Concubine (China, 1993) Dir: Chen Kaige
Casino (US, 1995) Dir: Martin Scorsese
Memento (US, 2000) Dir: Christopher Nolan
Y Tu Mamá También (Mexico, 2001) Dir: Alfonso Cuarón
Talk to Her (Spain, 2002) Dir: Pedro Almodóvar
Lost in Translation (US, 2003) Dir: Sofia Coppola
On 7 lists
Les Vampires (France, 1915) Dir: Louis Feuillade
The Blue Angel (Germany, 1930) Dir: Josef von Sternberg
Dracula (US, 1931) Dir: Tod Browning
La Chienne (France, 1931) Dir: Jean Renoir
À Nous la Liberté (France, 1931) Rene Clair
It’s a Gift (US, 1934) Dir: Norman Z. McLeod
Fury (US, 1936) Dir: Fritz Lang
Dodsworth (US, 1936) Dir: William Wyler
Gunga Din (US, 1939) Dir: George Stevens
How Green Was My Valley (US, 1941) Dir: John Ford
Ossessione (Italy, 1943) Dir: Luchino Visconti
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (US, 1944) Dir: Preston Sturges
The Killers (US, 1946) Dir: Robert Siodmak
Force of Evil (US, 1948) Dir: Abraham Polonsky
Letter From an Unknown Woman (US, 1948) Dir: Max Ophüls
Spring in a Small Town (China, 1948) Dir: Mu Fei
They Live By Night (US, 1949) Dir: Nicholas Ray
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (US, 1949) Dir: John Ford
A Letter to Three Wives (US, 1949) Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
The Bad and the Beautiful (US, 1952) Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Senso (Italy, 1954) Dir: Luchino Visconti
Lola Montès (France, 1955) Dir: Max Ophüls
All That Heaven Allows (US, 1955) Dir: Douglas Sirk
The Killing (US, 1956) Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Splendor in the Grass (US, 1961) Dir: Elia Kazan
The Misfits (US, 1961) Dir: John Huston
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (US, 1961) Dir: Blake Edwards
Vivre sa Vie (My Life to Live) (France, 1962) Dir: Jean-Luc Godard
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (US, 1962) Dir: Robert Aldrich
Ride the High Country (US, 1962) Dir: Sam Peckinpah
Lolita (UK/US, 1962) Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Tom Jones (UK, 1963) Dir: Tony Richardson
Gertrud (Denmark, 1964) Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Alphaville (France, 1965) Dir: Jean-Luc Godard
Loves of a Blonde (Czechoslovakia, 1965) Dir: Miloš Forman
Juliet of the Spirits (Italy/France, 1965) Dir: Federico Fellini
In Cold Blood (US, 1967) Dir: Richard Brooks
Dont Look Back (US, 1967) Dir: D.A. Pennebaker
Planet of the Apes (US, 1968) Dir: Franklin J. Schaffner
Kes (UK, 1969) Dir: Ken Loach
Woodstock (US, 1970) Dir: Michael Wadleigh
Gimme Shelter (US, 1970) Dir: Albert Maysles, David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin
Claire’s Knee (France, 1970) Dir: Eric Rohmer
Wanda (US, 1970) Dir: Barbara Loden
Sunday Bloody Sunday (UK, 1971) Dir: John Schlesinger
Straw Dogs (UK/US, 1971) Dir: Sam Peckinpah
Fat City (US, 1972) Dir: John Huston
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Mexico/US, 1974) Dir: Sam Peckinpah
Carrie (US, 1976) Dir: Brian De Palma
1900 (Italy/France/West Germany, 1977) Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci
The American Friend (West Germany/France, 1977) Dir: Wim Wenders
National Lampoon’s Animal House (US, 1978) Dir: John Landis
Reds (US, 1981) Dir: Warren Beatty
Pixote (Brazil, 1981) Dir: Hector Babenco
Videodrome (Canada, 1982) Dir: David Cronenberg
Diner (US, 1982) Dir: Barry Levinson
Berlin Alexanderplatz (West Germany, 1983) Dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Stranger than Paradise (US, 1984) Dir: Jim Jarmusch
A Nightmare on Elm Street (US, 1984) Dir: Wes Craven
Ghostbusters (US, 1984) Dir: Ivan Reitman
Raising Arizona (US, 1987) Dir: Joel & Ethan Coen
The Dead (Ireland/UK/US/West Germany, 1987) Dir: John Huston
Red Sorghum (China, 1987) Dir: Zhang Yimou
Au Revoir, Les Enfants (France/West Germany/Italy, 1988) Dir: Louis Malle
The Thin Blue Line (US, 1988) Dir: Errol Morris
Dead Ringers (Canada/US, 1988) Dir: David Cronenberg
When Harry Met Sally… (US, 1989) Dir: Rob Reiner
Ju Dou (China, 1990) Dir: Zhang Yimou
Thelma & Louise (US, 1991) Dir: Ridley Scott
My Own Private Idaho (US, 1991) Dir: Gus Van Sant
Howards End (UK/US/Japan, 1992) Dir: James Ivory
The Crying Game (Ireland/UK/Japan, 1992) Dir: Neil Jordan
Wild Reeds (France, 1994) Dir: André Téchinée
Three Colors: White (France/Poland/Switzerland, 1994) Dir: Krzysztof Kieślowski
Chungking Express (Hong Kong, 1994) Dir: Wong Kar-Wai
Heat (US, 1995) Dir: Michael Mann
The Sweet Hereafter (Canada, 1997) Dir: Atom Egoyan
Happy Together (Hong Kong/China, 1997) Dir: Wong Kar-Wai
Fight Club (US, 1999) Dir: David Fincher
Oldboy (South Korea, 2003) Dir: Park Chan-wook
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Romania, 2007) Dir: Cristian Mungiu
Wall-E (US, 2008) Dir: Andrew Stanton
The Social Network (US, 2010) Dir: David Fincher
Whiplash (US, 2014) Dir: Damien Chazelle
Lady Bird (US, 2017) Dir: Greta Gerwig
Parasite (South Korea, 2019) Dir: Bong Joon-Ho
On 6 lists
Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (Germany, 1922) Dir: Fritz Lang
Safety Last! (US, 1923) Dir: Fred Newmeyer & Sam Taylor
The Thief of Bagdad (US, 1924) Dir: Raoul Walsh
The Big Parade (US, 1925) Dir: King Vidor
October (Ten Days that Shook the World) (USSR, 1927) Dir: Sergei Eisenstein
Little Caesar (US, 1931) Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Vampyr (Germany/France, 1932) Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Boudu Saved from Drowning (France, 1932) Dir: Jean Renoir
Love Me Tonight (US, 1932) Dir: Rouben Mamoulian
Scarface (US, 1932) Dir: Howard Hawks & Robert Rosson
Triumph of the Will (Germany, 1934) Dir: Leni Riefenstahl
A Night at the Opera (US, 1935) Dir: Sam Wood
Wuthering Heights (US, 1939) Dir: William Wyler
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (Japan, 1939) Dir: Kenji Mizoguchi
Cat People (US, 1942) Dir: Jacques Tourneur
The Ox-Bow Incident (US, 1943) Dir: William A. Wellman
The Lost Weekend (US, 1945) Dir: Billy Wilder
Gilda (US, 1946) Dir: Charles Vidor
Adam’s Rib (US, 1949) Dir: George Cukor
Gun Crazy (US, 1949) Dir: Joseph H. Lewis
Late Spring (Japan, 1949) Dir: Yasujiro Ozu
Winchester ’73 (US, 1950) Dir: Anthony Mann
A Place in the Sun (US, 1951) Dir: George Stevens
The Lavender Hill Mob (UK, 1951) Dir: Charles Crichton
The River (France/India/US, 1951) Dir: Jean Renoir
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (US, 1954) Dir: Stanley Donen
The Man with the Golden Arm (US, 1955) Dir: Otto Preminger
Bad Day at Black Rock (US, 1955) Dir: John Sturges
Marty (1955) Dir: Delbert Mann
An Affair to Remember (US, 1957) Dir: Leo McCarey
Gigi (US, 1958) Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Dracula (UK, 1958) Dir: Terence Fisher
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (UK/US, 1960) Dir: Karel Reisz
Lola (France/Italy, 1961) Dir: Jacques Demy
An Autumn Afternoon (Japan, 1962) Dir: Yazujiro Ozu
The Great Escape (US, 1963) Dir: John Sturges
Band of Outsiders (France, 1964) Dir: Jean-Luc Godard
Two or Three Things I Know About Her (France, 1967) Dir: Jean-Luc Godard
Fellini Satyricon (Italy, 1969) Dir: Federico Fellini
The Sorrow and the Pity (France/West Germany/Switzerland, 1969) Dir: Marcel Ophüls
Army of Shadows (France/Italy, 1969) Dir: Jean-Pierre Melville
Little Big Man (US, 1970) Dir: Arthur Penn
Patton (US, 1970) Dir: Franklin J. Schaffner
Klute (US, 1971) Dir: Alan J. Pakula
Death in Venice (Italy/France, 1971) Dir: Luchino Visconti
The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (West Germany, 1972) Dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (US, 1973) Dir: Sam Peckinpah
The Wicker Man (UK, 1973) Dir: Robin Hardy
Scenes from a Marriage (Sweden, 1973) Dir: Ingmar Bergman
Touki Bouki (Senegal, 1973) Dir: Djibril Diop Mambéty
Grease (US, 1978) Dir: Randal Kleiser
Das Boot (West Germany, 1981) Dir: Wolfgang Petersen
Blow Out (US, 1981) Dir: Brian De Palma
Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior) (Australia, 1982) Dir: George Miller
Return of the Jedi (Star Wars: Episode VI) (US, 1983) Dir: Richard Marquand
The Terminator (US, 1984) Dir: James Cameron
Once Upon a Time in America (US/Italy, 1984) Dir: Sergio Leone
A Room with a View (UK, 1985) Dir: James Ivory
Withnail and I (UK, 1987) Dir: Bruce Robinson
Say Anything… (US, 1989) Dir: Cameron Crowe
My Left Foot (Ireland/UK, 1989) Dir: Jim Sheridan
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (US, 1991) Dir: James Cameron
Boyz n the Hood (US, 1991) Dir: John Singleton
A Brighter Summer Day (Taiwan, 1991) Dir: Edward Yang
To Live (China, 1994) Dir: Zhang Yimou
Hoop Dreams (US, 1994) Dir: Steve James
La Haine (France, 1995) Dir: Mathieu Kassovitz
The Truman Show (US, 1998) Dir: Peter Weir
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (China/Taiwan/US, 2000) Dir: Ang Lee
Russian Ark (Russia, 2002) Dir: Aleksandr Sokurov
No Country For Old Men (US, 2007) Dir: Joel & Ethan Coen
Inception (US, 2010) Dir: Christopher Nolan
12 Years A Slave (US/UK, 2013) Dir: Steve McQueen
On 5 lists
Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (Sweden/Denmark, 1922) Dir: Benjamin Christensen
Foolish Wives (US, 1922) Dir: Erich von Stroheim
Strike (USSR, 1925) Dir: Sergei M. Eisenstein
The Phantom of the Opera (US, 1925) Dir: Rupert Julian
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (US, 1928) Dir: Charles Reisner & Buster Keaton
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (US, 1931) Dir: F.W. Murnau
Le Million (France, 1931) Dir: Rene Clair
Shanghai Express (US, 1932) Dir: Josef von Sternberg
I Walked with a Zombie (US, 1943) Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Day of Wrath (Denmark, 1943) Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer
The Lady From Shanghai (US, 1948) Dir: Orson Welles
Europa ’51 (Italy, 1952) Dir: Roberto Rossellini
Carmen Jones (US, 1954) Dir: Otto Preminger
Bigger Than Life (US, 1956) Dir: Nicholas Ray
Man of the West (US, 1958) Dir: Anthony Mann
Floating Weeds (Japan, 1959) Dir: Yasujiro Ozu
Eyes Without a Face (France/Italy, 1960) Dir: Georges Franju
The Cloud-Capped Star (Italy, 1960) Dir: Ritwik Ghatak
Knife in the Water (Poland, 1962) Dir: Roman Polanski
Red Desert (Italy, 1964) Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni
Black God, White Devil (Brazil, 1964) Dir: Glauber Rocha
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (USSR, 1964) Dir: Sergei Parajanov
The Young Girls of Rochefort (France, 1967) Dir: Jacques Demy
Bullitt (US, 1968) Dir: Peter Yates
Zabriskie Point (US, 1970) Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni
The Devils (UK/US, 1971) Dir: Ken Russell
Two-Lane Blacktop (US, 1971) Dir: Monte Hellman
F for Fake (France/West Germany/Iran/US, 1973) Dir: Orson Welles
Enter the Dragon (Hong Kong/US, 1973) Dir: Robert Clouse
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (West Germany, 1974) Dir: Werner Herzog
The Travelling Players (Greece, 1975) Dir: Theodoros Angelopoulos
India Song (France, 1975) Dir: Marguerite Duras
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (US, 1976) Dir: John Cassavetes
Harlan County, USA (US, 1976) Dir: Barbara Kopple
An American Werewolf in London (UK/US, 1981) Dir: John Landis
Chariots of Fire (UK, 1981) Dir: Hugh Hudson
Mephisto (Hungary, 1981) Dir: István Szabó
The Breakfast Club (US, 1985) Dir: John Hughes
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (Dir: 1986) Dir: John Hughes
Full Metal Jacket (UK/US, 1987) Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Broadcast News (US, 1987) Dir: James L. Brooks
Grave of the Fireflies (Japan, 1988) Dir: Isao Takahata
JFK (US, 1991) Dir: Oliver Stone
Daughters of the Dust (US, 1991) Dir: Julie Dash
Jurassic Park (US, 1993) Dir: Steven Spielberg
Three Colors: Blue (France/Poland/Switzerland, 1993) Dir: Krzysztof Kieślowski
Forrest Gump (US, 1994) Dir: Robert Zemeckis
Léon: The Professional (France, 1994) Dir: Luc Besson
Clueless (US, 1995) Dir: Amy Heckerling
The Fly (US, 1996) Dir: David Cronenberg
Secrets and Lies (UK, 1996) Dir: Mike Leigh
Titanic (US, 1997) Dir: James Cameron
Good Will Hunting (US, 1997) Dir: Gus Van Sant
Werckmeister Harmonies (Hungary, 2000) Dir: Béla Tarr & Agnes Hranitzky
The Gleaners & I (France, 2000) Dir: Agnès Varda
Far from Heaven (US, 2002) Dir: Todd Haynes
The Hurt Locker (US, 2008) Dir: Kathryn Bigelow
Avatar (US, 2009) Dir: James Cameron
La La Land (US, 2016) Dir: Damien Chazelle
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (France, 2019) Dir: Céline Sciamma
On 4 lists
The Private Life of Henry VIII (UK, 1933) Dir: Alexander Korda
The Informer (US, 1935) Dir: John Ford
Ruggles of Red Gap (US, 1935) Dir: Leo McCarey
Mutiny on the Bounty (US, 1935) Dir: Frank Lloyd
You Only Live Once (US, 1937) Dir: Fritz Lang
Young Mr. Lincoln (US, 1939) Dir: John Ford
Midnight (US, 1939) Dir: Mitchell Leisen
Destry Rides Again (US, 1939) Dir: George Marshall
The Great McGinty (US, 1940) Dir: Preston Sturges
Sergeant York (US, 1941) Dir: Howard Hawks
Woman of the Year (US, 1942) Dir: George Stevens
Bambi (US, 1942) Dir: David Hand, et al.
Hail the Conquering Hero (US, 1944) Dir: Preston Sturges
Henry V (UK, 1944) Dir: Laurence Olivier
Spellbound (US, 1945) Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
The Spiral Staircase (US, 1946) Dir: Robert Siodmak
The Postman Always Rings Twice (US, 1946) Dir: Tay Garnett
Shoeshine (Italy, 1946) Dir: Vittorio De Sica
The Snake Pit (US, 1948) Dir: Anatole Litvak
All the King’s Men (US, 1949) Dir: Robert Rossen
The Heiress (US, 1949) Dir: William Wyler
The Gunfighter (US, 1950) Dir: Henry King
Viva Zapata! (US, 1952) Dir: Elia Kazan
Life of Oharu (Japan, 1952) Dir: Kenji Mizoguchi
Gate of Hell (Japan, 1953) Dir: Teinosuke Kinugasa
The Naked Spur (US, 1953) Dir: Anthony Mann
Richard III (UK, 1955) Dir: Laurence Olivier
Summertime (US, 1955) Dir: David Lean
Giant (US, 1956) Dir: George Stevens
A Face in the Crowd (US, 1957) Dir: Elia Kazan
Funny Face (US, 1957) Dir: Stanely Donen
The Defiant Ones (US, 1958) Dir: Stanley Kramer
Big Deal on Madonna Street (Italy, 1958) Dir: Mario Monicelli
Black Orpheus (Brazil/France/Italy, 1959) Dir: Marcel Camus
Elmer Gantry (US, 1960) Dir: Richard Brooks
The Innocents (UK, 1961) Dir: Jack Clayton
Long Day’s Journey Into Night (US, 1962) Dir: Sidney Lumet
The Pink Panther (US, 1963) Dir: Blake Edwards
America America (US, 1963) Dir: Elia Kazan
This Sporting Life (UK, 1963) Dir: Lindsay Anderson
The Silence (Sweden, 1963) Dir: Ingmar Bergman
Hud (US, 1963) Dir: Martin Ritt
The Americanization of Emily (US, 1964) Dir: Arthur Hiller
Seven Up! (UK, 1964) Dir: Paul Almond
A Man for All Seasons (UK, 1966) Dir: Fred Zinnemann
The Dirty Dozen (US, 1967) Dir: Robert Aldrich
Salesman (US, 1969) Dir: Albert Maysles, David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (US, 1969) Dir: Sydney Pollack
This Man Must Die (France/Italy, 1969) Dir: Claude Chabrol
The Damned (Italy/West Germany, 1969) Dir: Luchino Visconti
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Italy, 1970) Dir: Vittorio De Sica
The Go-Between (UK, 1971) Dir: Joseph Losey
Shaft (US, 1971) Dir: Gordon Parks
Ulzana’s Raid (US, 1972) Dir: Robert Aldrich
Sleeper (US, 1973) Dir: Woody Allen
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (US, 1974) Dir; Martin Scorsese
Lacombe, Lucien (France/West Germany/Italy, 1974) Dir: Louis Malle
The Parallax View (US, 1974) Dir: Alan J. Pakula
The Sugarland Express (US, 1974) Dir: Steven Spielberg
Seven Beauties (Italy, 1975) Dir: Lina Wertmüller
Night Moves (US, 1975) Dir: Arthur Penn
The Passenger (France/Italy/US/Spain, 1975) Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni
That Obscure Object of Desire (France/Spain, 1977) Dir: Luis Buñuel
Mad Max (Australia, 1979) Dir: George Miller
Kagemusha (Japan, 1980) Dir: Akira Kurosawa
The Long Good Friday (UK, 1980) Dir: John Mackenzie
Ordinary People (US, 1980) Dir: Robert Redford
Diva (France, 1981) Dir: Jean-Jacques Beineix
Gregory’s Girl (UK, 1981) Dir: Bill Forsyth
Poltergeist (US, 1982) Dir: Tobe Hooper
The Verdict (US, 1982) Dir: Sidney Lumet
Terms of Endearment (US, 1982) Dir: James L. Brooks
The Year of Living Dangerously (Australia, 1982) Dir: Peter Weir
Gandhi (UK/India, 1982) Dir: Richard Attenborough
Local Hero (UK, 1983) Dir: Bill Forsyth
Sans Soleil (France, 1983) Dir: Chris Marker
The Killing Fields (UK, 1984) Dir: Roland Joffé
28 Up (UK, 1984) Dir: Michael Apted
Beverly Hills Cop (US, 1984) Dir: Martin Brest
My Life as a Dog (Sweden, 1985) Dir: Lasse Hallström
Prizzi’s Honor (US, 1985) Dir: John Huston
The Purple Rose of Cairo (US, 1985) Dir: Woody Allen
Down by Law (US, 1986) Dir: Jim Jarmusch
Hannah and Her Sisters (US, 1986) Woody Allen
The Sacrifice (Sweden/France, 1986) Dir: Andrei Tarkovsky
Fatal Attraction (US, 1987) Dir: Adrian Lyne
The Last Emperor (UK/Italy, 1987) Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci
The Last Temptation of Christ (US/Canada, 1988) Dir: Martin Scorsese
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (US, 1988) Dir: Philip Kaufman
Akira (Japan, 1988) Dir: Katsuhiro Otomo
Landscape in the Mist (Greece/France/Italy, 1988) Dir: Theo Angelopoulos
Drugstore Cowboy (US, 1989) Dir: Gus Van Sant
Sex, Lies, and Videotape (US, 1989) Dir: Steven Soderbergh
Europa Europa (Germany/Poland/France, 1990) Dir: Agnieszka Holland
Reversal of Fortune (US, 1990) Dir: Barbet Schroeder
The Match Factory Girl (Finland/Sweden, 1990) Dir: Aki Kaurismäki
Edward Scissorhands (US, 1990) Dir: Tim Burton
Miller’s Crossing (US, 1990) Dir: Joel & Ethan Coen
Delicatessen (France, 1991) Dir: Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Barton Fink (US, 1991) Dir: Joel & Ethan Coen
The Player (US, 1992) Dir: Robert Altman
Naked (UK, 1993) Dir: Mike Leigh
Eat Drink Man Woman (Taiwan, 1994) Dir: Ang Lee
Crumb (US, 1995) Dir: Terry Zwigoff
La Cérémonie (France/Germany, 1995) Dir: Claude Chabrol
Leaving Las Vegas (US, 1995) Dir: Mike Figgis
Dead Man (US, 1995) Dir: Jim Jarmusch
Lone Star (US, 1996) Dir: John Sayles
Boogie Nights (US, 1997) Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson
Life Is Beautiful (Italy, 1997) Dir: Roberto Benigni
Rushmore (US, 1998) Dir: Wes Anderson
Being John Malkovich (US, 1999) Dir: Spike Jonze
Amores Perros (Mexico, 2000) Dir: Alejandro González Iñárritu
The Royal Tenenbaums (US, 2001) Dir: Wes Anderson
Adaptation. (US, 2002) Dir: Spike Jonze
Amour (France/Austria/Germany, 2012) Dir: Michael Haneke
Under the Skin (US/UK/Switzerland) Dir: Jonathan Glazer
Carol (US/UK, 2015) Dir: Todd Haynes
I Am Not Your Negro (US/Germany, 2016) Dir: Raoul Peck
Call Me By Your Name (Italy/US/France/Brazil, 2017) Dir: Luca Guadagnino
Roma (Mexico/US, 2018) Dir: Alfonso Cuarón
Black Panther (US, 2018) Dir: Ryan Coogler
I find these lists of yours extremely useful but have a methodological worry. A crucial question is the length of the lists you use to make your count. If a list has a thousand films on it (for example – and of course I’m exaggerating to clarify a point – would you include a movie listed 979th? So it would be useful, i think, to include in your prefatory remarks some idea of the nature of the lists you’ve used as your source.
Thanks for your concern, Sam – I have thought about this issue quite a bit and I feel confident that using lists of different lengths (top 10, top 100, top 500, top 1001) doesn’t affect the quality or legitimacy of the meta-lists. As I plan to explain in an upcoming post (inspired by your comment), we’re measuring the lists against the total number of possible items in the group (works of literature, works of art, photographs, recordings, films, inventions, scientific discoveries, athletes), which is usually in the hundreds of thousands if not millions. From a mathematical perspective, then, a top 10 list and a top 1000 list are almost equal because each of them represents only a tiny percentage of the total items being rated (usually less than 1%). If a top 1000 list were rating items that totaled 1000 or slightly more than 1000, I could see being concerned about including the 979th item on the list. But the 979th movie out of the total 500,000 movies ever filmed (it’s a guess – the Internet couldn’t give me a consensus) is still in the top 0.2 percent of all movies. I don’t have a problem combining lists of different lengths as long as all the lists are culling the top 1-2% or less.
Thanks so much for your swift and thoughtful reply.
I’m writing an academic paper which tries to explain why Italian and German operas dominate the history of opera and the current international repertory. There’s no question they do. But I’m also curious to know which operas dominate critical judgments of artistic greatness. Judging from your meta-list, it’s once again Italian and German operas. I have no doubt it’s true. Nonetheless, it is possible that using very long lists can introduce distortion. Suppose an opera – perhaps one not so obscure but not very highly regarded – gets named over and over again at around (let’s say) 60th position. Let’s say it’s named sixteen times. It ends up high on the meta-list, tied with the Ring cycle (which I find hard to think of as one opera) and ahead of Die Meistersinger and Der Rosenkavalier, in part because (possibly) a number of lists naming only the 20 greatest operas didn’t include Meistersinger or Rosenkavalier, perhaps considering them to rank only 23rd and 25th. On the other hand, when I look at your meta-list I nod my head in agreement (though occasionally I’m baffled or even outraged by individual rankings) and think, “Yes, these are the operas the critics and historians most admire – and, curiously, the audience too.” (There aren’t many arts for which such agreement exists.) But academic papers require a finicky degree of clarity and precision – you’re always anticipating what will seem like trivial complaints.
An aside: when I was a film critic in Boston in the 1980s and deeply interested in the history of movies, I tried to determine the number of feature films ever made. The best sources – not on-line then, of course, but books – indicated the number was about 1,100,000. I was startled but, as you probably know, a number of countries around the world make several hundred movies a year and have been doing so for decades – India, China,Japan, Egypt. Maybe the 500,000 figure is more reasonable, given that Hollywood can’t have made even 100,000, but I wonder.
Again, thanks for your reply. I’m appreciative – and I thoroughly understand your passion for making lists. My friends think I’m similarly obsessed and it’s true I often make lists myself, including a series of movie lists – the ten I’d want on a tropic island, the ten I most want my children to love, the ten I’d want to see in the month before my death (Grand Illusion, Tokyo Story, Wild Strawberries, Vertigo, Singin’ in the Rain, The Earrings of Madame de…, L’Atalante – you get the idea), and so on. If you ever need one, just ask!
Sam
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Thanks for your comment – it’s good to know I’m not the only list-obsessed person out there. The opera paper sounds fascinating! As for the opera lists, I can assure you that none of the lists I used to make the meta-list was much longer than 100-150 operas, so you don’t have to worry about the 939th opera being compared with number 1. I agree that the “low on the list” problem exists, but it doesn’t bother me too much as long as we are talking about a category with thousands of items in it. I’m not sure how many operas there are, but even to be rated 60th on 16 “Best Operas” lists, I would think the opera would have to be excellent and better than the vast number of operas ever written (in other words, the statistical difference between the opera rated #1 and the opera rated #60 is quite small if the total number of operas is very large). The real problem, I guess, is that what a meta-list really does is determine “most listed”, not “best.” But as I say in my recent post, in most cases, there won’t be much difference. Your desert island lists intrigue me. Lately I’ve been avoiding the painful experience of whittling down my favorites to a Top 10 or Top 100. I tend to rate books, films and music on a 1-10 scale on various websites, so I’ve been making lists of my Top Rated books, films and music, without a limit on the number of items in the list. I find this method much less stressful and also realistic (no one is ever going to tell you you can only take 10 books with you to a desert island, for example, and of course they would have to include books on survival skills, edible wild plants, first aid and boatbuilding). But I was tempted by your opera projects to list my top 10 operas. Unfortunately, I haven’t listened to very many operas from start to finish (how do you find the time?), so my selection is quite limited. Nevertheless, here goes (in chronological order): L’Orfeo (Monteverdi, 1607), Dido and Aeneas (Purcell, 1683), Orfeo ed Euridice (Gluck, 1762), Le nozze di Figaro (Mozart, 1786), Tristan und Isolde (Wagner, 1865), Otello (Verdi, 1887), Elektra (Strauss, 1909), Der Rosenkavalier (Strauss, 1911), Wozzeck (Berg, 1925) and Peter Grimes (Britten, 1945). If I had to pick a favorite it would be the Mozart, although Monteverdi and Berg are close behind. A Top 10 movies list would be too painful, I think. All I know is that 8 1/2 would be in there, maybe at the top. Same thing with books. Moby Dick and 9 others.
We belong to more or less the same taste culture, though of course there are differences. When it comes to opera, my taste is ultra-conventional. I love Mozart, Verdi, and Wagner in equal measure and increasingly have come to love the work of Richard Strauss. We agree about Moby Dick and 8 1/2. .
I would be pleased to send you a copy of the opera paper when it’s finished, probably in a month. And if you want any of my movie lists and if I can find them, I’d be happy to send those along too. I’ll add that my efforts long ago to transmit my love of movies to my children was only partially successful. My daughter resisted, but my son, writing under the name Joshua Clover, became a talented, erudite, and witty film critic despite his infatuation with Star Wars. .
Perhaps you could help me with a bibliographical problem. How would you prefer I list your website? I’ve temporarily used James M. Becker with the short- form URL. I need a date (year of publication) too, but can’t figure out what it should be. Many thanks.
Yours,
Sam
I’d love to see the paper. Where did you work as a film critic in Boston? I was a journalist here in the late 80s. As for the bibliography, this link shows the post where I introduced the opera lists back on February 20, 2014 (although there may have been revisions since then): https://beckchris.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/kill-da-wabbit-i…-the-opera-lists/
BTW, my name is John M. Becker, not James, although I haven’t displayed it prominently anywhere on the site.
As for my taste in classical music (including opera), I appreciate most everything I’ve heard, but I tend to favor the earlier and later periods – I love medieval motets, Renaissance masses and madrigals (Josquin, Palestrina, Lassus, Byrd, Gesualdo), Baroque fugues, cantatas, and operas, Bach (pretty much everything), Handel (operas, oratorios, concerti grossi), Haydn (symphonies, oratorios, string quartets), Mozart (operas, piano concertos, chamber music), Beethoven (symphonies, piano concertos, late string quartets, mid & late piano sonatas). Although I appreciate Berlioz, Chopin (ballades), Schubert, Schumann, Liszt (sonata in B minor), Brahms (symphonies, quintets, late piano works), Dvorak, etc., my interest really rises with R.Strauss, Schoenberg, Berg, Stravinsky and all those crazy 20th Century guys. As the music gets weirder and more modern (or, going in the other direction, more ancient), I find it more challenging, but more intriguing too. Still, the big problem I have with classical music generally and opera specifically is that I rarely have enough time to actually sit and listen to an entire piece of music. A movement maybe, or a scene. I wish I had to listen to music for my job, but the fact is, when I turn on Spotify, I am either too distracted to work or I don’t even hear it because I’m so consumed in my job. Plus, I’d probably listen to more classical if that was the only kind of music I listened to, but I also listen to almost all the other genres out there: jazz, rock, folk, country, hip hop, pop, world – so little time, so much to listen to. And then you need time to read books! I need longer days or a less time-consuming job.
Oh – my apologies! I realize my objection makes no sense. Any list that included my imaginary obscurity of an opera would also include, given its supposed length, the better known ones, so the inversion I feared would be most unlikely to happen.
Sorry for the delay in replying. Sorry too about getting your name wrong. I guarantee it won’t be mistaken in the paper. Thanks for letting me know.
I did film criticism, mostly on a free-lance basis, from about 1975 to about 1985, for The Phoenix and The Real Paper, both now vanished, and, in the ’80s, for The News Hour on WGBH-TV. It was all moonlighting since I was also teaching sociology at BU. It was great fun. You never see anyone on the T reading your latest article in a sociology journal, but I often had the chance to study the facial expressions and body language of strangers reading one of my reviews. It was always fascinating – there is nothing like the egocentricity of a writer – even when the reader was clearly exasperated with my brilliance.
My own classical music tastes pretty much run from Bach into the twentieth century. Again, I think of my taste as conventional and dull, but I am also a partisan, sometimes zealous, of Schubert, who I think belongs in the upper tier – Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms. A platoon occupies the second tier and includes Berlioz, Bartok, Mahler, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, R. Strauss (a great favorite) and many others. I suspect you’ll object to the absence of Handel and maybe I do too.
I’m retired so I have more time to listen than you seem to, but since I continue to read and write in the usual way of a retired pedant, I mostly listen – really half listen – while doing other things. Music plays almost every alert moment except when I’m paying close and anxious attention to the political news, which these days is overflowing , But every now and then I stop and listen carefully – last week to Meistersinger, the week before to Traviata, fairly often to chamber music from Haydn (a great favorite) and Beethoven (ditto). Both of them can stop me in my tracks. There are movements in the Haydn quartets that at least temporarily incapacitate me, just the way a great aria can, and one of the great experiences of my life came when I was working in London one year (1986) and I heard the late Beethoven quartets on Southbank. (Alas, I’ve forgotten which famous quartet did the playing.) It was in a small auditorium in Queen Elizabeth Hall and I was just overwhelmed. So was everyone else. The quartet would end, there’d be silence, and then a tumult of cheering and applause and people hugging one another as if they needed help to avoid collapsing – we were, I suppose, bowled over. The next experience like that came when the Red Sox rallied in 2004 to beat the Yankees in the playoffs. So – I have already known heaven and therefore don’t mind that there isn’t one. .
Cheers,
Sam
Very good list. Do have the sources of all thr Publications you used to make this list? Or are you planning on updating this list now that it’s been 5-6 years?
Wrote this in the middle of new years. So happy new year. 🙂
Enrique: Thanks so much for the feedback, and happy new year to you too. Unfortunately, I haven’t kept very accurate records of the original publications used to make the list. I know that some of them are books (like The A-List or the New York Times Best 1000 Movies, or John Kobal’s book), some are magazines (Time, Empire, Entertainment Weekly, Sight and Sound), and a lot of them are websites. If you Google “Best films of all time” or “best movies of all time” you will find a lot of the same lists that I did.
I agree that it is probably time to update the list – I will try to find time to do that in the near future.
Take care,
John B.
I found some sources you can find for updated lists that represented more films from the 2000s and 2010s, including WatchMojo made a video of the 100 greatest films recently.
TSPDT – 2020
New Arena – 2021
Timeout – 2018, 2021
WatchMojo – 2021
Marie Claire – 2021
Journal Topics – 2021
Rotten Tomatoes – 2021
Empire Online – 2017, 2021
Elle – 2021
Far Out – 2021
The Guardian – 2019
IMDB – 2018, 2021
Chicago Tribune – 2021
Business Insider – 2021
1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die – 2020
Esquire – 2021
OFCS – 2017
Rolling Stone – 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020
Hope this is helpful.
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