Favourite movies

There are more lists than movies… Still I’m compiling a list of ‘must see’ movies which is quite different from the classic IMDB top 250 or the likes (let’s be honest, they are very predictable to say the least).

How did I select these movies ?

1. Personal taste (I have a great taste … !)
2. I really enjoyed watching these movies. I still do.

Probably you’ll know a lot of the movies listed, but I’m quite sure that there are some surprises as well. Not in the least ’cause it’s not a strictly-English-speaking-list. We’ve got Italian, Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, etc. Otherwise Pedro Almodóvar or Akira Kurosawa wouldn’t have made it.

Still and all, a list of favorite movies is just a banquet, a groaning board of our prejudices. You’re all invited to devour the food, or throw it at me. This list is an ongoing work. Old movies might be added, new movies will certainly be added.

What information will you find in the list ?

1. Year of release
2. Title (original and english translation if available) with a link to the IMDB movie database
3. Director

Additional resources

1. IMDB movie database
2. Movie Review Query Engine
3. Metacritic

Comments, suggestions about this list ? »

THE list…

1920 – 1929 | 1930 – 1939 | 1940 – 1949 | 1950 – 1959 | 1960 – 1969 | 1970 – 1979 | 1980 – 1989 | 1990 – 1999 | 2000 – (…)

2009

2008
Entre les murs (The Class) – Laurent Cantet
Le silence de Lorna (The silence of Lorna) – Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
The Dark Knight – Christopher Nolan
Waltz with Bashir – Ari Folman

2007
Persepolis – Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi
No country for old men – Ethan Coen and Joel Coen

2006
Das Leben der Anderen – Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
A poor year. Perhaps also Babel by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Very good movie, but I still have the feeling something was missing to make it a great movie. I need to have another look at it.

2005
Mar adentro – Alejandro Amenábar
Me and you and everyone we know – Miranda July
Three burials of Melquiades Estrada – Tommy Lee Jones

2004
Bin Jip – Ki-duk Kim
Crash – Paul Haggis
Fahrenheit 9/11 – Michael Moore
Vera Drake – Mike Leigh

2003
21 grams – Alejandro González Iñárritu
Dogville – Lars von Trier
Elephant – Gus Van Sant
Finding Nemo – Andrew Stanton
The lord of the rings: the return of the king – Peter Jackson
Vozvrashcheniye (The Return) – Andrey Zvyaguintsev

2002
Cidade de deus (City of God) – Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund
Habla con ella (Talk to her) – Pedro Almodóvar
The lord of the rings: the two towers – Peter Jackson
The Magdalene sisters – Peter Mullan
The pianist – Roman Polanski
Ying xiong (Hero) – Yimou Zhang

2001

La stanza del figlio (The son’s room) – Nanni Moretti
Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain – Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Monsoon wedding – Mira Nair
Safar e Ghandehar (Kandahar) – Mohsen Makhmalbaf
The lord of the rings : the fellowhip of the ring – Peter Jackson

2000
Amores perros – Alejandro González Iñárritu
Dancer in the dark – Lars von Trier
Dayereh (The Circle) – Jafar Panahi
Memento – Christopher Nolan
Wo hu can long (Crouching tiger, hidden dragon) – Ang Lee

(Go back to the top of this list)

1999
Rosetta – Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Todo sobre mi madre – Pedro Almodóvar
Yi ge dou bu neng shao (Not one less) – Zhang Yimou

1998
American history X – Tony Kaye
Così ridevano (The way we laughed) – Gianni Amelio
Mia eoniotita ke mia mera (Eternity and a day) – Theo Angelopoulos

1997
Hana-bi (Fireworks) – Takeshi Kitano
La vita è bella – Roberto Benigni
Unagi (The Eel) – Shohei Imamura

1996
Michael Collins – Neil Jordan
Secrets & Lies – Mike Leigh
Trainspotting – Danny Boyle

1995
The usual suspects – Bryan Singer
To vlemma tou Odyssea (Ulysses’ gaze) – Theo Angelopoulos
Underground – Emir Kusturica
Xich lo (Cyclo) – Anh Hung Tran

1994
Chung hing sam lam (Chungking express) – Kar Wai Wong
Pred doždot (Before The Rain) – Milco Mancevski
Pulp Fiction – Quentin Tarantino
The shawshank redemption – Frank Darabont

1993
Bawang bieji (Farewell my concubine) – Chen Kaige
Schindler’s list – Steven Spielberg
Short cuts – Robert Altman
The piano – Jane Campion
Trois couleurs: bleu (Three colors: blue) – Krzysztof Kies’lowski

1992
Qiu Ju da guan si (The story of Qiu Ju) – Zhang Yimou
Reservoir dogs – Quentin Tarantino
Unforgiven – Clint Eastwood

1991
Barton Fink – Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Urga (Close To Eden) – Nikita Mikhalkov

1990
Goodfellas – Martin Scorcese
Miller’s crossing – Joel Coen
Wild at heart – David Lynch

(Go back to the top of this list)

1989
Beiqing chengshi (A city of sadness) – Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Sex, lies, and videotape – Steven Soderbergh
The decalogue – Krzysztof Kieslowski

1988
La leggenda del santo bevitore (The legend of the holy drinker) – Ermanno Olmi
Pelle erobreren (Pelle the Conqueror) – Bille August
The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Philip Kaufman

1987
Au revoir les enfants – Louis Malle
Nayakan – Mani Ratnam
Sous le soleil de satan (Under the sun of satan) – Maurice Pialat
Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of desire) – Wim Wenders

1986
Blue Velvet – David Lynch
Le rayon vert (The green ray) – Eric Rohmer
The fly – David Cronenberg
The Mission – Roland Joffé
The singing detective – Jon Amiel

1985
Brazil – Terry Gilliam
Otac na sluzbenom putu (When Father Was Away on Business) – Emir Kusturica
Ran – Akira Kurosawa
Sans toit ni loi (Vagabond) – Agnès Varda
The purple rose of Cairo – Woody Allen

1984
Paris, Texas – Wim Wenders
Rok spokojnego slonca (The year of the quiet sun) – Krzysztof Zanussi

1983
Prénom Carmen (First name: Carmen) – Jean-Luc Godard
Narayama-bushi-ko (The ballad of Narayama) – Shohei Imamura

1982
Blade runner – Ridley Scott
Der Stand der Dinge (The state of things) – Wim Wenders
E.T. – Steven Spielberg
Missing – Costa-Gavras
Yol (The way) – Yilmaz Güney

1981
Das Boot – Wolfgang Petersen
Die bleierne Zeit (The German sisters) – Margarethe von Trotta
Czlowiek z zelaza (Man of iron) – Andrzej Wajda

1980
All that jazz – Bob Fosse
Atlantic city – Louis Malle
Berlin Alexanderplatz – Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Mon oncle d’Amérique – Alain Resnes
Raging bull – Martin Scorcese
Kagemusha (Shadow warrior) – Akira Kurosawa

(Go back to the top of this list)

1979
Apocalypse now – Francis Ford Coppola
Die Blechtrommel (The tin drum) – Volker Schlöndorff

1978
L’albero degli zoccoli (The tree with the wooden clogs) – Ermanno Olmi

1977
Padre padrone (Father and master) – Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani
Star Wars (episode 4, but really number 1, watch all 6, but this one is the best) – George Lucas

1976
Taxi driver – Martin Scorsese

1975
Barry Lyndon – Stanley Kubrick
Chronique des années de braise (Chronicle of the years of fire) – Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina

1974
Chinatown – Roman Polanski
The Conversation – Francis Ford Coppola
The Godfather, part II – Francis Ford Coppola

1973
La nuit américaine (Day for night) – François Truffaut
Scarecrow – Jerry Schatzberg
The Hireling – Alan Bridges

1972
Aguirre : the wrath of God – Werner Herzog
The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie – Luis Buñuel
The Godfather, part I – Francis Ford Coppola
Il caso Mattei (The Mattei affair) – Francesco Rosi
La classe operaia va in paradiso (The working class goes to heaven) – Elio Petri

1971
A clockwork orange – Stanley Kubrick
Hsia nu (A touch of Zen) – King Hu
The Go-Between – Joseph Losey

1970
MASH (the other one…) – Robert Altman

(Go back to the top of this list)

1969
If… – Lindsay Anderson

1968
C’era una volta il West (Once upon a time in the west) – Sergio Leone
Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel – Alexander Kluge

1967
Belle de jour – Louis Buñuel, John Cassavetes Gloria
Blowup – Michelangelo Antonioni
Bonnie and Clyde – Arthur Penn
Le Samuraï – Jean-Pierre Melville

Mouchette – Robert Bresson

1966
Un homme et une femme (A Man and a Woman) – Claude Lelouch
Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The good, the bad and the ugly) – Sergio Leone
Ostre sledované vlaky (Closely watched trains) – Jirí Menzel
La Battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers) – Gilo Pontecorvo
Persona – Ingmar Bergman
Signore e signori (The Birds, the Bees and the Italians) – Pietro Germi

1965
Repulsion – Roman Polanski
The Knack…And How to Get It – Richard Lester
Vaghe stelle dell’orsa – Luchino Visconti

1964
A hard day’s night – Richard Lester
Bande à part – Jean-Luc Godard
Dr. Strangelove – Stanley Kubrick
Il deserto rosso – Michelangelo Antonioni
Les parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) – Jacques Demy

1963
8 1/2 – Federico Fellini
Charade – Stanley Donen
Le manni sulla città – Francesco Rosi
Il gattopardo (The Leopard) – Luchino Visconti

1962
Cronaca familiare – Valerio Zurlini
Ivanovo detstvo – Andrei Tarkovsky
Lawrence of Arabia – David Lean
O pagador de promessas (Keeper of Promises) – Anselmo Duarte
The Manchurian candidate – John Frankenheimer

1961
L’année dernière à Marienbad – Alain Resnais
Une aussi longue absence (The Long Absence) – Henri Colpi
Viridiana – Luis Buñuel
Yojimbo (Yojimbo the Bodyguard) – Akira Kurosawa

1960
A bout de souffle – Jean-Luc Godard
La dolce vita – Federico Fellini
Le passage du Rhin – André Cayatte
Psycho – Alfred Hitchcock

(Go back to the top of this list)

1959
Il Generale della Rovere – Roberto Rosselini
La grande guerra – Mario Monicelli
Les 400 coups (The 400 blows) – François Truffaut
Orfeu negro (Black Orpheus) – Marcel Camus
Some like it hot – Billy Wilder
Apur Sansar (The Apu Trilogy : part 3 -The World of Apu) – Satyajit Ray

1958

Letiat zhuravly (The Cranes Are Flying) – Mikheil Kalatozishvili
Muhomatsu no issho (Muhomatsu, the Rikshaw Man) – Hiroshi Inagaki

1957
12 Angry men – Sydney Lumet
Aparajito (The Apu Trilogy : part 2 – The Unvanquished) – Satyajit Ray
Pyaasa – Guru Dutt
Sweet smell of success – Alexander Mackendrick

1956
Friendly Persuasion – William Wyler
Invasion of the body snatchers – Don Siegel
Le monde du silence (The Silent World) – Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Louis Malle
The searchers – John Ford

1955
Marty – Delbert Mann
Ordet – Carl Theodor Dreyer
Sommarnattens leende (Smiles of a summer night) – Ingmar Bergman
Apur Sansar (The Apu Trilogy : part 1 – Song of the road) – Satyajit Ray

1954
Jigokumon (Gate of hell) – Teinosuke Kinugasa
On the waterfront – Elia Kazan
Romeo e Giulietta (Romeo and Juliet) – Renato Castellani
Shichinin no samurai (Seven samurai) – Akira Kurosawa

1953
Le salaire de la peur (The wages of fear) – Henri-Georges Clouzot
Tokyo monogatari (Tokyo story) – Yasujiro Ozu
Ugetsu – Kenji Mizoguchi

1952
Due soldi di speranza (Two Cents Worth of Hope) – Renato Castellani
Ikiru – Akira Kurosawa
Jeux interdits – René Clément
Singin’ in the rain – Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice – Orson Welles
Umberto D – Vittorio De Sica

1951
A streetcar named desire – Elia Kazan
Fröken Julie (Miss Julie) – Alf Sjöberg
Miracolo a Milano (Miracle in Milan) – Vittorio De Sica

1950
In a lonely place – Nicolas Ray
Justice est faite – André Cayatte
Rasho-mon – Akira Kurosawa

(Go back to the top of this list)

1949
Kind hearts and coronets – Robert Hamer
Manon – Henri-Georges Clouzot
The third man – Carol Reed
White heat – Raoul Walsh

1948
Hamlet – Laurence Olivier

1947
Out of the past – Jacques Tourneur
Siréna – Karel Stekly

1946
Die letzte Chance (The last chance) – Leopold Lindtberg
It’s a wonderful life – Frank Capra
La symphonie pastorale – Jean Delannoy
Maria Candelaria (Portrait of Maria) – Emilio Fernández
Notorious – Alfred Hitchcock
Roma, città aperta (Open city) – Roberto Rossellini
Veliky perelom (The turning point) – Fridrikh Markovitch Ermler

1945
Brief encounter – David Lean
Detour – Edgar G. Ulmer
Les enfants du paradis (Children of paradise) – Marcel Carné
The lost weekend – Billy Wilder

1944
Double indemnity – Billy Wilder
Hets (Torment) – Alf Sjöberg
Meet me in St. Louis – Vincente Minnelli

1942
Casablanca – Michael Curtiz

1941
Citizen Kane – Orson Welles
The lady Eve – Preston Sturges

1940
His girl friday – Howard Hawks
Pinocchio – Hamilton Luske and Ben Sharpsteen
The shop around the corner – Ernst Lubitsch

(Go back to the top of this list)

1939
De rode enge (Red meadows) – Bodil Ipsen and Lau Lauritzen
Neecha nagar (Lowly city) – Chetan Anand
Ninotchka – Ernst Lubitsch
Union pacific – Cecil B. DeMille

1938
Olympia, part 1 – Leni Riefenstahl
Olympia, part 2 – Leni Riefenstahl

1937
The awful truth – Leo McCarey

1936
Camille – George Cukor
Dodsworth – William Wyler
Le crime de Monsieur Lange (The crime of Monsieur Lange) – Jean Renoir
Swing time – George Stevens

1935
Bride of Frankenstein – James Whale

1933
Baby face – Alfred E. Green
King Kong – Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack

1931
City lights – Charles Chaplin

(Go back to the top of this list)

1929
Chelovek s kino-apparatom (The man with the camera) – Dziga Vertov

1928
The crowd – King Vidor
The last command – Josef van Sternberg

1927
Metropolis – Fritz Lang

1926
Sunrise – Raymond Longford and F. Stuart Whyte

1925
Bronenosets Potyomkin - Sergei M. Eisenstein

1924
Sherlock, jr. - Buster Keaton

(Go back to the top of this list)