I’m often asked about what movies I recommend. Personally, when it comes to films, I dislike recommending because everyone has their own opinion, everyone has their own taste of film genres, directors, etc. I don’t know how many friends tell me to watch the “Saw” films and personally, horror films are not exactly my favorite or priority for watching. But I realize I’m a bit more passionate about watching films than most of my friends who tend to care more for watching what is recent and new, while I’m the type who goes out seeking older, classic and past obscure type of films. And of course, I still manage to watch a lot of the recent releases as well.
If anything, I spent a large part of my adult life watching films from Asia and now wanting to catch many films from various parts of the world.
So, although I don’t like recommending a few films from friends, what I do suggest to them is to keep a close eye on the top 100 polls of the American Film Institute, British Film Institute, Cahiers du cinema and various other films recommended by film critics that I enjoy. For them to give these films a try.
So, here are films that are recommended viewing by various film institutes and many of them, I do agree with ranking:
Here are the top 25 films from their top 100 Greatest movies:
1. Citizen Kane (1941)
2. The Godfather (1972)
3. Casablanca (1942)
4. Raging Bull (1980)
5. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
6. Gone with the Wind (1939)
7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
8. Schindler’s List (1993)
9. Vertigo (1958)
10. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
11. City Lights (1931)
12. The Searchers (1956)
13. Star Wars (1977)
14. Psycho (1960)
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
16. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
17. The Graduate (1967)
18. The General (1927)
19. On the Waterfront (1954)
20. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
21. Chinatown (1974)
22. Some Like It Hot (1959)
23. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
24. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
25. To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
Here are the top 25 films from their top 100 film listing:
- The Third Man (1949)
- Brief Encounter (1945)
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
- The 39 Steps (1935)
- Great Expectations (1946)
- Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
- Kes (1969)
- Don’t Look Now (1973)
- The Red Shoes (1948)
- Trainspotting (1996)
- The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
- If… (1968)
- The Ladykillers (1955)
- Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
- Brighton Rock (1947)
- Get Carter (1971)
- The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
- Henry V (1944)
- Chariots of Fire (1981)
- A Matter of Life and Death 1946 (2/16/08)
- The Long Good Friday (1980)
- The Servant (1963)
- Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
- Whisky Galore! (1949)
- The Full Monty (1997)
Here are the top 25 films from their top 100 film listing:
- Citizen Kane – Orson Welles
- The Night of the Hunter – Charles Laughton
- The Rules of the Game (La Règle du jeu) – Jean Renoir
- Sunrise – Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
- L’Atalante – Jean Vigo
- M – Fritz Lang
- Singin’ in the Rain – Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
- Vertigo – Alfred Hitchcock
- Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis) – Marcel Carné
- The Searchers – John Ford
- Greed – Erich von Stroheim
- Rio Bravo – Howard Hawkes
- To Be or Not to Be – Ernst Lubitsch
- Tokyo Story – Yasujiro Ozu
- Contempt (Le Mépris) – Jean-Luc Godard
- Tales of Ugetsu (Ugetsu monogatari) – Kenji Mizoguchi
- City Lights – Charlie Chaplin
- The General – Buster Keaton
- Nosferatu the Vampire – Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
- The Music Room – Satyajit Ray
- Freaks – Tod Browning
- Johnny Guitar – Nicholas Ray
- The Mother and the Whore (La Maman et la Putain) – Jean Eustache
- The Great Dictator – Charlie Chaplin
- The Leopard (Le Guépard) – Luchino Visconti
I also enjoyed the top 25 films from the the Village Voice Top 100 Best Films list as well:
1. Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles)
2. The Rules of the Game (1939, Jean Renoir)
3. Vertigo (1958, Alfred Hitchcock)
4. The Searchers (1956, John Ford)
5. The Man With a Movie Camera (1929, Dziga Vertov)
6. Sunrise (1927, F.W. Murnau)
7. L’Atalante (1934, Jean Vigo)
8. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Carl Theodor Dreyer)
9. Au Hasard Balthazar (1966, Robert Bresson)
10. Rashomon (1950, Akira Kurosawa)
11. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Stanley Kubrick)
12. The Godfather (1972, Francis Ford Coppola)
13. Pather Panchali (1955, Satyajit Ray)
14. The Birth of a Nation (1915, D.W. Griffith)
15. The Wizard of Oz (1939, Victor Fleming)
16. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946, Frank Capra)
17. Ordet (1955, Carl Theodor Dreyer)
18. Intolerance (1916, D.W. Griffith)
19. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975, Chantal Akerman)
20. Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock)
21. Chinatown (1974, Roman Polanski)
22. M (1931, Fritz Lang)
23. The Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)
24. The Earrings of Madame de… (1953, Max Ophuls)
25. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942, Orson Welles)
