This is the list of the 100 best films I have ever seen.
Before I get onto the list I just wanted to explain my movie “philosophy” for anyone new to the site:
- There are not “old” and “new” movies, only ones I’ve seen and ones I haven’t.
- There are not good and bad genres, there are only good and bad movies.
- There are not “mainstream” and “arthouse” movies, just movies.
- A $200m Hollywood blockbuster can be better than a Cannes winning Hungarian arthouse epic, and vice versa.
- “Foreign” is not a genre.
That seems a bit pretentious reading it back but the point is I’ll watch anything and judge it without any preconceived ideas.
Ok, enjoy the list and comment if you think it’s interesting.
- In the Mood for Love – Wong Kar Wai (Hong Kong, 2000)
- Late Spring – Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1949)
- The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover – Peter Greenaway (United Kingdom, 1989)
- Bin-jip aka 3-Iron – Kim Ki-duk (South Korea, 2004)
- Oldboy – Park Chan-wook (South Korea, 2003)
- Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner – Stanley Kramer (United States, 1967)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey – Stanley Kubrick (United Kingdom/United States, 1968)
- Pulp Fiction – Quentin Tarantino (United States, 1994)
- A Separation – Asghar Farhadi (Iran, 2011)
- Taxi Driver – Martin Scorsese (United States, 1976)
- Once Were Warriors – Lee Tamahori (New Zealand, 1994)
- Persona – Ingmar Bergman (Sweden, 1966)
- Once – John Carney (Ireland, 2007)
- Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring – Kim Ki-duk (South Korea, 2003)
- Rear Window – Alfred Hitchcock (United States, 1954)
- Grave of the Fireflies – Isao Takahata (Japan, 1988)
- A Woman Under the Influence – John Cassavetes (United States, 1974)
- Nights of Cabiria – Federico Fellini (Italy, 1957)
- Wuthering Heights – William Wyler (United States, 1939)
- The Graduate – Mike Nichols (United States, 1967)
- Still Walking – Hirokazu Koreeda (Japan, 2008)
- Dolls – Takeshi Kitano (Japan, 2002)
- Be With Me – Eric Khoo (Singapore, 2005)
- Boyhood – Richard Linklater (United States, 2014)
- The Weeping Meadow – Theodoros Angelopoulos (Greece, 2004)
- You Can’t Take it With You – Frank Capra (United States, 1938)
- Dancer in the Dark – Lars von Trier (Denmark, 2000)
- High and Low – Akira Kurosawa (Japan, 1963)
- Fanny and Alexander – Ingmar Bergman (Sweden, 1982)
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Milos Forman (United States, 1975)
- Spirit of the Beehive – Victor Erice (Spain, 1973)
- Confessions – Tetsuya Nakashima (Japan, 2010)
- Before Midnight – Richard Linklater (United States, 2013)
- Apur Sansar aka The World of Apu – Satyajit Ray (India, 1959)
- Higanbana aka Equinox Flower – Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1958)
- A Torinói ló aka The Turin Horse – Bela Tarr, Agnes Hranitzky (Hungary, 2011)
- Jagten aka The Hunt – Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark, 2012)
- Roma – Alfonso Cuaron (Mexico, 2018)
- Wit – Mike Nichols (United States, 2001)
- The Circus – Charles Chaplin (United States, 1928)
- M – Fritz Lang (Germany, 1931)
- Whisper of the Heart – Yoshifumi Kondo (Japan, 1995)
- The Red Shoes – Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger (United Kingdom, 1948)
- Together – Lukas Moodysson (Sweden, 2000)
- Nema-ye Nazdik aka Close-Up – Abbas Kiarostami (Iran, 1990)
- The Silence of the Lambs – Jonathan Demme (United States, 1991)
- Judgement at Nuremberg – Stanley Kramer (United States, 1961)
- Festen aka The Celebration – Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark, 1998)
- Ningen no joken III aka The Human Condition III: A Soldier’s Prayer – Masaki Kobayashi (Japan, 1961)
- Shame – Steve McQueen (United Kingdom, 2011)
- Like Father, Like Son – Hirokazu Koreeda (Japan, 2013)
- The Wind Will Carry Us – Abbas Kiarostami (Iran, 1999)
- Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father – Kurt Kuenne (United States, 2008)
- The Godfather: Part II – Francis Ford Coppola (United States, 1974)
- Chelovek s kino-apparatom aka The Man With a Movie Camera – Dziga Vertov (Soviet Union, 1929)
- Kes – Ken Loach (United Kingdom, 1969)
- Ying xiong aka Hero – Zhang Yimou (China, 2002)
- All About Lily Chou-Chou – Shunji Iwai (Japan, 2001)
- Breathless – Yang Ik-joon (South Korea, 2009)
- Ieri, Oggi, Domani aka Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow – Vittorio De Sica (Italy, 1963)
- Naked – Mike Leigh (United Kingdom, 1993)
- Le Chagrin et la pitié aka The Sorrow and the Pity – Marcel Ophuls (France, 1969)
- Ochazuke No Aji aka Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice – Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1952)
- Shi aka Poetry – Lee Chang-dong (South Korea, 2010)
- Johnny Guitar – Nicholas Ray (United States, 1954)
- Utomlyonnye solntsem aka Burnt by the Sun – Nikita Mikhalkov (Russia, 1994)
- To Kill a Mockingbird – Robert Mulligan (United States, 1962)
- Naked Island – Kaneto Shindo (Japan, 1960)
- La vie d’Adèle aka Blue is the Warmest Color – Abdellatif Kechiche (France, 2013)
- Requiem for a Dream – Darren Aronofsky (United States, 2000)
- Irma Vep – Olivier Assayas (France, 1996)
- Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Parpnnaud (France, 2007)
- In the Heat of the Night – Norman Jewison (United States, 1967)
- Alice in den Städten aka Alice in the Cities – Wim Wenders (West Germany, 1974)
- Kiseki aka I Wish – Hirokazu Koreeda (Japan, 2011)
- La Pianiste aka The Piano Teacher – Michael Haneke (France, 2001)
- Oasiseo aka Oasis – Lee Chang-dong (South Korea, 2002)
- Ladybird Ladybird – Ken Loach (United Kingdom, 1994)
- Avatar – James Cameron (United States, 2009)
- Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari aka The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari – Robert Wiene (Germany, 1920)
- Pather Panchali aka Song of the Little Road – Satyajit Ray (India, 1955)
- Bakushu aka Early Summer – Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1951)
- 3 Women – Robert Altman (United States, 1977)
- Topio stin omichli aka Landscape in the Mist – Theodoros Angelopoulos (Greece, 1988)
- Tyrannosaur – Paddy Considine (United Kingdom, 2011)
- Portrait of Jennie – William Dieterle (United States, 1948)
- Seppuku aka Harakiri (Japan, 1962)
- Idi i Smotri aka Come and See – Elem Klimov (Soviet Union, 1985)
- Away From Her – Sarah Polley (Canada, 2006)
- The Best Years of Our Lives – William Wyler (United States, 1946)
- Urga aka Close to Eden – Nikita Mikhalkov (France, 1991)
- Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant aka The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant – Rainer Werner Fassbinder (West Germany, 1972)
- Wildlife – Paul Dano (United States, 2018)
- 1917 – Sam Mendes (United Kingdom, 2019)
- Hitori Musuko aka The Only Son – Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1936)
- Dom za vesanje aka Time of the Gypsies – Emir Kusturica (Yugoslavia, 1988)
- Dogville – Lars von Trier (Denmark, 2003)
- La grande bellezza aka The Great Beauty – Paolo Sorrentino (Italy, 2013)
- Tokyo Monogatari aka Tokyo Story – Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1953)
- Brief Encounter – David Lean (United Kingdom, 1945)