This was a daunting task. I’m sure I’m forgetting some of my favorites, and this list will need to be amended several times. Plus, I’ll need to add in any new favorites that come along the way. I believe the 1950s was prime-time for filmmaking, and so that decade is probably a bit overrepresented. But, hey, what can you do? I also desperately need to see films by women; that’s something I’ll certainly change this year (starting with Agnès Varda).
I will say this, though: the world would be a much darker place without these fine films. Click on the film title for additional info.
75 Must-See Films
- Across the Universe (2007) dir. Julie Taymor
- All About Eve (1950) dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- Amélie (2001) dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet
- American Beauty (1999) dir. Sam Mendes
- Anatomy of a Murder (1959) dir. Otto Preminger
- Atonement (2007) dir. Joe Wright
- Beauty and the Beast (1946) dir. Jean Cocteau
- Beauty and the Beast (1991) dir. Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise
- Bicycle Thieves (1948) dir. Vittorio De Sica
- Black Swan (2010) dir. Darren Aronofsky
- Blue Velvet (1986) dir. David Lynch
- Breathless (1960) dir. Jean-Luc Godard
- Cabaret (1972) dir. Bob Fosse
- Carol (2015) dir. Todd Haynes
- Casablanca (1942) dir. Michael Curtiz
- Chicago (2002) dir. Rob Marshall
- Citizen Kane (1941) dir. Orson Welles
- City Lights (1931) dir. Charlie Chaplin
- Cloud Atlas (2012) dir. Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer
- Day for Night (1973) dir. François Truffaut
- Doubt (2008) dir. John Patrick Shanley
- East of Eden (1955) dir. Elia Kazan
- Eating Raoul (1982) dir. Paul Bartel
- Fantasia (1940) dir. Samuel Armstrong, etc.
- Fargo (1996) dir. Joel and Ethan Cohen
- Frances Ha (2013) dir. Noah Baumbach
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) dir. David Fincher
- Gone with the Wind (1939) dir. Victor Fleming
- The Great Beauty (2013) dir. Paolo Sorrentino
- Hiroshima mon amour (1959) dir. Alain Resnais
- Ikiru (1952) dir. Akira Kurosawa
- In the Mood for Love (2000) dir. Wong Kar-wai
- Jules and Jim (1962) dir. François Truffaut
- The Little Mermaid (1989) dir. Ron Clements and John Musker
- The Long Day Closes (1992) dir. Terence Davies
- The Maltese Falcon (1941) dir. John Huston
- Maurice (1987) dir. James Ivory
- Melancholia (2011) dir. Lars von Trier
- Memento (2000) dir. Christopher Nolan
- My Own Private Idaho (1991) dir. Gus Van Sant
- The Night of the Hunter (1955) dir. Charles Laughton
- No Country for Old Men (2007) dir. Joel and Ethan Cohen
- On the Waterfront (1954) dir. Elia Kazan
- Out of the Past (1947) dir. Jacques Tourneur
- Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) dir. Guillermo del Toro
- Persona (1966) dir. Ingmar Bergman
- Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) dir. Peter Weir
- Psycho (1960) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
- Pulp Fiction (1994) dir. Quentin Tarantino
- The Red Shoes (1948) dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
- Rosemary’s Baby (1968) dir. Roman Polanski
- The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) dir. Wes Anderson
- Seven Samurai (1954) dir. Akira Kurosawa
- The Seventh Seal (1957) dir. Ingmar Bergman
- Shame (2011) dir. Steve McQueen
- The Silence of the Lambs (1991) dir. Jonathan Demme
- A Special Day (1977) dir. Ettore Scola
- Spirited Away (2001) dir. Hayao Miyazaki
- A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) dir. Elia Kazan
- Sunset Boulevard (1950) dir. Billy Wilder
- Sweet Smell of Success (1957) dir. Alexander Mackendrick
- There Will Be Blood (2007) dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
- The Thin Red Line (1998) dir. Terrence Malick
- Tokyo Story (1953) dir. Yasujirō Ozu
- Vertigo (1958) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
- Vivre sa vie (1962) dir. Jean-Luc Godard
- Wall-E (2008) dir. Andrew Stanton
- Weekend (2011) dir. Andrew Haigh
- Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) dir. Mike Nichols
- Wings of Desire (1987) dir. Wim Wenders
- The Wizard of Oz (1939) dir. Victor Fleming
- Young Frankenstein (1974) dir. Mel Brooks
- The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) dir. Jacques Demy
- 8 ½ (1963) dir. Federico Fellini
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) dir. Stanley Kubrick
The Divulgations of One Desmond Leica 