100 Essential Films I Still Haven't Seen

By: Lauren Kemp

Ok, this is a little embarrassing… Although I obsessively watch movies every day, I have still managed to miss several of the major works by major directors, or just pop culture staples. I know, shocking! So don’t judge me. This list (or kind of a list in reverse) is to shame me into re-prioritizing my “movies to see” line-up. PS. I know the word “essential” is subjective, so just indulge me.

• 01
  Masculin féminin: 15 faits précis
  Jean-Luc Godard
• 02
  Through a Glass Darkly
  Ingmar Bergman
• 03
  Winter Light
  Ingmar Bergman
• 04
  Scenes from a Marriage — The Theatrical Version
  Ingmar Bergman
• 05
  Nostalghia
  Andrei Tarkovsky
• 06
  The Sacrifice
  Andrei Tarkovsky
• 07
  L'âge d'or
  Luis Buñuel
• 08
  The Crowd
  King Vidor
• 09
  Frankenstein
  James Whale
• 10
  Orpheus
  Jean Cocteau
• 11
  How Green Was My Valley
  John Ford
• 12
  The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
  John Ford
• 13
  The Life of Oharu
  Kenji Mizoguchi
• 14
  Winchester '73
  Anthony Mann
• 15
  The Naked Spur
  Anthony Mann
• 16
  Umberto D.
  Vittorio De Sica
• 17
  East of Eden
  Elia Kazan
• 18
  Invasion of the Body Snatchers
  Don Siegel
• 19
  Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
  Frank Tashlin
• 20
  Once Upon a Time in the West
  Sergio Leone
• 21
  A Fistful of Dollars
  Sergio Leone
• 22
  For a Few Dollars More
  Sergio Leone
• 23
  Chelsea Girls
  Paul Morrissey
• 24
  Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?
  William Klein
• 25
  La bête humaine
  Jean Renoir
• 26
  The Seven Year Itch
  Billy Wilder
• 27
  Zabriskie Point
  Michelangelo Antonioni
• 28
  The Asphalt Jungle
  John Huston
• 29
  Night of the Living Dead
  George A. Romero
• 30
  Ran
  Akira Kurosawa
• 31
  Toy Story
  John Lasseter
• 32
  Mean Streets
  Martin Scorsese
• 33
  Die Hard
  John McTiernan
• 34
  Raising Arizona
  Joel Coen
• 35
  Das Boot
  Wolfgang Petersen
• 36
  The Evil Dead
  Sam Raimi
• 37
  Rio Bravo
  Howard Hawks
• 38
  Dirty Harry
  Don Siegel
• 39
  The Lady Vanishes
  Alfred Hitchcock
• 40
  Pink Flamingos
  John Waters
• 41
  The Mother and the Whore
  Jean Eustache
• 42
  Two-Lane Blacktop
  Monte Hellman
• 43
  To Have and Have Not
  Howard Hawks
• 44
  Broken Blossoms
  D.W. Griffith
• 45
  Distant Voices, Still Lives
  Terence Davies
• 46
  Marty
  Delbert Mann
• 47
  Plan 9 from Outer Space
  Edward D. Wood Jr.
• 48
  Flashdance
  Adrian Lyne
• 49
  The Jazz Singer
  Alan Crosland
• 50
  The Day the Earth Stood Still
  Robert Wise
• 51
  Pather Panchali
  Satyajit Ray
• 52
  Diary of a Country Priest
  Robert Bresson
• 53
  A Man Escaped
  Robert Bresson
• 54
  Pickpocket
  Robert Bresson
• 55
  Mad Max
  George Miller
• 56
  Aliens
  James Cameron
• 57
  Dracula
  Tod Browning
• 58
  Evil Dead II
  Sam Raimi
• 59
  A Nightmare on Elm Street
  Wes Craven
• 60
  The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
  Tobe Hooper
• 61
  Strike
  Sergei Eisenstein
• 62
  Oliver Twist
  David Lean
• 63
  Rome, Open City
  Roberto Rossellini
• 64
  The Kid
  Charlie Chaplin
• 65
  Monsieur Verdoux
  Charlie Chaplin
• 66
  Limelight
  Charlie Chaplin
• 67
  Sleeper
  Woody Allen
• 68
  The Dead
  John Huston
• 69
  Tropical Malady
  Apichatpong Weerasethakul
• 70
  Syndromes and a Century
  Apichatpong Weerasethakul
• 71
  Scarface
  Brian De Palma
• 72
  Hud
  Martin Ritt
• 73
  The Lost Boys
  Joel Schumacher
• 74
  My Darling Clementine
  John Ford
• 75
  El Topo
  Alejandro Jodorowsky
• 76
  Lola
  Jacques Demy
• 77
  Once Upon a Time in America
  Sergio Leone
• 78
  La chinoise
  Jean-Luc Godard
• 79
  The Killer
  John Woo
• 80
  The Party
  Blake Edwards
• 81
  Napoleon
  Abel Gance
• 82
  Kramer vs. Kramer
  Robert Benton
• 83
  She Done Him Wrong
  Lowell Sherman
• 84
  Pillow Talk
  Michael Gordon
• 85
  On the Town
  Gene Kelly
• 86
  Harvey
  Henry Koster
• 87
  Deep Throat
  Gerard Damiano
• 88
  Earth
  Aleksandr Dovzhenko
• 89
  Red River
  Howard Hawks
• 90
  The Color of Pomegranates
  Sergei Parajanov
• 91
  They Live by Night
  Nicholas Ray
• 92
  The Lusty Men
  Nicholas Ray
• 93
  The Barefoot Contessa
  Joseph L. Mankiewicz