As He Was Scrubbing the Toilet Vigorously, the Custodian Saw 50 Nuggets of Gold: My Current All-time Top 50

By: Blue K, Custodi​an of the Cinema

To make it interesting, I limited myself to one film per director. And yes, these are ranked in order of preference, but it’s hardly an exact science. And my preferences change daily, but these are the top 50 for this very moment.

• 01
  The Cheat
  Cecil B. DeMille
• 02
  Aimless Walk
  Alexander Hammid
• 03
  Tange Sazen and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo
  Sadao Yamanaka
• 04
  Early Summer
  Yasujirô Ozu
• 05
  A Bomb was Stolen
  Ion Popescu-Gopo
• 06
  The Unscrupulous Ones
  Ruy Guerra
• 07
  The Silence
  Ingmar Bergman
• 08
  Charulata
  Satyajit Ray
• 09
  Diamonds of the Night
  Jan Němec
• 10
  Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
  Sergei Parajanov
• 11
  July Rain
  Marlen Khutsiyev
• 12
  The Koumiko Mystery
  Chris Marker
• 13
  Until the Ship Sails
  Alexis Damianos
• 14
  Death by Hanging
  Nagisa Ôshima
• 15
  Invasión
  Hugo Santiago
• 16
  Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert
  Marguerite Duras
• 17
  Pentimento
  Frans Zwartjes
• 18
  The Age of the Earth
  Glauber Rocha
• 19
  Mother and Son
  Aleksandr Sokurov
• 20
  Maborosi
  Hirokazu Kore-eda
• 21
  Fata Morgana
  Werner Herzog
• 22
  The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun
  Djibril Diop Mambéty
• 23
  When the Tenth Month Comes
  Đặng Nhật Minh
• 24
  On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate
  Hong Sang-soo
• 25
  Through the Olive Trees
  Abbas Kiarostami
• 26
  Wanderers of the Desert
  Nacer Khemir
• 27
  Fire Woman
  Kim Ki-young
• 28
  The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
  Rainer Werner Fassbinder
• 29
  Possession
  Andrzej Żuławski
• 30
  Nostalghia
  Andrei Tarkovsky
• 31
  Still Life
  Jia Zhangke
• 32
  I Am Cuba
  Mikhail Kalatozov
• 33
  The Aimless Bullet
  Yu Hyun-mok
• 34
  When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
  Mikio Naruse
• 35
  Go, Go Second Time Virgin
  Kôji Wakamatsu
• 36
  Harvest: 3000 Years
  Haile Gerima
• 37
  Blue
  Derek Jarman
• 38
  Taipei Story
  Edward Yang
• 39
  Days of Being Wild
  Wong Kar-wai
• 40
  I Stand Alone
  Gaspar Noé
• 41
  The Fourth Dimension
  Trinh T. Minh-ha
• 42
  The Corridor
  Sharunas Bartas
• 43
  Mysterious Object at Noon
  Apichatpong Weerasethakul
• 44
  The Name of a River
  Anup Singh
• 45
  Still Life
  Sohrab Shahid Saless
• 46
  Oxhide II
  Liu Jiayin
• 47
  The Road to the Racetrack
  Jang Sun-woo
• 48
  The Green Ray
  Éric Rohmer
• 49
  Melancholia
  Lav Diaz
• 50
  Husbands
  John Cassavetes