Essentials

By: David

This is my most recent edition of the best films I’ve ever seen. I’m currently working on watching as many movies as humanly possible and expanding this list. Think of this as a time capsule containing my cinematic trajectory between the ages of 16 and 23.

• 01
  The Thin Red Line
  Terrence Malick
• 02
  Persona
  Ingmar Bergman
• 03
  Sansho the Bailiff
  Kenji Mizoguchi
• 04
  Andrei Rublev
  Andrei Tarkovsky
• 05
  Manhattan
  Woody Allen
• 06
  L'avventura
  Michelangelo Antonioni
• 07
  2001: A Space Odyssey
  Stanley Kubrick
• 08
  Vertigo
  Alfred Hitchcock
• 09
  Mulholland Drive
  David Lynch
• 10
  Au hasard Balthazar
  Robert Bresson
• 11
  Citizen Kane
  Orson Welles
• 12
  Morvern Callar
  Lynne Ramsay
• 13
  Tokyo Story
  Yasujirô Ozu
• 14
  Apocalypse Now
  Francis Ford Coppola
• 15
  La dolce vita
  Federico Fellini
• 16
  Cabaret
  Bob Fosse
• 17
  Chinatown
  Roman Polanski
• 18
  Casablanca
  Michael Curtiz
• 19
  Raging Bull
  Martin Scorsese
• 20
  Nashville
  Robert Altman
• 21
  The Battle of Algiers
  Gillo Pontecorvo
• 22
  The Godfather
  Francis Ford Coppola
• 23
  Cries and Whispers
  Ingmar Bergman
• 24
  Days of Heaven
  Terrence Malick
• 25
  Hannah and Her Sisters
  Woody Allen
• 26
  All About Eve
  Joseph L. Mankiewicz
• 27
  Taxi Driver
  Martin Scorsese
• 28
  Sunset Blvd.
  Billy Wilder
• 29
  The 400 Blows
  François Truffaut
• 30
  Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
  Rainer Werner Fassbinder
• 31
  Vanya on 42nd Street
  Louis Malle
• 32
  Safe
  Todd Haynes
• 33
  Fanny and Alexander — The Theatrical Version
  Ingmar Bergman
• 34
  Dancer in the Dark
  Lars von Trier
• 35
  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  Michel Gondry
• 36
  Happy Together
  Wong Kar-wai
• 37
  Psycho
  Alfred Hitchcock
• 38
  Pulp Fiction
  Quentin Tarantino
• 39
  Taste of Cherry
  Abbas Kiarostami
• 40
  The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
  Peter Jackson
• 41
  Ugetsu
  Kenji Mizoguchi
• 42
  A Woman Under the Influence
  John Cassavetes
• 43
  Blow-Up
  Michelangelo Antonioni
• 44
  Pierrot le fou
  Jean-Luc Godard
• 45
  The Tree of Life
  Terrence Malick
• 46
  Floating Weeds
  Yasujirô Ozu
• 47
  Velvet Goldmine
  Todd Haynes
• 48
  Talk to Her
  Pedro Almodóvar
• 49
  The English Patient
  Anthony Minghella
• 50
  A Streetcar Named Desire
  Elia Kazan
• 51
  The Conformist
  Bernardo Bertolucci
• 52
  Fargo
  Joel Coen
• 53
  Last Tango in Paris
  Bernardo Bertolucci
• 54
  The Piano
  Jane Campion
• 55
  The Last Picture Show
  Peter Bogdanovich
• 56
  When Harry Met Sally...
  Rob Reiner
• 57
  The Shining
  Stanley Kubrick
• 58
  Blue Velvet
  David Lynch
• 59
  Killer of Sheep
  Charles Burnett
• 60
  Magnolia
  Paul Thomas Anderson
• 61
  Jaws
  Steven Spielberg
• 62
  Before Sunrise
  Richard Linklater
• 63
  Before Sunset
  Richard Linklater
• 64
  L.A. Confidential
  Curtis Hanson
• 65
  Annie Hall
  Woody Allen
• 66
  Swept Away
  Lina Wertmüller
• 67
  Badlands
  Terrence Malick
• 68
  Barry Lyndon
  Stanley Kubrick
• 69
  Au revoir les enfants
  Louis Malle
• 70
  Dogville
  Lars von Trier
• 71
  Blade Runner
  Ridley Scott
• 72
  Breathless
  Jean-Luc Godard
• 73
  Topsy-Turvy
  Mike Leigh
• 74
  Ran
  Akira Kurosawa
• 75
  Man with a movie camera
  Dziga Vertov
• 76
  8½
  Federico Fellini
• 77
  Goodfellas
  Martin Scorsese
• 78
  The Manchurian Candidate
  John Frankenheimer
• 79
  Mary Poppins
  Robert Stevenson
• 80
  West Side Story
  Jerome Robbins
• 81
  The Seventh Seal
  Ingmar Bergman
• 82
  Notorious
  Alfred Hitchcock
• 83
  Tropical Malady
  Apichatpong Weerasethakul
• 84
  Far from Heaven
  Todd Haynes
• 85
  Amores perros
  Alejandro González Iñárritu
• 86
  Spirited Away
  Hayao Miyazaki
• 87
  Rear Window
  Alfred Hitchcock
• 88
  Grizzly Man
  Werner Herzog
• 89
  In the Mood for Love
  Wong Kar-wai
• 90
  Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
  Jim Jarmusch
• 91
  Rashômon
  Akira Kurosawa
• 92
  Synecdoche, New York
  Charlie Kaufman
• 93
  3 Women
  Robert Altman
• 94
  demonlover
  Olivier Assayas
• 95
  Birth
  Jonathan Glazer
• 96
  Groundhog Day
  Harold Ramis
• 97
  The Silence of the Lambs
  Jonathan Demme
• 98
  East of Eden
  Elia Kazan
• 99
  Eyes Wide Shut
  Stanley Kubrick
• 100
  The New World
  Terrence Malick