EUROPE: A CANON

MOST ESSENTIAL FIRST. A mix of personal, popular, Mubi and critical favourites, aiming for some sort of canon (though canons are exclusive, can never be definitive and are made to be challenged), and with a reasonable geographical spread, though some countries under-represented. Russia and Turkey may pose a geographical issue, for films shot in their Asian regions, but in each case funding and being classed as European countries carry weight.

Films by year, most essential first. Suggestions welcome.

There’s also a list of the Portuguese Cinemateca’s top European films, based on a 1994 poll