Best of Cinema: All Time Top 100 Films
- Ran (1985), Directed by Akira Kurosawa
- Stalker (1979), Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
- Citizen Kane (1941), Directed by Orson Welles
- Solyaris (1972), Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
- Dersu Uzala (1975), Directed by Akira Kurosawa
- 8½ (1963), Directed by Federico Fellini
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Directed by Stanley Kubrick
- Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Directed by Stanley Kubrick
- Rashomon (1950), Directed by Akira Kurosawa
- Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Directed by Sergio Leone
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Directed by David Lean
- Belle de Jour (1967), Directed by Luis Buñuel
- The Three Colors Trilogy, Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski
- Dekalog (Ten-Episode TV Series, 1988), Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski
- Andrei Rublev (1966), Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
- The Seventh Seal (1957), Directed by Ingmar Bergman
- Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972), Directed by Werner Herzog
- Dead Man (1995), Directed by Jim Jarmusch
- Fellini Satyricon (1969), Directed by Federico Fellini
- The Night of the Iguana (1964), Directed by John Huston
- The Conversation (1974), Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
- Le Samouraï (1967), Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
- Once upon a Time in the West (1968), Directed by Sergio Leone
- Bicycle Thieves (1948), Directed by Vittorio De Sica
- The Apu Trilogy, Directed by Satyajit Ray
- Touch of Evil (1958), Directed by Orson Welles
- Apocalypse Now (1979), Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
- The Godfather Trilogy, Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
- Metropolis (1927), Directed by Fritz Lang
- Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011), Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
- The Return (2003), Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev
- The Damned (1969), Directed by Luchino Visconti
- Night Moves (1975), Directed by Arthur Penn
- Get Carter (1971), Directed by Mike Hodges
- Last Tango in Paris (1972), Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
- Le cercle rouge (1970), Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
- Heat (1995), Directed by Michael Mann
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Directed by Sergio Leone
- Harakiri (1962), Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
- A Clockwork Orange (1971), Directed by Stanley Kubrick
- Gone With the Wind (1939), Directed by Victor Fleming
- Yojimbo (1961), Directed by Akira Kurosawa
- North By Northwest (1959), Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
- The Kid (1921), Directed by Charles Chaplin
- Pyaasa (1957), Directed by Guru Dutt
- The Europe Trilogy, Directed by Lars von Trier
- The Turin Horse (2011), Directed by Béla Tarr
- The Tree of Life (2011), Directed by Terrence Malick
- Paths of Glory (1957), Directed by Stanley Kubrick
- Full Metal Jacket (1987), Directed by Stanley Kubrick
- Dr. Strangelove (1964), Directed by Stanley Kubrick
- Queimada (1969), Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo
- Viridiana (1961), Directed by Luis Buñuel
- La Strada (1954), Directed by Federico Fellini
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Directed by Ang Lee
- Scarface (1983), Directed by Brian De Palma
- Hannibal (2001), Directed by Ridley Scott
- Magic (1978), Directed by Richard Attenborough
- Amadeus (1984), Directed by Milos Forman
- Crash (1996), Directed by David Cronenberg
- Mr. Klein (1976), Directed by Joseph Losey
- Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), Directed by Guru Dutt
- Jewel Thief (1967), Directed by Vijay Anand
- Guide (1965), Directed by Vijay Anand
- F for Fake (1973), Directed by Orson Welles
- Korol Lir (1971), Directed by Grigori Kozintsev
- Frenzy (1972), Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
- Barry Lyndon (1975), Directed by Stanley Kubrick
- Shoot the Piano Player (1960), Directed by François Truffaut
- La Jetée (1962), Directed by Chris Marker
- Chinatown (1974), Directed by Roman Polanski
- Sunset Blvd. (1950), Directed by Billy Wilder
- Jalsaghar (1958), Directed by Satyajit Ray
- Persona (1966), Directed by Ingmar Bergman
- Blood Simple (1984), Directed by Joel Coen
- L'Eclisse (1962), Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
- The Duellists (1977), Directed by Ridley Scott
- Blue Velvet (1986), Directed by David Lynch
- Close-Up (1990), Directed by Abbas Kiarostami
- A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Directed by Steven Spielberg
- The Prestige (2006), Directed by Christopher Nolan
- 12 Angry Men (1957), Directed by Sidney Lumet
- The Master (2012), Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
- Ivan the Terrible, Part I & II, Directed by Sergei M. Eisenstein
- Casino (1995), Directed by Martin Scorsese
- The Secret in Their Eyes (2009), Directed by Juan José Campanella
- The Assassination of Jesse James by... (2007), Directed by Andrew Dominik
- This Must Be the Place (2011), Directed by Paolo Sorrentino
- Live Flesh (1997), Directed by Pedro Almodovar
- High and Low (1963), Directed by Akira Kurosawa
- Magnolia (1999), Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
- Midnight in Paris (2011), Directed by Woody Allen
- The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Directed by Martin Scorsese
- The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), Directed by Tommy Lee Jones
- Eastern Promises (2007), Directed by David Cronenberg
- Minority Report (2002), Directed by Steven Spielberg
- Yusuf Trilogy [Egg (2007), Milk (2008), Honey (2010)], Directed by Semih Kaplanoglu
- Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983), Directed by Kundan Shah
- In the Heat of the Night (1967), Directed by Norman Jewison
- Gulaal (2009), Directed by Anurag Kashyap
Readers, please feel free to share your opinion by leaving your comments. As always your feedback is highly appreciated!
For the Top 100 list published by the author in 2015, click here
For the current Top 100 list published by the author in 2016, click here
— Murtaza Ali
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Nice list Murtaza, a few recent surprises in there to keep things interesting; and I have to regretfully admit that aside from Jalsaghar, I haven't seen any of those classic Indian films.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bonjour for sharing your thoughts... I am glad you liked it on the whole. Btw, the two Guru Dutt and two Dev Anand films in the list epitomize the golden period of commercial Indian cinema. Do watch them if you get the opportunity!!! :-)
ReplyDeleteHave to bookmark it, haven't seen so many from this list.
ReplyDeleteThanks Arun for those kind words... really glad you liked the list!!! :-)
ReplyDeleteWow!! This is a heavy list? When was the last time you saw a Rom-Com Murtaza? :D
ReplyDeleteJokes aside, there are still quite a few I haven't seen and few I haven't even heard. Will have to pick up my game.
Another thing I noticed, there are so many Russian films. I'll get to Tarkovskiy soon for Blind Spot but apart from The Return, which again your recommendation, I haven't seen any,
Thanks... do share your thoughts if you happen to watch any of them :-)
ReplyDeleteA very interesting list even if I think you have overrated a large number of the films here. I compared your list of 100 to my own and see we only have 18 in common! (and that includes 3 trilogies). On the other hand,I am a lot older than you and have seen a lot more films but fewer films from the East. Still, there is much here to admire and one or two that I really must seek out now.
ReplyDeleteThanks Martin for sharing your thoughts. I know I have just reached the tip of the iceberg and have a long way to go... but as you acknowledged, I am headed forward in the right direction. Basically, in this list of mine, I have tried to focus on variety... I wanted to cover everything that I thought had been groundbreaking in some sense or the other. Btw, I had bookmarked your top 100 when it had appeared on Ian Stott's website... I will be slowly seeking out those films... as and when I get the opportunity :-)
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of the films but why is The godfather so low in the list and why is Casanova not there??
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts. Except for the first ten films or so (and I dare not touch my top 10), the list follows no particular order as such. All films on the list are great in some sense or the other. Btw, I would be true to you... I haven't watched Casanova yet... but I will watch it soon. And if it does impress me then I assure you that it would be a part of my next list.
ReplyDeleteMurtaza , good work but a tad disappointed not to see some path breaking works by KamalHaasan as Author-Director, particularly movies like Hey Ram ( which has a Pan-Indian appeal)and Virumandi ( though it is regional and set in a highly vernacular setting, can compete as a world cinema on content and technique)...if u havent watched these 2 , please watch and review if u have the time
ReplyDeleteGood Work Mutuza... but I am not happy by the exclusion of some of most favorite films of all time. You missed Rainman, The Shining, Philadelphia, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Gandhi... then again everybody has their own favorites...!!
ReplyDeleteSee as i had already said u had a great list of films here but i would like if u extend it a little further 100 films i am sure is not enough.
ReplyDeleteSure... I would love to... Top 250 to start with and then Top 1000!!!
ReplyDeleteYes that's the way to go....................
ReplyDeleteDear Viswanathan,
ReplyDeleteI recently published my latest Top 100 list and you would be happy to know that Hey Ram is included in it. While I have been a great admirer of Kamal Hassan but after re-watching Hey Ram after all these years, at your suggestion, my admiration for the great man has become tenfold. Since then I have re-watched Hey Ram 4-5 times and now I am fully convinced that it's a great work of cinema that deserves to be on my Top 100.
God-willing, I will be able to explore Kamal Hassan's other important films, including Virumandi, as well in the due course of time.
Here's the link to my latest Top 100... I would love to have your thoughts on the same:
http://www.apotpourriofvestiges.com/2014/04/all-time-best-100-movies-authors-pick.html
I am extremely sorry to have disappointed you... but, as you yourself seem to agree, these favorite lists are matter of an individual's taste... it not only varies from person to person but it also changes with time.
ReplyDeleteWell, I am not averse to any genre, in particular... but, I generally don't like films which are too cheesy and light in their depiction of romance. I prefer watching films with "romance" as a sub-genre... period dramas/epics do this wonderfully well.
ReplyDeleteyeah true... and like you said favorites changes with time... I am not disappointed with this list anymore as I watched some 20 from your list from the time I first commented and the ones I mentioned, please forget Driving Miss Daisy and Gandhi... :D
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I am really glad that you included Magnolia... would love to read your review on Magnolia.
Well, it would take some doing to review it... will do my best, though!!!
ReplyDelete