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Updated : Oct 2005
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100 Films You Must See, And Why
Here are the best films ever made and why. Write to me if you disagree, or if I've missed some. Really, these are films I could honestly watch again and again. I include the director as a guide to their other films, but beware of the 'director as auteur' syndrome.    Yes, I'll get better pictures.
Many thanks to Mason, who has helped me get a load of these from the US of Stateside. Good old Rip-off Britain, it's cheaper to import DVDs from the US than buy here. I got about 40 DVDs for an average cost of £5 each.

Film
Director
On DVD?
1 M Peter Lorre as M
Peter Lorre
Fritz Lang The best thriller ever, the hunt for justice by criminals. Read more on why it's my favourite.Got
2 A Canterbury Tale   Michael Powell
Michael Powell
Deeply emotive and very weird story, with cold, sad Eric Portman exposed by Dennis Price, Sheila Sim, and amateur actor Sgt John Sweet of the US Army. The film is simply inexplicable, and Sheila Sim's visit to her lover's caravan, rotting in storage, always makes me cry. The mix of history, old and modern (the parade of craters with little signs saying where the shops have relocated), the crude mystery (it's meant to be obvious), the clear symbolism (they all find their dreams), is all very, very good, but what really lifts this film is the study of English countryside and the natural way of life, to be wiped out by the modernism spurred by war industry (the hawk becomes a Spitfire, the ancient hedgerows are smashed by the armored troop carriers). Portman's character yearns to secure a life being swamped by the influx of soldiers, but is fighting a losing battle.
Powell had a theory that a people were shaped by their landscape, it was the mountains that made mountain people, the cities that made city people. I wonder what he would have made of today's mass migration.
The Archer's films have inspired many modern film-makers, not least Scorcese and Brian de Palma. Michael Powell was rediscovered by Scorcese late in life and brought back to work in Zoetrope.
Watching a docu on Richard Attenborough, I learn that Sheila Sim is Lady Attenborough. They met at RADA and married soon after.
Got
3 37°2 le matin (aka Betty Blue)   Jean-Jacques Beineux Very moving, extremes of joy and despair, the saddest love story. Heartbreaking. Avoid the later director's cut, the version shown on UK TV was better.
I managed to get the French as well as the UK DVD. The dubbed version is dreadful, you must watch this film in French with the subtitles on. The French one has nice extras including Béatrice Dalle's screen test.
Got
4 Robocop Robocop Paul Verhoeven Robocop walkingThe fight to regain humanity. Witty and dark, it has depth and great action. Read my Terminator/Robocop Inversion Theory.Got
5 Went The Day Well?   Cavalcanti Easily the most shocking film you will ever see. Guaranteed. In WW2 Germans try to capture an English village in preparation for the invasion.Got
6 Cafe Flesh   Rinse Dream Yes it is a porn film, but with a story, great choreographed and costumed sex scenes and it dares to mock the audience. See it if possible. (Jerry Stahl (Permanent Midnight) wrote this stylish cult classic under the pseudonym Herbert W. Day.) 
7 The Naked Spur   Anthony Mann James Stewart started his career as a sweet-hearted man, perfectly suiting Capra's optomism. But unlike many British stars who escaped the war by fleeing to the US, Stewart signed up and served his country. What he saw in war changed him forever and he returned to movies fully prepared to act out complex and dark characters for Hitchcock and Anthony Mann (although Capra's Wonderful Life was made in 1947). Stewart and Mann collaberated several times, and The Naked Spur followed the ground-breaking Winchester '73, which saw Stewart take 50% of the film's profits instead of a fee, a contract that changed Hollywood forever. In the Naked Spur, Stewart acts his heart out in fantastic, golden Colorado scenery, but the film is intense, with Stewart as a bounty-hunter driven by greed and nihilism. The other characters are superb too, especially Ralph Meeker, but Stewart rides the film, nursing in his heart his fiancee's betrayal. I don't like Westerns, and this is the only Western that impressed me. 
8 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Howard Hawks A bit camp but hugely entertaining musical. And I hate musicals. This is an honest film, in which men want sex, women want security. Apart from Jane Russell, who holds out for love, sweet love.Got
9 Carry On Up The Khyber   Gerald Thomas The best Carry On, the funniest gags (Fakhir! Off!). Unsurpassed British lavatory humour.Got
10 9 1/2 Weeks   Adrian Lyne Derided as a yuppy story, it is actually about impotence and love. See how long before they actually get to it. Got
11 Seven Samurai Seven Samurai
Akira Kurosawa Long and rewarding adventure through old Japan, remade as The Magnificent Seven, but the original is more powerful and desperate. Kurosawa was using a caricature of Noh and Kabuki acting styles in this and similar works (Rashomon), and the patient study of the restraint of the lead samurai would not be found in an American film. But the fight scenes and the end of the film are terrifying. The pouring rain, the mud, the horses, but what you are watching are men fighting men with swords and spears. Fighting over food, for what else matters if you cannot eat.Got
12 Baron Munchausen   Josef Von Baky Made during WW2 by the Nazis, it is a lavish costume comedy epic full of wit and charm. Badly remade by Gilliam as 'Munchausen'.Got
13 The Thing From Another World Thing Howard Hawks
(Christian Nyby)
Thrilling actioner, dynamic cross dialogue. Note how the humans attack the alien first.Got
14 Sinnui yauman
(A Chinese Ghost Story)
  Ching Siu-Tung HK comedy horror, hugely entertaining, memorable. Tsui Hark produced.Got
15 Badlands Badlands Terence Malik College lecturer Malik only made 3 films, to show how easy it was. Fascinating story. Shamelessly ripped off by Tarantino. (Malik has now made more films).Got
16 Raising Arizona   Joel Coen Very witty comedy, with style and superb dialogue, and a good dose of surreality.Got
17 Midnight Run   Martin Brest A rare item this; a mainstream comedy adventure that is well written, paced and funny.Got
18 Repo Man   Alex Cox The first version is best, strange, rambling but original and inventive low budget comedy.Got
19 Pee-Wee's Big Adventure Peewee Herman Tim Burton Hilarious, very clever, a great character, and some top gags.Got
20 Black Narcissus   Michael Powell Powell & Pressburger made the best British films ever, and these 4 stand out. Here, nuns get sex in the HimalayasGot a US copy.
21 A Matter Of Life And Death  A Matter Of Life And Death Michael Powell Some of the Archer's films are difficult to understand or, rather, categorise. This is much easier, it is simply an attempt to come to terms with the collossal death toll of the war. The camera looks down to the room of records, miles of filing cabinets ("heaven to some"), the camera draws back over thousands of the war dead attending the trial, soldiers in battle dress, nurses in uniform, questioning their own deaths. Filmed partly in black & white, with beautiful use of scarce colour film stock ("we're starved for Technicolor"), Powell & Pressburger throw in some tricks too, the camera obscura, the shot through the enormous eyelid, freeze frame, and a haunting music score. But the film remains true to its title.Got
22 49th Parallel   Michael Powell Can you believe this? Asked to make a propoganda film, what do the Archers do? They make a film about Nazis sailors trying to escape across frozen Canada! Of course, you don't root for the Nazis, do you? Well, sort of. An amazing film.Available
23 The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp   Michael Powell Long, strange story, again dares to portray a nice German during WW2.Got
24 I Know Where I'm Going   Michael Powell Nice romance, not as good as the above. Powell expresses a theory about how landscape influences people, also done in A Canterbury Tale.Got
25 Blood Simple   Joel Coen A real thriller, especially as it is so extremely slow. The risk pays off and the story shocks.Got
26 Peeping Tom Peeping Tom Michael Powell Powell's last mainstream film is frightening and disgusted critics at the time with it's study of sadism and horror ("wholly evil", "Sick minds will be highly stimulated"). What sort of person are you, paying to watch murders, aren't you a Peeping Tom? It wrecked Powell's career, but provides some moving and shocking thoughts. Powell did have a quirky sense of humour and hid some in-jokes in the pic, such as the movie director in the film being played by a blind actor, Esmond Knight. Powell appeared as the sinister father in the home movies, and his own son Columba was the crying child. Interestingly, Peeping Tom was released in 1960, 4 months before Psycho, which is now treated as a classic.Got
27 Wayne's World   Penelope Spheeris Laughed till I cried. Inspired comedy for rockers. You'd have to be a rocker to truly appreciate this. Party On. Excellent. The sequel's quite good too.Got
28 The Captain's Paradise   Anthony Kimmins A small comedy but very well made, with ferry Captain Alec Guinness having it both ways until...Available
29 Un Condamne A Mort S'Est Echappe (A Man Escaped) A Man Escaped Robert Bresson A long, slow, dark film of torture, pain and intense relief at the final escape. True story of a French POW meticulously making his and other's escape, Bresson made this film in 1956 using real people, not actors. A terrifying film of real violence. 
30 Cat People   Jacques Tourneur B movie but thrilling, incredible use of low budget sets, especially lighting tricks. 
31 La Bete (The Beast)   Walerian Borowczyk Amazing film original meant as a segment in Immoral Tales. A mix of costume, horror, rape fantasy and fetish delight. Astonishing and wholly original. And wholly banned in Britain for 25 years. But it has now got an 18 certificate and is out on DVD, under the title The Beast.Got
32 Contes Immoraux (Immoral Tales)   Walerian Borowczyk A series of erotic stories from history. Elegant and delicious. Paloma Picasso is Bathory, bathing in virgin's blood.Got
33 Crimewave   Sam Raimi Surreal comedy that is soooo surreal it bursts your brain. Written by the Coen brothers too.Available
34 Innocent Blood   John Landis Strange long mix of vampire, gangster, cop and comedy, with some pole-dancing by Terri Weigel. Anna Parillaud (Nikita) accidentally turns Mafia boss Robert Loggia into an undead Mafia boss! Good film, a little spoilt by poor pacing and the effort to introduce a romance. But the film has a sustained logic and lots of hard edged stunts you won't see anyone doing today.Got
35 The Hit   Stephen Frears Excellent rare road movie in central Spain. Runaway criminal Terence Stamp is brought back to be murdered by John Hurt. Top stuff. And Laura Del Sol stands out. 
36 Belle De Jour   Luis Bunuel Upper class Catherine Denueve leads a double life to work in a brothel! Mixture of surreal fantasy and sexual intrigue.Got
37 Passport To Pimlico   Henry Cornelius Classic Ealing comedy, slightly weak, but inspiring. The scene where the children start throwing food over the wire always makes me blub. Typical British support for underdogs.Got
38 Build My Gallows High (Out Of The Past)   Jacques Tourneur Goody Robert Mitchum is brought back by baddy Kirk Douglas face his criminal past and his betrayal by femme fatale Jane Greer.Got
39 Dead Of Night Dead Of Night various Calvalcanti, Chrichton, Dearden & Hamer direct amazing horror stories for Ealing. The film is circular and ends at the beginning. It includes some famous scenes, especially the vent's talking dummy, which alone was remade as 'Magic'.Got a US copy
40 Les Diaboliques Les Diaboliques Henri-Georges Clouzot A classic French shocker (remade with Sharon Stone). The school headmaster arranges with his mistress to murder his wife during the holidays. But things don't quite work out...A real shock atthe end.
The direction of this film is remarkable. A lot of the shots seem very like television, not like cinema. There is a language of cinema, a range of shots and cuts that provide the viewer with information. Do you see what the characters can see, or are you shown more than they know. The way the camera moves, the way scenes cut, these affect your experience. This film looks a lot like TV, long before TV became widespread.
Got
41 Hue And Cry   Charles Chrichton Kids comedy but great stuff, the first Ealing comedy. Chrichton was brought out of retirement at 80 to work with John Cleese, and so to direct A Fish Called Wanda.Got
42 Seven Days To Noon   John Boulting Boulting Bros. produced a slew of films. This is a 50s thriller about a nuclear bomb. Great slow burner. 
43 The Draughtsman's Contract   Peter Greenaway Surreal overblown costume mystery, supposedly. Difficult to follow but lavish to watch.Got
44 Get Carter! Get Carter! Mike Hodges Violent realistic 70s gangster movie. Caine stars in rare Northern England picture. Recently remade with Sly Stallone in the lead.Got
45 In A Lonely Place   Nicholas Ray Rarely seen Bogart crime picture recently re-issued in a new print! I was born when I met you, I lived while you loved me, I died when you left me.Got
46 It's A Wonderful Life Wonderful Life Frank Capra Yes you've seen it a dozen times, yes it is so corny, but it is still fabulous and genuinely moving. Especially Stewart's honest sacrifice for his brother, which happens in a mere beat.Got
47 The Wicked Lady   Leslie Arliss Camp but excellent melodrama of lady highway robber. Badly remade by Michael Winner.
Finally got this on DVD, It's FANTASTIC! She really is wicked, cut her in half and it says Wicked all the way through. But she gets her just desserts!
Got
48 Jabberwocky JabberwockyJabber 3 Terry Gilliam Sub-Python but witty medieval comedy. Great gags.Got
49 Jean De Florette   Claude Berri Sad story but beautifully shot. The French government heavily subsidise their cinema and it pays.Got
50 Manon De Source   Claude Berri Second part is weaker, but Emmanuelle Beart is so beautiful, and the story is heart breaking.Got
51 (The Shape Of) Things To Come Shape Of Things To Come William Cameron Menzies Film script written by H G Wells. Brilliant futuristic film predicts air war, and shows the brutish rise of warlords, but gives hope for the future. Visionary Menzies directed a few other greats, and was art director on Gone With The Wind and other classics.Got
52 52 Pick-Up 52 Pick Up
John Frankenheimer Elmore Leonard's superb crime stories are finally getting the treatment they deserved. Get Shorty, Out Of Sight, Jackie Brown, producer's are getting the idea. Here's the first one to be worth watching, amazingly a Cannon pic.Available
53 Assault On Precinct 13 Assault John Carpenter His second film, Carpenter also did the synth score and editing. A low-budget actioner, drawing heavily on Rio Brava and Night Of The Living Dead. Worth watching a few times. (Recently remade)Got
54 Nuns On The Run   Jonathan Lynne Low budget UK comedy, but funny, with Python Eric Idle. Watch out for the girls in the showers. Lynne made Yes Minister and went onto Hollywood.Got
55 The Lady Wants Mink   William A Seiter B movie camp comedy but funny. 
56 Captain Sinbad   Byron Haskin Brilliant West German fantasy adventure made in 1963. Very stylish and impressive. 
57 I'm All Right Jack I'm All Right John Boulting It's a diabolical liberty. Great Boulting Bros. satire on British labour and management. Peter Sellars stars as the trade union leader.Got
58 The Lavender Hill Mob Lavender Hill Mob Charles Chrichton Classic Ealing comedy. Weak ending but brilliant anyway.Got
59 Way To The Stars   Anthony Asquith Slowish ground based melodrama of wartime airfield. You only see the aircraft take-off and land, in the same way that the pilots arrive and leave the base. Superb & moving story, well worth buying.Got
60 Mad Max 2 Mad Max 2 George Miller Overshown but excellent adventure, great design. Interestingly, Miller was puzzled about the success of the first film in so many different countries, and then was introduced to Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces, the seminal work that Lucas used to complete Star Wars. Now there's a book worth pursuing.Got
61 Maitresse   Barbet Schroeder Weird French sex story with real S&M. Depardeiu supports.Available
62 Sullivan's Travels Sullivan's Travels Preston Sturges Screwball but moving comedy of the Depression, made surprisingly in 1941. Preston Sturges was a rich kid, but an inspired director. In this film (another film about film-making), Joel McCrae is a famous director who wants to stop making silly comedies and instead complete his sombre masterpiece 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou?'. He shrugs off his minders and with stray Veronica Lake takes to the road. But he takes a wrong turn and does hit Skid Row, where he learns what really matters. A genuinely moving film by Sturges, although stuck firmly in the studio's clutches, McCrae shines and is a rarely considered star these days. And of course, you can now see Oh Brother... 
63 The Man In The White Suit White Suit Alexander Mackendrick Not the best Ealing comedy, this is still a strong satire hitting both capitalism and the workers, who combine to destroy Alec Guinness' radical invention. The film is generally visually dark, to show off the dazzling suit, but the story and acting is quite sinister too, with Joan Greenwood being encoraged to prostitute herself for £5,000 to save her father! Guinness is a revelation, obviously a great actor but he usually hides behind costume and props. Here he appears genuine and natural as he naively struggles to realise his dream. And the strange burbling sounds were released as 'The White Suit Samba' by Coral Records.Got
64 Whisky Galore!   Alexander Mackendrick Mackendrick died young. Another classic Ealing comedy. Light but funny. True story.Got
65 Zu Warriors Of the Magic Mountain   Tsui Hark HK fantasy adventure. Long but hugely inventive. Why can't Hollywood be as clever, with all their cash?Got
66 The Janitor (Eyewitness)   Peter Yates Clever simple thriller. Sigourney Weaver & William Hurt star.Available
67 Mano Destra  Mano Destra Cleo Ueblemann Swiss S&M club made their own film. A revelation and very entertaining explanation. 
68 Monsieur Hire   Patrice Leconte A sad film as woman maniplates man during a murder enquiry. Stylish picture.Available
69 National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation   Jeremiah S Chechik A familiar family formula, but several hilarious scenes and Chase plays it so well. Poor ending but that's Hollywood.Available
70 The Night Of The Hunter   Charles Laughton Laughton's only directing, mocked by the critics. Styled on silent movies, iris, soft dissolves. Superb 'biblical' story as evil Robert Mitchum chases the children.Got
71 Le Samourai   Jean-Pierre Melville Interesting thriller. Hired assassin betrays his own code.Got
72 One, Two, Three   Billy Wilder Cold war comedy starring elderly James Cagney in brilliant form. Cagney began as a song & dance man and his athleticism still shows.Got
73 Death In A French Garden   Michel Deville A rarely seen but very stylish French modern mystery. A good use of a simple cast and local settings, the plot plays second to the provocative eroticism, but it still has some surprise. A huge hit in France in 1985, you'd be lucky to find it today.Available
74 Herbert West, Re-animator   Stuart Gordon Schlock horror. The ending is poor, but the early feeling of the film perfectly captures the warped ideas of HP Lovecraft.Available
75 From Beyond   Stuart Gordon Another Lovecraft story, this time played for sex and horror. Producer Yuzna has now directed. 
76 Excalibur   John Boorman Heavy Arthurian legend, beautifully shot, great armour.Got
77 Wild At Heart   David Lynch Long surreal story, Dern can't act, or overact. Interesting and Cage does well.Got
78 North By Northwest   Alfred Hitchcock The lame finish to the cliffhanging end weakens this great drama. Very clever use of location and it's often hard to see which are the studio shots and which are on location. And they flew on Northwest airline, hence the name and huge product placement! Essential a remade version of The 39 Steps, the wrongly accused murderer, mixed up with spies, the chase, the train, the blond he falls for.Got
79 Night Of the Demon   Jacques Tourneur Sharp horror film of summoned demons in 50s England. The US edition is cut down and renamed Curse Of The Demon.Got
80 Alias Nick Beal   John Farrow Amusing thriller with a good twist, well made by all. 
81 Evil Dead 2   Sam Raimi Brilliant mix of schlock horror and comedy leads in the new style.Got
82 Vamp! Vamp Richard Wenk OK comedy-horror in the modern style (rubber sfx-models replace writing, editing etc), but with excellent stripper action sets, including Lisa Lyons.Got
83 The Hidden   Jack Sholder Similar modern horror with laughs. Great scenes early on as the Hidden is relentless, piling on thrill after thrill. Kyle Maclachlan stars in an early career role.Got
84 Tom Jones Tom Jones Tony Richardson Very inventive picture using lots of cinema tricks (forgotten since Hellzapoppin'), like talking to camera, slow motion.Got
85 Other People's Money Other People's Money Norman Jewison Brilliant attack on capitalism in a Mainstream Hollywood picture!. Wow! Of course, a jammed in love interest and happy ending spoil it, but a great lesson on the evil side of money grubbing. 
86 Q Planes   Tim Whelan Rare 30s UK sci-fi adventure, very amusing. Ralph Richardson sparkles.Available
87 Up In Smoke!   Lou Adler Cheech and Chong in hilarious dopehead comedy.Got man yeah
88 The Thirty Nine Steps   Alfred Hitchcock Superb chase, good acting. Typical Hitchcock tricks, especially hide in plain sight. This film became the template for good chase movies, including Hitchcock's own such as North ny Northwest (above).Got
89 Green For Danger   Sidney Gilliat Strange wartime murder mystery made in 1946. Alastair Sim got his first starring role here as the detective. A unique character actor, he usually played unctious but posh villians in crime comedies but is probably most recognised in drag as the head of St Trinians. Launder & Gilliat were great British film makers. 
90 This Island Earth   Joseph M Newman Great special effects and colourful sci-fi. 
91 When World's Collide   Rudolph Mate Another classic sci-fi picture. Building a space ark, the unbeatable deadline is Death, and the relentless countdown pushes people to the edge.Got
92 Three Amigos!   John Landis Very funny in the start, usual corny ending.Got
93 Two Lane Blacktop Two Lane Monte Hellman The only road movie that deserves the tag. Beach Boy Dennis Wilson stars. 
94 Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls   Russ Meyer Meyer's only mainstream film, count the cuts, cut cut cut cut cutAvailable
95 Witchfinder General Witchfinder Micheal Reeves Reeves commited suicide at 25 shortly after completing this picture. Violent, gruesome British horror pic to rival Hammer. Vincent Price (right) stars as Matthew Hopkins who tortured his way round England in the 1660s to make a fortune.Got
96 Deathline (aka Raw Meat)   Gary Sherman Donald Pleasance is a funny cop stumbling onto a horrific secret. Minor British B-movie horror, a genuine cult film.Got
97 Driller Killer   Abel Ferrara Abel Ferrara started making 8mm films with Nicholas St John (later his regular screenwriter). This was their first full feature and despite being much maligned in the 80s video nasty scare, it's an entertaining horror pic with Ferrara in the lead role (he also did the music as 'Jimmy Laine'). Ferrara gained a solid rep directing TV episodes, Miami Vice & Crime Story as a stylish director, and his movies are always interesting, but they do lack the final step to take him onto the A list. Still, try to see Ms 45 (Angel Of Vengeance), Cat Chaser (from the Elmore Leonard novel), King Of New York (with Christopher Walken). More disappointing are Bad Leiutenant and Bodysnatchers, his version of the horror flic, with a pasted on 'happy' ending that stinks of running out of money. But do watch Driller Killer, it is surprisingly good.Got
98 Time After Time   Nicholas Meyer Good thriller as HG Wells pursues Jack The Ripper to modern Frisco. Unattractive actors, looks like a TV movie, but entertaining. Director Meyer also did Wrath Of Khan. 
99 Boy On A Dolphin   Jean Negulesco Watch the first few minutes to see why Sophia Loren was such a star! And the song is by Julie London. fab. 
100 Final Analysis   Phil Joanou Standard pyscho-thriller, worth watching for Uma & actual proper acting by Kim!!! I know, incredible but true. She can act!Got

Do you have any better suggestions? Write to me.
 
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Updated : Oct 2005
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