World's Best Foreign Language Films

This is a subset of the non-English language films from all the other lists (my preferences, these are not from the Top Ranked on the Net survey we did - that post is listed seperately, as over 400 foreign language films made that list), with a few more worthy films added (* = new additions)

Updated: 5.13.11

• 8 ½ (1963) Italy, bw
• 13 Tzameti (2006) France, bw*
• The 400 Blows (1959) France, bw*
• A Great Wall (US-China, mixed language)
• A Prophet (2009) France
• A Very Long Engagement (2004) France*
• A Wednesday (2008) India
• After the Wedding (2006) Denmark
• Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972) Germany
• All About My Mother (1999) Spain*
• Amarcord (1974) Italy* [AA]
• Ashes of Time Redux (1994) China
• Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) France, bw
• Babel (2006) Mexico
• Ballad of a Soldier (1959) Russia, bw
• The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (Mexico)
• Band of Outsiders (1964) France, bw*
• The Barbarian Invasions (2003) Canada [AA]
• Battle of Algiers (1965) France, bw [AA]
• The Battleship Potemkin (1925) USSR, bw
• The Beautiful Country (2004) Norway*
• The Best of Youth (2003) Italy*
• Beyond Silence (1996) Germany*
• The Bicycle Thief (Italy, bw) [AA]
• Black Orpheus (France-Portugal)
• Blood of My Blood (2007) Mexico*
• Brothers (2004) Denmark*
• Butterfly (1999) Spain*
• Carmen (1983) C. Suare, Spain - not the opera, a flamenco dance film
• Central Station (1998) Brazil
• Chaos (2001) France
• Chocolat (2000) France
• The Chorus (2004) France
• Chungking Express/Fallen Angels (1994) Hong Kong
• Cinema Paradiso (1988) Italy [AA]
• City of God (2002) Brazil
• Climates (2006) Turkey*
• Closely Watched Trains (1966) Czechoslovakia, bw [AA]
• Come and See (1985) Russia
• The Conformist (1970) Italy
• The Counterfeiters (2007) Austria* [AA]
• The Cranes Are Flying (1957) Russia*
• Crazed Fruit (1956) Japan, bw*
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) China [AA]
• The Cuckoo (2002) Russia
• Das Bööt (The Boat) (1981) Germany [AA]
• Days of Glory (2006) Algeria*
• Day for Night (France) [AA]
• Departures (2008) Japan* [AA]
• Dersu Uzala (Japan)
• Devils On the Doorstep (2000), China, bw*
• The Discreet Charm of the Bourgoisie (France)*
• Diva (1981) France
• Downfall (2004) Germany*
• The Earrings of Madame De.. (1953) France, bw*
• Earth (1998) India-Canada*
• Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) China
• El Alamein (2002) Italy*
• El Mariachi (1992) Mexico*
• El Norté (Mexico)
• Elevator to the Gallows (1958) France, bw
• The Emigrants (Sweden) [AA]
• The Emperor and the Assassin (1998) China*
• Era Notte a Roma (1960) Italy, bw*
• Fallen Angels (1995) China (see Chungking Express)
• Farewell My Concubine (1993) China
• Fateless (2005) Hungary-France-UK, bw *
• Fitzcarraldo (1982) Germany
• Floating Weeds (1959), Japan*
• Gadjo Dilo (1998) Romania*
• The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970) Italy [AA]
• Good Bye, Lenin! (2003) Germany*
• The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) Italy, bw
• Grand Illusion (1937) France, bw
• Grave of the Fireflies (1988) Japan*
• Hara-Kiri (1962) Japan, bw*
• The Harmonists (1997) Germany*
• Hero (Yimou, 2002) China
• House of Flying Daggers (2004) China
• I Am Cuba (1964) Cuba-Russia, bw*
• I Served the King of England (2006) Czech Rep.*
• Il Postino (1995), Italy [AA]
• Il Posto (1961) Italy, bw*
• In the Mood for Love (2001) Hong Kong
• The Italian (2005) Russia*
• Ivan's Childhood (1962) Russia, bw
• Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring (1986) France
• Jodhaa Akbar (2007) India
• Kapó (1959) Italy, bw*
• Kinamind (2005) Denmark *
• Kolya (1996) Czech Republic [AA]
• L'america (1994) Italy
• L'avventura (1960) Italy, bw
• La Cage Aux Folles (France)
• La Dolce Vita (1960) Italy, bw
• La Femme Nikita (1990) France
• The Lives of Others (2007) Germany [AA]
• Malena (2000) Italy
• Man With the Movie Camera (1928) USSR, bw/silent*
• Mephisto (1981) Hungary [AA]
• M. (1928) Germany, bw
• Metropolis (1927) Germany, bw-silent*
• Micmacs (2009) France*
• Mongol (2007) Russia
• The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) Brazil
• Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002) India
• My Life as a Dog (Sweden)
• Nine Queens (2000) Argentina*
• No Man’s Land (2001) Bosnia*
• Not One Less (1999) China*
• Nowhere in Africa (2002) Germany [AA]
• Olympia (1938) Germany, bw* documentary
• Perfume (2006) Germany*
• Prisoner of the Mountains (1996) Russia*
• Purple Noon (1961) France*
• Quinceañera (2006) [U.S., in Spanish]*
• Rashomon (1954) Japan, bw*
• Red Cliff (2008) China*
• Return of Martin Guerre (1982) France*
• Ridicule (France)*
• Rififi (1955) France, bw*
• The Road Home (1999) China
• Rocco and his Brothers (1964) Italy, bw
• Run Lola Run (1998) Germany*
• Salaam Bombay! (1988) India
• Samurai 1: Musashi Miyamoto (1954) Japan*
• Seven Beauties (Italy)
• The Secret in Their Eyes (2009) Argentina* [AA]
• The Seven Samurai (1957) Japan, bw [AA]
• The Seventh Seal (Sweden)[AA]
• Shall We Dance? (1995) Japan
• Shoot the Piano Player (France, bw)
• The Shop on Main St. (1965) Czechoslavakia, bw [AA]
• Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter.. and Spring (2003) Korea
• The Story of the Weeping Camel (2003) Germany*
• Swept Away (Italy)
• To Live (1994) China
• Together (2002) China*
• Tokyo Story (1953) Japan, bw*
• Touch the Sound (2004) Germany*
• The Triplets of Belleville (2003) France-Belgium-Can.-UK*
• The Tunnel (2001) Germany*
• Turtles Can Fly (2004) Iran-Iraq*
• The Two of Us (1967) France, bw*
• The Twilight Samurai (2002) Japan *
• Ugetsu (1953) Japan, bw *
• Umberto D (1952) Italy, bw
• Under the Sun (1998), Sweden*
• Vatel (2000) France*
• Veer-Zaara (2004) India*
• Volver (Spain)* [AA]
• The Wages of Fear (1953) France, bw*
• War and Peace (1968) Russia
• Warriors (Guerreros, 2007) Spain*
• War Photographer (2001) Switzerland*
• Water (2005) India-Canada*
• The White Ribbon (2009) Germany*
• Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) Spain* [AA]
• Zelary (2003) Czech Republic
• Zhou Yu's Train (2004) China

The films listed together (ie, Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring; Chunking Express/Fallen Angels) are parts of the same story, intended by the director to be one long film but were split up due to length. I think The Bicycle Thief is a great film, but it's very tough to recommend, as it's pretty depressing. Meanwhile, Under the Sun (a romance) is a true rarity: a non-depressing film from Sweden; so is My Life As a Dog (a comedy)

My Favorite 100 Movies

[Updated 1.5.11]
Films in gold won Best Picture Oscars®
(* = recent addition)

The Top 20 (alpha order): 2001, All About Eve, Babe, The Best Years of Our Lives, City of God (Brazil), Cinema Paradiso (Italy), The Conformist (Italy), Dr. Strangelove, The Godfather II, Hannah and Her Sisters, Hero (China), Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring (France), Lawrence of Arabia, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, My Fair Lady, Once Upon a Time in America, Parenthood, Requiem for a Dream, The Seven Samurai (Japan), The Shawshank Redemption, Wall-E

Top 100 in alphabetical order

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. The 400 Blows * (France, bw)
3. A Clockwork Orange
4. A Room With a View
5. A Wednesday (India) *
6. After the Wedding (Denmark) *
7. Aliens
8. All About Eve (bw)
9. Amadeus
10. Annie Hall
11. Apocalypse Now!
12. As Good as It Gets
13. Babel (Mexico)
14. Babe
15. Baraka * (Documentary)
16. Battle of Algiers (France-Algiers, bw)
17. The Best Years of Our Lives (bw)
18. Big Fish
19. Brazil
20. The Bridge On the River Kwai
21. Carmen (Spain, flamenco version)
22. Casablanca (bw)
23. Central Station * (Brazil)
24. Chicago
25. Chungking Express * (China/Hong Kong)
26. Cinema Paradiso (Italy)
27. City of God (Brazil)
28. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
29. Conformist, The (Italy)
30. Conversation, The
31. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (China)
32. Dances With Wolves
33. Dangerous Liaisons
34. Departures * (Japan)
35. Devils on the Doorstep * (China)
36. Diva (France)
37. Doctor Strangelove (bw)
38. Double Indemnity (bw)
39. The Empire Strikes Back
40. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
41. Field of Dreams
42. Finding Neverland
43. Finding Nemo
44. Fitzcarraldo (Germany)
45. Gandhi
46. The Godfather
47. The Godfather, Part II
48. Good Bye, Lenin! * (Germany)
49. Goodfellas
50. Goodnight Mister Tom
51. Graduate, The
52. The Gray Fox
53. Groundhog Day
54. Hannah and Her Sisters
55. Hero (China)
56. Hoop Dreams (Documentary)
57. Hope and Glory
58. House of Games
59. Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring (France)
60. Kolya (Czech Republic)
61. L'america (Italy)
62. The Last Emperor
63. L'avventura (Italy, bw)
64. Lawrence of Arabia
65. La Femme Nikita (France)
66. The Last Emperor
67. The Last Picture Show (bw)
68. The Lives of Others (Germany)
69. Lord of the Rings Trilogy
70. Manhattan (bw)
71. The Maltese Falcon (bw)
72. Memento
73. Million Dollar Baby
74. Minority Report
75. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington *
76. My Brilliant Career
77. My Fair Lady
78. The Namesake *
79. Network
80. Night of the Hunter (bw)
81. Norma Rae
82. Nowhere in Africa (Germany)
83. October Sky
84. On the Waterfront (bw)
85. Once Upon a Time in America
86. Open Range
87. Out of the Past (bw)
88. Parenthood
89. The Philadelphia Story (bw)
90. Platoon
91. The Player
92. Rabbit-Proof Fence *
93. Raging Bull (bw)
94. Raising Arizona
95. Requiem for a Dream *
96. The Road Warrior (aka Mad Max 2)
97. Run Lola Run (Germany)
98. Salaam Bombay! * (India)
99. Schindler's List (bw)
100. The Seven Samurai (Japan, bw)
101. Shakespeare in Love
102. Shane
103. The Shawshank Redemption
104. The Silence of the Lambs
105. Singin' in the Rain
106. Sunset Boulevard (bw)
107. The Sweet Smell of Success (bw)
108. To Kill a Mockingbird (bw)
109. To Live (China)
110. Together (China) *
111. Traffic
112. Turtles Can Fly (Iraq-Iran-France) *
113. The Twilight Samurai (Japan)
114. Umberto D * (Italy)
115. V for Vendetta
116. Walkabout
117. Wall-E
118. Whale Rider
119. Winged Migration (Documentary)
120. When Harry Met Sally
121. Zelary (Czech Republic)

Ok, so I can't count - that's why I had them auto-numbered.. call this a "baker's 100", you get ten dozens. 'So many movies, so little time..' (to paraphrase Raising Arizona)

Thirty are foreign language films.. always watch the subtitled and not the 'dubbed into English' versions.. once you know the dialogue (usually once), you can watch them without subtitles and see just the film itself.. A few more titles are films in English from foreign directors, such as Once Upon a Time in America (Leone, Italy), The Last Emperor (Bertolucci, Italy), and The Namesake (Nair, India).

This list is always changing.
Newer: Departures, A Wednesday, After the Wedding, Whale Rider, Central Station, Umberto D, L'avventura, Wall-E, Good Bye Lenin, Baraka, Devils on the Doorstep, The Namesake, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Together, Turtles Can Fly

Just Removed: It's a Wonderful Life, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Citizen Kane, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ugetsu (Japan), Slumdog Millionaire, Duck Soup, Auntie Mame, Patton, Mephisto, A Christmas Story, Sybil, Gangs of New York, Back to the Future

Low on the List (next to go): The Last Picture Show, As Good As It Gets, Devils on the Doorstep, Norma Rae, Manhattan, Goodfellas TV Miniseries (that would be in the top 100): 1. Band of Brothers (10 hrs) 2. Planet Earth (12 hrs) 3. Into the West (12 hrs) 4. Brideshead Revisited (10 hrs) 5. Lonesome Dove (6 hrs) 6. The Prisoner (13 hrs, 17 episodes)

World's Best Nature Films

World's best nature films (updated 1/03/13) *=new

• Baraka (Ron Fricke, 1992, doc.)*
• The Bear (L'ours, 1988)
• Flight of the Navigator
• Fly Away Home
• March of the Penguins (doc.)
• Never Cry Wolf (1983)
• Planet Earth (2007; mini-series, doc.)
• Touching the Void
• Walkabout (1971)
• White Fang
• Winged Migration (2001, doc.)

Dir: Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats, 2001, France (10*) Perhaps the best feature length documentary film, seven years in the making The terrific Australian film Walkabout was the first dvd I ordered, and is just as much a romance film as anything else. When you watch it, write down the poem from end of the film. Doc of course refers to documentaries.

Worlds Best Romantic Comedy Films

I decided to make this a genre since many romances were serious but just as many good ones are comedies, and because some comedies have no romance at all, plus it's a long list of really great films (updated: 3/12/10; * = new additions)

• A Room With a View
• Adam's Rib (bw)
• Alice
• Annie Hall (4 Oscars/5 noms.)
• As Good As It Gets (2 Oscars/7 noms.)
• Beautiful Girls
• Big
• Blast From the Past
• Breaking Away
• Cinema Paradiso
• Clueless *
• Defending Your Life
• Enemies, A Love Story
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Goodbye, Lenin! (Germany)*
• The Graduate
• Groundhog Day
• Hannah and Her Sisters (3 Oscars/7 noms.)
• Heaven Can Wait
• L.A. Story
• Lost in Translation
• Love Among the Ruins
• Manhattan
• Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment
• Much Ado About Nothing
• The Philadelphia Story (bw)
• Shakespeare in Love (7 Oscars and 13 nominations, surprisingly, director John Madden did not win, losing to Spielberg for Saving Private Ryan)
• Sideways
• Tootsie
• There's Something About Mary
• Wall-E *
• When Harry Met Sally

Runners-Up: 50 First Dates, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Bridget Jones' Diary, Emma, Finding Nemo, The Gay Divorcee (bw), A Life Less Ordinary, The Paper Chase. Many of these were nominated for Best Picture, which seldom goes to a comedy so the odds were stacked against them: A Room With a View, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Breaking Away, Bridget Jones's Diary, The Graduate, Hannah and Her Sisters, Lost in Translation, Sideways, Tootsie. Cinema Paradiso won over a dozen international awards, including an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Love Among the Ruins won several Emmys, and starred Katherine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier as two people who meet again in court decades after having a brief affair. Much Ado About Nothing, by Kenneth Branagh, is my favorite Shakespearean play put on film; the cast works even with Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves in it! Branagh believes you don't need a British accent for Shakespearean acting - what a striking concept. Woody Allen in his prime excelled at this type of film: Alice, Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, Manhattan, The Purple Rose of Cairo. Since that era and his self-absorbed Bergman-esque period, my favorite of his was the recent Match Point, a crime-romance with Scarlet Johanssen.

IMDB 250 - Alphabetical

[Internet Movie Database 250 - Alphabetical List] Voted by Site Regulars, rankings/voted removed (updated 1/25/09) I used the English film title for foreign films like The Seven Samurai, City of God, Cinema Paradiso,The Bicycle Thief, unless the film was released with its foreign title like La Dolce Vita, Rashomon, or anime films. You can see the IMDB 250 list ranked by ratings averages at their site here: Internet Movie Database Top 250 I highlighted those from my Top 100 (78 so far) 12 Angry Men (1957) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 8½ (1963) A Clockwork Orange (1971) A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Ace in the Hole (1951) Alien (1979) Aliens (1986) All About Eve (1950) All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) Amadeus (1984) American Beauty (1999) American History X (1998) Amores perros (2000) Anatomy of a Murder (1959) Annie Hall (1977) Apocalypse Now (1979) Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) Back to the Future (1985) Batman Begins (2005) Beauty and the Beast (1946) Ben-Hur (1959) Big Fish (2003) Blade Runner (1982) Bonnie and Clyde (1967) Braveheart (1995) Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Brief Encounter (1945) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Casablanca (1942) Casino (1995) Children of Men (2006) Chinatown (1974) Cinema Paradiso (1988) Citizen Kane (1941) City Lights (1931) City of God (2002) Cool Hand Luke (1967) Crash (2004/I) Crazy Class Wakes Up (1976) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) Das Boot (1981) Diaboliques, Les (1955) Dial M for Murder (1954) Die Hard (1988) Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Dolce vita, La (1960) Donnie Darko (2001) Double Indemnity (1944) Downfall (2004) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Duck Soup (1933) Ed Wood (1994) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le (2001) – anime Fargo (1996) Fight Club (1999) Finding Nemo (2003) For a Few Dollars More (1965) Forrest Gump (1994) Frankenstein (1931) Frost/Nixon (2008) Full Metal Jacket (1987) Gandhi (1982) Gladiator (2000) Glory (1989) Gone with the Wind (1939) Goodfellas (1990) Gran Torino (2008) Grave of the Fireflies (1988) - animated Great Expectations (1946) Groundhog Day (1993) Harold and Maude (1971) Harvey (1950) Heat (1995) High Noon (1952) His Girl Friday (1940) Hotel Rwanda (2004) In Bruges (2008) In the Heat of the Night (1967) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Into the Wild (2007) It Happened One Night (1934) It's a Wonderful Life (1946) Jaws (1975) Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) King Kong (1933) L.A. Confidential (1997) Laura (1944) Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Léon (1994) Let the Right One In (2008) Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) Life is Beautiful (1997) Life of Brian (1979) Little Miss Sunshine (2006) Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) M (1931) Magnolia (1999) Manhattan (1979) Memento (2000) Metropolis (1927) Milk (2008) Million Dollar Baby (2004) Modern Times (1936) Mononoke-hime (1997) - anime Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Mystic River (2003) Network (1976) Nights of Cabiria (1957) No Country for Old Men (2007) North by Northwest (1959) Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) Notorious (1946) Oldboy (2003) On the Waterfront (1954) Once Upon a Time in America (1984) Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) Paths of Glory (1957) Patton (1970) Planet of the Apes (1968) Platoon (1986) Psycho (1960) Pulp Fiction (1994) Raging Bull (1980) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Ran (1985) Rashômon (1950) Ratatouille (2007) Rear Window (1954) Rebecca (1940) Requiem for a Dream (2000) Reservoir Dogs (1992) Rocky (1976) Roman Holiday (1953) Rope (1948) Rosemary's Baby (1968) Safety Last! (1923) Saving Private Ryan (1998) Scarface (1983) Schindler's List (1993) Se7en (1995) Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001) -anime Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Sin City (2005) Singin' in the Rain (1952) Sleuth (1972) Slumdog Millionaire (2008) Snatch (2000) Some Like It Hot (1959) Spartacus (1960) Stalag 17 (1953) Stand by Me (1986) Star Wars (1977) Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) Strada, La (1954) Strangers on a Train (1951) Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) Sunset Boulevard (1950) Sweet Smell of Success (1957) Taxi Driver (1976) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) The African Queen (1951) The Apartment (1960) The Battle of Algiers (1966) The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) The Bicycle Thief (1948) The Big Lebowski (1998) The Big Sleep (1946) The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) The Conversation (1974) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) The Dark Knight (2008) The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) The Deer Hunter (1978) The Departed (2006) The Elephant Man (1980) The Exorcist (1973) The General (1927) The Godfather (1972) The Godfather: Part II (1974) The Gold Rush (1925) The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (1966) The Graduate (1967) The Grapes of Wrath (1940) The Great Dictator (1940) The Great Escape (1963) The Green Mile (1999) The Hustler (1961) The Incredibles (2004) The Kid (1921) The Killing (1956) The Lady Vanishes (1938) The Lion King (1994) The Lives of Others (2006) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) The Lost Weekend (1945) The Maltese Falcon (1941) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) The Manchurian Candidate (1962) The Matrix (1999) The Night of the Hunter (1955) The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) The Philadelphia Story (1940) The Pianist (2002) The Prestige (2006) The Princess Bride (1987) The Seven Samurai (1954) The Seventh Seal (1957) The Shawshank Redemption (1994) The Shining (1980) The Silence of the Lambs (1991) The Sixth Sense (1999) The Sting (1973) The Terminator (1984) The Thing (1982) The Third Man (1949) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) The Usual Suspects (1994) The Wages of Fear (1953) The Wild Bunch (1969) The Wizard of Oz (1939) The Wrestler (2008) There Will Be Blood (2007) To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) Touch of Evil (1958) Toy Story (1995) Trainspotting (1996) Twelve Monkeys (1995) Umberto D. (1952) Unforgiven (1992) V for Vendetta (2005) Vertigo (1958) WALL·E (2008) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) Wild Strawberries (1957) Witness for the Prosecution (1957) Yojimbo (1961) [Notable Omissions: E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, My Fair Lady, Open Range, Babe, Hannah and Her Sisters, Parenthood, The Last Emperor, The King and I, Auntie Mame, Ronin, Winged Migration, Fly Away Home, Never Cry Wolf, Beauty and the Beast (animated, 91), In Cold Blood, The Game, Dances With Wolves, Field of Dreams, House of Games, The Grifters, Chicago, Out of the Past, Traffic Notable Foreign Omissions: The Conformist, Yimou's 'Hero' (China), Chungking Express/Fallen Angels (Hong Kong), Diva (France), Fitzcarraldo (Germany), Run Lola Run (Germany), To Live (China), The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Italy) C'mon, really, people! r.u. kidding? Life of Brian, Rosemary's Baby, Snatch, Exorcist, The Shining, Pan's Labyrinth, Magnolia, Heat, The Big Lebowski, The Green Mile, Elephant Man, Nights of Cabiria, For a Few Dollars More, Once Upon a Time in the West, Crash (04), The Thing remake ?? (Life of Brian, Snatch, and The Thing are better than Traffic?) When I checked, Hero's avg would have it tied for 185th-250th but it was ranked just below those decimally. A few 10 votes and it'll be on the list. Babe as well, best children's film ever.

World's Best Musical and Concert Films

• A Coal Miner's Daughter
• A Hard Days Night
• All that Jazz
• An American in Paris
• Amadeus
• Black Orpheus (France/Portugal)
• Bride and Prejudice (India)
• Carmen (Spain, flamenco version)
• Chicago
• How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
• The King and I
• The Music Man
• My Fair Lady
• Singing in the Rain
• Strictly Ballroom
• West Side Story

Concert Films

• The Cranberries: Live
• Dead Can Dance: Toward the Within
• Jimi Hendrix (documentary)
• The Last Waltz
• Led Zeppelin (2 dvd, live history)
• Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live
• Pat Metheny: Speaking of Now: Live (easily the world's best guitarist!)
• Police: Synchronicity Concert
• Stop Making Sense
• The TAMI Show
• Woodstock (documentary)

Runners-up: Cabaret, Dames, Damn Yankees, The Gay Divorcee, Golddiggers of 1933, Swing Time, Oliver! [Updated after seeing West Side and Music Man in widescreen! It makes ALL the difference, seeing the director's intended view.. they oughtta outlaw fullscreen in Hollywood] Most musicals are vastly overrated, some are downright unwatchable (anyone get through Tommy or Superstar without brain damage?). In Oklahoma they resorted to spelling out the state's name, now that's a lack of lyrical ingenuity. Sad that Marni Nixon sang in My Fair Lady, The King and I, and West Side Story and got NO billing credit at all! The best classic Broadway style musical for me is My Fair Lady. Incredible lyrics, so good that Rex Harrison didn't even have to be able to sing to win an Oscar and a Tony. Based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, it had a solid artistic foundation to begin with. Of course, the ripoff in the movie is that Julie Andrews, who made the stage role what it was, was passed over for Audrey Hepburn (Marnie Nixon had to dub her singing), everyone's box office darling; Andrews won the Oscar that year anyway for Mary Poppins. Listen to the original cast recording on CD to hear the difference with Andrews! Dames (34), not a great film, but is a great example of the insanity of early Busby Berkley; he's responsible for the musical numbers, original choreography, and inventiveness: neon violins played by dancers in the dark, all forming one giant violin; dancers forming a giant eyeball and a singer rising from the iris ("I Only Have Eyes for You"); floor cams sliding throught the spread legs of 100 grinning dancers; naked dancers bathing silhouetted behind shower curtains; the giant Carmen Miranda fruit hat - Busby was tripping 40 yrs before anyone else, and everyone else pales in comparison! Amadeus is of course, the play about the life and music of Mozart, not a classic musical but still full of music (maybe "too many notes", inside joke). Best Picture Oscars went to Amadeus, Chicago, and My Fair Lady. This Carmen, of the 18 or so, is Carlos Suare's flamenco version, where a dance troup is rehearsing for a flamenco performance of Bizet's Carmen and two dancers lives begin to mirror the story. This is easily the best dance film ever made. Bollywood's Bride and Prejudice is a total trip - who else could have thought of a musical comedy of Austen's Pride and Prejudice? The gigantic dance number with the women teasing the men is worth the price of admission alone (but lose the ballads); throw in world-class beauty Aishayra Rai and you're in nirvana! TAMI (for Teenage Awards for Music International) was an early concert film (from 66?) that had James Brown, the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, many others, and kind of set the precedent for modern concert films.

Double Indemnity and the Birth of Film Noir

Double Indemnity (1944) was Billy Wilder's first serious film, and is given credit for the birth of film noir, literally "night film", which describes a visual style and mood of a type of dramatic film, usually crime, that's much more gritty and realistic than most films prior to this era.

Film noir was mostly shot at night or in dark interiors; there's lots of use of shadows, dimly lit edges, light from Venetian blinds (which simulates bars across characters), backlit smoke (Indemnity uses both cigars and cigarettes, Out of the Past is a tribute to cigarettes, each star is always smoking onscreen, especially when it gets tense).

Film noir got its origins in 30's detective stories, often called pulp fiction, gritty stories with sex, violence and seedy characters. Even the heros were often common people with street wisdom, often with a tough upbringing. Soldiers returning from World War 2 and a cinematic audience that had survived the Great Depression demanded more adult films in theme, subject, and style.

Wilder was impressed by author John Kain's pulp novella of "Double Indemnity", the same author of The Postman Always Rings Twice, but it was considered unfilmable due the the Hayes Code (of censorship). The script went through years of re-writes and applications before being allowed to be filmed in 1944. The Hayes Code first suppressed sex in films, then violence, later socialism, and was used to pass judgment on over 28,000 works of art! Apparently no freedom of the arts exists, just more minor ones that don't affect as many people, such as the press (who reads?) Wilder then had a difficult time casting the lead parts, two murdering adulterers.

He wanted Barbara Stanwyck all along, but eventually had to challenge her to get her to take the image-shattering role, "are you an actress or a mouse?" After several refusals by actors, including George Raft, who had a knack for turning down breakthrough parts like Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, he convinced Fred McMurray to break his screen image of light romantic comedies to attempt something serious. His first scene with Stanwick, when he meets her at her home in a towel, uses his comedic skills along with some terrific dialogue.

Wilder also convinced leading actor Edward G. Robinson to take a non-starring character role, meaty enough for at least two important speeches that Robinson absolutely nailed. Crime novelist Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye) was brought in for his realistic dialogue, plenty evident here especially the opening scenes between Stanwyck and McMurray, but he, an introvert, and Wilder, an extrovert, didn't get along at all and never worked together again. Ironically,they were nominated for an Oscar together for their screenplay. Wilder later used Chandler as his model for his Oscar-winning Best Picture The Lost Weekend.

Double Indemnity was nominated for these 7 Oscars (but won none):

• BEST MOTION PICTURE - Paramount (Going My Way won!)
• DIRECTING - Billy Wilder
• ACTRESS - Barbara Stanwyck
• CINEMATOGRAPHY (Black and White) - John Seitz
• WRITING (Screenplay) - Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler
• MUSIC (Music Score of a Drama or Comedy) - Miklos Rozsa
• SOUND RECORDING - Paramount Studio Sound Dept, Loren L. Ryder, Sound Director

Other classic film noir: Out of the Past, The Night of the Hunter, Panic in the Streets, D.O.A., The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, The Third Man.

Modern Noir: Wait Until Dark, Diva (France), Chinatown, Shoot the Piano Player (France), House of Games, Taxi Driver, Blood Simple, Body Heat, The Silence of the Lambs. The style is also clearly evident in parts of other classic films such as In the Heat of the Night, The Godfather, Batman, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Hustler, and The Departed.

Thanks to Beth G for suggesting Double Indemnity

Great Directors: Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder was born in Austria-Hungary, in what is now Malopolski, Poland. As a newswriter, he emigrated from Austria to Berlin writing for their biggest tabloid. By the time Hitler came to power in 1933, he had written some screenplays for the Berlin film industry, starting in 1929. With Jewish ancestry, Wilder had to flee the Nazis, first to Paris (directing Mauvaise Graine there in 1934, starring Danielle Darrieux), then to the U.S. when invasion of France seemed likely.

He went to Hollywood and started as a screen writer for Ernst Lubisch and others, the most famous being Ninotchka (39). He then began directing himself in the U.S. with The Major and the Minor (42) with Ray Milland and Ginger Rogers posing as a 12-yr old. He made his stylistic breakthrough in his third film with the crime classic, Double Indemnity in 1944, which "invented" film noir and garnered 7 Oscar nominations. Wilder then began to direct a plethora of film classics, including:

Dramas:
• The Apartment (bw, Best Picture winner, 5/10 Oscars)
• Ace in the Hole (bw, 1 nom)
• Lost Weekend (bw, Best Picture, 4/7 Oscars)
• The Spirit of St. Louis (bw, 1 nom)
• Stalag 17 (bw, 1/3 Oscars, Willam Holden, best actor)
• Sunset Boulevard (bw, Pic nominee, 3 Oscars, 11 noms)
• Witness for the Prosecution (bw, BPic nominee, 6 noms) Comedies:
• The Fortune Cookie (bw, 1/4 Oscars)
• The Front Page (bw, 3 Oscar noms)
• Irma la Douce
• One Two Three (bw)
• Sabrina
• The Seven Year Itch
• Some Like It Hot (bw, 6 Oscar noms)

Wilder was nominated for 21 Oscars, 12 in writing, 8 in directing, and won six. He won for directing Lost Weekend and The Apartment (and got another for Apt for Best Picture), and won for writing Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, and The Apartment. He personally picked up three for The Apartment. It could easily be argued that Billy Wilder is the greatest American film director.

He died in 2005 at the age of 95.

Great Film: Zhang Yimou's Hero

Hero (2002) is a Chinese epic from director Zhang Yimou. Actor Jet Li said the screenplay (by Li Feng, Zhang Yimou, and Wang Bin) was the best he had ever read and left him in tears. They often call this Jet Li's Hero to distinguish it from an earlier U.S. film (also worth watching but nothing great) starring Andy Garcia and Dustin Hoffman. Along with Li, the film also stars the most popular actress in the world, Ziyi Zhang, shown in the still shots above from Hero. The visually stunning style of Hero is the ultimate for an action-adventure film, going even one level higher than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It's no wonder that Quentin Tarantino wanted to get his name on this one as "Q.T. Presents....", like he had anything to do with creating this masterpiece! He did the same thing to the terrific crime film in two parts, Chungking Express, which inspired Pulp Fiction. The story is a story within the story, as a warrior relates his tale to the king of Qi'in (which became China), of how he killed three assassins from neighboring kingdoms who were plotting to kill him. Bose found the film so incredible that it used a famous sword master sequence in a tv ad for a new tv surround sound system; they claim to have a hidden camera on a family who is appropriately 'jaw-dropped' by the film and sound. Hero is full of memorable scenes and sequences, I won't describe any, they have to be experienced at least twice. Watch it once with subtitles, then again without any distractions to the visual poetry because this is the cinamatic art at its highest level. Other great visual action films: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (China, Ang Lee); Spiderman; The Matrix; House of Flying Daggers (China, Z.Yimou); The Seven Samurai (Japan); The Empire Strikes Back; The Replacement Killers; Diva (France); Aliens; The Road Warrior; Run, Lola, Run (Germany).

World's Best Drama Films

Films in gold won Best Picture

• 12 Angry Men (bw)
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (bw)
• All About Eve (bw)
• Amadeus
• The Apartment
• Broadcast News
• Citizen Kane (bw)
• Dominick and Eugene (drama)
• Elmer Gantry (drama, bw)
• Empire Falls (mini-series)
• Fearless (Peter Weir's)
• Good Will Hunting
• Housekeeping
• Hud (bw)
• The Hustler (bw)
• The Last Picture Show (bw)
• Little Foxes (bw)
• The Magnificent Ambersons (bw)
• Midnight Cowboy
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (bw)
• Munich
• Network
• Nicholas Nickleby (8 hr)
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• On the Waterfront
• Seven Days in May
• The Shawshank Redemption
• Stars Fell on Henrietta
• The Sweet Hereafter
• The Sweet Smell of Success (bw)
• Terms of Endearment
• To Kill a Mockingbird (bw)
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (bw)

Foreign Language Drama

• Babel (Mexico)
• The Conformist (Italy)
• El Norte (Mexico)
• The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Italy, bw)
• The Grand Illusion (France, bw)
• Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring (France)
• Kolya (Czech)
• L'America (Italy)
• La Dolce Vita (Italy)
• The Motorcycle Diaries (US, in Spanish)
• The Return of Martin Guerre (France)
• To Live (China)

Docu-dramas, based on true stories

• A Beautiful Mind
• Alexander Nevsky (Russia)
• All the President's Men
• Citizen X
• Dead Man Walking
• Downfall (Germany)
• Drugstore Cowboy
• Elizabeth
• Finding Neverland
• Gandhi
• Hope and Glory
• In Cold Blood
• The Last Emperor
• The Madness of King George
• Mongol (Russia)
• The Motorcycle Diaries
• The Name of the Rose
• Norma Rae
• October Sky
• Reds
• Reilly, Ace of Spies (mini-series)
• Searching for Bobby Fisher
• Songcatcher
• Sybil
• Tucker: A Man and His Dream
• The World's Fastest Indian

Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring are two halves of the same novel, released simultaneously; theater goers could see the movie back-to-back as a double feature, or come back another day for the second part. This is an all-time classic, not to be missed. Nicholas Nickleby (played by Roger Rees) was a film version of the 8-hr London play; it was performed four nights a week in 2-hr segments; on Saturday it was performed in 2-four hour segments with a one hour lunch break. This is easily the best Dickens novel on film. I believe it was only 60 actors who played 250 roles. Milos Foreman directed both Amadeus and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Bernardo Bertolucci directed both The Conformist and The Last Emperor.

World's Best Sports Films

Films in gold won Best Picture Oscars®

• Breaking Away
• Bull Durham
• Chariots of Fire
• Field of Dreams
• Friday Night Lights
• Glory Road
• Golden Boy
• The Great White Hope
• Hoop Dreams (doc.)
• Hoosiers
• Million Dollar Baby
• The Natural
• Phar Lap
• Pride of the Yankees
• Raging Bull
• Requiem for a Heavyweight
• Seabiscuit (remake)

I guess I stretched a bit to make a sports list, as Bull Durham and Breaking Away belong in comedy, and Field of Dreams in fantasy & science fiction. Five boxing films and no Rocky... well, there are much better boxing films above. Raging Bull should have been Scorsese's first directing Oscar, and Goodfellas or Gangs of New York should have been his second, then his Oscar for The Departed could have gone to Alejandro Inarritu for Babel, which was filmed on three continents and in four languages. Friday Night Lights is probably the first great football film.

World's Best Horror Films

• Aliens
• American Werewolf in London
• The Changeling
• Jurassic Park
• King Kong (bw)
• The Lady in White
• Nightmare on Elm St.
• Poltergeist
• The Ring
• The Sixth Sense

Also: Thought not traditional horror, Requiem for a Dream from the brilliant David Aronofsky (only his 2nd film, Pi was the other) is the scariest film of the decade, and fans of hiding in the closet or even some gore won't be disappointed (warning though: NOT for the squeamish or under-18, and I'm not kidding) Five of these are monster movies, five are ghost stories. Some of these can easily double as Fantasy-Science Fiction films, like Aliens and Poltergeist, so they are on both lists. King Kong makes it as the original monster movie, and still the best. The Changeling is a classic-style horror story with George C. Scott. The Exorcist could be here if it wasn't so laughable and boring; same with Jaws (one thrill every 15 minutes on cue, sending all the kids at my theater screaming up the aisles!).

Additions and Under Consideration

New additions:

• A Boy Ten Feet Tall (childrens)
• A Coal Miner's Daughter (musical/concert)
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (bw, drama)
• The Apartment (bw)
• Baby Boom (comedy)
• Bad Timing, a Sexual Obsession (romance)
• Black Orpheus (musical/concert)
• Bride and Prejudice (India, musical)
• Broadcast News (drama)
• Broken Trail (western, mini-series)
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (western)
• Dead Can Dance: Toward the Within (musical/concert)
• Dead Man Walking (drama)
• Dominick and Eugene (drama)
• Double Indemnity (bw, crime-7 Oscar noms)
• Elmer Gantry (bw, drama)
• The Emigrants (foreign lang, Sweden)
• Empire Falls (drama, mini-series)
• Fellini's Amarcord (foreign lang, Italy)
• Five Easy Pieces (romance)
• Frequency (Fantasy & SF)
• The Grand Illusion (bw, foreign lang, France)
• Gung Ho! (comedy)
• Hud (bw, drama)
• The Hustler (bw, drama)
• The Last Picture Show (bw, drama)
• Led Zeppelin (2 dvd, concert)
• Little Foxes (bw, drama)
• The Magnificent Ambersons (bw, drama)
• McCabe and Mrs. Miller (western)
• My Dog Skip (childrens)
• My Life as a Dog (foreign lang, Sweden)
• Peggy Sue Got Married (romantic comedy)
• Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live (musical/concert)
• The Player (crime & mystery)
• The Producers (comedy, orig. vrsn)
• Pulp Fiction (crime)
• The Seventh Seal (foreign lang, Sweden)
• Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs (childrens)
• Stars Fell on Henrietta
• The Sweet Hereafter (drama)
• The Thin Man (series, comedy)
• The Truth About Cats and Dogs (romantic comedy)
• The Wings of the Dove (romance)

We have a number of films under consideration, both suggestions from the blog (thanks to Beth G, master fan of BW movies) and a personal list I need to rewatch:

• The 39 Steps (bw)
• D.O.A. (bw, original)
• Dolores Claiborne
• The Discreet Charm of the Bourgoisie (France)
• Jules and Jim (bw, France)
• The Lady Vanishes (bw)
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Narnia 1)
• Magic Town (bw)
• Orlando
• Panic in the Streets (bw)
• Proof
• Runaway Jury
• Separate Tables (bw)
• Shadow of a Doubt (bw)
• Shoot the Piano Player (France, bw)
• Walk the Line