Top 100 Holocaust Films

[First published for Jewish Heritage Month, for my Jewish friends. No matter what your religion (or lack of one) everyone deserves justice and dignity in life, that should be basic human right that we all should fight for vigilantly]

I received this following message via email on 4/17/2012, and did not know about this observance in Israel, so I'm sure many of you don't as well, so I wanted to repeat this here: "Tomorrow evening is in Israel what we call Yom HaShoa, Holocaust Day. The Memorial day for the Jews who perished then. While it is not a holiday, light memorial candles for the known and unknown members of our families and others who died at the time. No music is heard and nothing that could be termed entertainment is open (e.g. bars, gyms) and the TV program only shows films related to the holocaust. (Which is one of the reasons I have seen so many of those that you list). - Adriana Marin Grez 

She also suggests that if possible, we donate to a holocaust survivors charity, as many survivors are still alive and living below poverty level. Here's a legitimate one in Israel: The Zdaka Center


Holocaust Films

These are all the holocaust films I found in my research, both ranked and unranked. I'm sure I've missed some, and some are borderline, see the note below the list. Many of these will not be for children, and some are definitely not for the squeamish, as this is about as horrifying as mankind can become.

RANKED [updated 4.17.12]

1. Schindler's List [Spielberg, 1993] #30 [photo top]
2. Shoah [Lanzmann, 1985] #98 Up since 2009
3. The Pianist [Polanski, 2004] #142 New since 2009
4. Army of Shadows [Melville, 1969] #277 Up since 2009
5. Downfall [Hirschbiegel, 2004] #327 New since 2009
6. Triumph of the Will [Riefenstahl, 1935] #614 Down since 2009 - this propaganda film shot by actress Leni Riefenstahl at Hitler's 'request' is tough to watch but demonstrates the power of both patriotism and propaganda. Everyone should see this so you can see how people can be manipulated by the media - Riefenstahl apologized after the war but I think she made a necessary record of evil for everyone to see, and like many, she was optimistic and bought into the disinformation and deception
7. Night and Fog [Resnais, 1955] #413 Up since 2009
8. Life is Beautiful [Begnini, 1997] #445 Up since 2009
9. Come and See [Klimov, 1985] #491 This terrific film is moving up in ranking; the same story was filmed in English as Defiance, but this is the more harrowing and passionate film
10. Au Revoir Les Enfants [Malle, 1987] #872 Up since 2009
11. Hitler: A Film from Germany [Syberberg, 1977] #1219 Down since 2009

Ironically, Oskar Schindler was a failed capitalist who saw an opportunity to succeed with cheap Jewish labor in WW2, and only later developed a conscience.

Shoah is absolutely gut-wrenching, interviews with survivors from both sides, and not for the squeamish; it has some horrifying descriptions, but is a 9 1/2 hr masterpiece of devotion to a cause.

Triumph of the Will from the brilliant actress turned director Leni Reifenstahl doesn't deal with the holocaust directly, but one can see the roots develop in this brilliant piece of propaganda filmmaking which shows the rise to power of the Nazis. The film was so successful worldwide that Time Magazine awarded Hitler "Man of the Year" in 1935! Her Olympia documented the 1936 summer Olympics held in Berlin, which was to be a showcase for the superiority of the German race; even though American sprinter Jesse Owens stunned this image by sweeping his races, the Germans did win the most medals overall. However, during this period public anti-Semitism was hidden away briefly to fool the athletes and press by showing a false and peaceful Berlin.

Army of Shadows is an engrossing film of the French underground, based on a true story. Come and See is a harrowing Russian film of the Nazi invasion of Belorus, a defenseless agrarian region of small villages that became the scorched earth. It was the massive effort it took by the army to destroy a populace here that led to the invention of what the Nazi command called "the final solution".

UNRANKED (alphabetical)

1. A Generation Apart [1984]
2. A Secret [2007]
3. Adam Resurrected [2008]
4. All My Loved Ones [2000]
5. America and the Holocaust [1994]
6. Angry Harvest [1985]
7. Anne Frank Remembered [1995]
8. Anne Frank: The Life of a Young Girl []
9. Anne Frank: The Whole Story [2001]
10. Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State [2005]
11. Autumn Hearts: A New Beginning [2007]
12. Billy Graham: The Hiding Place [1975]
13. Bonhoeffer [2003]
14. Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace [2000]
15. Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The [2008]
16. Boys From Brazil, The [1978]
17. Century of Simon Wiesenthal, The [1994]
18. Charlotte Gray [2001]
19. Children of Chabannes, The [1999]
20. Civilization and the Jews [1984]
21. Conspiracy [2001]
22. Counterfeiters, The [2007]
23. Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, The [2009]
24. Dear Mr. Waldman [2006]
25. Defamation [2008]
26. Defiance [2008]
27. Devil's Arithmatic, The [1999]
28. Diary of Anne Frank, The [1959]
29. Diplomats for the Damned [2008]
30. Drancy Avenir [1997]
31. Edges of the Lord [2001]
32. Ever Again [2006]
33. Everything Is Illuminated [2005]
34. Fate Did Not Let Me Go [2003]
35. Fateless [2005, Hungary] - love this story, of a kid who survives the camps, enjoys the comraderie of being with his people; for him it was an asylum from the war - amazing!
36. Forgiving Dr. Mengele [2006]
37. Frontline: Shtetl [1996]
38. Fugitive Pieces [2007]
39. Garden of the Finzi-Continis, The [1970]
40. God On Trial [2008]
41. Good Evening Mr. Wallenberg [1990]
42. Goodnight, Mister Tom [1998]
43. Hidden Child, The [2007]
44. Hidden Heroes [1999]
45. Hiding Place, The [1975]
46. Holocaust: Dachau and Sachsenhausen [2005]
47. Holocaust: Ravensbruck and Buchenwald [2006]
48. Holocaust: The Liberation of Auschwitz [2005]
49. Holocaust: The Liberation of Majdanek [2006]
50. Holocaust: Theresienstadt [2005]
51. I Have Never Forgotten You [2006]
52. I'm Still Here [2008] 53. Imaginary Witness [2004]
54. Incident at Vichy [2002] 55. Inheritance [2006]
56. Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport  [2000] #1542
57. Jacob the Liar [1975]
58. Jakob the Liar [1999]
59. Kapó [1959] Italy
60. Last Days, The [1998]
61. Left Luggage [1998]
62. Lies and Whispers [1998]
63. Long Way Home, The [1997]
64. Making Choices [1005]
65. Man in the Glass Booth, The [1975]
66. Massacre in Rome [1973]
67. Maximilian: Saint of Auschwitz [1995]
68. Memory Thief, The [2007]
69. Miracle at Midnight [1998]
70. Miriam [2006]
71. My Heart is Mine Alone [1997]
72. Nazi Officer's Wife, The [2003]
73. Ninth Day, The [2004]
74. November Moon [1984]
75. Pawnbroker, The [1965]
76. Rape of Europa, The [2007]
77. Reader, The [2008] #2175
78. Rose Garden, The [1989]
79. Rotation [1949]
80. Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Rescuers[2003]
81. Secrets of the Dead: Escape from Auschwitz [2008]
82. Shadows in Paradise: Hitler's Exiles [2008]
83. Shop on Main Street, The [1965]
84. Sophie Scholl: The Final Days [2005]
85. Sophie's Choice [1982]
86. The Sorrow and the Pity [1969]
87. Steal a Pencil for Me [2007]
88. Triumph of the Spirit [1989]
89. Verdict on Auschwitz [1993]
90. Voyages [1999]
91. Watermarks [2005]
92. Who Betrayed Anne Frank? [1998]

Thanks to Adriana Marin Grez, who suggested the addition of these films, which I will add here first, along with her descriptions, as I haven't seen any of these myself:

1) The Round Up ( French: La Rafle ) is a 2010 French film directed by Roselyne Bosch and produced by Alain Goldman. Based on the true story of a young Jewish boy, the film depicts the Vel d'Hiv roundup, the mass arrest of Jews by French police who were Nazi accomplices in Paris in July 1942.

2)  A Square of Sky (German: Ein Stueck Himmel)  is a 1982 television series (10 episodes) based on the australian book "A square of sky" written by Janina David, who survived as a child the Warsaw ghetto and its upraising. She was saved by being smuggled out of the ghetto and into a christian convent.

3) The Summer of Aviya . ( Hebrew: הקיץ של אביה ‎, translit. Ha-Kayitz Shel Aviya). The 1989 film is based on a Hebrew language book that became a bestseller. The 1985 autobiographical novel by theater actress Gila Almagor is a memoir of Almagor's childhood and provides insights into Israeli society in the early post-state period.

4) New Land . A 1994 israeli film by Orna Ben Dor, in Hebrew with English subtitles.
It tells the story of 8 year old Anna, who travels from war ravaged Europe to Israel after World War II and their only posessions is a soiled teddy bear and a picture of their mother. Anna wanders the refugee camp searching for her mother, who she hopes also escaped the Nazis, she meets all sorts of characters with painful and colorful stories of their own.

5) Blessed is the Match:Life and Death of Hanna Senesh
At age 22, Hannah Senesh was safe in Palestine in 1944 when she joined the only military rescue mission for Jews during the Holocaust. She was one of only two women to take part in the mission. One of the reasons she did it, was because her mother and brother were stuck in Hungary and she wanted to get them out.

6)   Tadeusz Pankiewicz (a Polish film).
It tells the story of the Polish roman catholic pharmacist, who found his "Under the Eagle" apothecary suddenly in the middle of the Krakow ghetto when the Nazis set it up.  The pharmacy became a meeting place for the ghetto's intelligentsia, and a hub of underground activity. Pankiewicz and his staff risked their lives to undertake numerous clandestine operations: smuggling food and information, and offering shelter on the premises for Jews facing deportation to the camps.

7) A Film Unfinished .
In May 1942 -- two and half years after the Warsaw Ghetto was established and shortly before the Nazis sent the Ghetto's first 300,000 Jews to the extermination camp of Treblinka -- the Reich dispatched a crew of German soldiers to film Jewish life in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Their perverse propaganda goal: to record for posterity examples of the religious practices and "sub-human culture" of the soon to be eliminated judische Rasse , everything from a circumcision ceremony to a burial service; from the extreme poverty of the many to the supposed lack of concern of those few Jews who still had some assets.

ADDITIONS FROM OTHERS

Escape From Sobibor (1987, d. Jack Gold) - UK/Yugoslavia; another starring Rutger Hauer, w Alan Arkin
Sarah's Key (2010, d. Gilles Paquet-Brenner) - France; stars Kristen Scott Thomas
Levin und Gutman (1983) - listed at IMDB as a German TV series
Jona che visse nella balena (Jonah Who Lived in the Whale, 1993, d. Roberto Faenza) - Italy

[I just saw the trailer for NO PLACE ON EARTH, 2012, Germany, dir by Janet Tobias - that definitely looks to belong on this list; a documentary, it tells the story of a small band of Russian Jews in the Ukraine who hid in a cave for 18 months to escape the Nazis, and some lived to tell about it, and also appear for interviews in this film; I can't imagine being underground in a Russian winter, or never seeing the sky - I'll have to see this and report back w a review -- Jose, 10/31/13]

Additional Notes:


 

Of this list, I would definitely rank the films Garden of the Finzi-Continis and The Shop on Main St., also the Oscar®-winning true story about using imprisoned Jewish forgers to print U.S. and British currency in  The Counterfeiters.



Other films may belong here, some of these may not. I thought about Seven Beauties but since it was about POW's and not the holocaust directly, I didn't include it, but it also helps paint another portrait of the nightmare.

The Night Porter was about the long-lasting effects of the war on a former prisoner and her torturer, brilliantly played by Charlotte Rampling and Dirk Bogarde, directed by Liliana Cavani, also not included above as it had nothing directly to do with the holocaust, though Rampling's character was a teenaged Jewish girl selected for sexual experiments due to her sensual beauty, similar to Susan Strasburg's character in Pontecorvo's Kapo. This was really more an esoteric love story based on sado-masochism than anything else.

I would also rank Nowhere in Africa (Oscar® for foreign language film), about a Jewish mother who takes her daughter to Kenya to escape the war. There the war seems almost non-existant, so this becomes a story more about different cultures mixing than anything more catastrophic. It's a beautiful film, on the same level (and better in some ways) as best-picture winner Out of Africa. In fact, it's currently one of my top 100 favorite films.


Inglourious Basterds (2009)? does this belong - I think with an Oscar®-winning character created by Christolph Waltz called "The Jew Hunter", this dark fantasy warrants inclusion, even with Brad Pitt's ridiculous Southern accent. Though, of course, the kicking shoe in this one was on the other foot. Being a fantasy, and another 'revenge' film as well, this film likely offended as many people as it pleased.

[Note: This post has now been viewed 86,000 times, as of 10/31/13]

Top Ranked Drama-Comedy Films and Other Dramas

These are the last of the drama genres from our survey of all the internet polls. Using IMDB's designations, there are 23 films mentioned listed as either drama-comedy or comedy-drama, with 16 in the top 1000.

Following this list are the remaining dramas from various other sub-genres: fantasy, mystery, legal, adventure - really just the miscellaneous remaining dramas that haven't been listed elsewhere yet; 20 of those mentioned, 15 in the top 1000.

Drama-Comedy Films
1. El Verdugo [Berlanga, Luis García, 1963 ] #497 - Spain-Italy
2. Le Plaisir [Ophüls, Max, 1951 ] #571 - France
3. I Was Born, But… [Ozu, Yasujiro, 1932 ] #626 - Japan
4. Stranger Than Paradise [Jarmusch, Jim, 1984 ] #627 - US
5. Goodbye Solo [Bahrani, Ramin, 2008 ] #717 - US
6. Underground [Kusturica, Emir, 1995 ] #758 - France-Germany-Hungary
7. Tulpan [Dvortsevoy, Sergei, 2008 ] #759 - Russia-Kaz
8. Firemen's Ball, The [Forman, Milos, 1967 ] #805 - Czechoslovakia
9. Phantom of Liberty, The [Buñuel, Luis, 1974 ] #836 - France
10. Naked [Leigh, Mike, 1993 ] #872 - UK

11. I'm Going Home [de Oliveira, Manoel, 2001 ] #884 - France-Portugal
12. Sun Shines Bright, The [Ford, John, 1953 ] #926 - US
13. You Can Count On Me [Lonergan, Kenneth, 2000 ] #955 - US
14. Savages, The [Jenkins, Tamara, 2007 ] #969 - US
15. Out 1: Spectre [Rivette, Jacques, 1974 ] #976 - France
16. La Collectionneuse [Rohmer, Eric, 1967 ] #985 - France
17. Léolo [Lauzon, Jean-Claude, 1992 ] #1054 - France
18. Happiness [Medvedkin, Aleksandr, 1934 ] #1059 - USSR
19. Sorpasso, Il [Risi, Dino, 1962 ] #1078 - Italy
20. Christmas Tale, A [Desplechin, Arnaud, 2008 ] #1091 - France
21. Man Without a Past, The [Kaurismaki, Aki, 2002 ] #1106 - Finland
22. Late Autumn [Ozu, Yasujiro, 1960 ] #1183 - Japan
23. Adaptation [Jonze, Spike, 2002 ] #1268 - US

El Verdugo is a nearly impossible movie to find or to view, or even find stills or posters. Only about 200 people have rated it at IMDB. Apparently it got buried with Franco.. or by the Generalissimo. I found the nearly constant brass band in Underground to be not only insane but a major distraction; for me, this would be the perfect musical accompaniment in hell. This would be the most effective form of torture known if put into practice.

Dramas from Other Sub-Genres
1. 8½ [Fellini, Federico, 1963] #37 - Italy [Fantasy]
2. 12 Angry Men [Lumet, Sidney, 1957] #124 - US [Legal]
3. Celine and Julie Go Boating [Rivette, Jacques, 1974] #141 - France [Mystery]
4. Pan's Labyrinth [del Toro, Guillermo, 2006] #154 - Mexico [Fantasy]
5. Donnie Darko [Kelly, Richard, 2001] #228 - US [Fantasy]
6. Oldboy [Park Chan-Wook, 2003] #380 - Korea [Mystery]
7. If… [Anderson, Lindsay, 1968] #534 - UK [Fantasy]
8. Marnie [Hitchcock, Alfred, 1964] #540 - US [Mystery]
9. Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, The [Herzog, Werner, 1974] #572 - West Germany [Mystery]
10. Into the Wild [Penn, Sean, 2007] #588 - US [Nature]

11. Fast Runner, The [Kunuk, Zacharias, 2001] #621 - Canada [Fantasy]
12. Blood of a Poet, The [Cocteau, Jean, 1930] #693 - France [Fantasy]
13. Spider's Stratagem, The [Bertolucci, Bernardo, 1970] #730 - Italy [Mystery]
14. Kameradschaft [Pabst, G.W., 1931] #924 Germany [Adventure]
15. Kramer vs. Kramer [Benton, Robert, 1979] #994 - US [Legal]
16. Mother India [Khan, Mehboob, 1957] #1032 - India [Musical]
17. Hamlet [Olivier, Laurence, 1948] #1047 - UK [Play]
18. Missing [Costa-Gavras, Constantin, 1982] #1099 - US [Mystery]
19. Lost Highway [Lynch, David, 1997] #1117 - US [Mystery]
20. Rose Hobart [Cornell, Joseph, 1936] #1151 US [Art]

Fellini's autobiographical 8½ is really hard to classify, these are IMDB's genre listings. 12 Angry Men is unique, and stands alone among legal films.

Most true mystery films were listed as crime drama.

I recently saw Oldboy and liked it a lot, it's a very unusual story, creatively filmed. I also found Into the Wild riveting and rewarding, but I had a hard time watching both Pan's Labyrinth and The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser.

Kramer vs Kramer is just about the worst film to ever win best picture, imo, a mundane and common story with no relevations, no artistic catharsis, not much really in the way of creativity. Now, had the kid just "seen some dead parents or divorce lawyers.."

Top Ranked Family Dramas on the Net

The top ranked family dramas from our survey of all the polls on the net. By these, we mean dramas centered around family situations, not G-rated films for the family to enjoy. I'm sure more can be defined as both society and family, or both family and romance, so it's a loose definition. 49 were mentioned, 41 in the top 1000.

1. Quiet Man, The [Ford, John; 1952] #301 -US
2. Cries and Whispers [Bergman, Ingmar; 1972] #308 -Sweden
3. How Green Was My Valley [Ford, John; 1941] #384 -US [AA]
4. Secrets & Lies [Leigh, Mike; 1996] #385 -UK
5. Shadows [Cassavetes, John; 1959] #411 -US
6. Lost Weekend, The [Wilder, Billy; 1945] #415 -US [AA]
7. Faces [Cassavetes, John; 1968] #422 -US
8. Mother and the Whore, The [Eustache, Jean; 1973] #424 -France
9. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days [Mungiu, Cristian; 2007] #430 -Romania
10. Late Spring [Ozu, Yasujiro; 1949] #436 -Japan

11. Smiles of a Summer Night [Bergman, Ingmar; 1955] #459 -Sweden
12. Dead, The [Huston, John; 1987] #460 -US
13. Story of the Late Chrysanthemums, The [Mizoguchi, Kenji; 1939] #461 -Japan
14. Mouchette [Bresson, Robert; 1966] #492 -France
15. Make Way for Tomorrow [McCarey, Leo; 1937] #499 -US
16. City of Sadness, A [Hou Hsiao-Hsien; 1989] #510 -Taiwan
17. Providence [Resnais, Alain; 1977] #548 -UK
18. Magnolia [Anderson, Paul Thomas; 1999] #576 -US
19. Alice in the Cities [Wenders, Wim; 1974] #580 -Germany
20. Sacrifice, The [Tarkovsky, Andrei; 1986] #586 -France-Sweden

21. Autumn Afternoon, An [Ozu, Yasujiro; 1962] #592 -Japan
22. Muriel ou Le Temps d'un Retour [Resnais, Alain; 1963] #622 -France-Italy
23. Distant Voices, Still Lives [Davies, Terence; 1988] #648 -UK
24. Silence, The [Bergman, Ingmar; 1963] #650 -Sweden
25. There's Always Tomorrow [Sirk, Douglas; 1956] #689 -US
26. Straight Story, The [Lynch, David; 1999] #746 -US-Fr-UK [photo rt]
27. Time Out [Cantet, Laurent; 2001] #770 -France
28. Away from Her [Polley, Sarah; 2006] #774 -Canada
29. Juliet of the Spirits [Fellini, Federico; 1965] #783 -Italy
30. Nobody Knows [Koreeda, Hirokazu; 2004] #792 -Japan

31. Othello [Welles, Orson; 1952] #797 -Italy
32. Lacombe, Lucien [Malle, Louis; 1974] #882 -France
33. Festen (aka Celebration) [Vinterberg, Thomas; 1998] #886 -Den.-Swe
34. Fallen Idol, The [Reed, Carol; 1948] #889 -UK
35. Not Reconciled [Straub, Jean-Marie; 1965] #899 - W Germany
36. Shame (Skammen) [Bergman, Ingmar; 1968] #913 -Sweden
37. Flight of the Red Balloon, The [Hsiao-hsien Hou; 2007] #946 -China
38. Opening Night [Cassavetes, John; 1977] #990 -US
39. Coeur en hiver, Un [Sautet, Claude; 1992] #996 -France
40. Half Nelson [Fleck, Ryan; 2006] #997 -US
41. Through a Glass Darkly [Bergman, Ingmar; 1961] #1000 -Sweden
42. Floating Weeds [Ozu, Yasujiro; 1959] #1011 -Japan
43. Cul-de-sac [Polanski, Roman; 1996] #1012 -France
44. Cría cuervos [Saura, Carlos; 1976] #1016 -Spain
45. Diary of a Lost Girl [Pabst, G.W.; 1929] #1017 -Germany
46. Les Enfants Terribles [Melville, Jean-Pierre; 1950] #1020 -France
47. Since Otar Left [Bertucelli, Julie; 2003] #1075 -France-Belg
48. Burnt by the Sun [Mikhalkov, Nikita; 1994] #1149 - Russia-Fr
49. Central Station [Salles, Walter; 1998] #1241 -Brazil

I'll have to admit that this is not a favorite genre of mine, for as I peruse this list, I see more to avoid than to rewatch. One I do like is The Straight Story, an oddly affable outing from el bizarro David Lynch, which has another terrific performance from Richard Farnsworth (The Gray Fox).

Ironically my favorite film on this list is the last one, Central Station, a touching and poignant tale from Brazilian director Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries); his best works are inspiring but not sentimental, a rare talent. Each of these has desevedly won numerous international awards.

Top Ranked Romantic Drama Films

These are all the films mentioned in our survey of internet polls that I would consider romance-dramas, 231 in all, 160 in the top 1000. Some obviously have humor and were listed as drama-comedy, but I considered the overall impact of the film. There are nine best picture winners here.


1. All About Eve [Mankiewicz, Joseph L., 1950] #33 -US [photo top] [AA]
2. Sunrise [Murnau, F.W., 1928] #38 -US [this is a beautiful silent film, winning a special Oscar® for 'artistic film', it's #12 overall on the critics 1000]
3. Casablanca [Curtiz, Michael, 1942] #47 -US [AA]
4. Jules et Jim [Truffaut, François, 1961] #59 -France
5. The Apartment [Wilder, Billy, 1960] #65 -US [AA]
6. Contempt [Godard, Jean-Luc, 1963] #74 -France-Italy
7. Gone with the Wind [Fleming, Victor, 1939] #80 -US [AA]
8. Piano, The [Campion, Jane, 1993] #81 -Australia
9. La Dolce vita [Fellini, Federico, 1960] #99 -Italy
10. La Strada [Fellini, Federico, 1954] #113 -Italy
11. Rebecca [Hitchcock, Alfred, 1940] #122 -US [AA]
12. Brief Encounter [Lean, David, 1945] #127 -UK
13. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington [Capra, Frank, 1939] #128 -US
14. A Streetcar Named Desire [Kazan, Elia, 1951] #150 -US
15. Red Shoes, The [Powell, Michael/Emeric Pressburger, 1948] #156 -UK
16. My Life to Live (Vivre sa vie) [Godard, Jean-Luc, 1962] #160 -France
17. Great Expectations [Lean, David, 1946] #180 -UK
18. Persona [Bergman, Ingmar, 1966] #186 -Sweden
19. L'Avventura [Antonioni, Michelangelo, 1960] #188 -Italy-France
20. Viridiana [Buñuel, Luis, 1961] #212 -Spain
21. Belle de jour [Buñuel, Luis, 1967] #214 -France-Italy
22. Two or Three Things I Know About Her [Godard, Jean-Luc, 1966] #215 -France
23. Last Year at Marienbad [Resnais, Alain, 1961] #216 -France-Italy
24. All That Heaven Allows [Sirk, Douglas, 1955] #235 -US
25. Pandora's Box [Pabst, G.W., 1928] #251 -Germany

26. Days of Heaven [Malick, Terrence, 1978] #264 -US
27. Earrings of Madame de..., The [Ophuls, Max, 1953] #268 -France
28. In the Mood for Love [Wong Kar-Wai, 2001] #272 -Hong Kong-France [photo rt]
29. Blue Angel, The [von Sternberg, Josef, 1930] #273 -Germany
30. Gertrud [Dreyer, Carl Theodor, 1964] #276 -Denmark
31. Last Picture Show, The [Bogdanovich, Peter, 1971] #283 -US
32. Hiroshima mon amour [Resnais, Alain, 1959] #284 -France-Japan
33. Roman Holiday [Wyler, William, 1953] #302 -US
34. Raise the Red Lantern [Zhang Yimou, 1991] #303 -Hong Kong
35. L'Eclisse [Antonioni, Michelangelo, 1962] #305 -France-Italy
36. Lola Montès [Ophüls, Max, 1955] #309 -France
37. Five Easy Pieces [Rafelson, Bob, 1970] #310 -US
38. Repulsion [Polanski, Roman, 1965] #311 -UK
39. Tristana [Buñuel, Luis, 1970] #315 -France-Spain
40. Written on the Wind [Sirk, Douglas, 1956] #317 -US
41. Letter from an Unknown Woman [Ophüls, Max, 1948] #336 -US
42. Last Tango in Paris [Bertolucci, Bernardo, 1973] #337 -France-Italy
43. Senso [Visconti, Luchino, 1954] #353 -Italy
44. Crowd, The [Vidor, King, 1928] #362 -US
45. La Notte [Antonioni, Michelangelo, 1961] #363 -France-Italy
46. Orpheus [Cocteau, Jean, 1950] #364 -France
47. Red Desert [Antonioni, Michelangelo, 1964] #388 -France-Italy
48. Imitation of Life [Sirk, Douglas, 1959] #391 -US
49. Lola [Demy, Jacques, 1961] #394 -France
50. Black Narcissus [Powell, Michael/Emeric Pressburger, 1946] #412 -UK [photo rt]

51. Double Life of Veronique, The [Kieslowski, Krszystof, 1991] #418 -France 52. Marriage of Maria Braun, The [Fassbinder, Rainer Werner, 1979] #426 -Germany
53. Closely Watched Trains [Menzel, Jirí, 1966] #427 -Czechoslovakia
54. Mildred Pierce [Curtiz, Michael, 1945] #445 -US
55. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? [Nichols, Mike, 1966] #446 -US
56. Breaking the Waves [von Trier, Lars, 1996] #449 -Den-Swe-Fr-Neth-Norway
57. Only Angels Have Wings [Hawks, Howard, 1939] #451 -US
58. Now, Voyager [Rapper, Irving, 1942] #452 -US
59. River, The [Renoir, Jean, 1951] #453 -US-India
60. Brokeback Mountain [Lee, Ang, 2005] #454 -US
61. Farewell, My Concubine [Chen Kaige, 1993] #456 -Hong Kong-China
62. Y Tu Mamá También [Cuarón, Alfonso, 2001] #470 -Mexico
63. Passenger, The [Antonioni, Michelangelo, 1975] #472 -Italy
64. In the Realm of the Senses [Oshima, Nagisa, 1976] #479 -France-Japan
65. Life of Oharu, The [Mizoguchi, Kenji, 1952] #480 -Japan
66. Floating Clouds [Naruse, Mikio, 1955] #482 -Japan
67. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning [Reisz, Karel, 1960] #485 -UK
68. Day of Wrath [Dreyer, Carl Theodor, 1943] #488 -Denmark
69. That Obscure Object of Desire [Buñuel, Luis, 1977] #496 -France-Spain
70. My Night at Maud's [Rohmer, Eric, 1969] #498 -France
71. Talk to Her [Almodóvar, Pedro, 2002] #500 -Spain
72. Wrestler, The [Aronofsky, Darren, 2008] #506 -US
73. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors [Parajanov, Sergei, 1964] #509 -USSR
74. Cat People [Tourneur, Jacques, 1942] #516 -US
75. El [Buñuel, Luis, 1953] #520 -Mexico

76. Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, The [Fassbinder, Rainer Werner, 1972] #525 -Germany
77. Wedding March, The [von Stroheim, Erich, 1928] #527 -US
78. Charulata [Ray, Satyajit, 1964] #530 -India
79. In a Year with 13 Moons [Fassbinder, Rainer Werner, 1978] #538 -West Germany
80. East of Eden [Kazan, Elia, 1955] #550 -US
81. Servant, The [Losey, Joseph, 1963] #560 -UK
82. Limelight [Chaplin, Charles, 1952] #569 -US
83. I Vitelloni [Fellini, Federico, 1953] #593 -Italy
84. An Actor's Revenge [Ichikawa, Kon, 1963] #600 -Japan
85. An Affair to Remember [McCarey, Leo, 1957] #602 -US
86. Our Daily Bread [Vidor, King, 1934] #603 -US
87. Moment of Innocence, A [Makhmalbaf, Mohsen, 1996] #607 -Iran-France-Switz
88. I Know Where I'm Going! [Powell, Michael/Emeric Pressburger, 1945] #608 -UK
89. Some Came Running [Minnelli, Vincente, 1958] #609 -US
90. Love Streams [Cassavetes, John, 1984] #617 -US
91. Lancelot du Lac [Bresson, Robert, 1974] #630 -France-Italy
92. Age of Innocence, The [Scorsese, Martin, 1993] #632 -US
93. Fellini's Casanova [Fellini, Federico, 1976] #635 -Italy
94. After Hours [Scorsese, Martin, 1985] #641 -US
95. India Song [Duras, Marguerite, 1975] #642 -France
96. Lolita [Kubrick, Stanley, 1962] #651 -UK
97. Three Colours: Blue [Kieslowski, Krszystof, 1993] #655 -France-Poland-Switz
98. Teorema [Pasolini, Pier Paolo, 1968] #659 -Italy
99. Devil is a Woman, The [von Sternberg, Josef, 1935] #660 -US
100. sex, lies, and videotape [Soderberg, Steve, 1989] #665 -US

101. Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The [Fincher, David, 2008] #667 -US
102. Before Sunset [Linklater, Richard, 2004] #668 -US
103. Walkabout [Roeg, Nicolas, 1971] #674 -Australia [photo rt - this is one of my favorite films]
104. Spring in a Small Town [Fei Mu, 1948] #675 -China
105. La Chienne [Renoir, Jean, 1931] #678 -Japan-China
106. Heiress, The [Wyler, William, 1949] #697 -US
107. Bad and the Beautiful, The [Minnelli, Vincente, 1952] #698 -US
108. Bigger Than Life [Ray, Nicholas, 1956] #699 -US
109. Best of Youth, The [Giordana, Marco Tullio, 2003] #702 -Italy
110. Dames du Bois de Boulogne, Les [Bresson, Robert, 1945] #704 -France
111. Passion [Godard, Jean-Luc, 1982] #705 -France-Switz
112. Sawdust and Tinsel [Bergman, Ingmar, 1953] #716 -Sweden
113. Sauve qui peut (la vie) [Godard, Jean-Luc, 1980] #718 -France-Switz
114. Angel [Lubitsch, Ernst, 1937] #720 -US
115. Brighter Summer Day, A [Yang, Edward, 1991] #722 -Taiwan
116. From Here to Eternity [Zinnemann, Fred, 1953] #728 -US [AA]
117. Splendor in the Grass [Kazan, Elia, 1961] #736 -US
118. Stromboli [Rossellini, Roberto, 1950] #741 -Italy
119. Once [Carney, John, 2006] #745 -Ireland
120. Tarnished Angels, The [Sirk, Douglas, 1958] #763 -US
121. La Belle Noiseuse [Rivette, Jacques, 1991] #781 -France
122. Gilda [Vidor, Charles, 1946] #786 -US
123. Good Will Hunting [Van Sant, Gus, 1997] #791 -US
124. Little Women [Armstrong, Gillian, 1994] #799 -US
125. Dangerous Liaisons [Frears, Stephen, 1988] #802 -US

126. Night of the Shooting Stars, The [Taviani, Paolo & Vittorio Taviani, 1982] #803 -Italy
127. Barefoot Contessa, The [Mankiewicz, Joseph L., 1954] #810 -US
128. Howards End [Ivory, James, 1992] #813 -UK
129. Cleo from 5 to 7 [Varda, Agnès, 1962] #817 -France
130. Pickup on South Street [Fuller, Sam, 1953] #823 -US
131. Ronde, La [Ophüls, Max, 1950] #826 -France
132. Princess Yang Kwei Fei (Yokihi) [Mizoguchi, Kenji, 1955] #829 -Japan-Hong Kong
133. Morocco [von Sternberg, Josef, 1930] #831 -US
134. Two English Girls [Truffaut, François, 1971] #851 -France
135. Amants du Pont-Neuf, Les [Carax, Lèos, 1991] #852 -France
136. Happiness [Solondz, Todd, 1998] #865 -US
137. Liebelei [Ophüls, Max, 1933] #868 -Germany
138. Titanic [Cameron, James, 1997] #874 -US [AA]
139. Cranes Are Flying, The [Kalatozishvili, Mikheil, 1957] #876 -Russia
140. America, America [Kazan, Elia, 1963] #883 -US
141. In the Bedroom [Field, Todd, 2001] #888 -US
142. Law of Desire [Almodóvar, Pedro, 1987] #890 -Spain
143. Flowers of Shanghai [Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1998] #898 -Taiwan
144. Woman Next Door, The [Truffaut, François, 1981] #908 -France
145. Under the Sand [Ozon, Francois, 2000] #914 -France
146. Peter Ibbetson [Hathaway, Henry, 1935] #916 -US
147. Red Sorghum [Zhang Yimou, 1987] #921 -China
148. Sweet Sixteen [Loach, Ken, 2002] #929 -UK-Gy-Spain
149. Of a Thousand Delights [Visconti, Luchino, 1965] #935 -Italy
150. Queen Kelly [von Stroheim, Erich, 1929] #939 -US

151. Murmur of the Heart [Malle, Louis, 1971] #940 -France
152. Camille [Cukor, George, 1936] #943 -US
153. Ju Dou [Zhang Yimou, 1990] #958 -France
154. Three Colours: White [Kieslowski, Krszystof, 1994] #959 -France-Poland
155. Scenes from a Marriage [Bergman, Ingmar, 1973] #960 -Sweden
156. New York, New York [Scorsese, Martin, 1977] #966 -US
157. Early Summer (Bakushû) [Ozu, Yasujiro, 1951] #978 -Japan
158. Flaming Creatures [Smith, Jack, 1963] #981 -US
159. Crash [Cronenberg, David, 1996] #988 -Canada
160. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring [Ki-duk Kim, 2003] #992 -Korea-Gy
161. Mädchen in Uniform [Sagan, Leontine, 1931] #1007 -Germany
162. Intruder, The (L'innocent) [Visconti, Luchino, 1976] #1027 -Italy
163. Marty [Mann, Delbert, 1955] #1028 -US [AA]
164. Woman of Paris, A [Chaplin, Charles, 1923] #1029 -US
165. Atonement [Wright, Joe, 2007] #1039 -UK
166. Night Porter, The [Cavani, Liliana, 1974] #1048 -Italy
167. Eyes Wide Shut [Kubrick, Stanley, 1999] #1049 -UK-US
168. Leaving Las Vegas [Figgis, Mike, 1995] #1051 -US-UK-France
169. Early Autumn [Ozu, Yasujiro, 1961] #1052 -Japan
170. Out of Sight [Soderbergh, Steven, 1998] #1053 -US
171. Fountainhead, The [Vidor, King, 1949] #1061 -US
172. American Gigolo [Schrader, Paul, 1980] #1062 -US
173. Vive L'Amour [Tsai Ming-Liang, 1994] #1065 -Taiwan
174. Dodsworth [Wyler, William, 1936] #1068 -US
175. Under the Bridges [Kaütner, Helmut, 1945] #1079 -Germany
176. Veronika Voss [Fassbinder, Rainer Werner, 1982] #1084 -Germany
177. Happy Together [Wong Kar-Wai, 1997] #1088 -Hong Kong
178. Portrait of Jennie [Dieterle, William, 1948] #1089 -US
179. Green Ray, The [Rohmer, Eric, 1986] #1100 -France
180. Tobacco Road [Ford, John, 1941] #1101 -US
181. Two for the Road [Donen, Stanley, 1967] #1105 -US
182. Out of Africa [Pollack, Sydney, 1985] #1110 -US [AA]
183. Utamaro and His Five Women [Mizoguchi, Kenji, 1946] #1114 -Japan
184. Ballad of Narayama [Imamura, Shohei, 1983] #1115 -Japan
185. Go-Between, The [Losey, Joseph, 1970] #1118 -UK
186. Days of Being Wild [Wong Kar-Wai, 1990] #1120 -Hong Kong
187. Wuthering Heights [Wyler, William, 1939] #1121 -US
188. By the Bluest of Seas [Barnet, Boris, 1936] #1138 -USSR
189. Year of Living Dangerously, The [Weir, Peter, 1982] #1139 -Australia
190. Saga of Gosta Berling, The [Stiller, Mauritz, 1924] #1148 -Sweden
191. L'Amour Fou [Rivette, Jacques, 1969] #1154 -France
192. Il Posto (The Sound of Trumpets) [Olmi, Ermanno, 1961] #1157 -Italy
193. Wild River [Kazan, Elia, 1960] #1161 -US
194. City Girl [Murnau, F.W., 1930] #1167 -US
195. Slave of Love, A [Mikhalkov, Nikita, 1976] #1168 -USSR
196. Devil in the Flesh [Autant-Lara, Claude, 1947] #1169 -France
197. Way Down East [Griffith, D.W., 1920] #1170 -US
198. Shin heike monogatari (Taira Clan) [Mizoguchi, Kenji, 1955] #1171 -Japan
199. El Sur [Erice, Victor, 1983] #1172 -Spain-France
200. The Unbearable Lightness of Being [Kaufman, Philip, 1988] #1177 -US

201. Seventh Heaven [Borzage, Frank, 1927] #1179 -US
202. Giant [Stevens, George, 1956] #1181 -US
203. Luna [Bertolucci, Bernardo, 1979] #1186 -US-Italy
204. Little Foxes, The [Wyler, William, 1941] #1189 -US
205. Ryan's Daughter [Lean, David, 1970] #1192 -UK
206. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman [Lewin, Albert, 1951] #1197 -UK
207. Pillow Book, The [Greenaway, Peter, 1996] #1199 -UK
208. Sign of Leo, The [Rohmer, Eric, 1959] #1206 -France
209. Barbarian Invasions, The [Arcand, Denys, 2003] #1209 -Canada
210. Samson and Delilah [DeMille, Cecil B., 1949] #1210 -US
211. True Heart Susie [Griffith, D.W., 1919] #1211 -US
212. Jezebel [Wyler, William, 1938] #1213 -US
213. Passion of Anna, The [Bergman, Ingmar, 1969] #1220 -Sweden
214. Sense and Sensibility [Lee, Ang, 1995] #1225 -US-UK
215. Letter to Three Wives, A [Mankiewicz, Joseph L., 1949] #1227 -US
216. Room at the Top [Clayton, Jack, 1959] #1234 -UK
217. Short Film About Love, A [Kieslowski, Krszystof, 1988] #1243 -Poland
218. Ordinary People [Redford, Robert, 1980] #1245 -US
219. Chikamatsu monogatari [Mizoguchi, Kenji, 1954] #1246 -Japan
220. Strangers When We Meet [Quine, Richard, 1960] #1251 -US
221. Toute une nuit [Akerman, Chantal, 1982] #1252 -France-Belgium
222. Bridges of Madison County, The [Eastwood, Clint, 1995] #1253 -US
223. Far from Heaven [Haynes, Todd, 2002] #1257 -US
224. Four Friends [Penn, Arthur, 1981] #1264 -US
225. White Shadows in the South Seas [Van Dyke II, W.S., 1928] #1267 -US
226. Queen Christina [Mamoulian, Rouben, 1933] #1269 -US
227. Before the Revolution [Bertolucci, Bernardo, 1964] #1270 -Italy
228. Chloe in the Afternoon [Rohmer, Eric, 1972] #1272 -France
229. Bay of Angels [Demy, Jacques, 1963] #1275 -France
230. Toni [Renoir, Jean, 1935] #1278 -France
231. My Love Has Been Burning [Mizoguchi, Kenji, 1949] #1280 -Japan

Note:
I had trouble with It's a Wonderful Life, but left it in fantasy-romance for now, it's also one of those drama-comedy films, but I consider it a drama overall. Had I included it here, it would have been #1.

 Faves Listed:
This is a pretty conclusive and long list. Some favorites made it that are often overlooked:
Nicholas Roeg's beautiful Walkabout, from the Australian outback, lyrical, poetic, and primal.
Steven Frears' sophisticated Dangerious Liaisons, which has several career best performances: Glenn Close, Michelle Pfeiffer, John Malkovich, and Uma Thurman, and all were Oscar® nominated.

The Go-Between is a beautiful love story from Joseph Losey, with Alan Bates and Julie Christie, though not yet available on dvd.

The Night Porter is a bizarre s/m love story from Italian Liliana Cavani with Dirk Bogarde's and Charlotte Rampling's best performances, as former Nazi prison camp lovers reunited after the war.

Now, Voyager is a classic that you never hear about, an intelligent adult story as well.

L'avventura still looks modern today, I love the visual compositions of Antonioni here, one of 3 films that Woody said "crossed into art" (Seventh Seal and La Grande Illusion were the other two), definitely his most interesting and sensual film for me.

Atonement should be ranked higher, at least into the top 500; an epic film from a good novel, the long tracking shot at Dunkirk, the plot twists, the incredible performance from Vanessa Redgrave.

This particular Crash, at #159, is SF author J.G. Ballard's (Empire of the Sun) novel about bizarre love among traffic accident survivors, not the best pic one (which is far less interesting than this one) - these are the most erotic performances by Jame Spader, Holly Hunter, and Debra Kara Unger - and maybe Roseanna Arquette as well.

I Would Add (not many)
Rambling Rose [Martha Coolidge, 1991] - Laura Dern, Diane Ladd (her mom), and Robert Duvall are all terrific in this quirky southern drama about a 'lost woman' vs traditional attitudes.
The Game is Over [Roger Vadim, 1966] - Vadim filmed then wife Jane Fonda in Emile Zola's La Curee, in which a new young wife falls in love with her older husband's son, who is her age. Fonda's first serious dramatic part, and her most sensual to me, esp. compared to the coldness of Klute.
The Road Home [Zhang Yimou, 1999] - Yimou's Sundance audience winner has young Ziyi Zhang in her first film, a village girl in love with a teacher who comes there from a city.

Top Ranked Society Drama Films

There are around 725 dramas mentioned in our film survey. We may eventually post the entire list as one, but we decided to break them down in to sub-genres for these posts. We have family drama, romance drama, society dramas as the main groups, while some smaller sets are drama-comedy, mystery drama, fantasy drama. We will also post foreign language dramas separate as well. Once again, we've used the IMDB genre designations. 91 mentioned, with 84 in the top 1000.

Drama – Society
These are dramas whose major point was to make a statement about society, culture, life in general.

1. Citizen Kane [Welles, Orson, 1941] #5 - US
2. Seventh Seal, The [Bergman, Ingmar, 1956] #29 - Sweden [photo top]
3. Pather Panchali / Apu Trilogy I [Ray, Satyajit, 1955] #32 - India
4. Rules of the Game, The [Renoir, Jean, 1939] #44 - France
5. Umberto D [De Sica, Vittorio, 1952] #53 - Italy
6. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest [Forman, Milos, 1975] #54 - US
7. Tokyo Story [Ozu, Yasujiro, 1953] #57 - Japan
8. Ugetsu [Mizoguchi, Kenji, 1953] #58 - Japan
9. 400 Blows, The [Truffaut, François, 1959] #60 - France
10. Conformist, The [Bertolucci, Bernardo, 1970] #76 - Italy-France-Germany

11. Greed [von Stroheim, Erich, 1924] #79 - US
12. Au Hasard Balthazar [Bresson, Robert, 1966] #93 - France
13. Grapes of Wrath, The [Ford, John, 1940] #95 - US
14. To Kill a Mockingbird [Mulligan, Robert, 1962] #96 - US
15. Wild Strawberries [Bergman, Ingmar, 1957] #108 - Sweden
16. Ordet [Dreyer, Carl Theodor, 1955] #111 - Denmark
17. Ashes and Diamonds [Wajda, Andrzej, 1958] #114 - Poland
18. Pickpocket [Bresson, Robert, 1959] #125 - France
19. Pierrot le fou [Godard, Jean-Luc, 1965] #129 - France-Italy
20. Sweet Smell of Success [Mackendrick, Alexander, 1957] #133 - US [photo rt]

21. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles [Akerman, Chantal, 1975] #146 - Belgium-France
22. Broken Blossoms [Griffith, D.W., 1919] #147 - US
23. Woman Under the Influence, A [Cassavetes, John, 1974] #177 - US
24. Ikiru [Kurosawa, Akira, 1952] #198 - Japan
25. L'Âge d'or [Buñuel, Luis, 1930] #217 - France
26. World of Apu, The [Ray, Satyajit, 1959] #218 - India
27. Masculine-Feminine [Godard, Jean-Luc, 1966] #221 - France-Sweden
28. Dekalog [Kieslowski, Krszystof, 1988] #237 - Poland
29. Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom [Pasolini, Pier Paolo, 1975] #240 - Italy
30. Earth [Dovzhenko, Alexander, 1930] #249 - Russia
31. Diary of a Country Priest [Bresson, Robert, 1950] #250 - France
32. Spirit of the Beehive, The [Erice, Victor, 1973] #261 - Spain
33. Leopard, The [Visconti, Luchino, 1963] #269 - Italy
34. Week-End [Godard, Jean-Luc, 1967] #277 - France-Italy
35. All About My Mother [Almodóvar, Pedro, 1999] #288 - Spain-France
36. Aparajito [Ray, Satyajit, 1956] #313 - India
37. Sweet Hereafter, The [Egoyan, Atom, 1997] #319 - Canada
38. Landscape in the Mist [Angelopoulos, Theo, 1988] #321 - Greece-France-Italy
39. Exterminating Angel, The [Buñuel, Luis, 1962] #403 - Mexico
40. Travelling Players, The [Angelopoulos, Theo, 1975] #419 - Greece
41. Last Laugh [Murnau, F.W., 1924] #425 - Germany
42. Death in Venice [Visconti, Luchino, 1971] #433 - Italy
43. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul [Fassbinder, Rainer Werner, 1971] #435 - Germany
44. Music Room, The [Ray, Satyajit, 1958] #438 - India
45. Freaks [Browning, Tod, 1932] #444 - US
46. Children of Men [Meirelles, Fernando, 2006] #458 - Brazil
47. Germany, Year Zero [Rossellini, Roberto, 1947] #467 - Italy-West Germany
48. Kings of the Road [Wenders, Wim, 1976] #491 - Germany
49. Taste of Cherry, A [Kiarostami, Abbas, 1997] #507 - Iran
50. Wind Will Carry Us, The [Kiarostami, Abbas, 1999] #511 - France-Iran

51. Kes [Loach, Ken, 1969] #526 - UK
52. Sátántangó [Tarr, Bela, 1994] #547 - Hungary-Germany-Switzerland
53. Chelsea Girls [Warhol, Andy, 1967] #564 - US
54. Fellini Satyricon [Fellini, Federico, 1969] #570 - Italy
55. Cloud-Capped Star, The [Ghatak, Ritwik, 1960] #594 - India
56. La Terra Trema [Visconti, Luchino, 1948] #605 - Italy
57. Werckmeister Harmonies [Tarr, Bela & Hranitzky, Agnes, 2000] #613 - Hung-It-Gy-France
58. Moolaadé [Sembene, Ousmane, 2004] #616 - Senegal-France
59. Two-Lane Blacktop [Hellman, Monte, 1971] #629 - US
60. Europa '51 [Rossellini, Roberto, 1952] #636 - Italy
61. Dersu Uzala [Kurosawa, Akira, 1975] #645 - Japan-Russia
62. Three Colours: Red [Kieslowski, Krszystof, 1994] #657 - France-Switzerland-Poland
63. Wild Child, The [Truffaut, François, 1970] #671 - France
64. And Life Goes On [Kiarostami, Abbas, 1991] #700 - Iran
65. Where is the Friend's Home? [Kiarostami, Abbas, 1987] #703 - Iran
66. Hart of London, The [Chambers, Jack, 1970] #713 - Canada
67. Through the Olive Trees [Kiarostami, Abbas, 1994] #740 - Iran
68. Barren Lives [Dos Santos, Nelson Pereira, 1963] #753 - Brazil
69. Ghost World [Zwigoff, Terry, 2001] #755 - US
70. Heaven's Gate [Cimino, Michael, 1980] #812 - US
71. Dead Poets Society [Weir, Peter, 1989] #827 - US
72. Ceddo [Sembene, Ousmane, 1977] #835 - Senegal
73. Short Cuts [Altman, Robert, 1993] #842 - US
74. Marooned in Iraq [Ghobadi, Bahman, 2002] #848 - Iran
75. Yellow Earth [Chen Kaige, 1984] #855 - China

76. Woman in the Dunes [Teshigahara, Hiroshi, 1964] #860 - Japan
77. Fellini's Roma [Fellini, Federico, 1972] #862 - Italy
78. Ten [Kiarostami, Abbas, 2002] #892 - Iran
79. Vagabond (Santoit ni loi) [Varda, Agnès, 1985] #893 - France
80. Sugar Cane Alley (Rue case negres) [Palcy, Euzhan, 1983] #894 - France
81. Limite [Peixoto, Mario, 1931] #900 - Brazil
82. Husbands [Cassavetes, John, 1970] #902 - US [photo rt]
83. Red Beard [Kurosawa, Akira, 1965] #922 - Japan
84. Le Fils (The Son) [Dardenne, Jean-Pierre & Luc, 2002] #927 - France
85. Days and Nights in the Forest [Ray, Satyajit, 1970] #1064 - India
86. Le Feu Follet [Malle, Louis, 1963] #1107 - France
87. Eternity and a Day [Angelopoulos, Theo, 1998] #1128 - Greece-Fr-It-Ger
88. 3 Women [Altman, Robert, 1977] #1133 - US
89. King of the Children [Chen Kaige, 1987] #1182 - China
90. Tout va bien [Godard, Jean-Luc & Jean-Pierre Gorin, 1972] #1218 - France
91. Man of Marble [Wajda, Andrzej, 1977] #1249 - Poland

Top Ranked Religion, Sports, Art Films

These are the last remaining other genres before we get to all the drama films, which is the largest set of films mentioned with over 700 titles.

Religion has 9 in the top 1000, sports has 6, and art (or experimental) films 7.

Religion
1. Passion of Joan of Arc, The [Dreyer, Carl Theodor, 1928] #51 - France (silent)
2. Gospel According to St. Matthew, The [Pasolini, Pier Paolo, 1964] #103 - France-Italy [photo rt]
3. Ben-Hur [Wyler, William, 1959] #137 - US
4. Gandhi [Attenborough, Richard, 1982] #286 - UK
5. Black Narcissus [Powell, Michael/Emeric Pressburger, 1946] #412 - UK
6. Nostalghia [Tarkovsky, Andrei, 1983] #623 - Italy
7. Winter Light [Bergman, Ingmar, 1962] #673 - Sweden
8. Flowers of St. Francis, The [Rossellini, Roberto, 1950] #867 - Italy
9. Last Temptation of Christ, The [Scorsese, Martin, 1988] #912 - US
10. Burmese Harp [Ichikawa, Kon, 1956] #1044 - Japan
11. Nazarín [Buñuel, Luis, 1959] #1082 - Mexico
12. Bells of St. Mary's, The [McCarey, Leo, 1945] #1256 - US

[It could also be argued that religion is an important theme in the science fiction films 2001 and Solaris] Passion is a bit melodramatic, being a silent film. Pasolini's Gospel manages to avoid that and tried to present one gospel as written. Black Narcissus is simply beautiful, a work of art. Where is Zefferelli's appealing story of St. Francis, Brother Sun and Sister Moon?

Sports
1. Raging Bull [Scorsese, Martin, 1980] #24 - US
2. Rocky [Avildsen, John G., 1976] #225 - US
3. Million Dollar Baby [Eastwood, Clint, 2004] #265 - US [photo rt]
4. Olympia [Riefenstahl, Leni, 1938] #532 - Germany
5. Chariots of Fire [Hudson, Hugh, 1981] #928 - UK
6. Offside [Panahi, Jafar, 2006] #974 - Iran
7. Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, The [Richardson, Tony, 1962] #1033 - UK
8. Breaking Away [Yates, Peter, 1979] #1219 - US
9. Hoop Dreams [James, Steve, 1994] #1263 - US

The surprise here is the omission of Pride of the Yankees, the Lou Gehrig story starring Gary Cooper. Also Field of Dreams - and the romantic comedy Bull Durham - so do critics just hate baseball movies?

Art or experimental films (no, not films about artists)
1. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles [Akerman, Chantal, 1975] #146 – Belgium-France (3:20 long) - this film is very painful to sit through
2. La Jetee [Marker, Chris, 1961] #185 - France (short)
3. Un Chien Andalou [Buñuel, Luis, 1928] #256 - France (short)
4. Wavelength [Snow, Michael, 1967] #263 - Canada
5. Sans soleil [Marker, Chris, 1983] #465 - France
6. Werckmeister Harmonies [Tarr, Bela & Hranitzky, Agnes, 2000] #613 – Hungary-Ity-Gy-France
7. Tom, Tom the Piper's Son [Jacobs, Ken, 1969] #832 - US
8. Zorn's Lemma [Frampton, Hollis, 1970] #1093 - US
9. Too Early, Too Late [Straub, Jean-Marie & Danièle Huillet, 1982] #1146 - France-Egypt

These are an acquired taste, be warned. Un Chien Andalou is famous due to the collabaration of surrealist Salvador Dali, and some unforgettable images. La Jetee was paid homage in a David Bowie video; it is a short SciFi film made up of still images with a narrator reciting the story of a time traveler. Jeanne Dielman is 3 hrs, 20 minutes of a woman peeling potatoes, making meat loaf, taking a bath - a student could make better decisions when editing; they could use this one to make prisoners talk.

Top Ranked Political Films on the Net

Films about politicians, like JFK and All the King’s Men, or people who were caught up in the politics of their time, like The Conformist, To Be or Not To Be, and All the President’s Men. In some, the politics is just the background for the main story, such as Doctor Zhivago, Once Upon a Time in America or American History X, or may dominate the lives of all the characters like Brazil, The Lives of Others, and Gandhi. We even included propaganda like Triumph of the Will.

1. Citizen Kane [Welles, Orson , 1941] #5 US [photo top]
2. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb [Kubrick, Stanley , 1964] #17 - UK
3. City Lights [Chaplin, Charles , 1931] #21 - US
4. Metropolis [Lang, Fritz , 1927] #23 - Germany
5. Manchurian Candidate, The [Frankenheimer, John , 1962] #43 - US
6. Birth of a Nation, The [Griffith, D.W. , 1915] #68 - US
7. Magnificent Ambersons, The [Welles, Orson , 1942] #75 - US
8. Conformist, The [Bertolucci, Bernardo , 1970] #76 - Italy-France-Germany
9. Great Dictator, The [Chaplin, Charles , 1940] #138 - US
10. Once Upon a Time in America [Leone, Sergio , 1984] #162 - US
11. Lives of Others, The [von Donnersmarck, Florian Henckel , 2006] #163 - Germany
12. Killer of Sheep [Burnett, Charles , 1977] #174 - US
13. Les Enfants du paradis [Carné, Marcel , 1945] #184 - France
14. Brazil [Gilliam, Terry , 1985] #189 - UK [photo rt]
15. Berlin Alexanderplatz [Fassbinder, Rainer Werner , 1980] #197 - Germany
16. Sansho the Bailiff [Mizoguchi, Kenji, 1954] #204 - Japan
17. To Be or Not to Be [Lubitsch, Ernst , 1942] #257 - US
18. Rise to Power of Louis XIV, The [Rossellini, Roberto , 1966] #279 - France
19. Gandhi [Attenborough, Richard , 1982] #286 - UK
20. Day the Earth Stood Still, The [Wise, Robert , 1951] #323 - US
21. Strike [Eisenstein, Sergei , 1924] #328 - USSR
22. 39 Steps, The [Hitchcock, Alfred , 1935] #346 - UK
23. 1900 [Bertolucci, Bernardo , 1976] #367 - France-Germany-Italy
24. Voyage in Italy [Rossellini, Roberto , 1953] #387 - Italy
25. Doctor Zhivago [Lean, David , 1965] #401 - US
26. American History X [Kaye, Tony , 1998] #428 - US
27. Reds [Beatty, Warren , 1981] #429 - US [photo rt]
28. All the President's Men [Pakula, Alan J. , 1972] #432 - US
29. Triumph of the Will [Riefenstahl, Leni , 1935] #455 - Germany [photo btm rt]
30. Queen, The [Frears, Stephen , 2006] #481 - UK-Fr-Italy
31. Hotel Rwanda [George, Terry , 2004] #514 - US
32. Memories of Underdevelopment [Alea, Tomás Gutiérrez , 1968] #573 - Cuba
33. Moolaadé [Sembene, Ousmane , 2004] #616 - Senegal-France
34. Terra em Transe [Rocha, Glauber , 1967] #618 - Brazil
35. Young Mr. Lincoln [Ford, John , 1939] #653 - US
36. JFK [Stone, Oliver , 1991] #690 - US
37. Man for All Seasons, A [Zinnemann, Fred , 1966] #715 - UK
38. No End in Sight [Ferguson, Charles , 2007] #731 - US
39. Fog of War, The [Morris, Errol , 2003] #809 - US
40. Quiz Show [Redford, Robert , 1994] #811 - US
41. Tin Drum, The [Schlöndorff, Volker , 1979] #854 - Germany
42. Hitler: A Film from Germany [Syberberg, Hans-Jürgen , 1977] #858 - West Germany
43. Ten [Kiarostami, Abbas , 2002] #892 - Iran
44. Z [Costa-Gavras, Constantin , 1969] #903 - France
45. Shame (Skammen) [Bergman, Ingmar , 1968] #913 - Sweden
46. Shoeshine [De Sica, Vittorio , 1947] #915 - Italy
47. Mephisto [Szabó, István , 1981] #999 - Hungary
48. Street Fight [Curry, Marshall , 2005] #1001 - US
49. Lamerica [Amelio, Gianni , 1994] #1015 - Italy
50. Johnny Got His Gun [Trumbo, Dalton , 1971] #1022 - US
51. Trial, The [Welles, Orson , 1962] #1055 - Fr-Gy-Yugo-Italy
52. The Last Emperor [Bertolucci, Bernardo , 1987] #1056 - UK-Italy-China-France
53. Circle, The (Dayereh) [Panahi, Jafar , 2000] #1070 - Iran-Switz-Italy
54. Life of Emile Zola [Dieterle, William , 1937] #1096 - US
55. All the King's Men [Rossen, Robert , 1949] #1132 - US
56. Year of Living Dangerously, The [Weir, Peter , 1982] #1139 - Australia
57. Burnt by the Sun [Mikhalkov, Nikita , 1994] #1149 - Russia-France
58. My Friend Ivan Lapshin [Gherman, Alexei , 1984] #1203 - USSR
59. Good Night, and Good Luck. [Clooney, George , 2005] #1231 - US
60. A Face in the Crowd [Kazan, Elia , 1957] #1237 - US
61. One, Two, Three [Wilder, Billy , 1961] #1248 - US

Top Ranked History and Bio Films on the Net

Biopics
Film biographies that either tell the person’s entire life, such as The Last Emperor, or the most important years, like Lawrence of Arabia, Raging Bull, and Reds.

1. Raging Bull [Scorsese, Martin, 1980] #24 - US
2. Goodfellas [Scorsese, Martin, 1990] #31 - US
3. Lawrence of Arabia [Lean, David, 1962] #50 - UK
4. Spartacus [Kubrick, Stanley, 1960] #178 - US
5. Elephant Man, The [Lynch, David, 1980] #194 - US
6. Pianist, The [Polanski, Roman, 2002] #200 - Fr-Gy-UK-Poland
7. Patton [Shaffner, Frank, 1970] #203 - US
8. Napoléon [Gance, Abel, 1927] #232 - France
9. Gandhi [Attenborough, Richard, 1982] #286 - UK
10. Alexander Nevsky [Eisenstein, Sergei, 1938] #374 - USSR
11. Reds [Beatty, Warren, 1981] #429 - US
12. Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The [Schnabel, Julian, 2008] #443 - France-US
13. Downfall [Hirschbiegel, Oliver, 2004] #484 - Germany
14. Braveheart [Gibson, Mel, 1995] #508 - US
15. Shine [Hicks, Scott, 1996] #574 - Australia
16. Crumb [Zwigoff, Terry, 1994] #610 - US
17. Topsy-Turvy [Leigh, Mike, 1999] #662 - UK
18. Man on Wire [Marsh, James, 2008] #712 - UK-US
19. A Man for All Seasons [Zinnemann, Fred, 1966] #715 - UK
20. Ed Wood [Burton, Tim, 1994] #724 - US
21. Ludwig [Visconti, Luchino, 1972] #750 - France-Germany-Italy
22. Hôtel Terminus [Ophüls, Marcel, 1988] #760 - US
23. Puppetmaster, The [Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1993] #818 - Taiwan
24. Seraphine [Provost, Martin, 2008] #896 - France-Belg
25. Before Night Falls [Schnabel, Julian, 2000] #949 - US
26. The Last Emperor [Bertolucci, Bernardo, 1987] #1056 - UK-Italy-China-France
27. 24 Hour Party People [Winterbottom, Michael, 2002] #1063 - US
28. Life of Emile Zola [Dieterle, William, 1937] #1096 - US
29. Childhood of Maxim Gorky, The [Donskoi, Mark, 1938] #1123 - Russia
30. The Killing Fields [Joffé, Roland, 1984] #1141 - US
31. Wings of Eagles, The [Ford, John, 1957] #1174 - US
32. My Apprenticeship (Gorky Trilogy II) [Donskoi, Mark, 1939] #1176 - USSR
33. Sheltering Sky, The [Bertolucci, Bernardo, 1990] #1265 - UK-Italy
34. Testament of Orpheus [Cocteau, Jean, 1960] #1277 - France

History
Films about a historical event, such as Battleship Potemkin, era, or culture, such as Barry Lyndon. This includes biopics of people important in history, such as T.E. Lawrence, or George S. Patton. We also included films about events that were based on eyewitness accounts so they are believed to be accurate, like A Man Escaped and United 93.

1. Lawrence of Arabia [Lean, David, 1962] #50 - UK
2. Passion of Joan of Arc, The [Dreyer, Carl Theodor, 1928] #51 - France
3. Intolerance [Griffith, D.W., 1916] #64 - US
4. Battleship Potemkin [Eisenstein, Sergei, 1925] #100 - France
5. Barry Lyndon [Kubrick, Stanley, 1975] #101 - UK
6. The Battle of Algiers [Pontecorvo, Gillo, 1966] #132 - Italy-Algiers
7. A Man Escaped [Bresson, Robert, 1956] #151 - France
8. Spartacus [Kubrick, Stanley, 1960] #178 - US
9. The Pianist [Polanski, Roman, 2002] #200 - Fr-Gy-UK-Poland
10. Patton [Shaffner, Frank, 1970] #203 - US 11. October [Eisenstein, Sergei, 1927] #222 - USSR
12. Napoléon [Gance, Abel, 1927] #232 - France
13. Andrei Rublev [Tarkovsky, Andrei, 1966] #282 - Russia
14. Gandhi [Attenborough, Richard, 1982] #286 - UK
15. Letters from Iwo Jima [Eastwood, Clint, 2006] #339 - US
16. Ivan the Terrible, Part One [Eisenstein, Sergei, 1944] #357 - Russia
17. Alexander Nevsky [Eisenstein, Sergei, 1938] #374 - USSR
18. Tree of Wooden Clogs, The [Olmi, Ermanno, 1978] #404 - Italy
19. Henry V [Olivier, Laurence, 1944] #409 - UK
20. Ivan the Terrible, Part Two [Eisenstein, Sergei, 1946] #416 - USSR
21. All the President's Men [Pakula, Alan J., 1972] #432 - US
22. Downfall [Hirschbiegel, Oliver, 2004] #484 - Germany
23. Salvatore Giuliano [Rosi, Francesco, 1961] #495 - Italy
24. Scarlet Empress, The [von Sternberg, Josef, 1934] #504 - US
25. A City of Sadness [Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1989] #510 - Taiwan
26. Don't Look Back [Pennebaker, D.A., 1967] #545 - US
27. The Right Stuff [Kaufman, Philip, 1983] #549 - US
28. Judgment at Nuremberg [Kramer, Stanley, 1961] #582 - US
29. Young Mr. Lincoln [Ford, John, 1939] #653 - US
30. Bloody Sunday [Greengrass, Paul, 2002] #658 - US
31. United 93 [Greengrass, Paul, 2006] #687 - US
32. House of Flying Daggers [Zhang Yimou, 2004] #711 - China
33. A Man for All Seasons [Zinnemann, Fred, 1966] #715 - UK
34. Ludwig [Visconti, Luchino, 1972] #750 - France-Germany-Italy
35. Storm Over Asia [Pudovkin, Vsevolod, 1928] #754 - Russia
36. Overlord [Cooper, Stuart, 1975] #764 - UK
37. Glory [Zwick, Edward, 1989] #788 - US
38. Heimat (Homeland) [Reitz, Edgar, 1984] #824 - Germany
39. Princess Yang Kwei Fei (Yokihi) [Mizoguchi, Kenji, 1955] #829 - Japan-Hong Kong
40. Mother (Mat) [Pudovkin, Vsevolod, 1926] #856 - USSR
41. Seraphine [Provost, Martin, 2008] #896 - France-Belg
42. Z [Costa-Gavras, Constantin, 1969] #903 - France
43. Carnival in Flanders [Feyder, Jacques, 1935] #970 - France
44. Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition, The [Butler, George, 2000] #971 - Sw-UK-Gy-US
45. Festival Express [Smeaton & Cvitanovich, 2003] #987 - UK-Neth
46. The Last Emperor [Bertolucci, Bernardo, 1987] #1056 - UK-Italy-China-France
47. Apollo 13: The IMAX Experience [Howard, Ron, 1995] #1057 - US
48. The Marquise of O [Rohmer, Eric, 1976] #1085 - France
49. In the Shadow of the Moon [Sington, David, 2007] #1094 - US
50. Mutiny on the Bounty [Lloyd, Frank, 1935] #1116 - US
51. The Killing Fields [Joffé, Roland, 1984] #1141 - US
52. Samson and Delilah [DeMille, Cecil B., 1949] #1210 - US
53. Simon of the Desert [Buñuel, Luis, 1965] #1217 - Mexico
54. Good Night, and Good Luck. [Clooney, George, 2005] #1231 - US
55. Woodstock [Wadleigh, Michael, 1970] #1233 - US
56. Cyrano de Bergerac [Rappeneau, Jean-Paul, 1990] #1242 - France
57. Queen Christina [Mamoulian, Rouben, 1933] #1269 - US

Docudrama
True events were the basis for a drama, which may or may not have remained accurate, such as French Connection or Scarface, or which we know to have been a fiction based real events, such as Amadeus or The Queen, or even based on theory (JFK, Missing).

1. Amadeus [Forman, Milos, 1984] #63 - US
2. Dog Day Afternoon [Lumet, Sidney, 1975] #175 - US
3. Close-Up [Kiarostami, Abbas, 1990] #190 - Iran
4. Million Dollar Baby [Eastwood, Clint, 2004] #265 - US
5. Badlands [Malick, Terrence, 1973] #271 - US
6. Rise to Power of Louis XIV, The [Rossellini, Roberto, 1966] #279 - France
7. Scarface [Hawks, Howard, 1932] #440 - US
8. The French Connection [Friedkin, William, 1971] #441 - US
9. Queen, The [Frears, Stephen, 2006] #481 - UK-Fr-Italy
10. Braveheart [Gibson, Mel, 1995] #508 - US
11. Hotel Rwanda [George, Terry, 2004] #514 - US
12. The Right Stuff [Kaufman, Philip, 1983] #549 - US
13. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser [Herzog, Werner, 1974] #572 - West Germany
14. Into the Wild [Penn, Sean, 2007] #588 - US
15. Class, The [Cantet, Laurent, 2008] #597 - France
16. Waltz with Bashir [Folman, Ari, 2008] #633 - Israel
17. Devils, The (of Loudun) [Russell, Ken, 1971] #685 - UK
18. JFK [Stone, Oliver, 1991] #690 - US
19. Changeling [Eastwood, Clint, 2008] #739 - US
20. Capote [Miller, Bennett, 2005] #761 - Canada-Us
21. Quiz Show [Redford, Robert, 1994] #811 - US
22. Boys Don't Cry [Pierce, Kimberly, 1999] #877 - US
23. Chariots of Fire [Hudson, Hugh, 1981] #928 - UK
24. Thin Blue Line, The [Morris, Errol, 1988] #979 - US
25. Forbidden Lie$ [Broinowski, Anna, 2007] #1031 - Australia
26. My Winnipeg [Maddin, Guy, 2007] #1098 - Canada
27. Missing [Costa-Gavras, Constantin, 1982] #1099 - US
28. Insider [Mann, Michael, 1999] #1104 - US
29. Louisiana Story [Flaherty, Robert, 1948] #1230 - US

Top Ranked Film Noir

Film noir, for initiates, is a French term meaning literally "night film". The style is generally credited to American filmmakers creating this style for soldiers returning from WW2 around 1943-45 who expected more realistic, less optimistic subjects than traditional upbeat 'Hollywood ending' films. Some academics say it began with Billy Wilders Double Indemnity in 1944, some point to even earlier examples from the thirties.

The initial films did take place mostly at night, or in dimly lit interiors; the characters usually smoked and drank whenever possible; and the genre is usually classified by having a lead character with questionable ethics, and often low self-esteem if not downright self-loathing.

The genre caught on worldwide, especially in Europe where the French seemed to have made nothing but noir films for awhile, but even Kurosawa paid tribute himself in Japan. The "true" film noir movie should be in black and white, and made before 1960, but sometimes more modern noir still emulates this style, such as Chinatown, Pulp Fiction, Sin City, and The Departed. I'm using the IMDB genre designation for these.

1. Sunset Boulevard [Wilder, Billy, 1950] #14 - US [photo top]
2. Third Man, The [Reed, Carol, 1948] #15 - UK
3. Touch of Evil [Welles, Orson, 1958] #30 - US
4. Night of The Hunter, The [Laughton, Charles, 1955] #35 - US
5. Notorious [Hitchcock, Alfred, 1946] #42 - US
6. Double Indemnity [Wilder, Billy, 1944] #56 - US [photo rt]
7. Maltese Falcon, The [Huston, John, 1941] #71 - US
8. Shadow of a Doubt [Hitchcock, Alfred, 1943] #104 - US
9. Strangers on a Train [Hitchcock, Alfred, 1951] #121 - US
10. Big Sleep, The [Hawks, Howard, 1946] #123 - US

11. Sweet Smell of Success [Mackendrick, Alexander, 1957] #133 - US
12. Wages of Fear, The [Clouzot, Henri-Georges, 1952] #134 - France-Italy
13. Laura [Preminger, Otto, 1944] #169 - US
14. Blue Velvet [Lynch, David, 1986] #231 - US
15. Out of the Past [Tourneur, Jacques, 1947] #238 - US [photo rt]
16. Rocco and His Brothers [Visconti, Luchino, 1964] #239 - Italy-France
17. White Heat [Walsh, Raoul, 1949] #327 - US
18. Killing, The [Kubrick, Stanley, 1956] #329 - US
19. Kiss Me Deadly [Aldrich, Robert, 1955] #341 - US
20. Asphalt Jungle, The [Huston, John, 1950] #350 - US

21. Shoot the Piano Player [Truffaut, François, 1960] #393 - France
22. To Have and Have Not [Hawks, Howard, 1944] #410 - US
23. Big Heat, The [Lang, Fritz, 1953] #466 - US
24. Mulholland Dr. [Lynch, David, 2001] #477 - France-US
25. Odd Man Out [Reed, Carol, 1947] #478 - UK
26. Detour [Ulmer, Edgar G. 1945] #493US
27. High and Low [Kurosawa, Akira, 1963] #515 -Japan

28. Gun Crazy (Deadly is the Female) [Lewis, Joseph H. , 1950] #583 -US [photo rt]
29. Ace in the Hole [Wilder, Billy, 1951] #604 -US
30. Lady from Shanghai, The [Welles, Orson, 1947] #615 -US
31. Bob le flambeur [Melville, Jean-Pierre, 1956] #767 -France
32. Woman in the Window, The [Lang, Fritz, 1944] #775 -US
33. They Live by Night [Ray, Nicholas, 1948] #785 -US
34. Pickup on South Street [Fuller, Sam, 1953] #823 -US
35. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang [LeRoy, Mervyn, 1932] #830 -US
36. Big Deal on Madonna Street [Monicelli, Mario, 1958] #911 -Italy
37. While the City Sleeps [Lang, Fritz, 1956] #951 -US
38. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt [Lang, Fritz, 1956] #1005 -US
39. Shanghai Gesture, The [von Sternberg, Josef, 1941] #1024 -US
40. Force of Evil [Polonsky, Abraham, 1948] #1160 -US
41. Killers [Siodmak, Robert, 1946] #1163 -US
42. Leave Her to Heaven [Stahl, John M. , 1945] #1165 -US
43. Moonrise [Borzage, Frank, 1948] #1215 -US
44. Angel Face [Preminger, Otto, 1952] #1254 -US
45. Rififi [Dassin, Jules, 1955] #1260 -France

Here is the IMDB top fifty film-noir as voted by users, such as myself (I'm a regular voter there). For some reason, they actually include the western The Ox-Bow Incident, but not me, that's a bit of a stretch.

I would also add: D.O.A. (the original bw one), Panic in the Streets
Modern Noir: Chinatown, Blue Velvet, Pulp Fiction, L.A. Confidential, The Conformist, The Departed, Sin City, Diva, La Femme Nikita, Shanghai Triad, The Long Goodbye

No film noir movie has ever won the best picture Oscar®, but these have been nominated: Double Indemnity, The Maltese Falcon, and Sunset Boulevard (which probably came the closest to winning). Modern noir films that were nominated were Pulp Fiction, L.A. Confidential, and Chinatown.