Top Ranked Films by Year: Pre-1930

[2011 Edition, 2nd version]

We sorted the entire list of Top Ranked Films on the Net 2011 Edition by year, and will post them here decade by decade.

This first post is all films before 1930, since nearly all are silent.
Total for the decade: 38

Year, Title, Overall Rank, Director
- [1902] -
1. Voyage dans la lune, Le (Trip to the Moon) #459 - Méliès, Georges

- [1915] -
1. Birth of a Nation, The #162 - Griffith, D.W.

- [1916] -
1. Intolerance #148 - Griffith, D.W.
2. Les Vampires #388 - Feuillade, Louis

- [1919] -
1. Broken Blossoms #246 - Griffith, D.W.
2. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The #290 - Wiene, Robert

 - [1921] -
1. Kid, The #226 - Chaplin, Charles
[Gone: The Phantom Carriage]

- [1922] -
1. Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens #112 - Murnau, F.W.
2. Nanook of the North #601 - Flaherty, Robert
3. Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler #639 - Lang, Fritz
4. Foolish Wives #837 - von Stroheim, Erich

- [1923] -
1. Our Hospitality #738 - Keaton, Buster/John Blystone
[Gone: Safety Last! - Newmeyer, Fred C. & Taylor, Sam]

 - [1924] -
1. Sherlock Jr. - Keaton, Buster #69
2. Greed - von Stroheim, Erich #161
3. Strike - Eisenstein, Sergei #452
4. Last Laugh - Murnau, F.W. #505
5. Navigator, The - Keaton, Buster/Donald Crisp #685

- [1925] -
1. Gold Rush, The - Chaplin, Charles #48
2. Battleship Potemkin - Eisenstein, Sergei #123
3. Ben-Hur - Niblo, Fred #592
4. Seven Chances - Keaton, Buster #825

- [1926] -
1. Faust - Murnau, F.W. #617
2. Mother (Mat,1926) Pudovkin, Vsevolod #712

- [1927] -
1. Metropolis - Lang, Fritz #7
2. General, The - Keaton, Buster/Clyde Bruckman #35
3. Sunrise - Murnau, F.W. #43
4. October - Eisenstein, Sergei #345
5. Napoléon - Gance, Abel #352

- [1928] -
1. Passion of Joan of Arc, The - Dreyer, Carl Theodor #34
2. Pandora's Box - Pabst, G.W. #317
3. Steamboat Bill, Jr. - Keaton, Buster/Charles F. Reisner #329
4. Crowd, The - Vidor, King #499
5. Wind, The - Sjöström, Victor #673
6. Cameraman, The - Keaton, Buster/Edward Sedgwick #675
7. Wedding March, The - von Stroheim, Erich #690
8. Circus, The - Chaplin, Charles #893
[Gone: Storm Over Asia]
Best Picture Oscar®: Wings

- [1929] -
1. Man With a Movie Camera, The - Vertov, Dziga #95
2. Piccadilly - Dupont, Ewald André #790
[Gone: Hallelujah! - Vidor, King, Queen Kelly - von Stroheim, Eric]
Best Picture Oscar®: Broadway Melody

Top Ranked for the Decade:
1. Metropolis (1927) Lang, Fritz #7
2. Passion of Joan of Arc, The (1928) Dreyer, Carl Theodor #34
3. General, The (1927) Keaton, Buster/Clyde Bruckman #35
4. Sunrise (1928) Murnau, F.W. #43
5. Gold Rush, The (1925) Chaplin, Charles #48
6. Sherlock Jr. (1924) Keaton, Buster #69
7. Man With a Movie Camera, The (1929) Vertov, Dziga #95
8. Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) Murnau, F.W. #112
9. Battleship Potemkin (1925) Eisenstein, Sergei #123
10. Intolerance (1916) Griffith, D.W. #148
11. Greed (1924) von Stroheim, Erich #161
12. Birth of a Nation, The (1915) Griffith, D.W. #162
13. Kid, The (1921) Chaplin, Charles #226
14. Broken Blossoms (1919) Griffith, D.W. #246
15. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The (1919) Wiene, Robert #290
16. Pandora's Box (1928) Pabst, G.W. #317
17. Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) Keaton, Buster/Charles F. Reisner #329
18. October (1927) Eisenstein, Sergei #345
19. Napoléon (1927) Gance, Abel #352
20. Les Vampires (1915-16) Feuillade, Louis #388
21. Strike (1924) Eisenstein, Sergei #452
22. Le Voyage dans la lune (Trip to the Moon, 1902) Méliès, Georges #459
23. Crowd, The (1928) Vidor, King #499
24. Last Laugh (1924) Murnau, F.W. #505
25. Ben-Hur (1926) Niblo, Fred #592
26. Nanook of the North (1922) Flaherty, Robert #601
27. Faust (1926) Murnau, F.W. #617
28. Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler (1922) Lang, Fritz #639
29. Wind, The (1928) Sjöström, Victor #673
30. Cameraman, The (1928) Keaton, Buster/Edward Sedgwick #675
31. Navigator, The (1924) Keaton, Buster/Donald Crisp #685
32. Wedding March, The (1928) von Stroheim, Erich #690
33. Mother (Mat, 1926) Pudovkin, Vsevolod #712
34. Our Hospitality (1923) Keaton, Buster/John Blystone #738
35. Piccadilly (1929) Dupont, Ewald André #790
36. Seven Chances (1925) Keaton, Buster #825
37. Foolish Wives (1922) von Stroheim, Erich #837
38. Circus, The (1928) Chaplin, Charles #893


I haven't seen many silent films, but of all the films on this list, I was most impressed by F.W. Murnau's Sunrise, winner of three Oscars® for 1928, including the only one ever given for "Artistic Film".

I was also very impressed by the innovative editing and cinematography in Dziga Vertov's 1929 classic Man With the Movie Camera, still dazzling by today's standards, and very fast-moving. [photo below]

Highest Ranked Films Year by Year

These are the top ranked film for each year from our compendium of all film polls on the net, our 2011 updated edition..

[AA] = academy award for best picture that year (12 matched)

2010: Toy Story 3 (2010) Lasseter, John #180
2009: Up (2009) Docter, Peter #305
2008: WALL-E (2008) Stanton, Andrew #155
2007: No Country for Old Men (2007) Coen Ethan and Joel #133 [AA]
2006: Pan's Labyrinth (2006) del Toro, Guillermo #125
2005: Brokeback Mountain (2005) Lee, Ang #334
2004: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Gondry, Michael #169
2003: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) Jackson, Peter #92 [AA]
2002: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) Jackson, Peter #119
2001: Spirited Away (2001) Miyazaki, Hayao #78
2000: Memento (2000) Nolan, Christopher #195

1999: American Beauty (1999) Mendes, Sam #97 [AA] [photo above]
1998: Saving Private Ryan (1998) Spielberg, Steven #109
1997: L.A. Confidential (1997) Hanson, Curtis #61
1996: Fargo (1996) Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen #49
1995: Pulp Fiction (1995) Tarantino, Quentin #20
1994: Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) Darabont, Frank #182
1993: Schindler's List (1993) Spielberg, Steven #30 [AA]
1992: Unforgiven (1992) Eastwood, Clint #57 [AA]

1991: Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) Demme, Jonathan #47 [AA] [photo above]
1990: Goodfellas (1990) Scorsese, Martin #26
1989: Do The Right Thing (1989) Lee, Spike #105
1988: Cinema Paradiso (1988) Tornatore, Giuseppe #118
1987: Full Metal Jacket (1987) Kubrick, Stanley #135
1986: Aliens (1986) Cameron, James #75
1985: Ran (1985) Kurosawa, Akira #39
1984: Amadeus (1984) Forman, Milos #70 [AA]
1983: Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) Marquand, Richard #394
1982: Blade Runner (1982) Scott, Ridley #13 [photo top]
1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Spielberg, Steven #33
1980: Raging Bull (1980) Scorsese, Martin #25
1979: Apocalypse Now (1979) Coppola, Francis #22
1978: Star Wars (A New Hope) (1978) Lucas, George #8
1977: Annie Hall (1977) Allen, Woody #77 [AA]
1976: Taxi Driver (1976) Scorsese, Martin #3
1975: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Forman, Milos #44 [AA]
1974: Chinatown (1974) Polanski, Roman #5
1973: Exorcist, The (1973) Friedkin, William #96
1972: Godfather, The (1972) Coppola, Francis #1 [AA]
1971: Clockwork Orange, A (1971) Kubrick, Stanley #59
1970: Conformist, The (1970) Bertolucci, Bernardo #45
1969: Wild Bunch, The (1969) Peckinpah, Sam #117

1968: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Kubrick, Stanley #4 [photo above]
1967: Graduate, The (1967) Nichols, Mike #84
1966: Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, The (1966) Leone, Sergio #36
1965: Pierrot le fou (1965) Godard, Jean-Luc #124
1964: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Kubrick, Stanley #18
1963: 8½ (1963) Fellini, Federico #40

1962: Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Lean, David #24 [AA] [photo above]
1961: Jules et Jim (1961) Truffaut, François #73
1960: Psycho (1960) Hitchcock, Alfred #14
1959: North by Northwest (1959) Hitchcock, Alfred #28
1958: Vertigo (1958) Hitchcock, Alfred #12
1957: Paths of Glory (1957) Kubrick, Stanley #91
1956: Seventh Seal, The (1956) Bergman, Ingmar #31
1955: Night of The Hunter, The (1955) Laughton, Charles #10

1954: Seven Samurai, The (1954) Kurosawa, Akira #2 [photo above]
1953: Tokyo Story (1953) Ozu, Yasujiro #76
1952: Singin' in the Rain (1952) Donen, Stanley/Gene Kelly #32
1951: Strangers on a Train (1951) Hitchcock, Alfred #157

1950: Sunset Boulevard (1950) Wilder, Billy #19 [photo above]
1949: Bicycle Thief, The (1949) De Sica, Vittorio #21
1948: Third Man, The (1948) Reed, Carol #23
1947: Out of the Past (1947) Tourneur, Jacques #293
1946: It's a Wonderful Life (1946) Capra, Frank #17
1945: Rome, Open City (1945) Rossellini, Roberto #289
1944: Double Indemnity (1944) Wilder, Billy #71
1943: Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Hitchcock, Alfred #262

1942: Casablanca (1942) Curtiz, Michael #55 [AA] [photo above]
1941: Citizen Kane (1941) Welles, Orson #11
1940: Great Dictator, The (1940) Chaplin, Charles #131
1939: Wizard of Oz, The (1939) Fleming, Victor #6
1938: Bringing Up Baby (1938) Hawks, Howard #218
1937: Grande Illusion, La (1937) Renoir, Jean #197
1936: Modern Times (1936) Chaplin, Charles #9
1935: Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Whale, James #192
1934: L'Atalante (1934) Vigo, Jean #88
1933: Duck Soup (1933) McCarey, Leo #53
1932: Trouble in Paradise (1932) Lubitsch, Ernst #321
1931: M (1931) Lang, Fritz #16
1930: Blue Angel, The (1930) von Sternberg, Josef #196

1929: Man With a Movie Camera, The (1929) Vertov, Dziga #95 [photo above]
1928: Passion of Joan of Arc, The (1928) Dreyer, Carl Theodor #34
1927: Metropolis (1927) Lang, Fritz #7
1926: Faust (1926) Murnau, F.W. #617
1925: Gold Rush, The (1925) Chaplin, Charles #48
1924: Sherlock Jr. (1924) Keaton, Buster #69
1923: Our Hospitality (1923) Keaton, Buster/John Blystone #738
1922: Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) Murnau, F.W. #112
1921: Kid, The (1921) Chaplin, Charles #226
1919: Broken Blossoms (1919) Griffith, D.W. #246
1916: Intolerance (1916) Griffith, D.W. #148
1915: Birth of a Nation, The (1915) Griffith, D.W. #162
1902: Le Voyage dans la lune (Trip to the Moon, 1902) Méliès, Georges #459

HAL's eye view of humanoids in 2001: A Space Odyssey

Directors with Multiple Films
5 each: Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick
4 each: Charles Chaplin
3 each: D.W. Griffith, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese
2 each: Keaton, Coppola, Wilder, Kurosawa, Coen Bros., Forman, Murnau, Lang

The Tree of Life was the only film from 2011 ranked so far, but then the year is still in progress and most polls won't list these until 2012, so I left it off of this list.

Films Falling Out of the Top Ranked 1000

These films all fell off the top ranked 1000 films on the net since the last survey in 2009
[Sorted by lowest current ranking]

Those in blue are good enough to remain in the top 1000, imo..


New Rank  - Title – (Year) - Director – [Old Rank]
2200. Heiress, The (1949) Wyler, William [698]
2196. Crash (2004/I) Haggis, Paul [752]
1700. When Harry Met Sally (1989) Reiner, Rob [654]
1644. Ox-Bow Incident, The (1943) Wellman, William A. [465]
1578. Our Daily Bread (1934) Vidor, King [604]
1543. Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The (2008) Fincher, David [668]
1458. Mephisto (1981) Szabó, István [998]
1454. Shanghai Express (1932) von Sternberg, Josef [997]
1452. Un Coeur en hiver (1992) Sautet, Claude [996]
1447. Gigi (1958) Minnelli, Vincente [989]
1446. La Bête Humaine (1938) Renoir, Jean [988]
1444. Rio Grande (1950) Ford, John [983]
1439. Flaming Creatures (1963) Smith, Jack [979]
1434. Out 1: Spectre (1974) Rivette, Jacques [975]
1431. O Lucky Man! (1973) Anderson, Lindsay [974]
1427. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) Donen, Stanley [972]
1425. My Man Godfrey (1936) La Cava, Gregory [553]
1420. Carnival in Flanders (1935) Feyder, Jacques [969]
1419. Bank Dick, The (1940) Cline, Edward F. [967]
1416. Midnight (1939) Leisen, Mitchell [966]
1414. New York, New York (1977) Scorsese, Martin [965]
1413. El Dorado (1966) Hawks, Howard [963]
1408. Lusty Men, The (1952) Ray, Nicholas [960]
1402. Ju Dou (1990) Zhang Yimou [957]
1398. Il Bidone (1955) Fellini, Federico [953]
1396. La Collectionneuse (1967) Rohmer, Eric [984]
1395. Reckless Moment, The (1949) Ophüls, Max [952]
1394. Public Enemy (1931) Wellman, William A. [951]
1391. While the City Sleeps (1956) Lang, Fritz [950]
1388. Black Sunday (1977) Bava, Mario [949]
1384. Une Femme est une femme (1961) Godard, Jean-Luc [947]
1382. Lost Weekend, The (1945) Wilder, Billy [414] [AA]
1380. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) Carpenter, John [946]
1377. Murder by Contract (1958) Lerner, Irving [945]
1373. Yeelen (1987) Cissé, Souleymane [943]
1372. Camille (1936) Cukor, George [942]
1368. Naked Spur, The (1953) Mann, Anthony [940]
1366. Queen Kelly (1929) von Stroheim, Erich [938]
1364. Trou, Le (1960) Becker, Jacques [937]
1361. Port of Shadows (1938) Carné, Marcel [935]
1358. Of a Thousand Delights (1965) Visconti, Luchino [934]
1352. Pursued (1947) Walsh, Raoul [928]
1345. Chariots of Fire (1981) Hudson, Hugh [927] [AA]
1344. Sun Shines Bright, The (1953) Ford, John [925]
1341. Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The (1947) Mankiewicz, Joseph L. [924]
1338. Kameradschaft (1931) Pabst, G.W. [923]
1333. Red Sorghum (1987) Zhang Yimou [920]
1329. Thin Man, The (1934) Van Dyke, W.S. [985]
1328. Night of the Demon (1957) Tourneur, Jacques [919]
1319. Art of Vision, The (1965) Brakhage, Stan [918]
1318. Informer, The (1935) Ford, John [917]
1317. Peter Ibbetson (1935) Hathaway, Henry [915]
1315. Shoeshine (Sciuscia, 1947) De Sica, Vittorio [914]
1310. Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958) Monicelli, Mario [910]
1308. Orlando (1992) Potter, Sally [909]
1306. Gregory's Girl (1981) Forsyth, Bill [908]
1303. Woman Next Door, The (1981) Truffaut, François [907]
1297. Limite (1931) Peixoto, Mario [899]
1293. Not Reconciled (1965) Straub, Jean-Marie [898]
1292. Flowers of Shanghai (1998) Hou Hsiao-Hsien [897]
1291. Seven Women (1966) Ford, John [896]
1288. Sugar Cane Alley (Rue case negres, 1983) Palcy, Euzhan [894]
1278. Round-Up, The (Szegénylegények, 1966) Jancsó, Miklós [891]
1275. Law of Desire (1987) Almodóvar, Pedro [890]
1272. Pakeezah (1972) Amrohi, Kamal [887]
1267. America, America (1963) Kazan, Elia [884]
1265. Lacombe, Lucien (1974) Malle, Louis [883]
1264. Bad Timing (1980) Roeg, Nicolas [882]
1263. Threepenny Opera, The (1931) Pabst, G.W. [881]
1261. Indian Tomb, The (1959) Lang, Fritz [880]
1259. Magnificent Seven, The (1960) Sturges, John [879]
1253. Early Summer (Bakushû, 1951) Ozu, Yasujiro [977]
1252. Phantom Carriage, The (1921) Sjöström, Victor [876]
1243. Actor's Revenge, An (1963) Ichikawa, Kon [872]
1241. You Only Live Once (1937) Lang, Fritz [871]
1239. 47 Ronin, The (1962) Mizoguchi, Kenji [870]
1235. Liebelei (1933) Ophüls, Max [869]
1234. Flowers of St. Francis, The (1950) Rossellini, Roberto [868]
1231. Arabian Nights (1974) Pasolini, Pier Paolo [865]
1227. Fellini's Roma (1972) Fellini, Federico [863]
1225. Husbands (1970) Cassavetes, John [901]
1224. Shame (Skammen, 1968) Bergman, Ingmar [912]
1221. Hitler: A Film from Germany (1977) Syberberg, Hans-Jürgen [859]
1219. Hatari! (1962) Hawks, Howard [858]
1214. Yellow Earth (1984) Chen Kaige [856]
1207. Amants du Pont-Neuf, Les (1991) Carax, Lèos [853]
1206. Two English Girls (1971) Truffaut, François [852]
1204. Verdict, The (1982) Lumet, Sidney [850]
1202. Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959) Dutt, Guru [848]
1199. Moonfleet (1955) Lang, Fritz [847]
1196. Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, The (1968) Straub, Jean-Marie [845]
1195. Under the Roofs of Paris (1930) Clair, René [844]
1189. Unfaithfully Yours (1948) Sturges, Preston [842]
1185. Wagon Master (1950) Ford, John [838]
1182. Ceddo (1977) Sembene, Ousmane [835]
1180. Outlaw Josey Wales, The (1976) Eastwood, Clint [834]
1176. Tom, Tom the Piper's Son (1969) Jacobs, Ken [833]
1175. Morocco (1930) von Sternberg, Josef [832]
1174. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) LeRoy, Mervyn [831]
1166. La Ronde (1950) Ophüls, Max [827]
1164. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) Meyer, Russ [851]
1159. Heimat (Homeland: A German Chronicle, 1984) Reitz, Edgar [825]
1158. Branded to Kill (1967) Suzuki, Seijun [933]
1157. Holiday (1938) Cukor, George [823]
1153. Hana-Bi (1997) Kitano, Takeshi [821]
1151. Fat City (1972) Huston, John [820]
1149. Puppetmaster, The (1993) Hou Hsiao-Hsien [819]
1146. Mon oncle d'Amérique (1980) Resnais, Alain [816]
1142. Heaven's Gate (1980) Cimino, Michael [813]
1140. Witness (1985) Weir, Peter [906]
1139. Safe (1995) Haynes, Todd [886]
1134. Barefoot Contessa, The (1954) Mankiewicz, Joseph L. [811]
1127. Big Parade, The (1925) Vidor, King [809]
1126. Anatahan (1953) von Sternberg, Josef [808]
1121. Firemen's Ball, The (1967) Forman, Milos [806]
1117. Outskirts (Okraina, 1933) Barnet, Boris [805]
1116. Night of the Shooting Stars, The (1982) Taviani, Paolo & Vittorio Taviani [804]
1115. Dangerous Liaisons (1988) Frears, Stephen [803]
1114. Fires Were Started (1943) Jennings, Humphrey [802]
1112. Man of the West (1958) Mann, Anthony [801]
1111. Othello (aka Tragedy of Othello, 1952) Welles, Orson [798]
1109. Man Who Would Be King, The (1975) Huston, John [797]
1106. Design for Living (1933) Lubitsch, Ernst [794]
1099. Thing from Another World, The (1951) Nyby, Christian/Howard Hawks [790]
1098. Harvey (1950) Coster, Henry [650]
1095. Gilda (1946) Vidor, Charles [787]
1091. They Live by Night (1948) Ray, Nicholas [786]
1085. Hellzapoppin' (1941) Potter, H.C. [781]
1083. Vagabond (San toit ni loi, 1985) Varda, Agnès [893]
1080. Z (1969) Costa-Gavras, Constantin [902]
1079. Ride the High Country (1962) Peckinpah, Sam [780]
1078. Sleuth (1972) Mankiewicz, Joseph L. [648]
1075. Saturday Night Fever (1977) Badham, John [956]
1073. Hallelujah! (1929) Vidor, King [777]
1070. Woman in the Window, The (1944) Lang, Fritz [776]
1064. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) Benton, Robert [993]
1063. Opening Night (1977) Cassavetes, John [990]
1061. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) Hawks, Howard [774]
1055. Van Gogh (1991) Pialat, Maurice [769]
1050. Tarnished Angels, The (1958) Sirk, Douglas [765]
1046. Salesman (1968) Maysles, Albert/David Maysles/Charlotte Zwerin [789]
1045. Xala (1975) Sembene, Ousmane [763]
1042. Tenant, The (1976) Polanski, Roman [994]
1040. Hôtel Terminus (1988) Ophüls, Marcel [761]
1031. Storm Over Asia (1928) Pudovkin, Vsevolod [756]
1030. Get Carter (1971) Hodges, Mike [778]
1029. Barren Lives (1963) Dos Santos, Nelson Pereira [754]
1027. Ludwig (1972) Visconti, Luchino [751]
1026. Big Fish (2003) Burton, Tim [773]
1024. Duel in the Sun (1946) Vidor, King [748]
1020. Seraphine (2008) Provost, Martin [895]
1016. Tiger of Eschnapur, The (1959) Lang, Fritz [743]
1013. Stromboli (1950) Rossellini, Roberto [742]
1012. Through the Olive Trees (1994) Kiarostami, Abbas [741]
1011. Murmur of the Heart (1971) Malle, Louis [939]
1010. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Siegel, Don [348]
1008. Angel at My Table, An (1990) Campion, Jane [739]
1006. Misfits, The (1961) Huston, John [738]
1004. Splendor in the Grass (1961) Kazan, Elia [737]
1002. Funny Face (1957) Donen, Stanley [734]

My favorites on this list (bummer!): 1-Dangerous Liaisons, 2-Big Fish, 3-The Man Who Would Be King, 4-Big Deal on Madonna St, 5-My Man Godfrey, 6-Witness, 7-The Thin Man, 8-The Fireman's Ball, 9-Mephisto, 10-Orlando, 11-Holiday, 12-La Ronde,  13-Splendor in the Grass, 14-Sleuth, 15-Bad Timing, 16-From Here to Eternity, 17-The Ox-Bow Incident, 18-While the City Sleeps, 19-Z, 20-Get Carter
 (these would all be in my top 1000!)

Good riddance, don't come back: Crash, El Dorado, Kramer vs Kramer, Hitari, Saturday Night Fever, Duel in the Sun, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!

IMDB 250 Changes Since 2009

We last recorded the IMDB 250 for our Top Ranked 1000 films in late 2009.. I just started updating the list, starting with the latest IMDB all-time top 250. These are the changes in the poll since that time.. it's obvious that we're losing classic films off the list annually, while newer films, of course, will move in, but in this case so did a lot of animation and anime films..

These are the major changes in the IMDB over the last year, from mid 2010 to now..

Inception is the highest addition to the list, now

at No. 9, so it'll fall over time but will likely

remain on the list for good

New On the List
400 Blows (59)
Avatar (09)
Barry Lyndon (75)
Beauty and the Beast (91)*
Black Swan (10)
Castle in the Sky (1986)*
Celebration (1998)
District 9 (2009) 
Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
Fanny and Alexander (1982)
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)*
Ikiru (1952)
Inception (2010)
Infernal Affairs (2002)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
King's Speech (2010) [AA]
Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)*
Mary and Max (2009)
Monsters, Inc. (2001) *
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) 
Persona (1966) 19,513
Pirates of the Caribbean: Black Pearl (2003)*
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Rain Man (1988)*
Secret in Their Eyes (2009)
Sherlock Jr. (1924)*
Shutter Island (2010)*
Social Network (2010)
Spirited Away (2001)
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003)*
Three Colors: Red (1994)*
Toy Story 3 (2010)
Truman Show (1998)
X-Men: First Class (2011)

* = low on list, unlikely to remain

It's encouraging that some older classics are moving back up, notably 400 Blows, Truffaut's first film. Passion of Joan of Arc, a silent film, finally got enough votes to get listed. What the heck is up with all the animation? Castle in the Sky, Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, How to Train Your Dragon, Monsters Inc. - these are not all that good. Spring, Summer.. is a great film, too bad it's so low that it won't likely remain. It's a Korean zen drama, we need more of those.

Harold Lloyd's Safety Last is now off the list

Now off the list:
Adventures of Robin Hood (38)
African Queen (51) [AA]
Bonnie and Clyde (67)
Brief Encounter (1945)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Changeling (2008)
Crash (2004/I) [AA]
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Dolce Vita, La (1960)
Frankenstein (1931)
Glory (1989)
Great Expectations (1946)
Hangover (2009)
Harold and Maude (1971)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
King Kong (1933)
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Laura (1944)
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
The Lost Weekend (1945)
My Man Godfrey (1936)
Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
The Red Shoes (1956)
Safety Last! (1923)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Spartacus (1960)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Umberto D. (1952)

Sad to lose so many real classics: My Man Godfrey, Lloyd's Safety Last! (ironic they added Sherlock Jr of Keaton's), Umberto D (the worst loss to me, this is a top 20 film), The Philadelphia Story, The Lady Vanishes, Great Expectations, The Ox-Box Incident, La Dolca Vita, The Sweet Smell of Success, Laura, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Red Shoes. Not really sad to see Bonnie and Clyde or Benjamin Button or Crash go however (this is the wrong Crash anyway)

Moving Up
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Green Mile (1999)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
The Kid (1921)
La Strada (1954)
Life is Beautiful (1997)
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Mystic River (2003)
Network (1976)
Rocky (1976)
Scarface (1983)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

I don't get some of these going up, like Green Mile, Rocky, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, The Kid, Life Is Beautiful, Scarface (this is a terrible film). Glad to see Network and Virginia Woolf moving up, both classics. Ironic that La Strada is moving up, while La Dolce Vita and Umberto D both fell off the list.

Falling:
8½ (1963)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)*
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)*
The Big Sleep (1946)
Children of Men (2006)
Harvey (1950)*
His Girl Friday (1940)*
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
The Killing (1956)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
Let the Right One In (2008)*
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)*
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Nights of Cabiria (1957)*
Notorious (1946)
Patton (1970)
Ratatouille (2007)
Sleuth (1972)*
Star Trek (2009)*
Strangers on a Train (1951)*
Touch of Evil (1958)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Up (2009)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Wrestler (2008)

* = won't likely last long
Some of these are falling and are getting low as well, so they'll likely be gone next year.
[Newer films are falling faster: Up, The Wrestler, Star Trek fell the most positions]

100 Greatest Literary Film Adaptations

 

Actress Mary Badham and author Harper Lee

of To Kill a Mockingbird, voted

the best literary adaptation in film

This all started with a Guardian film poll, listed here at MUBI (I’ve copied the list below, which is a public poll in England, hence some obscure, though excellent, films like Kes, Brighton Rock, and Remains of the Day, and the unlikely inclusion of Goldfinger)

The Guardian Film Poll

1. To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan) 
2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Forman)
3. Blade Runner (R. Scott)
4. The Godfather (Coppola)
5. The Remains of the Day (Ivory)
6. Kes (Loach)
7. Apocalypse Now (Coppola)
8. The Shawshank Redemption (Darabont)
9. L.A. Confidential (Hansen)
10. Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee)
11. A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick)
12. Doctor Zhivago (Lean)
13. The Maltese Falcon (Huston)
14. Fight Club (Fincher)
15. The English Patient (Minghella)
16. Brighton Rock (J. Boulting)
17. Trainspotting (Boyle)
18. Rebecca (Hitchcock)
19. Oliver Twist (Lean)
20. Schindler's List (Spielberg)
21. The Railway Children (Jeffries)
22. Breakfast at Tiffany's (B. Edwards)
23. Dangerous Liaisons (Frears)
24. Orlando (Potter)
25. Empire of the Sun (Spielberg)
26. Goodfellas (Scorsese)
27. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Neame)
28. The Talented Mr. Ripley (Minghella)
29. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (Ritt)
30. Lord of the Flies (Brooks)
31. Pride and Prejudice (Wright)
32. Sin City (F. Miller)
33. The Vanishing (G. Sluizer)
34. Jaws (Spielberg)
35. Watership Down (M. Rosen)
36. 1984 (Radford)
37. The French Lieutenant's Woman (Reisz)
38. Catch-22 (Nichols)
39. Lolita (Kubrick)
40. Tess (Polanski)
41. Get Shorty (Sonnenfeld)
42. The Jungle Book (Reitherman)
43. Alice (Svankmajer)
44. American Psycho (Mary Harron)
45. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Burton)
46. Devil in a Blue Dress (C. Franklin)
47. Goldfinger (Hamilton)
48. The Day of the Triffids (Seileky)
49. The Hound of the Baskervilles (Lanfield)
50. The Outsiders (Coppola)

[The only film listed I haven't seen is Brighton Rock]

They actually did a pretty good job, most of these are excellent films, with perhaps a few very literate adaptations overlooked, and some mediocre b-movies got included, like Day of the Triffids.

The glaring omissions to me are both Mira Nair's The Namesake, and James Ivory's A Room With a View (Forster's novel) - I mean, if Trainspotting is #17, Breakfast at Tiffany's #22, Sin City is #32, The Vanishing #33, and Get Shorty is #41 - c'mon people - these 5 aren't that great, are they? Also overlooked were Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons, Bertolucci's The Conformist, Women in Love, The Grapes of Wrath, No Country for Old Men, Ben-Hur, and Bondarchuk's massive 7-hr Russian War and Peace..

Apparently Shakespeare isn't 'literary', they must mean novels.. so no Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V (all Branagh's)..

My Own 50, er.. 100 Selections

* = my additions 73 total
[I've decided to expand the list a little, to make it more literate, if I do say..]

Links can be clicked for our review, we'll eventually do all of our list

1. To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan)
2. The Namesake (Mira Nair)*
3. Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring (Berri, one novel, two films)* France
4. A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick)
5. Apocalypse Now (Coppola)
6. Dangerous Liaisons (Frears)
7. The Conformist (Bertolucci, Italy)*
8. Babe (G. Miller, Australia)*
9. Walkabout (Roeg) Australia*
10. The Shawshank Redemption (Darabont)
11. The Godfather (Coppola)  [AA]
12. Women in Love (Russell)*
13. A Room With a View (Ivory)*
14. The Maltese Falcon (Huston)
15. Schindler's List (Spielberg)  [AA]
16. Heat and Dust (Ivory)*
17. Goodnight Mister Tom (Jack Gold)*
18. Minority Report (Spielberg)*
19. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Forman)  [AA]
20. The Grapes of Wrath (Ford)*
21. The Last Picture Show (Bogdanovich)*
22. Blade Runner (R. Scott)
23. Lord of the Flies (Peter Brooks)
24. Atonement (Wright)*
25. A Christmas Memory (Frank Perry, tv)*
26. Doctor Zhivago (Lean)
27. Goodfellas (Scorsese)
28. No Country For Old Men (Coen Bros.)*  [AA]
29. The Black Stallion (Ballard)*
30. The Prestige (Nolan)*
31. The Man Who Would Be King (Huston)*
32. The Graduate (Nichols)*
33. Seven Days in May (Frankenheimer)*
34. Midnight Cowboy (Schlesinger)*
35. An Education (Scherfig)*
36. The Silence of the Lambs (J. Demme)*  [AA]
37. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Neame)
38. Kes (Loach)
39. The Railway Children (Jefferies)
40. War and Peace (Bondarchuk, Russia)*
41. Zelary (Trojan) Czech Republic
42. Tess (Polanski)
43. The Magnificent Ambersons (Welles)*
44. Field of Dreams (P.A. Robinson)*
45. L.A. Confidential (Hansen)
46. The Motorcycle Diaries (Salles) Brazil*
47. Diva (Jean-Jacques Beineix)France*
48. Oliver Twist (Lean)
49. A Passage to India (Lean)*
50. Ben-Hur (Wyler)*  [AA]
51. The French Lieutenant's Woman (Reisz)
52. Terms of Endearment (James Brooks)*  [AA]
53. Empire of the Sun (Spielberg)
54. All Quiet on the Western Front (Milestone)*  [AA]
55. Winter's Bone (Granik)*
56. The Wings of the Dove (Softley)*
57. Under the Sun (Nutley), Sweden
58. The English Patient (Minghella)  [AA]
59. The Red Badge of Courage (Huston)*
60. Mephisto (Szabo) Hungary*
61. The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Kaufman)*
62. Hud (Ritt)*
63. The Remains of the Day (Ivory)
64. The Grifters (Frears)*
65. Le Plaisir (Ophuls)*
66. Pride and Prejudice (Wright)
67. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Peter Hunt)*
68. The Paper Chase (J. Bridges)*
69. Whistle Down the Wind (Forbes)*
70. Perfume (Tykwer) Germany*
71. Gone With the Wind (Fleming)*  [AA]
72. From Russia With Love (T. Young)*
73. A Christmas Story (B. Clark)*
74. The Loved One (Tony Richardson)*
75. Fight Club (Fincher)
76. Shane (G. Stevens)*
77. Mary Poppins (Rob't Stevenson)*
78. The Talented Mr. Ripley (Minghella)
79. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Rob't E. Miller)*
80. Smoke Signals (Chris Eyre)*
81. The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke)*
82. The Mosquito Coast (Weir)*
83. Orlando (Potter)
84. The Cider House Rules (Hallstrom)*
85. The Constant Gardener (Merielles)*
86. Carrie's War (Coky Giedroyc)*
87. The Wizard of Oz (Fleming)*
88. The Kite Runner (Forster)*
89. Elmer Gantry (Richard Brooks)*
90. The Thin Red Line (Malick)*
91. The Age of Innocence (Scorsese)*
92. Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes)*
93. The River (Renoir)*
94. Rebecca (Hitchcock)  [AA]
95. The Natural (Levinson)*
96. Witness For the Prosecution (Wilder)*
97. Emma (Doug McGrath)*
98. To Have and Have Not (Hawks)*
99. And Then There Were None (Clair)*
100. The Reader (Daldry)*
101. Sin City (F. Miller)

Special Mention to:

• Lord of the Rings trilogy (should be about 10th above if considered as one film) [AA]

Adding in tv miniseries, that were all novel adaptations (I would rank all these as well):

• A Town Like Alice  (David Stephens, Nevil Shute novel)
• Martin Chuzzlewit  (Pedr James, Dickens' novel)
• Gormenghast  (Andy Wilson, Mervyn Peake's trilogy, 2000)
• The Buccaneers  (Philip Saville, Wharton novel)
• Brideshead Revisited  (Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Waugh novel)
• The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby  (Jim Goddard, Dickens' novel)
• Lonesome Dove  (Simon Wincer, McMurtry novel)

Notes: 1. The best Larry McMurtry screenplays and films are The Last Picture Show, Hud, and Terms of Endearment, not Brokeback Mountain, which ironically was the first one he adapted not from his own work but someone else’s story, and he won his first screenwriting Oscar; go figure..

2. It's hard to believe they overlooked the epics Gone With the Wind, Ben-Hur, and War and Peace, while including The English Patient and Empire of the Sun, even though the latter two are the less long-winded and best-paced of the five

3. They included one good James Ivory film (Remains of the Day) and overlook two better ones (Heat and Dust, A Room With a View)

4. Since Dangerous Liaisons was based on a French play, why no Shakespeare? or any other plays, such as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I'm assuming plays were ineligible.. or I might include some.. (The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, and My Fair Lady, for instance)

5. The highest ranked ones I deleted on my list were Brokeback Mountain (10), Trainspotting (17), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (21), The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (28, which is dreary in both media), Sin City (31), which I liked but don’t consider this a literary adaption; if it is, then add American Splendor about 10 places above it, which is also based on graphic underground comics

6. Goodnight Mister Tom is one of the best films no one has seen. Only 1000 have rated it at IMDB, but it has one of the highest average viewer ratings for any movie at Netflix (4.3, where 4.0 is almost unheard of, Lawrence of Arabia has 3.8). Here's the IMDB page, rate it if you've seen it..

Of the 28 titles in agreement (on both lists), here’s a combined ranking (I deferred ties to the poll), these are all excellent:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird 1-1 = 2
2. Apocalypse Now 7-5 = 12
3. A Clockwork Orange 10-4 = 14
4. The Godfather 4-11 = 15
5. The Shawshank Redemption 8-10 = 18
6. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 2-19 = 21
7. Blade Runner 3-22 = 25
8. The Maltese Falcon 12-14 = 26
9. Dangerous Liaisons 23-6 = 29
10. Schindler's List 17-15 = 32
11. Doctor Zhivago 11-26 = 37
12. Kes 6-38 = 44
13. Goodfellas 26-27 = 53
14. Lord of the Flies 30-23 = 53
15. L.A. Confidential 9-45 = 54
16. The Railway Children 21-42 = 63
17. Oliver Twist 16-48 = 64
18. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 27-37 = 64
19. Empire of the Sun 25-41 = 66
20. The Remains of the Day 5-63 = 68
21. The English Patient 14-58 = 72
22. Tess 40-42 = 82
23. Fight Club 13-75 = 88
24. The French Lieutenant's Woman 37-51 = 88
25. Pride and Prejudice 32-66 = 98
26. Orlando 24-83 = 107
27. The Talented Mr. Ripley 29-78 = 107
28. Rebecca 15-94 = 109

These were the Guardian poll choices I didn't agree with enough to add:

Trainspotting, Watership Down (not bad, just not outstanding), The Vanishing (gimme a break), Jaws (a big rubber machine, right..), Get Shorty, Alice (just plain bizarre), American Psycho, The Jungle Book, Devil in a Blue Dress

- Brokeback Mountain (ironically McMurtry finally wins an Oscar for someone else's work and not his superior Hud, The Last Picture Show, and Terms of Endearment; not one of Ang Lee's best either)

- 1984 (as bleak as the novel, so accurate at least, not great cinema)

- Lolita (one of Kubricks least outstanding films, as bland as the Nabakov novel)

- Breakfast at Tiffany's (one of the weakest Capote adaptations, A Christmas Memory is the best)

- The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (one of the weakest Le Carre adaptations)

- Sin City (it's a graphic comic, not 'literature', or do we include Batman as well?) listed at #101

- Catch-22 (a far cry below the novel, one of the worst films from a great novel)

- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (gimme the original over this one)

- Day of the the Triffids (bad sf still makes bad sf films)

- Goldfinger (there are better Bond films: From Russia, With Love and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, for two)

- The Outsiders (not very memorable for a Coppola film, the man who gave us the Godfathers, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, Peggy Sue Got Married, Youth Without Youth)

- Hound of the Baskervilles (the Rathbones are so weak vs the Jeremy Brett BBC versions, and this is nowhere near Doyle's best, The Gang of Four)

Have not seen: Brighton Rock

100 Most Original and Creative Films

[Updated: 06.01.11]
In Chronological order
Total count: 111 + 11 documentaries

For me, these films have to also be watchable, which leaves off some of the more experimental films that were certainly original, but not much else.. I guess you also have to take the film's era under consideration, or films like King Kong would look like comedies (never mind the jaws of death on the T.Rex that Kong fights, he keeps using the Graeco-Roman wrestling one-legged takedown move daring Rex to bite his neck)

20's (6)
Nosferatu (1922) Germany, bw-silent the original vampire
The Battleship Potemkin (1925) USSR, bw-silent
Metropolis (1927) Germany, bw-silent [photo above]
Napoleon (1927) bw-silent - Abel Gance's epic 4-hour film, to be shown on three screens, creating ultra-widescreen effects; still amazing today
Man With the Movie Camera (1928) USSR, bw/silent
Sunrise (1928), bw-silent Won the only Oscar® ever given for "Most Artistic Film", which was almost a 2nd best picture award; Sunrise won 3 Oscars® for 1928, the most that year.

30's (8)
M. (1931) Germany, bw
Duck Soup (1933) bw
The Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) bw - the musical numbers directed by Busby Berkeley are trippy for any era
King Kong (1933) bw - a dumb story but some pretty good special effects for 1933. Growing up, I liked Mighty Joe Young just as much. Love it when Kong fights the T.Rex and keeps using the one-legged wrestling takedown from Graeco-Roman wrestling, which shows that Kong has some culture and fights like a gentleman; this is funny stuff today
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Alexander Nevsky (1938) Russia, bw [photo above]
The Wizard of Oz (1939) 
The Women (1939) bw

40's (10)
Fantasia (1940) animation
His Girl Friday (1940) bw
Citizen Kane (1941) bw
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) bw
Double Indemnity (1944) bw
A Matter of Life and Death (1946)  [photo above]
It's a Wonderful Life (1946) bw
Black Narcissus (1947)
Out of the Past (1947) bw
The Bicycle Thief (1949), Italy, bw - Vittorio de Sica used all amateur actors and a street realism style with stunning results, it's a prime example of Italian postwar neo-realism

50's (9)
An American in Paris (1951)
The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T (1952) - a fantasy by Dr. Seuss about children held captive by an evil piano teacher who has a giant piano and a composition requiring 500 children (5000 fingers..) photo above
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
The Night of the Hunter (1955) bw
Rififi (1955) France, bw
Crazed Fruit (1956) Japan, bw
12 Angry Men (1957) bw
The Seven Samurai (1957) Japan, bw
Vertigo (1958)

60's (13)
L'avventura (1960) Italy, bw
West Side Story (1961)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)  [photo above]
Frederico Fellini's 8 ½ (1963) Italy, bw
Dr. Strangelove (1964) bw
The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) Italy, bw
Battle of Algiers (1965) France, bw
Morgan! (1966) bw
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) bw
In Cold Blood (1967) bw
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)  [photo below]
War and Peace (1968) Russia took 5 yrs to film, costing $100 million, using 250,000 extras
Yellow Submarine (1968) - with Beatles music and childlike animation, in the style of super-hippie graphic artist Peter Max; for kids and fans only, as the Beatles venture into Pepperland to save it from the Blue Meanies - animation

70's (8)
The Conformist (1970) Italy
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
The Night Porter (1974) Italy
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Network (1976)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Apocalypse Now! (1979)

80's (17)
Raging Bull (1980) bw
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
The Road Warrior (1981) Australia
Time Bandits (1981)
Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1982) a filming of the 8-hr stage production, in two-hr parts [on the stage it was performed over 4 nights during the week, then all day on Saturday - 50 actors play over 250 parts]
Carmen (1983) Spain
Star Wars Trilogy (1978-83)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Brazil (1985)
Aliens (1986)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Raising Arizona (1987)
Beetle Juice (1988)
Dead Ringers (1988)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988) Japan animation
Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
Heathers (1989)

90's (15)
Beauty and the Beast (1991) animation
El Mariachi (1992) Mexico
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) partial computer animation
Groundhog Day (1993)
Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
Schindler's List (1993) bw
Chungking Express (1994) Hong Kong
Babe (1995)  partial animation
Fallen Angels (1995) Hong Kong  [photo above]
Toy Story (1995) computer animation
Hamlet (1996) the first film made of the entire unabridged play
Run Lola Run (1998) Germany
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
The Matrix (1999) partial computer animation

2000's (24)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) China [photo above]
Memento (2000)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Traffic (2000)
Chaos (2001) France
City of God (2002) Brazil
Hero (2002) China
Minority Report (2002)
American Splendor (2003)
Big Fish (2003)
Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2003) New Zealand partial computer animation
Oldboy (2003) Korea
The Triplets of Belleville (2003) France-Belgium-Can.-UK animation
A Very Long Engagement (2004) France
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Innocence (2004)
Sin City (2005) bw  partial computer animation
13 Tzameti (2006) France, bw
Babel (2006) Mexico
Departures (2008) Japan
The Fountain (2008)  [photo below]
Wall-E (2008) computer animation
Avatar (2009)  partial computer animation
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) computer animation
Micmacs (2009) France

2010's
Inception (2010) partial computer animation

Documentaries (11)

Man With the Movie Camera (1928) bw/silent
Triumph of the Will (1935) Germany, bw
Olympia (1938) Germany, bw [photo above]
Woodstock (1970)
Baraka (1992)
Hoop Dreams (1994)
Winged Migration (2001)
Rivers and Tides (2003)
Manufactured Landscapes (2006)
Marwencol (2010)
Restrepo (2010)


Honorable Mentions

The Absent-Minded-Professor (1961) bw
Back to the Future (1985)
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Big (1988)
Blue Velvet (1986) David Lynch took modern noir in a direction that not everyone liked
Breathless (1959) France, bw - Godard is not my cup of tea but his first is refreshing and a good place to begin - Band of Outsiders (1964) is his most enjoyable for me
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Chicago (2002)
Cinema Paradiso (1988) Italy
The Conversation (1974)
The Crying Game (1992)
Dames (1934) - more mind-boggling musical numbers from Busby Berkeley, the neon violins top them all
Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
Diabolique (1955) France, bw
E.T.: The Extraterrestrial (1982)
Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) China
The Fall (2007) India-U.S.
Field of Dreams (1989)
Good Bye, Lenin! (2003) Germany
The Graduate (1967)
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (2006) - another from the twisted mind of Terry Gilliam, where people enter the mind of Dr. Parnassus as a traveling sideshow and see their world through his imagination; Heath Ledger died during filming and his role was finished by Johnny Depp and Jude Law (!) - partial computer animation
The Incredibles (2004) animation
The Last Emperor (1987)
Legend of 1900 (1998) Italy
The Maltese Falcon (1941) bw
MASH (1970) a comedy set in an army battlefield hospital in Korea, yeah, that'll make em laugh
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
My Favorite Wife (1938) bw
Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy (2003-07) imagine: (a) a pirate series that actually made money (b) reviving a genre dead since the 40's (for good reason) [this spawned the classic Peter line on Family Guy, "Hey, everybody, I dreamed I was on a pirate ship and the only one not gay was Oliver Bloom"]
Platoon (1986)
The Prestige (2006)
Pulp Fiction (1995)
Raise the Red Lantern (1991) China
The Red Shoes (1948)
Reds (1981)
Rocco and his Brothers (1964) Italy, bw
The Ruling Class (1972)
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter.. and Spring (2003) Korea
Sunset Boulevard (1950) bw
Taxi Driver (1976)
The Thin Man (1934) bw
The Third Man (1948), bw - classic noir from Carole Reed perfected the dark shadowy look; marred by incessant zither music
Touch of Evil (1958) bw  [photo below]
Trouble in Paradise (1932) bw
Turtles Can Fly (2004) Iran-Iraq
Umberto D (1952) Italy, bw
United 93 (2006)
V for Vendetta (2005)
Whale Rider (2003) New Zealand
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) - a good idea (mixing live action with animation, cartoon characters with real actors) marred by poor pacing. The opening cartoon "Tummy Trouble" is better than anything else in the film. There is one great line, when Daffy Duck asks the crowd (about Donald Duck, his nightclub piano partner), "can anyone else ever understand what this duck is saying?"
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) Spain Almodovar's entire filmography is original - I also loved Volver, All About My Mother, and Talk To Her [All About My Mother is dedicated to "all women and those who play women", and begins with the film All About Eve on a tv]
You Can't Take It With You (1938) bw

Short Films
Wallace and Gromit: 3 Amazing Adventures (2005) [The dvd title] - Two of these three won Oscars®, The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave, while the 3rd, A Grand Day Out, lost to one of the others; it’s the first half of an intended full-length feature that creator Nick Park never completed. Instead he made the films Chicken Run and Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Park also won another Oscar for his first short film, Creature Comforts, available on the dvd of that title, which also features the British tv show of that title.

The Short Films of Jordan Belson [rare, hard to find] Stanley Kubrick wanted Belson to create the stargate sequence in 2001 but he refused to work on commercial projects or any films but his own. The result (from Douglas Trumbull) was a very poor imitation of a Belson film, which were hand painted cell-by-cell and would take years to create and would last just 3-7 minutes; all the images were abstract and cosmic. They are simply the best of that type ever created and defy comparison. At film festivals I saw them at in the 60's, they would receive standing ovations from the crowds.

The Great Train Robbery (1902), an 11-minute film about a western holdup, is considered the first American narrative film, the first to let audiences know that the new medium could tell them a story.

Notes:
People rave about (and list on polls) La Jetee by Chris Marker, which is a series of narrated stills presented as a "film" on some lists, but it's really a short 15m film of still photographs, so it's technically not even a "movie", or motion picture. It's also not that interesting for science fiction, I prefer more story-oriented narratives. It is original, just not "great". His real feature length film, San Soleil, is more interesting, but still isn't a great film either.

Greed (1924, silent), by Eric von Stroheim, was originally shot by the self-absorbed visionary madman at over 9 hours - who did he think would want to sit there that long in one unbroken session? who would want to devote their theater to one showing per day? would patrons get a lunch hour? So, he may have anticipated the mini-series by over half a century, but the film company, on their own, sliced his film down to a more commercial 133 minutes, which was released. Now a partially restored four-hour version exists (TCM will air it), which has sections using just production stills inserted where film is missing. The result is that we have absolutely no idea which film is the real film, which has really been lost on the studio's cutting floor forever. So I should include it in this list, but will instead note it here as perhaps THE major footnote in film history.

Some highly original films that just don't cut it for my viewing experience, they were all hard to sit through:

Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick), Persona (Bergman), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Sharman), Jeanne Dielman  (Akerman), Tron (Lisberger, I still have retinal damage from this one), Dogville (Von Trier, shot on a stage with the town's houses marked in chalk; a budget for sets below, what, 1k?), Satantango (Bela Tarr likes to follow cows walking down a road for 15 minutes, or people walking from their house to the village in real time, so this six-hour film is about an hour of real activity and is a major exercise in patience; had I been in a theater I would've walked out, instead I went to 2x speed on the dvd)

Michael Powell's beautifully shot

 Black Narcissus (1947)