The Elliot's Watching Top 50 Films

As promised, here is my list of the Top 50 films, a highly subjective list of course, but one that hope will lead you to re-view some great films you've already seen and perhaps will lead you to some new pathways as well. As with the companion list that I posted on my other blog a few weeks ago - the Elliot's Reading Top 100 books - each of these films is (I think) by a different director, so rather than get into the debate about which films by Renoir, Kurosawa, Woody Allen, et al. - each director gets only one - but almost every director represented has many other films that could be on the list, so use this list as a way to explore and branch out rather than as a doctrinaire pronunciation from some high-culture gatekeeper. This list intentionally omits many popular culture classics that I'm glad I've seen once and that everyone should probably see once - but not necessarily twice. I believe every film on this list rewards multiple viewings. Because film is much more of a shared cultural phenomenon than literary fiction, I'm guessing that many who read these posts have seen 30 or more of these films; if you've seen 40 or more, we have similar taste. If you've seen all 50, then you are me. Can you identify all of the directors? I'm pretty sure that I can't. In a few days, I'll add the names of directors to the list.

--> Movie list

1.     Rules of the Game

2.     La Dolce Vita

3.     The Seven Samurai

4.     The Godfather

5.     The Seventh Seal

6.     The 400 Blows

7.     Annie Hall

8.     Duck Soup

9.     Tokyo Story

10.  Citizen Kane

11.  Some Like it Hot

12.  Night of the Hunter

13.  Mean Streets

14.  The Secret in Their Eyes

15.  Pan's Labyrinth

16.  12 Years a Slave

17.  The Great Beauty

18.  Casablanca

19.  It’s a Wonderful Life

20.  Psycho

21.  Bicycle Thieves

22.  The Conformist

23.  The Passenger

24.  Army of Shadows

25.  The Human Condition

26.  Mother

27.  Yi-Yi

28.  Little Fugitives

29.  Secrets and Lies

30.  Don’t Look Back

31.  Revanche

32.  The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner

33.  American Graffiti

34.  Fish Tank

35.  Sweetgrass

36.  In the Mood for Love

37.  The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

38.  Searching for Sugarman

39.  A Streetcar Named Desire

40.  Talk to Her

41.  Titticut Follies

42.  Breathless

43.  Pulp Fiction

44.  Cabaret

45.  The Searchers

46.  Blue Velvet

47.  The Child (L’Enfant)

48.  Chinatown

49.  The Lives of Others

50.  Aguirre, the Wrath of God

Note: I have corrected #15 to read Pan's Labyrinth - ek 4/16/14