Mini reviews of the 100 greatest films (according to Robert the List)

I have been criticised at times for not saying anything about the films which I think are the greatest, or explaining why they make my list.

So I thought it was about time that I did that.

I can't do it anywhere near the standard of someone like Ilove2viddyfilms or Captain Quint, and I wouldn't attempt to. That's not because I can't write, I'm confident that I can, but I simply don't have their depth of knowledge about film making. It's probably more than that, but that is a key aspect of what will put my reviews substantially below theirs in terms of depth and substance. Another factor I have realised is that I have not recently viewed the films in full; this makes a huge difference to being able to do a proper review of it!

What I do have though is a nose. I'm confident that I'm a good judge, and that quality combined with the absurd amount of time which I have spent putting this list together over the last few years, makes me confident that the actual films in my 100 are as good as any top 100 that has been assembled.

In fact I'm actually going to be bold, and I'm going to say that this list, this 100 films, is most likely the single greatest assembly of 100 films, ever created.

Not only that, but I also will include edited extracts from Wikipedia, providing information about each film which may be of interest.

I hope that you, reader, find something from the list new to you which like me you come to love, and some interesting information about the films as well.

The list is dedicated to the memory of Whitney Houston.


THE 100 FILMS (ANNOUNCED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER)

1. The Great White Silence 1924 UK Herbery Ponting

2. Strike 1925 Soviet Union Sergei Eisenstein

3. The Adventures of Prince Achmed 1926 Germany Lotte Reiniger

4. Sunrise 1927 USA FW Mureau

5. The Passion of Joan of Arc 1927 France Carl Theodor Dreyer

6. Man With a Movie Camera (doc) 1929 Soviet Union Dziga Vertov

7. Salt for Svanetia 1930 Soviet Union Mikhael Kalatazov

8. Limite 1931 Brazil Mário Peixoto

9. Vampyr 1932 Germany Carl Theodor Dreyer

10. Story of the Last Chrysanthemums 1939 Japan Kenji Mizoguchi

11. Mr Smith Goes to Washington 1939 USA Frank Capra

12. The Wizard of Oz 1939 USA Victor Fleming

13. Day of Wrath 1943 Denmark Carl Theodor Dreyer ESSENTIAL

14. Meshes of the Afternoon 1943 USA Maya Deren

15. Sanshiro Sugata 1943 Japan Akira Kurosawa

16. La Belle et La Bete 1946 France Jean Cocteau LINK ERROR

17. Panique 1946 France Julien Duvivier

18. Notorious 1946 USA Alfred Hitchcock ESSENTIAL

19. Out of the Past 1947 France Jacques Tourneur

20. Bicycle Thieves 1948 Italy Vittorio De Sica

21. Kind Hearts and Coronets 1949 UK Robert Hamer

22. Stray Dog 1949 Japan Akira Kurosawa ESSENTIAL

23. The Third Man 1949 UK Carol Reed

24. Late Spring 1949 [/url] Japan Yasujirō Ozu ESSENTIAL

25. Little Fugitive 1953 USA Morris Engel

26. On the Waterfront 1954 USA Alfred Hitchcock

27. Rear Window 1954 USA

28. Journey to Italy 1954 Italy Roberto Rossellini

29. La Pointe Courte 1955 France Agnès Varda

30. Pather Panchali 1955 India Satyijat Ray

31. Bob the Gambler 1956 France Jean Pierre Melville

32. Bridge On The River Kwai 1957 UK David Lean

33. Elevator to the Gallows 1958 France Louis Malle

34. The Music Room 1958 India Satyajit Ray

35. Anatomy of a Murder 1959 USA Otto Preminger

36. Touch of Evil 1958 USA Orson Welles ESSENTIAL

37. North by Northwest 1959 USA Alfred Hitchcock

38. The Naked Island 1960 Japan Kaneto Shindô ESSENTIAL

39. Psycho 1960 USA Alfred Hitchcock

40. La Notte 1961 Italy Michelangelo Antonioni

41. Last Year at Marienbad 1961 France Alain Resnais

42. Lola 1961 France Jacques Demy

43. La Jetee 1962 France Chris Marker ESSENTIAL

44. L'Eclisse 1962 Italy Michelangelo Antonioni

45. Lawrence of Arabia 1962 UK David Lean ESSENTIAL

46. High and Low 1963 Japan Akira Kurosawa

47. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg 1964 France Jacques Demy

48. Onibaba 1964 Japan Kaneto Shindô

49. For a Few Dollars More 1965 Italy Sergio Leone

50. Alphaville 1965 France Jean-Luc Godard

51. Le Bonheur 1965 France Agnès Varda

52. Pierrot Le Fou 1965 France Jean Luc Godard

53. The Sound of Music 1965 USA Robert Wise

54. Au Hasard Balthazar 1966 France Robert Bresson

55. Blow-up 1966 UK Michelangelo Antonioni

56. Closely Watched Trains 1966 Czech Jirí Menzel

57. Bonnie and Clyde 1967 USA Arthur Penn

58. The Graduate 1967 USA Mike Nichols

59. 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 UK Stanley Kubrick ESSENTIAL

60. Kes 1969 UK Ken Loach

61. A Touch of Zen 1970 Taiwan King Hu

62. Walkabout 1971 UK Nicholas Roeg

63. McCabe and Mrs Miller 1971 USA Robert Altman

64. The Godfather 1972 USA Francis Ford Copolla

65. Le Cousin Jules (doc) 1973 France Dominique Benicheti ESSENTIAL

66. Don't Look Now 1973 UK Nicholas Roeg

67. Badlands 1973 USA Terrence Malick

68. The Passenger 1975 Italy Michelangelo Antonioni

69. Barry Lyndon 1975 UK Stanley Kubrick

70. The Mirror 1975 Soviet Union Andrei Tarkovsky

71. Taxi Driver 1976 USA Martin Scorsese

72. Apocalypse Now 1979 USA Francis Ford Coppola ESSENTIAL

73. Alien 1979 USA Ridley Scott

74. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial 1982 USA Steven Spielberg

75. The King of Comedy 1982 USA Martin Scorsese

76. Paris, Texas 1984 USA Wim Wenders

77. Stranger Than Paradise 1984 USA Jim Jarmusch

78. Taipei Story 1985 Taiwan Edward Yang

79. Landscape in the Mist 1988 Greece Theodoros Angelopoulos ESSENTIAL

80. A Short Film About Killing 1988 Poland krzysztof kieślowski

81. The Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse 1991 USA George Hickenlooper

82. Rebels of the Neon God 1992 Taiwan Tsai Ming-liang

83. The Player 1992 USA Robert Altman

84. Vive L'Amour 1994 Taiwan Tsai Ming-liang ESSENTIAL

85. Voices Through Time 1996 Italy Franco Piavoli

86. Trainspotting 1996 UK Danny Boyle

87. Flowers of Shanghai 1998 Taiwan Hou Hsiao-hsien

88. Saving Private Ryan 1998 USA Steven Spielberg

89. In the Mood for Love 2000 Hong Kong Wong Kar-Wai

90. Mulholland Drive 2001 USA David Lynch ESSENTIAL

91. Donnie Darko 2001 USA Richard Kelly

92. Uzak 2002 Turkiye Nuri Bilge Ceylan ESSENTIAL

93. No Country for Old Men 2007 USA Joel and Ethan Cohen

94. Wall-E 2008 USA Andrew Stanton

95. Frances Ha 2012

96. Embrace of the Serpent 2015 Colombia Ciro Guerra LINK

97. The Lighthouse 2019 USA Robert Eggers

98. Apollo 11 (doc) 2019 USA Todd Douglas Miller

99. Fire of Love (doc) 2022 France Sara Dosa

100. Whitney Houston: The Concert For a New South Africa (doc) 2024 USA Marty Caller

Some near misses:
Seven Chances 1924 USA Buster Keaton
The Lodger 1927
Port of Shadows 1938
My Darling Clementine 1946
Rio Bravo 1959
Le Mepris / Contempt 1963
Stolen Kisses 1968 France François Truffaut
The Color of Pomegrantes
Cabaret 1972 USA Bob Fosse
The Day of the Jackal 1973
Chinatown 1974 USA Roman Polanski
Blade Runner (Director's Cut) 1982 USA Ridley Scott ESSENTIAL
Coup De Foudre/At First Sight 1983
The Terminator 1984
Withnail & I 1987 UK Bruce Robinson
When Harry Met Sally 1989
Days of Being Wild 1990 Hong Kong Wong Kar-Wai
The Commitments 1991
Short Cuts 1993
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia 2011
Drive 2011
The Master 2012
Virunga (doc) 2015
The Look of Silence (doc) 2015

1. The Great White Silence (doc) 1924 UK Herbery Ponting (silent)

We open with one of few documentaries in the list.
It’s an astonishing film, documenting the ill-fated journey of Sir Robert Falcon Scott and his team to the South Pole, in their efforts on behalf of The British Empire to be the first people to reach the pole.
The film mainly consists of live footage taken by a cameraman who accompanied Scott, as well as some graphic recreations charting the progress of the expedition as it attempted to make it back to base camp from the Pole.
The footage is often beautiful, and absolutely remarkable considering that it was shot in 1911/1912.
We see vast icebergs, seals up close getting out of the water, even killer whales hunting, as well as the tall sail ships cutting through the ice, ice caves and tunnels, a towering volcano, and Scott and his team preparing for their assault on the Pole, husky dogs, sledges and all. Nothing like this had ever been filmed before, and (notwithstanding Nanook of the North’s recreations of the Arctic in 1922) nothing like it seen before.
Towards the end as Scott’s final days are set out, it also builds quite a sense of tension and excitement, and of course ultimately sorrow.
Personally I find that the wildlife shots drag a little bit, and there are a lot of title cards interspersed with the footage, and – as a warning - one scene in which they reveal the name of the black dog accompanying them on the trip is unfortunately painfully racist to today’s audiences.
Overall however the film is a remarkable achievement, as well as a largely fascinating and engaging viewing experience.

Wikipedia:
“
The Great White Silence is a 1924 English documentary that contains brief cinematograph sequences taken during the Terra Nova Expedition of 1910–1913. The principal filmmaker was photographer Herbert Ponting….
Synopsis and production notes
The Terra Nova Expedition was an effort, by governments and concerned citizens of what was then the British Empire, to plant the Union Jack on the South Pole by means of men, ponies, dogs, and primitive snowmobiles hauling sledges from a base located on the Antarctic coastline. The documentary portrays expedition leader Robert Falcon Scott and his ship, the Terra Nova, and men as they leave Lyttelton, New Zealand, to sail into the Southern Ocean and its ice floes.
Safely landed on the icy coastline of Ross Island, the filmmaker follows the men as they set up tents, practice skiing, and prepare to probe southward toward the Pole. The film concludes with a sequence of the explorers pushing off from their base, and title cards reminding viewers of what, to the 1924 viewer, would have been the familiar story of the expedition's tragic conclusion. Scott and his immediate support group of four companions never returned from the Pole.
Pioneering cinematographer

The Great White Silence's director/cinematographer, Herbert Ponting
Filmmaker Herbert Ponting was the first known photographer to bring a cinematograph to the Antarctic continent and to take brief film sequences of the continent's killer whales, Adélie penguins, south polar skuas, Weddell seals and other fauna, as well as the human explorers who were trying to "conquer" it.
Scott did not choose cinematographer Ponting to accompany him to the South Pole. Ponting remained on base and survived with his film sequences, eventually returning to England.”


Run time 1 hr 45.

Full film here:

2. Strike 1925 Soviet Union Sergei Eisenstein

Soviet cinema is generally brushed under the carpet in the west, but in the early days much of the best cinema was coming out of the Soviet Union. And this is about the best of the lot. It’s incredible that this was Eisenstein’s first ever film, because it pioneers artistry and a variety of techniques which were inspirational to other creative directors and to the development of cinema. I can see Antonioni in this, Kurosawa, Welles, Lang. This is light years ahead of where cinema was in the US at the time, and looks years more advanced than for example the much heralded Metropolis two years later. There is also ingenuity in the plot, including a spy using a pocket watch as a secret camera, and tension in the drama unfolding, including a climax on a scale that D.W. Griffith would have been jealous of. This is a masterpiece by any definition.

Wikipedia:
“Strike…is a 1925 Soviet silent…film directed and edited by Sergei Eisenstein. Originating as one entry out of a proposed seven-part series titled "Towards Dictatorship of the Proletariat", Strike was a joint collaboration between the Proletcult Theatre and the film studio Goskino. As Eisenstein's first full-length feature film, it marked his transition from theatre to cinema, and his next film Battleship Potemkin emerged from the same film cycle.
Arranged in six parts, the film depicts a strike in 1903 by the workers of a factory in pre-revolutionary Russia, and their subsequent suppression…
Upon release, Strike received praise from critics, but many audiences were confused by its eccentric style. It received little international distribution until its reappraisal during the 1950s and 1960s…
Plot summary
…A micrometer is stolen, with a value of 25 rubles or 3 weeks pay. A worker, Yakov, is accused of the theft and subsequently hangs himself. Fighting ensues and work stops. The workers leave the milling room running and resistance is met at the foundry. The strikers throw rocks and loose metal through the foundry windows. Then locked within the gates of the complex, the crowd confronts the office. They force open the gates and seize a manager carting him off in a wheel barrow dumping them down a hill into the water. The crowd disperses.
A police officer conducts a raid on the workers (top) as a stockholder squeezes the juice of a lemon (bottom).
…The owner is frustrated by orders arriving and the frozen plant. Demands are formulated: an 8-hour work day, fair treatment by the administration, 30% wage increases, and a 6-hour day for minors. The shareholders get involved with the director and read the demands. They discuss dismissively while smoking cigars and having drinks. Presumably on the orders of the shareholders, the police raid the workers, and they sit down to protest. At their meeting the shareholders use the demand letter as a rag to clean up a spill, and a lemon squeezer metaphorically represents the pressure the stockholders intend to apply to the strikers.
…A posted letter publicly shows the administrators rejection of the demands. Using a hidden camera in a pocket watch, a spy named "Owl" photographs someone stealing the letter. The pictures are transferred to another spy. The man is beaten, captured, and beaten again.
….After a deal with a tsarist police agent, the "King" hires a few provocateurs from among his community to set fire, raze, and loot a liquor store. A crowd gathers at the fire and the alarm is sounded. The crowd leaves to avoid being provoked but are set upon by the firemen with their hoses regardless.
The governor sends in the military…Rioting commences, and the crowd is chased off through a series of gates and barriers heading to the forge, then their apartments. The crowd is chased and whipped on the balconies. A policeman murders a small child. The workers are driven into a field by the army and shot en masse. This is shown with alternating footage of the slaughtering of a cow.
Production
Development
Prior to Strike, Eisenstein had primarily worked in experimental theatre, as a designer and director with the Proletcult Theatre. Boris Mikhin, head of the First Goskino factory, wanted to recruit Eisenstein to work in cinema, but Proletcult wanted to keep him. They negotiated and decided on a joint collaboration…Strike was selected to enter production first as a joint production between Proletcult and Goskino…
Pre-production
Studio head Boris Mikhin introduced Eisenstein to cinematographer Eduard Tisse, who had started his career as a newsreel cameraman during the Civil War. Eisenstein spent several months researching labor struggles. He interviewed strikers and activists, visited factories, and read Émile Zola's novel Germinal. He worked on the script with Esfir Shub at her house; however, after it was officially accepted he removed her from the project.
Eisenstein cast many of the roles from the Proletcult Theatre. Actors and students from the studio filled other parts, and crowd scenes were populated by factory workers from Moscow.
Filming
Production began in early 1924…After two days of test shoots, the board decided to remove Eisenstein from the project. Only after Mikhin and Tisse personally guaranteed the film's completion was Eisenstein was given a third test shoot and allowed to continue with production. During filming, he continued to quarrel with the studio over enormous demands, such as a thousand extras to form a mob in a scene from part five….
Style and themes
…Eisenstein's editing is rapid, even compared to other Soviet filmmakers of the era. Strike has an average shot length of 2.5 seconds, less than half that of a typical Hollywood film. Dissolves, traditionally used to indicate the passage of time between shots, are used instead as a visual effect. In some scenes, the aspect ratio is dynamic, with masks in front of the camera being added or removed to change the framing of a shot. The film also makes use of multiple exposures and iris shots…
Release
Although Strike was completed in late 1924, its release was delayed because of a shortage of positive film stock. The film premiered in Leningrad on 1 February 1925….The film was re-released in 1967 with a musical score.
Legacy
…Francis Ford Coppola revives/quotes the slaughtering of the cow metaphor at the end of Apocalypse Now (1979).”


Run time 1 hour 28
Full move:

3. The Adventures of Prince Achmed 1926 Germany Lotte Reiniger (silent, with score)

You might have heard of Prince Achmed from the story of Alladin? Well in this earlier version, the Prince is the star and Alladin one of the supporting roles.

It’s an enchanting and absorbing tale, beautifully and elegantly animated.

Wikipedia:

“
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (German: Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed) is a 1926 German animated fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film.
…The Adventures of Prince Achmed features a silhouette animation technique Reiniger had invented that involved manipulated cutouts made from cardboard and thin sheets of lead under a camera. The technique she used for the camera is similar to Wayang shadow puppets, though hers were animated frame by frame, not manipulated in live action. The original prints featured color tinting…The story is based on elements from the One Thousand and One Nights written by Hanna Diyab, including "Aladdin," "The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Perī-Bānū", and "The Ebony Horse."

Production
…Reiniger required three years, from 1923 to 1926, to make this film. Each frame had to be painstakingly filmed, and 24 frames were needed per second….

Restoration
While the original film featured color tinting, prints available just before the restoration had all been in black and white. Working from surviving nitrate prints, German and British archivists restored the film during 1998 and 1999, including reinstating the original tinted image by using the Desmet method.
…

Legacy
An homage to this film can be spotted in Disney's Aladdin (1992); a character named Prince Achmed has a minor role in the film. The art style also served as inspiration for the Steven Universe episode "The Answer".

Score
The original score was composed by German composer Wolfgang Zeller in direct collaboration with the animation of the film. Reiniger created photograms for the orchestras, which were common in better theatres of the time, to follow along the action.”


Run time 65 minutes.
Full film here:

Never heard of this movie

4. Sunrise FW 1927 USA FW Murnau

5. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) France Carl Theodore Dreyer

6. Man With a Movie Camera (doc) 1929 Soviet Union Dziga Vertov (silent)

It’s just a real ride. There’s some stunning shots and images, a lot of hugely inventive camerawork, and some interesting things to see about life in the Soviet Union in the late 1920s.

This film is so influential it's ridiculous. I've just watched about a 2 minute clip and I've seen the following influences:

[email protected] a Louise Brooks flapper look
[email protected] the camera rising between floors, ala Marcel Carne c1940 (although Hitchcock also used this in 1929 in Blackmail)
-@ 29.53 the balloons in The Third Man
[email protected] the superb scene in Stray Dog where Kurosawa imposes the character's eyes on him -roaming the streets looking for his gun
[email protected] the whole concept of Nightcrawler



aside from innovative shots in their own right, the fast cutting and editing is like nothing else.

Wikipedia:
“Man with a Movie Camera…is an experimental 1929 Soviet silent documentary film, directed by Dziga Vertov, filmed by his brother Mikhail Kaufman, and edited by Vertov's wife Yelizaveta Svilova. Kaufman also appears as the eponymous Man of the film.
Vertov's feature film, produced by the film studio All-Ukrainian Photo Cinema Administration (VUFKU), presents urban life in Moscow, Kiev and Odessa during the late 1920s. It has no actors.
…Man with a Movie Camera is famous for the range of cinematic techniques Vertov invented, employed or developed, such as multiple exposure, fast motion, slow motion, freeze frames, match cuts, jump cuts, split screens, Dutch angles, extreme close-ups, tracking shots, reversed footage, stop motion animations and self-reflexive visuals (at one point it features a split-screen tracking shot; the sides have opposite Dutch angles).
…In 2015, the film received a restoration using a 35mm print of the only known complete cut of the film equipment.
…Despite claiming to be without actors, the film features a few staged situations…

…Analysis…
Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote that the work "is visibly excited about the new medium's possibility, dense with ideas, packed with energy: it echoes Un Chien Andalou, anticipates Vigo's À propos de Nice and the New Wave generally”

That’s interesting to read as I had also identified it as an influence on New Wave!


Run time 65 minutes.
Full film here:

7. Salt for Svanetia 1930 Soviet Union Mikhael Kalatazov (silent)

Note, although regarded as a documentary, the later parts of the film are clearly not documentary at all. It is a fictional story. The earlier parts are in a documentary or docufiction style.

I love the camerawork, and the fast flow of the film. Some of the documentary/docu-fiction scenes are also interesting.
The scenes shot in the mountains are groundbreaking too.

Not why it's included but I have been to Ushguli, and it hasn't changed much!!

Wikipedia:
“Salt for Svanetia…is a 1930 Soviet-Georgian silent documentary film directed by Mikhail Kalatozov. As one of the earliest ethnographic films, it documents the life of the Svan people in the isolated mountain village of Ushguli in Svanetia, in the northwestern part of the Georgian Soviet Republic.

Synopsis
Most of Salt for Svanetia describes and explores the daily life of the Svan people, who are living isolated from civilisation in a harsh natural environment in the mountainous region of Svanetia. …
The film then concentrates on the lack of salt supplies….The solution to the salt shortage is presented in the climax of the film where the young Soviet power builds a road that connects the isolated region to the outside world...

Production
…Svanetia was an underdeveloped region, and thus Soviet planners tried to make it a showcase of Soviet modernization during the first five-year plan between 1928 and 1932. During this time roads were built, an air service was established and industries such as mining and lumbering were developed. It was against this background of Svanetia as a showcase of Soviet modernization that Salt for Svanetia was produced.
…Originally the film was planned to be a fictional feature film, but ultimately Viktor Shklovsky edited the footage Kalatozov had shot in Svanetia into a documentary film. The authenticity of some scenes has been disputed by the Svan people who deny that some of the customs shown have ever existed. The cinematography of Mikhail Kalatozov and the cinematographer Shalva Gegelashvili has been described as expressionistic due to its use of dramatic shadows, silhouettes against a dramatic skyline and Dutch angles….
Responses
After the film was finished it was criticized by Stalinist authorities as being unbalanced and unfair towards Svanetia. It was claimed that the director was too fascinated by the backwardness and superstition of Svanetia, and only superficially interested in socialist modernization. Kalatozov fell out of favor, culminating in a ban of his next film Nail in the Boot…
Despite the negative immediate reaction, Salt for Svanetia has been praised by film historians and other film directors. The Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky called it an "amazing film". The American film historian Jay Leyda described it as a "masterpiece".


Runtime 47-62 minutes

Full movie (62 minutes version) here:

8. Limite 1931 Brazil Mário Peixoto (silent)

For me this film is a dream. Like a precursor to the likes of Meshes of the Afternoon and Mulholland Drive. It’s beautifully filmed. The soundtrack is mesmeric, really you will do well to stay awake through the film but in a good way! It’s just a highly original, beautiful piece of film making. There are 3 films by one-off directors I’m aware of which are masterpieces, and this is one.

Wikipedia:
"Limite…is a 1931 Brazilian silent experimental psychological drama film directed, written, and produced by Mário Peixoto….It is often considered one of the earliest experimental feature films.
The film tells the story of two unnamed women and an unnamed man drifting in a small boat. As they float aimlessly, they reflect on their pasts through flashbacks. One woman escaped from prison but is still being pursued, the other left an unhappy marriage, and the man is grieving the loss of a lover. Tired and without hope, they stop rowing and let the boat drift.
Limite was restored between 1966 and 1978 from a single damaged nitrate print, though one scene remains missing….
…
…Peixoto died in 1992, aged 83, leaving a substantial body of literary work, unproduced screenplays and scenarios, and a fragment of a planned second feature film, Onde a Terra Acaba, which never was completed and mostly lost in a fire.
Peixoto continued to promote Limite throughout his life. …
Preservation status
By 1959, the single nitrate print of Limite had deteriorated due to poor storage conditions and could no longer be screened, a situation that contributed to its near-mythical status in Brazilian film history. …Former FNF student Pereira de Mello managed to retrieve the print (in 1966) The restoration process then began with photographic reproductions of every single frame, which was completed in 1978. The most recent version, based on that restoration, was made with the assistance of the Mário Peixoto Archives and Cinemateca Brasileira. It had its American premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn, New York on 17 November 2010, as part of the World Cinema Foundation's Film Festival. One scene of the film remains missing and was replaced by an intertitle.”


Runtime 1 hour 58 minutes

Full movie here:

9. Vampyr 1932 Germany Carl Theodor Dreyer

I just love the shadows and some of the imagery, as well as the general creepiness of it, and - perhaps a little bit like Limite - the dreamlike vibe.

Wikipedia:
“Vampyr (or)… 'Vampyr: The Dream of Allan Gray'…is a 1932 gothic horror film directed by Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer (in which the character of) Allan Gray, a student of the occult who wanders into the French village of Courtempierre, which is under the curse of a vampire…
The film presented a number of technical challenges for Dreyer, as it was his first sound film and was recorded in three languages. To simplify matters, he decided to use very little dialogue in the film, and much of the story is told with title cards, like a silent film.
The film was shot entirely on location, and to enhance the atmospheric content, Dreyer opted for a washed out, soft focus photographic technique. The soundtrack was created in Berlin, where the characters' voices, the sound effects, and the score were recorded.
…
Most members of the cast of Vampyr were not professional actors. Jan Hieronimko, who plays the village doctor, was found on a late night metro train in Paris. When approached to act in the film, Hieronimko reportedly stared blankly and did not reply, but he later contacted Dreyer's crew and agreed to join the film. Many of the other non-professional actors in the film were found in similar fashion in shops and cafés. The only professional actors in the film were Maurice Schutz, who plays the lord of the manor, and Sybille Schmitz, who plays his daughter Léone.
…
Filming
…
Dreyer originally wanted Vampyr to be a silent film, and, indeed, no sound was captured during filming and it uses many techniques from the silent era…because three different versions of the film were planned, so the scenes with dialogue had to be filmed with the actors mouthing their lines in German, French, and English during separate takes so that their lip movements would correspond to the voices that were going to be recorded in post-production.
Critic and writer Kim Newman described the style of Vampyr as being more like that of experimental features such as Un Chien Andalou (1929)

Post-production
…When asked about his intention with the film at the Berlin premiere, Dreyer replied that he "had not any particular intention. I just wanted to make a film different from all other films. I wanted, if you will, to break new ground for the cinema. That is all." Asked if he succeeded, he replied:"Yes, I have broken new ground"…”

Runtime 1 hour 13 minutes
Full movie here:
Trailer:

10. Story of the Last Chrysanthemums 1939 Japan *Kenji Mizoguchi

A charming and beautiful film which is just a pleasure to become a part of. It has some incredible Kabuki (Japanese theatre) scenes, I think the best I have seen in a Japanese film.
The chrysanthemum, which grows in the garden of one of the lead characters, is I understand known as the flower of death. But don't let that put you off watching.

Wikipedia:
“The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums..also titled The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum…follows an onnagata (male actor specialising in playing female roles) struggling for artistic mastery in late 19th century Japan.
…
Legacy
Many critics regard the film as Mizoguchi's major pre-war achievement, if not his best work, lauding its cinematography, marked by the use of long takes and frequent dolly shots, and emphasising its theme of female concern.
…John Pym praised the film's sets, which were "crammed with human detail," and, when "sometimes offset by shots of notably uncluttered spaces," highlighted "the isolation of the two principles in a teeming world dominated by class prejudice, harsh economics, and sheer blank human indifference"


Runtime 2 hours 23 minutes
Full movie here:

11. Mr Smith Goes to Washington 1939 USA Frank Capra

I’m surprised this film ever got made, bearing in mind the way it portrays corruption and privilege in the US Senate. Whether you believe that’s realistic or not, is for you to decide. My thoughts are that whilst it may be an exaggeration, I suspect it might have an element of truth about it. I find that sort of thing interesting to watch.
But it’s an engaging and gripping story. The acting is first rate. I’m not generally a Stewart fan, but the young Stewart in this was striking in his performance, and also clearly quite the dashing figure. Jean Arthur makes a brilliant drunk in one scene, and the hugely under rated Claude Rains puts in another excellent performance, to go with Casabalanca and Notorious, as well as The Adventures of Robin Hood. He’s overlooked but he really was on of the leading actors of the day.
Anyway, it’s a terrific film.

Wikipedia:
“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American political comedy-drama film directed by Frank Capra, starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart, and featuring Claude Rains and Edward Arnold. The film is about a naive, newly appointed United States senator who fights against government corruption…
The film was controversial in the US when it was first released, with attacks from many politicians claiming that it brought Washington into disrepute…
…
Impact
..one of the ways that some senators attempted to retaliate for the damage they felt the film had done to the reputation of their institution was by pushing the passage of the Neely Anti-Block Booking Bill, which eventually led to the breakup of the studio-owned theater chains in the late 1940s.”

Runtime 2 hours 4 minutes
Trailer:

12. The Wizard of Oz 1939 USA Victor Fleming

Wikipedia:
“The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, it was primarily directed by Victor Fleming, who left production to take over the troubled Gone with the Wind….
The Wizard of Oz is celebrated for its use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling, musical score, and memorable characters…
Production
Development
Production on the film began when Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) showed that films adapted from popular children's stories and fairytales could be successful.

In January 1938, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought the rights to L. Frank Baum's popular novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from Samuel Goldwyn.
…
Much attention was given to the use of color in the production, with the MGM production crew favoring some hues over others. It took the studio's art department almost a week to settle on the shade of yellow used for the Yellow Brick Road.

Casting
…Several actresses were reportedly considered for the part of Dorothy, including Shirley Temple from 20th Century Fox, at the time, the most prominent child star; Deanna Durbin, a relative newcomer, with a recognized operatic voice; and Judy Garland, the most experienced of the three. Officially, the decision to cast Garland was attributed to contractual issues.
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Filming
..The production faced the challenge of creating the Tin Man's costume. Several tests were done to find the right makeup and clothes for Ebsen. Ten days into the shoot, Ebsen suffered a toxic reaction after repeatedly inhaling the aluminum dust…in the aluminum powder makeup he wore, though he did recall taking a breath one night without suffering any immediate effects. He was hospitalized in critical condition and was subsequently forced to leave the project. In a later interview (included on the 2005 DVD release of The Wizard of Oz), he recalled that the studio heads appreciated the seriousness of his illness only after he was hospitalized. Filming halted while a replacement for him was sought.
No footage of Ebsen as the Tin Man has ever been released – only photos taken during filming and makeup tests.
His replacement, Jack Haley, assumed Ebsen had been fired.
…To keep down on production costs, Haley only rerecorded "If I Only Had a Heart" and solo lines during "If I Only Had the Nerve" and the scrapped song "The Jitterbug"; as such, Ebsen's voice can still be heard in the remaining songs featuring the Tin Man in group vocals.

George Cukor's brief stint
…George Cukor temporarily took over (as director) under LeRoy's guidance. Initially, the studio had made Garland wear a blonde wig and heavy "baby-doll" makeup, and she played Dorothy in an exaggerated fashion. Cukor changed Garland's and Hamilton's makeup and costumes, and told Garland to "be herself". This meant that all the scenes Garland and Hamilton had already completed had to be reshot.

Cukor did not shoot any scenes for the film, but acted merely as a creative advisor to the troubled production. His prior commitment to direct Gone with the Wind required him to leave on November 3, 1938, when Victor Fleming assumed directorial responsibility...

...Cumbersome makeup and costumes were made even more uncomfortable by the daylight-bright lighting the early Technicolor process required, which could heat the set to over 100 °F (38 °C), which also had the side effect of bringing the production's electricity bill to a staggering estimate of $225,000 (equivalent to $5,086,184 in 2024).
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On-set treatment and abuse allegations
In the decades since the film’s release, credible stories have come out indicating that Judy Garland endured extensive abuse during and before filming from various parties involved.The studio went to extreme lengths to change her appearance, including binding her chest and giving her Benzedrine tablets to keep her weight down, along with uppers and downers that caused giggling fits. There were claims that various members of the cast pointed out her breasts and made other lewd comments. Victor Fleming slapped her during the Cowardly Lion's introduction scene when Garland could not stop laughing at Lahr's performance. Once the scene was done, Fleming, reportedly ashamed of himself, ordered the crew to punch him in the face. Garland, however, kissed him instead. She was also forced to wear a cap on her teeth due to the fact some of her teeth were misaligned and also had to wear rubber discs on her nose to change its shape during filming. Claims have been made in memoirs that the frequently drunk actors portraying the Munchkins propositioned and pinched her. Garland said that she was groped by Louis B. Mayer.
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Post-production
…Oz initially ran nearly two hours long. In 1939, the average film ran for about 90 minutes. LeRoy and Fleming knew they needed to cut at least 15 minutes to get the film down to a manageable running time...Among the many cuts were "The Jitterbug" number, the Scarecrow's elaborate dance sequence following "If I Only Had a Brain", reprises of "Over the Rainbow" and "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead", and a number of smaller dialogue sequences. This left the final, mostly serious portion of the film with no songs, only the dramatic underscoring.
"Over the Rainbow" was almost deleted. MGM felt that it made the Kansas sequence too long, as well as being far over the heads of the target audience of children. The studio also thought that it was degrading for Garland to sing in a barnyard. LeRoy, uncredited associate producer Arthur Freed and director Fleming fought to keep it in, and they eventually won. The song went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and came to be identified so strongly with Garland herself that she made it her signature song.
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Legacy
The film was not the first to utilize color, but the way in which the film was saturated with Technicolor proved that color could provide a magical element to fantasy films. The film is iconic for its symbols such as the Yellow Brick Road, ruby slippers, Emerald City, Munchkins, and the phrase "There's no place like home". The film became a global phenomenon and is still well known today.
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In 2018, it was named the "most influential film of all time" as the result of a study conducted by the University of Turin to measure the success and significance of 47,000 films from around the world using data from readers and audience polls, as well as internet sources such as IMDb.”

Runtime 1 hour 42 minutes
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13. Day of Wrath 1943 Denmark Carl Theodor Dreyer

This is in my top 10. The atmosphere crackles. It's often visually wonderful. The story twists and grabs you. It draws you in. The performance of Movin is one of my favourites; she's as perfectly cast as any actor in any role. It sets the benchmark for a dramatic thriller/horror.


Wikipedia:

"Day of Wrath (Danish: Vredens dag) is a 1943 Danish drama film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and starring Lisbeth Movin, Thorkild Roose and Preben Lerdorff Rye.
It is an adaptation of the 1909 play Anne Pedersdotter by Hans Wiers-Jenssen, based on a 16th century Norwegian case.
The film tells the story of a young woman who is forced into a marriage with an elderly pastor after her late mother was accused of witchcraft. She falls in love with the pastor's son and also comes under suspicion of witchcraft.
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Production
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Day of Wrath was Dreyer's first film since Vampyr (1932). He had spent the previous eleven years working as a journalist…
…In one scene, Anna Svierkier's character is burnt at the stake. To depict it, Svierkier was tied to a wooden ladder, and Dreyer left her there while the rest of the cast and crew went for lunch, over the objections of Preben Lerdorff Rye and Thorkild Roose. When they returned, Svierkier was perspiring profusely, which is visible in the film.”

Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes
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14. Meshes of the Afternoon 1943 USA Maya Deren

Groundbreaking. It’s the blueprint for the horror/shalsher genre. It adopts various inventive techniques which were later repeated, for example Deren’s character’s position on the staircase moving through a series of cuts, which you can imagine the sound effect from the Pyscho shower scene being played to. In another moment, the cloaked figure suddenly appears inside her apartment on the staircase and it really makes the viewer jump. I hadn’t seen anything like that prior to this film. It also uses time in a non-linear way, which Rashomon (1950) is often credited as having introduced. There’s also some great imagery in the film.

Wikipedia:

“Meshes of the Afternoon is a 1943 American experimental silent short film directed by and starring wife-and-husband team, Maya Deren and Alexandr Hackenschmied.
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Background and production
The film was the product of Deren's and Hammid's desire to create an avant-garde personal film that dealt with complex psychology…
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The original print had no score. However, a musical score influenced by classical Japanese music was added in 1959 by Deren's third husband, Teiji Ito.
…Analysis…
Deren explained that Meshes "...is concerned with the interior experiences of an individual. It does not record an event which could be witnessed by other persons. Rather, it reproduces the way in which the subconscious of an individual will develop, interpret and elaborate an apparently simple and casual incident into a critical emotional experience."
…Legacy…
Maya Deren was a key figure in the development of the New American Cinema. Her influence extends to contemporary filmmakers like David Lynch, whose film Lost Highway (1997) pays homage to Meshes of the Afternoon in his experimentation with narration. Lynch adopts a similar spiraling narrative pattern, sets his film within an analogous location and establishes a mood of dread and paranoia, the result of constant surveillance….”

Runtime: 14 minutes
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15. Sanshiro Sugata (1943) Japan Akira Kurosawa

14. La Belle et La Bete 1946 France Jean Cocteau

I find the opening scenes to be not very impressive, but once the fantasy begins it’s magical. For those who have seen some of Cocteau’s earlier experimental work such as Blood of a Poet, you will see signs of that here, but more integrated into the film rather than looking like stand alone tricks. It’s a beautiful love story above all else, but it creates this wonderland of fairytale with gorgeous and striking imagery, and narrative delivered like poetry.

Wikipedia:
“Beauty and the Beast (French: La Belle et la Bête – also the UK title) is a 1946 French surrealist romantic fantasy film directed by French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau...it is an adaptation of the 1757 story Beauty and the Beast...published as part of a fairy tale anthology.
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Reception in the U.S.
Upon the film's December 1947 New York City release, critic Bosley Crowther called the film a "priceless fabric of subtle images...a fabric of gorgeous visual metaphors, of undulating movements and rhythmic pace, of hypnotic sounds and music, of casually congealing ideas"; according to Crowther, "the dialogue, in French, is spare and simple, with the story largely told in pantomime, and the music of Georges Auric accompanies the dreamy, fitful moods. The settings are likewise expressive, many of the exteriors having been filmed for rare architectural vignettes at Raray, one of the most beautiful palaces and parks in all France. And the costumes, too, by Christian Bérard and Escoffier, are exquisite affairs, glittering and imaginative."…
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Runtime: 1 hour 33 minutes
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Mark Kermode review:

15. Panique 1946 France Julien Duvivier

It’s a crime drama/mystery with echoes of noir or poet realism. It’s a very well crafted film with some beautifully lit close up shots and an atmosphere which draws the viewer in, and has one of the most dramatic and absorbing endings of a film that I can think of, in which the sounds of exhaustion are briefly as telling as the pictures. The film prompts questions about group behaviour in society and justice, and highlights the macabre way that we treat the demise of others as entertainment, as well as examining conscience. It doesn't have the stunning outdoor shots that Carne provided in Port of Shadows (1938) which no doubt inspired On the Waterfront and also provided an early preview of neo-realism in some of the live action shots of the port in that earlier film, but it hangs together better as an overall picture. It’s a great watch; the pace and the cuts are perfect. Well played by Michel Simon, Viviane Romance, and Paul Bernard.


Wikipedia:
“Panique, also released as Panic, is a 1946 French film directed by Julien Duvivier starring Michel Simon and Viviane Romance….
Alice is a young woman who has just been released from prison after taking the rap for a robbery committed by her boyfriend, Alfred. She arrives in town the night after a woman's murder. The next morning, Alice and Alfred pretend they are meeting for the first time, as the police know she covered up a crime for someone and are eager to discover the real criminal. Alice's neighbor, the eccentric and misanthropic loner Monsieur Hire, immediately falls for her. He warns her about Alfred, advising that she should ask him about the murder.
Although Alfred is not initially forthcoming, he admits to Alice that he is the murderer. He was sleeping with the woman and killed her for her money. When Alice tells him that Hire knows of his crime, he quickly sets a plan into action. He begins planting suspicions among the locals, who already dislike and distrust Hire. Meanwhile, Alice leads Hire on and plants the murdered woman's handbag in his apartment. Then Alfred tells his friends to gather Hire's neighbors, who search the apartment and find the handbag.
After his friends incite a violent mob, Alfred urges Alice to call Hire and beg him to leave work and return home. When he arrives and is confronted by the bloodthirsty crowd…
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[V]ery few postwar films attempted to explain why people collaborated…In the years immediately following World War II, filmmakers were judged according to how their films reflected their implicit judgement of the behavior of the French under German occupation. The tale of "mob misrule" and "scapegoating" is played out in a setting that includes all the prototypical elements that identify it as a microcosm of French society: the cafe bar and terrace, small shops, church, modest hotel, "the selling of veal cutlets and Camembert". Panique has been described as "a strong and memorable screen denunciation of the relations between French people in the confused aftermath of the war" and "a harsh but thoughtfully delineated portrait of a society riven by mistrust and suspicion". Duvivier commented with respect to the film that "we are far from people who love each other". …Later critics have appreciated how the film makes references to the French Revolution as well as to the very recent past with playful puns and allusions rather than forthright statements, allowing the viewer to make the connections…”

Runtime 1 hour 40 minutes
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16. Notorious 1946 USA Alfred Hitchcock

It's a cracking thriller, a good romance, and a stylish film fantastically acted by a star cast.

Wikipedia:

"[i]Notorious is a 1946 American spy film noir directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains as three people whose lives become intimately entangled during an espionage operation.
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Notorious is considered by critics and scholars to mark a watershed for Hitchcock artistically, and to represent a heightened thematic maturity. His biographer, Donald Spoto, writes that "Notorious is in fact Alfred Hitchcock's first attempt—at the age of forty-six—to bring his talents to the creation of a serious love story, and its story of two men in love with Ingrid Bergman could only have been made at this stage of his life."
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Cast notes
…Biographer Patrick McGilligan writes that "Hitchcock rarely managed to pull together a dream cast for any of his 1940s films, but Notorious was a glorious exception."
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Themes and motifs
The predominant theme in Notorious is trust—trust withheld, or given too freely.
Critical response
…Writing in The New York Times, Bosley Crowther praised the film, writing, "Mr. Hecht has written, and Mr. Hitchcock has directed in brilliant style, a romantic melodrama which is just about as thrilling as they come—velvet smooth in dramatic action, sharp and sure in its characters, and heavily charged with the intensity of warm emotional appeal."…
Roger Ebert also praised the film, adding it to his "Great Movies" list and calling it "the most elegant expression of the master's visual style". Notorious was Patricia Hitchcock O'Connell's favorite of her father's pictures. "What a perfect film!", she told her father's biographer.
Film critic Roger Ebert included Notorious on his "Ten Greatest Films of All Time" list in 1991, citing it as his favorite of Hitchcock's films…


Runtime 1 hour 41 minutes
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