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

I deleted my post in the event that you would use the "you said it was your ballot not me" excuse and then PM you, but it's obvious that you still wish to break rules. You think you can do anything you want here. You have given the public several reasons to report your post now. Your "lol's" can't save you. Every time you do, you prove that I am more mature and easier to get along with than you are.

Face it. You hide behind your lol's because you can't face the truth: you will be laughed at privately by the community and they'll be watching our argument while I handle things in a mature light, and other users PM me about how I shouldn't bother with people like you and then they insult you, as calling you names behind our back isn't against the rules here. I wouldn't insult you behind your back, and I won't criticize other users doing so, as it's their choice and not technically against the rules. It's happened before and it's going to happen again. I tried to help you grow to be a better person because I'm an idealist in that way, and maybe alleviate you of this reputation you built for youself. I believe in real respect, as well as the freedom to disagree and help each other. And you took offense to that.


I was willing to give you the chance and think that you were just a troll teasing people with your comments, and I was starting to believe it. But then you deliberately break the rules, and I know, you're just entitled.

I don't have to agree with other critics. I rate It and Avengers my way, and unlike you, the others here are able to accept it without complaining. They can complain about the movie itself, but they don't complain about the choice to put it on a top 100.

The only reason Yoda hasn't contacted you yet is because he's sleeping. Maybe he didn't take my side the first time I reported you, but it's obvious that you think you have the right to abuse me. You have only further cemented my pride in my own beliefs, and your inability to mature only makes me happy that I didn't end up talking to people the way you do.

__________________

I am sure that I'm going to enjoy these Rohmer films when I get round to watching them, but it would be a surprise I think if any of them make the top 100.

So, whilst I will consider them at a later date, for now in order to finalise the list of the greatest 100 films, I think the simplest thing for me to do, is to review and rank the films in jeopardy and the remaining contenders, and the top 10 places make the list, and the other 7 miss out. I will then work out how I am going to slot any new films into the thread, and do the write ups.

Just to spice things up a bit I've added Day of the Jackal and Killer of Sheep back into the equation.

So far it looks like these are through:
Pierrot Le Fou 1965 France Jean Luc Godard NOT SURE
On the Waterfront 1954 USA Elia Kazan NOT SURE
Walkabout 1971 UK
Bob the Gambler 1956
Frances Ha 2012

These are looking pretty good:
Badlands 1973 USA Terrence Malick NOT SURE
Anatomy of a Murder 1959 USA Otto Preminger NOT SURE
Sanshiro Sugata 1943

These are probably out:
Cabaret 1972 NOT SURE
Chinatown 1974 USA Roman Polanski NOT SURE
Elevator to the Gallows 1958 France Louis Malle NOT SURE
Casablanca 1942 USA

Blade Runner
Cabaret
Voices Through Time

in a shootout for the final place...

Actually, and Sanshiro Sugata.

And Badlands and Anatomy of a Murder...


So 4 places from 6 films...

I've ranked the films which I had on the margins as follows:


Pierrot Le Fou 1965 France Jean Luc Godard NOT SURE
On the Waterfront 1954 USA Elia Kazan NOT SURE
Bob the Gambler 1956
Lola 1961 France Jacques Demy NOT SURE
Frances Ha 2012
Walkabout 1971 UK
Badlands 1973 USA Terrence Malick NOT SURE
Voices Through Time 1996
Elevator to the Gallows 1958 France Louis Malle NOT SURE

Anatomy of a Murder 1959 USA Otto Preminger NOT SURE

Sanshiro Sugata 1943

Withnail & I 1987 UK Bruce Robinson NOT SURE
Chinatown 1974 USA Roman Polanski NOT SURE
Cabaret 1972 NOT SURE
Day of the Jackal
Blade Runner (Director's Cut) 1982 USA Ridley Scott ESSENTIAL NOT SURE
Casablanca 1942 USA


Sanshiro Sugata was very difficult to leave out. Not necessarily the types of film that I like, but it was (directly or indirectly) influential on several different kinds of film which since around the late 70s have been the meat and drink of the film industry. I'm sure that the 'bad guy' is even the inspiration for the 'anonymous' face. It also incorporates some great artistry. If it half of it hadn't been cut out and thrown away by the Japanese sensors during the war, I have no doubt it would be a great masterpiece. Damn, it's tough leaving it out.
Hmmm....you know what, I'm gonna cut Anatomy of a Murder and its painfully prehistoric attitudes towards women...

Pierrot Le Fou should never have been in the marginals list. It's a sublime example of directorial freedom; the epitome of 1960s european film making.





101. Anatomy of a Murder 1959 USA Otto Preminger NOT SURE
102. Withnail & I 1987 UK Bruce Robinson NOT SURE
103. Seven Chances 1925 USA Buster Keaton NO
104. Stolen Kisses 1968 France François Truffaut NOT SURE
105. Days of Being Wild 1990 Hong Kong Wong Kar-Wai NOT SURE
106. Cabaret 1972 NOT SURE
107. Chinatown 1974 USA Roman Polanski NOT SURE
108. Blade Runner (Director's Cut) 1982 USA Ridley Scott ESSENTIAL NOT SURE

and replaced by the following:
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans 1927 USA
The Passion of Joan of Arc 1928 France
Sanshiro Sugata 1943
Bob the Gambler 1956
Walkabout 1971
Voices Through Time 1996
Frances Ha 2012
Whitney Houston The Concert for a New South Africa (doc) 2024

And the good news, which I hope is going to make everybody's Easter, is that albeit with a little bit of shuffling, I will be able to fit all of the new films into the appropriate place in the thread.

THE FOLLOWING FILMS HAVE BEEN CUT

Anatomy of a Murder 1959 USA Otto Preminger

Its attitudes to women are at times cringeworthily dated to the 2020s viewer, but if you can get passed that it’s a dynamite courtroom drama, that rollocks along at a cracking pace throughout.

Wikipedia:
“Anatomy of a Murder is a 1959 American legal drama film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by Wendell Mayes was based on the 1958 novel of the same name written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker…Voelker based the novel on a 1952 murder case in which he was the defense attorney.
The film stars James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Eve Arden, George C. Scott, …It has a musical score by Duke Ellington, who also appears in the film. It has been described by Michael Asimow, UCLA law professor and co-author of Reel Justice: The Courtroom Goes to the Movies (2006), as "probably the finest pure trial movie ever made".
…
Legal aspects
…
The film examines the apparent fallibility of the human factor in jurisprudence. In various ways all of the human components—the counsel for defense and prosecution, the defendant and his wife, and the witnesses—have their own differing positions on what is right or wrong, and varying perspectives on integrity, justice, morality and ethics. The reliance on credibility of witnesses, and the "finding of facts" based upon those determinations, is the "Achilles heel" of the judicial process.
One controversial legal issue in this film is possible witness coaching, a violation of legal canons...

Reception and legacy
….Variety claimed that the film contained words never before heard in American films with the Motion Picture Production Code seal such as "contraceptive", (sexual) "climax" and "spermatogenesis".
…Anatomy of a Murder has been well received by members of the legal and educational professions. In 1989, the American Bar Association rated this as one of the 12 best trial films of all time. In addition to its plot and musical score, the article noted: "The film's real highlight is its ability to demonstrate how a legal defense is developed in a difficult case. How many trial films would dare spend so much time watching lawyers do what many lawyers do most (and enjoy least) – research?" The film has also been used as a teaching tool in law schools, as it encompasses (from the defense standpoint) all of the basic stages in the U.S. criminal justice system from client interview and arraignment through trial.

…Film critics have noted the moral ambiguity, where a small town lawyer triumphs by guile, stealth and trickery. The film is frank and direct. Language and sexual themes are explicit, at variance with the times (and other films) when it was produced….
…The jazz score of Anatomy of a Murder was composed by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn and played by Ellington's orchestra…”

Running time: 2 hour 40 minutes
Trailer:


Stolen Kisses 1968 France François Truffaut

A funny film. Looks great, and is well played.

Wikipedia:
“Stolen Kisses (French: Baisers volés) is a 1968 French romantic comedy-drama film directed by François Truffaut, starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, Delphine Seyrig, and Claude Jade. It continues the story of the character Antoine Doinel, whom Truffaut had previously depicted in The 400 Blows (1959) and the short film Antoine and Colette (1962). In this film, Antoine begins his relationship with Christine Darbon, which is depicted further in the last two films in the series, Bed & Board (1970) and Love on the Run (1979).
…Critical response
Stolen Kisses was well-reviewed by critics all over the world….
In an enthusiastic review for The New York Times (4 March 1969), Vincent Canby commented:
“…Truffaut is the star of the film, always in control, whether the movie is ranging into the area of slapstick, lyrical romance or touching lightly on De Gaulle's France (a student demonstration on the TV screen). His love of old movies is reflected in plot devices (overheard conversations), incidental action (two children walking out of the shoe store wearing Laurel and Hardy masks), and in the score, which takes Charles Trenet's 1943 song Que reste-t-il de nos amours (known in an English-language version as "I Wish You Love") and turns it into a joyous motif.”
Danny Peary called it "François Truffaut's witty, sad, insightful meditation on Love, encompassing passion, courtship, confusion, conflict, romance, jealousy, disloyalty, dishonesty, sex, conquest, and commitment (and second thoughts).””

Runtime: 1 hour 31 minutes
Trailer:

Cabaret 1972 USA Bob Fosse

Like Brian, it’s a bit of everything. Singing, humour, romance and the very grim historical side of 1930s Germany. The scene where they end up discussing syphilis, is hilarious. I remember it for that, for the beauty of Marisa Berenson, and the chilling treatment that she and the other Jewish character were faced with as the spectre of the Nazis loomed. It’s a memorable film. It’s very well made, and in my opinion is the best film of 1972.

Wikipedia (note, diegetic means “occurring within the context of the story and able to be heard by the characters.”):

“Cabaret is a 1972 American musical period drama film directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse from a screenplay by Jay Presson Allen, based on the stage musical of the same name…(and) the 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. It stars Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem, Marisa Berenson…Multiple numbers from the stage score were used for the film…
In the traditional manner of musical theater, most major characters in the stage version sing to express their emotions and advance the plot; in the film, however, the musical numbers are almost entirely diegetic and take place inside the club…with the exception of "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", which is not performed in the club or by the club characters, but is still diegetic, a nationalistic song sung by a Nazi youth and the German crowd.

Plot
In 1931 Berlin, a young, openly promiscuous American Sally Bowles performs at the Kit Kat Klub. A new British arrival in the city, Brian Roberts, moves into the boarding house where Sally lives…They become friends, and Brian witnesses Sally's bohemian life in the last days of the Weimar Republic…Maximilian von Heune, a rich, married playboy and baron, befriends Sally and takes her and Brian to his country estate where they are both spoiled and courted….
Meanwhile, Fritz Wendel, a German Jew passing as a Protestant Christian, is in love with Natalia Landauer, a wealthy German Jewish heiress who holds him in contempt and suspects his motives. Through Brian, Sally advises him to be more aggressive, which eventually enables Fritz to win her love. However, to gain her parents' consent for their marriage, Fritz must reveal his Jewish background, which he does and the two are married by a rabbi.
The rise of Fascism in Europe is an ever-present undercurrent and is the overarching plot of the film. The progress of the primary characters can be tracked through their changing actions and attitudes towards the ever rising tide of German Nazism in the Weimar Republic. In the beginning of the film, a member of the Nazi Party is expelled from the Kit Kat Klub by the club manager, who suffers a subsequent beating.
The rise of the Nazis in the 1930s is also demonstrated towards the end of the film in a rural beer garden scene. There a blonde boy sings to an audience of all ages ("Tomorrow Belongs to Me") about the beauties of nature and youth. It is eventually revealed that the boy is wearing a Hitlerjugend uniform. The ballad then transforms into a militant Nazi anthem, and by the song's end, one by one nearly all of the adults and young people rise and join in the singing. "Do you still think you can control them?" Brian then asks Max. After the beer garden scene, Brian gets into a confrontation with a Nazi on a Berlin street, which leads to his receiving a beating.
In the final scene of the film in the Kit Kat Klub, it slowly becomes apparent in the hazy club that audience members wearing NSDAP uniforms are now sitting in the preferred front seats of the club.”
…The 1972 film was based upon Christopher Isherwood's semi-autobiographical stories about Weimar-era Berlin during the Jazz Age. In 1929, Isherwood moved to Berlin in order to pursue life as an openly gay man and to enjoy the city's libertine nightlife. His expatriate social circle included W.H. Auden…

Production

Screenplay revisions
…Fosse decided to increase the focus on the Kit Kat Klub, where Sally performs, as a metaphor for the decadence of Germany in the 1930s by eliminating all but one of the musical numbers performed outside the club. The only remaining outside number is "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", a folk song rendered spontaneously by patrons at an open-air café. In addition, the show's original songwriters Kander and Ebb wrote two new songs, "Mein Herr" and "Money", and incorporated "Maybe This Time", a song they composed in 1964…

Casting
…Minnelli modeled the character's appearance upon Louise Brooks, an American actress who was famous in 1930s Weimar Germany…

Filming
Rehearsals and filming took place entirely in West Germany….Prior to filming, Fosse would complain every afternoon on the set of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory because that film was overrunning and keeping him from starting work on the same stage.[38]

…Critical reception

Contemporary reviews
Variety claimed the film received the most "sugary" reviews of the year.[ Roger Ebert gave a positive review in January 1972, saying: "This is no ordinary musical. Part of its success comes because it doesn't fall for the old cliché that musicals have to make you happy. Instead of cheapening the movie version by lightening its load of despair, director Bob Fosse has gone right to the bleak heart of the material and stayed there well enough to win an Academy Award for Best Director."
A.D. Murphy of Variety wrote "The film version of the 1966 John Kander-Fred Ebb Broadway musical Cabaret is most unusual: it is literate, bawdy, sophisticated, sensual, cynical, heart-warming, and disturbingly thought-provoking. Liza Minnelli heads a strong cast. Bob Fosse's generally excellent direction recreates the milieu of Germany some 40 years ago."
Roger Greenspun of The New York Times wrote in February 1972 that "Cabaret is one of those immensely gratifying imperfect works in which from beginning to end you can literally feel a movie coming to life."
Likewise, Pauline Kael of The New Yorker wrote a review that same month in which she applauded the film:
"A great movie musical. Taking its form from political cabaret, it's a satire of temptations. In a prodigious balancing act, Bob Fosse, the choreographer-director, keeps the period—Berlin, 1931—at a cool distance. We see the decadence as garish and sleazy; yet we also see the animal energy in it—everything seems to become sexualized. The movie does not exploit decadence; rather, it gives it its due…."

Reaction of Isherwood and others
…The poet Stephen Spender lamented how Cabaret (1972) glossed over Weimar Berlin's crushing poverty: "There is not a single meal, or club, in the movie Cabaret, that Christopher [Isherwood] and I could have afforded [in 1931]. What we mostly knew was the Berlin of poverty, unemployment, political demonstrations and street fighting between forces of the extreme left and the extreme right."
Both Spender and Ross contended that the 1972 film and 1966 Broadway musical deleteriously glamorized the harsh realities of the 1930s Weimar era.

…Controversies
Although less explicit compared with other films made in the 1970s, Cabaret dealt explicitly with topics like corruption, sexual ambiguity, false dreams, and Nazism. Tim Dirks at Filmsite.org notes: "The sexually-charged, semi-controversial, kinky musical was the first one ever to be given an X rating (although later re-rated) with its numerous sexual flings and hedonistic club life. There was considerable sexual innuendo, profanity, casual sex talk (homosexual and heterosexual), some evidence of anti-Semitism, and even an abortion in the film." It was also rated X in the UK and later re-rated as 15.
…The "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" scene was controversial, with Kander and Ebb, both of whom were Jewish, sometimes being wrongly accused of using a historical Nazi song.[67] According to an article in Variety in November 1976, the film was censored in West Berlin when it was first released there theatrically, with the sequence featuring the Hitler Youth singing "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" having been deleted…
Another topic of discussion was the song "If You Could See Her", which closed with the line: "If you could see her through my eyes, she wouldn't look Jewish at all." The point of the song was showing anti-Semitism as it begins to run rampant in Berlin, but there were a number of Jewish groups who interpreted the lyrics differently….

Accolades
Cabaret earned a total of ten Academy Award nominations (winning eight of them) and holds the record for most Academy Awards for a film that did not also win Best Picture.

…Legacy
…The film has been listed as one of the most important for queer cinema for its depictions of bisexuality… Film blogs have selected it as "the gayest winner in the history of the Academy."”

Runtime: 2 hours 4 minutes
Trailer:



Chinatown 1974 USA Roman Polanski

It’s not my favourite film. I find some of it a drag. I personally struggle with the ending. There are parts though where I appreciate the building tension. I also appreciate the quality of the filming, and I’m a big fan of Dunaway’s acting. She plays this part as a bit of a caricature, but she’s still terrific.

Wikipedia:
“Chinatown is a 1974 American neo-noir mystery film directed by Roman Polanski from a screenplay by Robert Towne. It stars Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in the principal roles…The film's story is inspired by the California water wars: a series of disputes over southern California water at the beginning of the 20th century that resulted in Los Angeles securing water rights in the Owens Valley. The Robert Evans production, released by Paramount Pictures, was Polanski's last film in the United States and features many elements of film noir, particularly a multi-layered story that is part mystery and part psychological drama.
Chinatown was released in the United States on June 20, 1974, to acclaim from critics, with praise for the narrative and screenwriting, Nicholson and Dunaway's performances, cinematography, and Polanski's direction….
…Production
Background
In 1971, producer Robert Evans offered Towne $175,000 to write a screenplay for The Great Gatsby (1974), but Towne felt he could not better the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. Instead, Towne asked Evans for $25,000 to write his own story, Chinatown, to which Evans agreed….
Script
…Towne wrote the screenplay with Jack Nicholson in mind. He took the title (and the exchange "What did you do in Chinatown?" / "As little as possible") from a Hungarian vice cop, who had worked in Los Angeles's Chinatown, dealing with its confusion of dialects and gangs. The vice cop thought that "police were better off in Chinatown doing nothing, because you could never tell what went on there" and whether what a cop did helped or furthered the exploitation of victims.
…Polanski first learned of the script through Nicholson, as they had been searching for a suitable joint project…Polanski was initially reluctant to return to Los Angeles (it was only a few years since the murder of his pregnant wife Sharon Tate), but was persuaded on the strength of the script.
…Towne wanted Cross to die and Evelyn Mulwray to survive, but the screenwriter and director argued over it, with Polanski insisting on a tragic end: "I knew that if Chinatown was to be special, not just another thriller where the good guys triumph in the final reel, Evelyn had to die". They parted ways over this dispute and Polanski wrote the final scene a few days before it was shot.
… While it has been reported that Towne envisioned a happy ending, he has denied these claims and said simply that he initially found Polanski's ending to be excessively melodramatic.
He explained in a 1997 interview: "The way I had seen it was that Evelyn would kill her father but end up in jail for it, unable to give the real reason why it happened. And the detective [Jack Nicholson] couldn't talk about it either, so it was bleak in its own way". Towne retrospectively concluded that "Roman was right", later arguing that Polanski's stark and simple ending, due to the complexity of the events preceding it, was more fitting than his own, which he described as equally bleak but "too complicated and too literary"….
The original script was more than 180 pages and included a narration by Gittes; Polanski cut and reordered the story so the audience and Gittes unraveled the mysteries at the same time…
Characters and casting
…In 1974, after making Chinatown and while filming The Fortune, Nicholson was informed by Time magazine researchers that his "sister" was actually his mother, similarly to the revelation made in the film regarding Evelyn and Katherine.
Filming
…In keeping with a technique Polanski attributes to Raymond Chandler, all of the events of the film are seen subjectively through the main character's eyes; for example, when Gittes is knocked unconscious, the film fades to black and fades in when he awakens. Gittes appears in every scene of the film.…
Historical background
…The character of Hollis Mulwray was inspired by and loosely based on Irish immigrant William Mulholland (1855–1935) according to Mulholland's granddaughter. Mulholland was the superintendent and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, who oversaw the construction of the 230-mile (370-km) aqueduct that carries water from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles. Mulholland was considered by many to be the man who made Los Angeles possible by building the Los Angeles Aqueduct in the early 1900s. The 233 mile long feat of engineering brought the water necessary for urban expansion from the Owens Valley to a Los Angeles whose growth was constrained by the limits of the Los Angeles River….
Although the character of Hollis Mulwray was relatively minor in the film and he was killed in the early part of the movie, the events of Mulholland's life were portrayed through both the character of Mulwray and other figures in the movie. This portrayal, along with other changes to actual events that inspired Chinatown, such as the time frame which was some thirty years earlier than that of the movie, were some of the liberties with facts of Mulholland's life that the movie takes….
…In the film, Mulwray opposes the dam wanted by Noah Cross and the city of Los Angeles, for reasons of engineering and safety, arguing he would not repeat his previous mistake, when his dam broke resulting in hundreds of deaths. This alludes to the St. Francis Dam disaster of March 12, 1928.
Unlike the character of Mulwray, who was concerned about the dam in Chinatown, Mulholland's role in the disaster diverged from the events in the film. Mulholland had inspected the St. Francis Dam after the dam keeper Tony Harnischfeger requested that Mulholland personally inspect the dam after Harnischfeger became concerned about the safety of the dam upon discovering cracks and brown water leaking from the base of the dam, which indicated to him the erosion of the dam's foundation. Mulholland inspected the dam at around 10:30 in the morning, declaring that all was well with the structure. Just before midnight that same evening, a massive failure of the dam occurred. The dam's failure inundated the Santa Clara River Valley, including the town of Santa Paula, with flood water, causing the deaths of at least 431 people. The event effectively ended Mulholland's career.
…The plot of Chinatown is also drawn not just from the diversion of water from the Owens Valley via the aqueduct but also from another actual event. In the movie, water is being purposely released in order to drive the land owners out and create support for a dam through an artificial drought. The event that the movie refers to occurred in late 1903 and 1904 when underground water levels plummeted and water usage rose precipitously. Rather than a deliberate release, Mulholland was able to figure out that because of faulty valves and gates in the water system, large quantities of water were being released in the overflow sewer system and then into the ocean. Mulholland was able to stop the leaks….
In his 2004 film essay and documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself, film scholar Thom Andersen lays out the complex relationship between Chinatown's script and its historical background:
Chinatown isn't a docudrama, it's a fiction. The water project it depicts isn't the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, engineered by William Mulholland before the First World War. Chinatown is set in 1937, not 1905. The Mulholland-like figure—"Hollis Mulwray"—isn't the chief architect of the project, but rather its strongest opponent, who must be discredited and murdered. Mulwray is against the "Alto Vallejo Dam" because it's unsafe, not because it's stealing water from somebody else... But there are echoes of Mulholland's aqueduct project in Chinatown... Mulholland's project enriched its promoters through insider land deals in the San Fernando Valley, just like the dam project in Chinatown. The disgruntled San Fernando Valley farmers of Chinatown, forced to sell off their land at bargain prices because of an artificial drought, seem like stand-ins for the Owens Valley settlers whose homesteads turned to dust when Los Angeles took the water that irrigated them. The "Van Der Lip Dam" disaster, which Hollis Mulwray cites to explain his opposition to the proposed dam, is an obvious reference to the collapse of the Saint Francis Dam in 1928. Mulholland built this dam after completing the aqueduct and its failure was the greatest man-made disaster in the history of California. These echoes have led many viewers to regard Chinatown, not only as docudrama, but as truth—the real secret history of how Los Angeles got its water. And it has become a ruling metaphor of the non-fictional critiques of Los Angeles development.
…Critical response
…Although the film was widely acclaimed by prominent critics upon its release, Vincent Canby of The New York Times was not impressed with the screenplay as compared to the film's predecessors, saying, "Mr. Polanski and Mr. Towne have attempted nothing so witty and entertaining, being content instead to make a competently stylish, more or less thirties-ish movie that continually made me wish I were back seeing The Maltese Falcon or The Big Sleep", but noted Nicholson's performance
Legacy
Towne's screenplay has become legendary among critics and filmmakers, often cited as one of the best examples of the craft.


Runtime: 2 hours 10 minutes
Trailer:


Blade Runner 1982 (Director’s Cut 1992) USA Ridley Scott

Another of the very greatest films. Whether by luck of judgment, the passing of time has made it all the more relevant with its examination of whether an artificially created life form can have a soul. The special effects are incredible for 82. Cinema had done life on other planets convincingly, but here was a century from the future on earth, which we were able to believe. It also works stunningly as a neo noir, with Sean Young as iconic as it gets. Ford is Ford and Rutger Hauer (who like Young provides a career defining performance) delivers that immortal line about tears in rain which he came up with himself. It’s an amazing climax, shot in that incredibly atmospheric disused building. I can hear now the water drips echoing around the empty spaces after bouncing on the steel. I also love the gorgeous Darryl Hannah in this. It would have been nice if the human story between Deckard and Rachel was more prominent, but what’s there works. There are also a couple of plot issues which have been cited as weaknesses, but meh who gives a shit.

My favoured version, the director's cut, was released in 1992, but I've listed it by the date of the theatrical release.

Wikipedia
“Blade Runner is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott…Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The film is set in a dystopian future Los Angeles of 2019, in which synthetic humans known as replicants are bio-engineered by the powerful Tyrell Corporation to work on space colonies. When a fugitive group of advanced replicants led by Roy Batty (Hauer) escapes back to Earth, burnt-out cop Rick Deckard (Ford) reluctantly agrees to hunt them down.
Blade Runner initially underperformed in North American theaters and polarized critics; some praised its thematic complexity and visuals, while others critiqued its slow pacing and lack of action. …Blade Runner later became a cult film, and has since come to be regarded as one of the greatest science fiction films. Hailed for its production design depicting a high-tech but decaying future, the film is often regarded as both a leading example of neo-noir cinema and a foundational work of the cyberpunk genre. It has influenced many science fiction films, video games, anime, and television series. …
Seven different versions of Blade Runner exist as a result of controversial changes requested by studio executives. A director's cut was released in 1992 after a strong response to test screenings of a workprint. This, in conjunction with the film's popularity as a video rental, made it one of the earliest movies to be released on DVD. In 2007, Warner Bros. released The Final Cut, a 25th-anniversary digitally remastered version; this is the only version over which Scott retained artistic control.
The film is the first of the franchise of the same name. A sequel, titled Blade Runner 2049, was released in 2017 alongside a trilogy of short films covering the thirty-year span between the two films' settings….

…Production
…The screenplay by Hampton Fancher was optioned in 1977. Producer Michael Deeley became interested in Fancher's draft and convinced director Ridley Scott to film it…. Fancher found a cinema treatment by William S. Burroughs for Alan E. Nourse's novel The Bladerunner (1974), titled Blade Runner (a movie). Scott liked the name, so Deeley obtained the rights to the titles. …
Fancher's script focused more on environmental issues and less on issues of humanity and religion, which are prominent in the novel, and Scott wanted changes. Eventually, he hired David Peoples to rewrite the script and Fancher left the job over the issue on December 21, 1980, although he later returned to contribute additional rewrites.

Having invested more than $2.5 million in pre-production, as the date of commencement of principal photography neared, Filmways withdrew financial backing. In ten days Deeley had secured $21.5 million in financing through a three-way deal between the Ladd Company (through Warner Bros.), the Hong Kong-based producer Sir Run Run Shaw and Tandem Productions…
…Principal photography of Blade Runner began on March 9, 1981, and ended four months later.
In 1992, Ford revealed, "Blade Runner is not one of my favorite films. I tangled with Ridley." Apart from friction with the director, Ford also disliked the voiceovers: "When we started shooting it had been tacitly agreed that the version of the film that we had agreed upon was the version without voiceover narration. It was a f**king nightmare. I thought that the film had worked without the narration. But now I was stuck re-creating that narration. And I was obliged to do the voiceovers for people that did not represent the director's interests." "I went kicking and screaming to the studio to record it."…
In 2006, Scott was asked "Who's the biggest pain in the arse you've ever worked with?" He replied: "It's got to be Harrison ... he'll forgive me because now I get on with him. Now he's become charming. But he knows a lot, that's the problem. When we worked together it was my first film up and I was the new kid on the block. But we made a good movie."
…In 2006 Ford reflected on the production of the film saying: "What I remember more than anything else when I see Blade Runner is not the 50 nights of shooting in the rain, but the voiceover ... I was still obliged to work for these clowns that came in writing one bad voiceover after another." R
…Test screenings resulted in several changes, including adding a voice-over, a happy ending, and the removal of a Holden hospital scene. The relationship between the filmmakers and the investors was difficult, which culminated in Deeley and Scott being fired but still working on the film. …

Casting
…Casting the film proved troublesome, particularly for the lead role of Deckard. Screenwriter Hampton Fancher envisioned Robert Mitchum as Deckard and wrote the character's dialogue with Mitchum in mind. According to production documents, several actors were considered for the role, including Gene Hackman, Sean Connery, Jack Nicholson, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Peter Falk, Nick Nolte, Al Pacino and Burt Reynolds. (author’s note: sweet Jesus)
Director Ridley Scott and the film's producers spent months meeting and discussing the role with Dustin Hoffman (author’s note: God almighty NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO), who eventually departed over differences in vision.
Harrison Ford was ultimately chosen for several reasons, including his performance in the Star Wars films, Ford's interest in the Blade Runner story, and discussions with Steven Spielberg, who was finishing Raiders of the Lost Ark at the time and strongly praised Ford's work in the film. Following his success in those two films, Ford was looking for a role with dramatic depth.
Rutger Hauer was cast as Roy Batty…Of the many films Hauer made, Blade Runner was his favorite. In a live chat in 2001, he said "Blade Runner needs no explanation. It just [is]. All of the best. There is nothing like it. To be part of a real masterpiece which changed the world's thinking. It's awesome." Hauer rewrote his character's "tears in rain" speech himself and presented the words to Scott on set prior to filming….
….Debbie Harry turned down the role of Pris….

Design
…Blade Runner has numerous similarities to Fritz Lang's Metropolis, including a built-up urban environment, in which the wealthy literally live above the workers, dominated by a huge building – the Stadtkrone Tower in Metropolis and the Tyrell Building in Blade Runner. Special effects supervisor David Dryer used stills from Metropolis when lining up Blade Runner's miniature building shots…
Music
The Blade Runner soundtrack by Vangelis is a dark melodic combination of classic composition and futuristic synthesizers which mirrors the film noir retro-future envisioned by Scott.[69] Vangelis… composed and performed the music on his synthesizers….Another memorable sound is the tenor sax solo "Love Theme" by British saxophonist Dick Morrissey, who performed on many of Vangelis's albums….
Special effects
The film's special effects are generally recognized to be among the best in the genre, using the available (non-digital) technology to the fullest. Special effects engineers who worked on the film are often praised for the innovative technology they used to produce and design certain aspects of those visuals. In addition to matte paintings and models, the techniques employed included multipass exposures. In some scenes, the set was lit, shot, the film rewound, and then rerecorded over with different lighting. In some cases this was done 16 times in all. The cameras were frequently motion controlled using computers. Many effects used techniques which had been developed during the production of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

…Versions
Several versions of Blade Runner have been shown. The original workprint version (1982, 113 minutes) was shown for audience test previews in Denver and Dallas in March 1982. Negative responses to the previews led to the modifications resulting in the U.S. theatrical version.
…The workprint was shown as a director's cut without Scott's approval at the Los Angeles Fairfax Theater in May 1990…and in September and October 1991 at the Los Angeles NuArt Theater and the San Francisco Castro Theatre. Positive responses pushed the studio to approve work on an official director's cut….
Ridley Scott's Director's Cut (1992, 116 minutes) had significant changes from the theatrical version including the removal of Deckard's voice-over, the re-insertion of a sequence in which Deckard dreams of a unicorn, and the removal of the studio-imposed happy ending. Scott provided extensive notes and consultation to Warner Bros. through film preservationist Michael Arick, who was put in charge of creating the Director's Cut.
…Scott's definitive The Final Cut (2007, 117 minutes) was released by Warner Bros. theatrically on October 5, 2007, and subsequently released on DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray Disc in December 2007. This is the only version over which Scott had complete artistic and editorial control.

Reception
…Cultural analysis
Academics began analyzing the film almost as soon as it was released….
The boom in home video formats helped establish a growing cult around the film, which scholars have dissected for its dystopic aspects, questions regarding "authentic" humanity, ecofeminist aspects and use of conventions from multiple genres. Popular culture began to reassess its impact as a classic several years after it was released.
…A 2019 retrospective in the BBC argued that elements of the film's socio-political themes remained prescient in the real year of the film's setting, such as its depiction of climate change….

…Themes
The film operates on multiple dramatic and narrative levels. It employs some of the conventions of film noir, among them the character of a femme fatale; narration by the protagonist (in the original release); chiaroscuro cinematography; and giving the hero a questionable moral outlook – extending to include reflections upon the nature of his own humanity…
…A sense of foreboding and paranoia pervades the world of the film: corporate power looms large; the police seem omnipresent; vehicle and warning lights probe into buildings; and the consequences of huge biomedical power over the individual are explored – especially regarding replicants' implanted memories. The film depicts a world post ecocide, where warfare and capitalism have led to destruction of 'normal' ecological systems. Control over the environment is exercised on a vast scale, and goes hand in hand with the absence of any natural life; for example, artificial animals stand in for their extinct predecessors. This oppressive backdrop explains the frequently referenced migration of humans to "off-world" (extraterrestrial) colonies….
These thematic elements provide an atmosphere of uncertainty for Blade Runner's central theme of examining humanity. In order to discover replicants, an empathy test is used, with a number of its questions focused on the treatment of animals – seemingly an essential indicator of one's "humanity". Replicants will not respond the same way humans would, showing a lack of concern…
The question of whether Deckard is intended to be a human or a replicant has been an ongoing controversy since the film's release. Both Michael Deeley and Harrison Ford wanted Deckard to be human, while Hampton Fancher preferred ambiguity. Ridley Scott has stated that he envisaged Deckard as a replicant. Deckard's unicorn-dream sequence, inserted into Scott's Director's Cut and concomitant with Gaff's parting gift of an origami unicorn, is seen by many as showing that Deckard is a replicant – because Gaff could have retrieved Deckard's implanted memories. The interpretation that Deckard is a replicant is challenged by others who believe the unicorn imagery shows that the characters, whether human or replicant, share the same dreams and recognize their affinity, or that the absence of a decisive answer is crucial to the film's main theme. The film's inherent ambiguity and uncertainty, as well as its textual richness, have permitted multiple interpretations.

…Legacy
…The logos of Atari, Bell, Coca-Cola, Cuisinart, Pan Am, and RCA, all market leaders at the time, were prominently displayed as product placement in the film, and all experienced setbacks after the film's release, leading to suggestions of a Blade Runner curse….
Sequel and related media
…A sequel was released in 2017, titled Blade Runner 2049, with Ryan Gosling alongside Ford in the starring roles.”

Runtime: 1 hour 53 minutes – 1 hour 57 minutes
Trailer (director’s cut):
Clip:


Withnail & I 1987 UK Bruce Robinson (provisional)

Very funny film. Like Anthony Hopkins in The Remains of the Day, this is the role that Grant was born to play. The three of them: Grant, McGann and Griffiths are perfect in fact. McGann struggles to keep a straight face at times, but he does a good job of it, often in very demanding circumstances. Well written, well shot, well acted, well produced. And funny.

Wikipedia:
“Withnail and I is a 1987 British black comedy film written and directed by Bruce Robinson. Loosely based on Robinson's life in London in the late 1960s, the plot follows two unemployed actors, Withnail and "I" (portrayed by Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann, respectively) who share a flat in Camden Town in 1969. Needing a holiday, they obtain the key to a country cottage in the Lake District belonging to Withnail's eccentric uncle Monty and drive there. The weekend holiday proves less recuperative than they expected.
Withnail and I was Grant's film debut and established his profile. Featuring performances by Richard Griffiths as Withnail's Uncle Monty…the film has tragic and comic elements and is notable for its period music and many quotable lines. It has been described as "one of Britain's biggest cult films".
The character "I" is named "Marwood" in the published screenplay but goes unnamed in the film credits.

…Production...

Writing
The film is an adaptation of an unpublished novel written by Robinson in 1969–1970…Robinson's script is largely autobiographical. "Marwood" is Robinson; "Withnail" is based on Vivian MacKerrell, a friend with whom he shared a Camden house and "Uncle Monty" is loosely based on Franco Zeffirelli, from whom Robinson (author’s note: allegedly) received unwanted amorous attentions when he was a young actor.
He lived in the impoverished conditions seen in the film and wore plastic bags as Wellington boots. For the script, Robinson condensed two or three years of his life into two or three weeks. Robinson stated he named the character of Withnail after a childhood acquaintance named Jonathan Withnall, who was "the coolest guy I had ever met in my life".
…Robinson attributed Uncle Monty's question to Marwood ("Are you a sponge or a stone?") as a direct quote from Zeffirelli…
The end of the novel saw Withnail dying by suicide by pouring a bottle of wine into the barrel of Monty's shotgun and then pulling the trigger as he drank from it. Robinson changed the ending, as he believed it was "too dark".

Name of "I"
…Towards the end of the film, a telegram arrives at Crow Crag on which the name "Marwood" is partially visible.

…Casting…
McGann was Robinson's first choice for "I" but he was fired during rehearsals because Robinson decided McGann's Scouse (Liverpool) accent was wrong for the character. Several other actors read for the role but McGann eventually persuaded Robinson to re-audition him, promising to affect a Home Counties accent and quickly won back the part.
Actors Robinson considered for "Withnail" included Daniel Day-Lewis…Kenneth Branagh…
Though he plays a raging alcoholic, Grant is a teetotaller with an allergy to alcohol. He had never been drunk prior to making the film. Robinson decided that it would be impossible for Grant to play the character without having ever experienced inebriation and a hangover, so he "forced" the actor on a drinking binge. Grant has stated that he was "violently sick" after each drink and found the experience deeply unpleasant.

Filming
…During the filming of the scene in which Withnail drinks a can of lighter fluid, Robinson changed the contents of the can between takes from water to vinegar to get a better reaction from Grant….The film cost £1.1 million to make. Robinson received £80,000 to direct, £30,000 of which he reinvested into the film to shoot additional scenes such as the journeys to and from Penrith, which HandMade Films would not fund. The money was never reimbursed after the film's success….

…Music
The film score was composed by David Dundas and Rick Wentworth.[22] The film features a rare appearance of a recording by the Beatles, whose 1968 song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" plays as the titular duo return to London and find Presuming Ed in the bath. The song, written and sung by George Harrison, was able to be included in the soundtrack due to Harrison's involvement as a producer.
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" (live) – King Curtis – 5:25
"The Wolf" – David Dundas and Rick Wentworth – 1:33
"All Along the Watchtower" (reduced tempo) – The Jimi Hendrix Experience – 4:10
"To the Crow" – David Dundas and Rick Wentworth – 2:22
"Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (live) – The Jimi Hendrix Experience – 4:28
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" – The Beatles – 4:44
"Marwood Walks" – David Dundas and Rick Wentworth – 2:14
"Monty Remembers" – David Dundas and Rick Wentworth – 2:02
"La Fite" – David Dundas and Rick Wentworth – 1:10
"Hang Out the Stars in Indiana" – Al Bowlly and New Mayfair Dance Orchestra – 1:35
"Crow Crag" – David Dundas and Rick Wentworth – 0:56
"Cheval Blanc" – David Dundas and Rick Wentworth – 1:15
"My Friend" – Charlie Kunz – 1:28
"Withnail's Theme" – David Dundas and Rick Wentworth – 2:40

…Legacy
…There is a drinking game associated with the film. The game consists of keeping up, drink for drink, with each alcoholic substance consumed by Withnail over the course of the film. All told, Withnail is shown drinking roughly 9+1⁄2 glasses of red wine, one-half imperial pint (280 ml) of cider, one shot of lighter fluid (vinegar or overproof rum are common substitutes), 2+1⁄2 measures of gin, six glasses of sherry, thirteen drams of Scotch whisky and 1⁄2 pint of ale.[better source needed]”

Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes
Trailer:

When Harry Met Sally 1989 USA Rob Reiner (provisional)

Another comedy!! Another funny film. I also think it’s extremely romantic! It gives me the feels! My favourite scenes are the haha charades type game, and when she says the name of his ex wife into the microphone in the store. But I lolled several times the first time I watched this. I've heard it said that it's a poor rip off of Woody Allen, but I prefer it to any Allen film. In fact it’s my favourite ever romcom/screwball comedy.

Wikipedia:
“When Harry Met Sally... is a 1989 American romantic comedy film directed by Rob Reiner and written by Nora Ephron. Starring Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, and Bruno Kirby, it follows the title characters from the time they meet in Chicago and share a drive to New York City through twelve years of chance encounters in New York, and addresses the question "Can men and women ever just be friends?"
…The When Harry Met Sally... soundtrack album features American singer and pianist Harry Connick Jr…The soundtrack features performances by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Bing Crosby, and Harry Connick Jr.
…Production
…Originally, Ephron wanted to call the film How They Met and went through several different titles. Reiner even started a contest with the crew during principal photography: whoever came up with the title won a case of champagne.
In order to get into the lonely mindset of Harry when he was divorced and single, Crystal stayed by himself in a separate room from the cast and crew while they were shooting in Manhattan.
The script initially ended with Harry and Sally remaining friends and not pursuing a romantic relationship because she felt that was "the true ending", as did Reiner. Eventually, Ephron and Reiner realized that it would be a more appropriate ending for them to marry, though they admit that this was generally not a realistic outcome. Reiner related that the film originally had a sad ending before he met his second wife Michele, which inspired him to change the ending.
…When posed the film's central question, can men and women just be friends, Ryan replied, "Yes, men and women can just be friends. I have a lot of platonic (male) friends, and sex doesn't get in the way." Crystal said, "I'm a little more optimistic than Harry. But I think it is difficult. Men basically act like stray dogs in front of a supermarket. I do have platonic (women) friends, but not best, best, best friends."
Katz's Delicatessen scene
..In a scene featuring the two title characters having lunch at Katz's Delicatessen, a well-known Jewish deli in Manhattan, the couple are arguing about a man's ability to recognize when a woman is faking an orgasm. Sally claims that men cannot tell the difference, and to prove her point, she vividly (fully clothed) fakes one as other diners watch. The scene ends with Sally casually returning to her meal as a nearby patron (played by Reiner's mother) places her order, deadpan: "I'll have what she's having." When Estelle Reiner died at age 94 in 2008, The New York Times referred to her as the woman "who delivered one of the most memorably funny lines in movie history".[11] This scene was shot "over and over again", and Ryan demonstrated her fake orgasms for hours. Katz's Deli still hangs a sign above the table that says, "Where Harry met Sally... hope you have what she had!"
…The memorable scene was born when the film started to focus too much on Harry. Crystal remembers saying, "'We need something for Sally to talk about,' and Nora said, 'Well, faking orgasm is a great one,' and right away we said, 'Well, the subject is good,' and then Meg came on board and we talked with her about the nature of the idea and she said, 'Well, why don't I just fake one, just do one?'" Ryan suggested that the scene take place in a restaurant, and it was Crystal who came up with the scene's classic punchline – "I'll have what she's having."

Runtime 1 hour 35 minutes
Trailer:

Days of Being Wild 1990 Hong Kong Wong Kar-Wai

Another gorgeous looking film (see the trailer). A really unique look. A soundtrack that works well with the film, and very precise sound effects as well. Set in 60s Hong Kong, it’s been described as a gangster film, although this really only comes out at the end (in the scenes in the Philippines). There’s nothing special about the plot, and no great message, it’s about visuals, and sounds, and pacing and atmosphere above anything else.

Wikipedia:
“Days of Being Wild is a 1990 Hong Kong drama film written and directed by Wong Kar-Wai. Starring some of the best-known actors and actresses in Hong Kong, including…Maggie Cheung… the film marks the first collaboration between Wong and cinematographer Christopher Doyle, with whom he has since made six more films.
It forms the first part of an informal trilogy, together with In the Mood for Love (2000) and 2046 (2004).
Plot
The movie begins in 1960 Hong Kong.
Yuddy, a smooth-talking playboy seduces Li-zhen but is uninterested in pursuing a serious relationship with her. Li-zhen, who wants to marry him, is heartbroken and decides to leave. Yuddy moves on to a new relationship with vivacious cabaret dancer Mimi. His friend Zeb is also attracted to her but she doesn't reciprocate his feelings.
Yuddy has a tense relationship with his adoptive mother Rebecca, a former prostitute, after she reveals that he is adopted. He also doesn't approve of her choice of lovers much younger than her who he thinks are taking advantage of her wealth. She initially refuses to reveal who his birth mother is but eventually relents and tells him that she lives in the Philippines.
…
Meanwhile, Yuddy decides to find his birth mother and leaves for the Philippines, giving his car to Zeb and without informing Mimi. Mimi is distraught and resolves to follow him…”

Run time 1 hour 34 minutes

There we have it. Subject to watching a handful of films by Eric Rhomer, below are the 100 films:

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
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 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. Touch of Evil 1958 USA Orson Welles ESSENTIAL
36. North by Northwest 1959 USA Alfred Hitchcock
37. The Naked Island 1960 Japan Kaneto Shindô ESSENTIAL
38. Psycho 1960 USA Alfred Hitchcock
39. La Notte 1961 Italy Michelangelo Antonioni
40. Last Year at Marienbad 1961 France Alain Resnais
41. Lola 1961 France Jacques Demy
42. La Jetee 1962 France Chris Marker ESSENTIAL
43. L'Eclisse 1962 Italy Michelangelo Antonioni
44. Lawrence of Arabia 1962 UK David Lean ESSENTIAL
45. High and Low 1963 Japan Akira Kurosawa
46. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg 1964 France Jacques Demy
47. Onibaba 1964 Japan Kaneto Shindô
48. For a Few Dollars More 1965 Italy Sergio Leone
49. Alphaville 1965 France Jean-Luc Godard
50. Le Bonheur 1965 France Agnès Varda
51. Pierrot Le Fou 1965 France Jean Luc Godard
52. The Sound of Music 1965 USA Robert Wise
53. Au Hasard Balthazar 1966 France Robert Bresson
54. Blow-up 1966 UK Michelangelo Antonioni
55. Closely Watched Trains 1966 Czech Jirí Menzel
56. Bonnie and Clyde 1967 USA Arthur Penn
57. The Graduate 1967 USA Mike Nichols
58. 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 UK Stanley Kubrick ESSENTIAL
59. Kes 1969 UK Ken Loach
60. A Touch of Zen 1970 Taiwan King Hu
61. Walkabout 1971 UK Nicholas Roeg
62. McCabe and Mrs Miller 1971 USA Robert Altman
63. The Godfather 1972 USA Francis Ford Copolla
64. Le Cousin Jules (doc) 1973 France Dominique Benicheti ESSENTIAL
65. Don't Look Now 1973 UK Nicholas Roeg
66. Badlands 1973 USA Terrence Malick
67. The Passenger 1975 Italy Michelangelo Antonioni
68. Barry Lyndon 1975 UK Stanley Kubrick
69. The Mirror 1975 Soviet Union Andrei Tarkovsky
70. Taxi Driver 1976 USA Martin Scorsese
71. Apocalypse Now 1979 USA Francis Ford Coppola ESSENTIAL
72. Alien 1979 USA Ridley Scott
73. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial 1982 USA Steven Spielberg
74. The King of Comedy 1982 USA Martin Scorsese
75. Paris, Texas 1984 USA Wim Wenders
76. Stranger Than Paradise 1984 USA Jim Jarmusch
77. Taipei Story 1985 Taiwan Edward Yang
78. Landscape in the Mist 1988 Greece Theodoros Angelopoulos ESSENTIAL
79. A Short Film About Killing 1988 Poland krzysztof kieślowski
80. The Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse 1991 USA George Hickenlooper
81. Rebels of the Neon God 1992 Taiwan Tsai Ming-liang
82. The Player 1992 USA Robert Altman
83. Vive L'Amour 1994 Taiwan Tsai Ming-liang ESSENTIAL
84. Voices Through Time 1996 Italy Franco Piavoli
85. Trainspotting 1996 UK Danny Boyle
86. Flowers of Shanghai 1998 Taiwan Hou Hsiao-hsien
87. Saving Private Ryan 1998 USA Steven Spielberg
88. In the Mood for Love 2000 Hong Kong Wong Kar-Wai
89. Mulholland Drive 2001 USA David Lynch ESSENTIAL
90. Donnie Darko 2001 USA Richard Kelly
91. Uzak 2002 Turkiye Nuri Bilge Ceylan ESSENTIAL
92. No Country for Old Men 2007 USA Joel and Ethan Cohen
93. Wall-E 2008 USA Andrew Stanton
94. Frances Ha 2012
95. Embrace of the Serpent 2015 Colombia Ciro Guerra
96. La La Land 2016 USA Damien Chazelle ESSENTIAL
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

Happy Easter mate. I don't agree with a good number of things you say but places like this forum become more fun to visit when posters with different approaches and temperaments such as yourself are around.
(where is Mr Minio while we're at it?)

Highlighting the ones I haven't seen yet...

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

7 Salt for Svanetia 1930 Soviet Union Mikhael Kalatazov
8 Limite 1931 Brazil Mário Peixoto

15. Sanshiro Sugata 1943 Japan Akira Kurosawa
17. Panique 1946 France Julien Duvivier
18. Notorious 1946 USA Alfred Hitchcock ESSENTIAL
24. Late Spring 1949 Japan Yasujirō Ozu ESSENTIAL

25. Little Fugitive 1953 USA Morris Engel
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
34. The Music Room 1958 India Satyajit Ray

40. Last Year at Marienbad 1961 France Alain Resnais
41. Lola 1961 France Jacques Demy
42. La Jetee 1962 France Chris Marker ESSENTIAL
47. Onibaba 1964 Japan Kaneto Shindô
50. Le Bonheur 1965 France Agnès Varda
53. Au Hasard Balthazar 1966 France Robert Bresson
55. Closely Watched Trains 1966 Czech Jirí Menzel

60. A Touch of Zen 1970 Taiwan King Hu
64. Le Cousin Jules (doc) 1973 France Dominique Benicheti ESSENTIAL
67. The Sleeping Pill 1975 Italy Michelangelo Antonioni

77. Taipei Story 1985 Taiwan Edward Yang

80. The Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse 1991 USA George Hickenlooper
81. Rebels of the Neon God 1992 Taiwan Tsai Ming-liang
82. The Player 1992 USA Robert Altman
83. Vive L'Amour 1994 Taiwan Tsai Ming-liang ESSENTIAL
84. Voices Through Time 1996 Italy Franco Piavoli
86. Flowers of Shanghai 1998 Taiwan Hou Hsiao-hsien

91. Uzak 2002 Turkiye Nuri Bilge Ceylan ESSENTIAL

95. Embrace of the Serpent 2015 Colombia Ciro Guerra
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

Appreciate the comment Exiler, which made me smile.

Good to know that Keyser and I haven't been left completely alone with one another.

Happy Easter to you too.

Of the ones you mention, the following are on youtube if you get round to them sometime:
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
7. Salt for Svanetia 1930 Soviet Union Mikhael Kalatazov
8. Limite 1931 Brazil Mário Peixoto
24. Late Spring 1949 Japan Yasujirō Ozu ESSENTIAL
25. Little Fugitive 1953 USA Morris Engel
28. Journey to Italy 1954 Italy Roberto Rossellini
29. La Pointe Courte 1955 France Agnès Varda
30. Pather Panchali 1955 India Satyijat Ray
34. The Music Room 1958 India Satyajit Ray
40. The real sleeping pill at Marienbad 1961 France Alain Resnais
42. La Jetee 1962 France Chris Marker ESSENTIAL
47. Onibaba 1964 Japan Kaneto Shindô
67. The Sleeping Pill 1975 Italy Michelangelo Antonioni
84. Voices Through Time 1996 Italy Franco Piavoli

Interestingly, up to 1975 only 15 out of 69 films are American.

That compares to 17 of the 31 entries in the last 50 years.

Just found my top 100 films list from April 2022.
It had no films made prior to 1970, lol.

Up to 1966 I have 55 films in my 100, of which 34 (62%) are in a language (spoken or written) other than English (2 have no language, and 19 are in English). Of the 34, 15 are in French and 7 in Japanese.

Since 1966 I have 45 films in my 100, of which 12 (27%) are in a language other than English (1 has no language, and 32 are in English). Of the 12, 6 are in Chinese.

I've sorted most of the links out in the OP.
Will do the other 10 or so another time.