ScarletLion's Top 25 films

Out of curiosity, did you make a list of movies beyond your Top 25? Even if you simply post the list. Whenever I get back into watching movies, I'd like more choices.



If you like "Woman in the Dunes", you should check out other movies of his. "The Face of Another" is really cool.

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Yeah I have a top 150, I find the top 50 is more or less static but the rest are quite changeable. I suffer from recency bias too, so put things in my top 100 all the time. Then think a week later.......is that really good enough to be in the company of Welles, Tarkovsky, Hitchcock, Tarr, etc? So contemplate taking them out!

I've seen Face of Another, really great film.

I’d actually like to see your top 150 sometime.

I'll put it in this thread when I've finished the top 25. Cheers

'Soy Cuba' to give it the original title is a mesmerizing film directed by Mikhail Kalatozov that seems to flutter around my top 10 at various positions but it’s always in there. It’s possibly most famous for the astonishing long take shot in the funeral scene:



But the film is filled with this type of camerawork shot by the legendary DoP Sergey Urusevsky who worked on many of Kalatozov’s films.



The film itself is structured in an anthology type of narrative that focuses on various people’s struggles in Cuba during pre-revolutionary times. Beautiful to look at and powerful in tone. One of the greats.

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Kubrick’s greatest. It revolutionised cinema. From match cuts to music used to model making to space scenes to ridiculous techniques and a whole lot more. The definitive film about human existence? Maybe.

The technical production and thought that went into the shots is something else:



A film I could watch at any point I think.

Excellent pairing.

6. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

Astonishing film, which I took way too long to get around to watching. Falconetti's performance has rightly gone down as one of the greatest ever (eyes, tears, facial movements), and although Dreyer's methods were supposedly harsh - it wouldn't have been the film it is if he hadn't used them. It's hard to find a fault with this film.

It’s also tragic what happened to Maria Falconetti in her last days.

5. Seven Samurai (1954)

Peasants versus bandits versus Ronin. Possibly the greatest Japanese film of all time, Kurosawa’s sprawling three and a half hour epic features so many tropes, plot devices and themes commonly seen in today’s cinema, that it’s hard to overstate the influence of this film. The action sequences, dialogue and Toshiro Mifune’s performance combine to produce something truly special.

Kurosawa insisted that sets were built for battle scenes instead of using the studio’s land. Budgets went way over what Toho initially set out for the project, and they stopped production twice……..and each time they did, Kurosawa just downed tools and went fishing. He was confident that he had such a strong film in the making, and it has stood the test of time.

What happened to her?

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She was mentally ill, escaped the war to south America but had a medical condition where she put on weight, she went on a self imposed crash diet that was basically a hunger strike, and took her own life. Died in her early 50s.

A pretty laborious choice perhaps but it’s for a reason. Easily one of the best films ever made, it’s a perfect storm of. From the age that Welles was when he made this (25), to the struggles of getting the film how he wanted, and the actual film itself and how influential it is. There are direct inspirations from Kane in all manner of more modern films from The Lighthouse, Coen Brothers films, Apocalypse Now and even Blade Runner 2049.

Some of the camera shots are not only jaw dropping for their time (1941) but have never been bettered. Then comes the reveal at the end of the film. It’s just a masterpiece.




Similarly, Persona is such a masterpiece that it has been paid homage to many many times, most notably perhaps by David Lynch in ‘Mulholland Drive’. Bergman’s masterpiece is at times confounding, but once the viewer settles into the rhythm of the film, it’s intoxicating in its’ beauty.

It’s a fairly ambiguous film in that it can be read as being about identity, self discovery, mental wellbeing, the chaos of life or about some of these things or a combination of things. Liv Ulmann and Bibbi Anderson’s performances are mesmerizing. Sven Nyqvist’s photography is so complimentary to the vision of Bergman that the result is one of those films that just has to be ‘experienced’.

Seen it a million times. Love it.

Metropolis is one of the most astonishing achievements in cinema. It might have been the blockbuster of its' day, and it really delivers. The set design, production qualities and imagination are really something else.

Fritz Lang's genius is on show right from the off. The city depicted in all it's futuristic glory with odd shaped buildings and transport in the sky that would later be paid homage to in films like Blade Runner. The film is prophetic as it is inspirational. At it's heart it's the story of human nature; with battles between the working class and the rulers. But it's also a tale of existentialism and ideologies.

The visuals are spellbinding, the story telling is brilliant. The ideas are incredible. Metropolis is a masterpiece.


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Come and See is a harsh film. It's an unforgettable experience. Many viewers say they can only watch it once, but I don't agree. The depth of field in the shots, the camerawork, the colours, the memorable framing make it a film that has to be devoured time and time again.

There has been much written about the way Elem Klimov directed Aleksei Kravchenko - pushing the young actor to the limits of his capabilities and mental state. Using live bullets that passed his head by centimetres, trying and failing to hypnotize Kravchenko so that he didn't bare the scars of the filming process Ethically dubious perhaps but without it, we don't get to see the greatest war film ever made. And what a loss to cinema that would have been. Come and See is so visceral. So heartbreakingly shocking and brilliant that it is the top of my list. Once in a while a film is so unforgettable that many of the images and themes remain lodged in your eyelids and brain.

The name of the film is derived from this quote in the bible:

"And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him".

Come and See is the greatest film ever made.

Thanks for reading.

Excellent list. Since you love Come and See, have you also seen The Ascent? It was directed by Klimov's wife and is also great.

I have yes. Feels like they were competing against each other! Two great films. And thanks.