Critics’ Top 250 Films

1

Vertigo (1958) Alfred Hitchcock

A former detective with a fear of heights is hired to follow a woman apparently possessed by the past, in

Alfred Hitchcock’s timeless thriller about obsession.

2

Citizen Kane (1941) Orson Welles

Given extraordinary freedom by Hollywood studio RKO for his debut film, boy wonder Welles created a

modernist masterpiece that is regularly voted the best film ever made.

3

Tokyo Story (1953) Ozu Yasujirô

The final part of Yasujiro Ozu’s loosely connected ‘Noriko’ trilogy is a devastating story of elderly

grandparents brushed aside by their self-involved family.

4

Règle du jeu, La (1939) Jean Renoir

Made on the cusp of WWII, Jean Renoir’s satire of the upper-middle classes was banned as

demoralising by the French government for two decades after its release.

5

Sunrise (1927) F. W. Murnau

Lured to Hollywood by producer William Fox, German Expressionist filmmaker F.W. Murnau created one

of the silent cinema’s last and most luminous masterpieces.

6

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Stanley Kubrick

Adapting Arthur C. Clarke’s novel, Kubrick took science fiction cinema in a grandly intelligent new

direction with this epic story of man’s quest for knowledge.

7

Searchers, The (1956) John Ford

John Ford created perhaps the greatest of all westerns with this tale of a Civil War veteran doggedly

hunting the Comanche who have kidnapped his niece.

8

Man with a Movie Camera (1929) Dziga Vertov

An impression of city life in the Soviet Union, The Man with a Movie Camera is the best-known film of

experimental documentary pioneer Dziga Vertov.

9

Passion of Joan of Arc (1927) Carl Theodor Dreyer

Silent cinema at its most sublimely expressive, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s masterpiece is an austere but

hugely affecting dramatisation of the trial of St Joan.

10

8½ (1963) Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini triumphantly conjured himself out of a bad case of creative block with this

autobiographical magnum opus about a film director experiencing creative block.

11

Battleship Potemkin (1925) Sergei M Eisenstein

A fixture in the critical canon almost since its premiere, Sergei Eisenstein’s film about a 1905 naval

mutiny was revolutionary in both form and content.

12

Atalante, L' (1934) Jean Vigo

Newly-weds begin their life together on a working barge in this luminous and poetic romance, the only

feature film by director Jean Vigo.

13

Breathless (1960) Jean-Luc Godard

14

Apocalypse Now (1979) Francis Ford Coppola

Transplanting the story of Joseph Conrad’s colonial-era novel Heart of Darkness to Vietnam, Francis

Ford Coppola created a visually mesmerising fantasia on the spectacle of war.

15

Late Spring (1949) Ozu Yasujirô

16

Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) Robert Bresson

Robert Bresson’s distinctive pared down style elicits extraordinary pathos from this devastating tale of an

abused donkey passing from owner to owner.

=17

Seven Samurai (1954) Akira Kurosawa

Rice farmers hire a band of samurai to defend them against marauding bandits in Akira Kurosawa’s

influential epic, a touchstone for action movies ever since.

=17

Persona (1966) Ingmar Bergman

A nurse (Bibi Andersson) and an actress who refuses to speak (Liv Ullmann) seem to fuse identities in

Ingmar Bergman’s disturbing, formally experimental psychological drama.

19

Mirror (1974) Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Tarkovsky drew on memories of a rural childhood before WWII for this personal, impressionistic

and unconventional film poem.

20

Singin' in the Rain (1951) Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly

Hollywood’s troubled transition from silent to talking pictures at the end of the 1920s provided the

inspiration for perhaps the greatest of movie musicals.

=21

Avventura, L' (1960) Michelangelo Antonioni

In Michelangelo Antonioni’s groundbreaking and controversial arthouse milestone, the mystery of a

woman’s disappearance from a Mediterranean island is left unresolved.

=21

Godfather: Part I, The (1972) Francis Ford Coppola

The first of Francis Ford Coppola’s epic trilogy about the Corleone crime family is the disturbing story of a

son drawn inexorably into his father’s Mafia affairs.

=21

mépris, Le (1963) Jean-Luc Godard

Working with his biggest budget to date, Jean-Luc Godard created a sublime widescreen drama about

marital breakdown, set during pre-production on a film shoot.

=24

Rashomon (1950) Akira Kurosawa

Credited with bringing Japanese cinema to worldwide audiences, Akira Kurosawa’s breakthrough tells

the story of a murder in the woods from four differing perspectives.

=24

Ordet (1955) Carl Theodor Dreyer

The penultimate film by the Danish master Carl Theodor Dreyer is a parable on the power of faith, set in

a remote religious community.

=24

In The Mood For Love (2000) Wong Kar Wai

27

Andrei Rublev (1966) Andrei Tarkovsky

The life of a 15th century icon painter takes centre stage in Andrei Tarkovsky’s epic meditation on the

place of art in turbulent times.

28

Mulholland Dr (2003) David Lynch

=29

Stalker (1979) Andrei Tarkovsky

=29

Shoah (1985) Claude Lanzmann

=31

Taxi Driver (1976) Martin Scorsese

Martin’s Scorsese’s unsettling story of disturbed New York cab driver Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) is a

classic of 70s cinema.

=31

Godfather: Part II, The (1974) Francis Ford Coppola

The expansive second part of Francis Ford Coppola’s Mafia saga continues the Corleone family story,

charting in parallel young Vito’s earlier rise to prominence.

33

Bicycle Thieves, The (1948) Vittorio de Sica

Vittorio De Sica’s story of a father and son searching for a stolen bicycle on the streets of Rome is a

classic of post-war Italian cinema.

=34

Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock

=34

General, The (1926) Buster Keaton

Train driver Buster Keaton gives chase when Union agents steal his locomotive in this classic silent

comedy set at the time of the American Civil War.

=36

Sátántangó (1994) Béla Tarr

=36

Metropolis (1927) Fritz Lang

Fritz Lang’s epic vision of a futuristic city where workers toil for their domineering overseers has proved

an immeasurable influence on science-fiction filmmaking.

=36

Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) Chantal Akerman

=39

dolce vita, La (1960) Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini’s epic charts a week in the life of a tabloid journalist (Marcello Mastroianni) as the

excesses of modern Roman life go on around him.

=39

400 Blows, The (1959) François Truffaut

The directorial debut of film critic François Truffaut, this autobiographical story of a wayward child

marked a fresh start for French cinema.

=41

Pather Panchali (1955) Satyajit Ray

The first part of Satyajit Ray’s acclaimed Apu Trilogy is a lyrical, closely observed story of a peasant

family in 1920s rural India.

=41

Journey to Italy (1954) Roberto Rossellini

This devastating study of a marriage coming apart during a holiday in Italy is the best known of the films

Roberto Rossellini made with his wife Ingrid Bergman.

=43

Pierrot le Fou (1965) Jean-Luc Godard

Riffing on the classic couple-on-the run movie, enfant terrible Jean-Luc Godard took the narrative

innovations of the French New Wave close to breaking point.

=43

Close-Up (1989) Abbas Kiarostami

=43

Some Like It Hot (1959) Billy Wilder

On the run from Chicago mobsters, two musicians don drag to join an all-girl jazz band fronted by Sugar

Kane (Marilyn Monroe) in Billy Wilder’s hugely popular comedy.

=43

Playtime (1967) Jacques Tati

=43

Gertrud (1964) Carl Theodor Dreyer

=48

Histoire(s) du cinéma

Jean-Luc Godard

=48

Battle of Algiers, The (1966) Gillo Pontecorvo

Gillo Pontecorvo’s masterpiece about the turbulent last years of French colonial rule in Algeria, seen

from the perspective of both the guerrilla revolutionaries and the French authorities.

50

City Lights (1931) Charles Chaplin

The Tramp wins the affections of a blind flower seller (Virginia Cherrill) in this hilarious but heartbreaking

comedy – one of Charlie Chaplin’s uncontested masterpieces.

=50

Ugetsu Monogatari (1953) Mizoguchi Kenji

In war-torn 16th-century Japan, two men leave their wives to seek wealth and glory in Kenji Mizoguchi’s

tragic supernatural classic.

=50

Jetée, La (1962) Chris Marker

=53

North by Northwest (1959) Alfred Hitchcock

=53

Rear Window (1954) Alfred Hitchcock

=53

Raging Bull (1980) Martin Scorsese

Starring Robert De Niro as the middleweight boxer Jake La Motta, Scorsese’s biopic is widely

acknowledged as one of the greatest films of the 1980s.

56

M (1931) Fritz Lang

For his first sound film Fritz Lang turned to the story of a child killer (Peter Lorre), who is hunted down by

police and underworld alike.

=57

Leopard, The (1963) Luchino Visconti

=57

Touch of Evil (1958) Orson Welles

Orson Welles’ return to Hollywood after ten years working in Europe is a sleazy border tale in which he

takes centre stage as gargantuan detective Hank Quinlan.

=59

Sherlock Jr (1924) Buster Keaton

Keaton’s third feature is a breathtakingly virtuosic display of every silent comedy technique imaginable,

from his own formidable physical skills to some then-groundbreaking camera trickery.

=59

Barry Lyndon (1975) Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick’s exquisitely detailed adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel about the

picaresque exploits of an 18th century Irish adventurer.

=59

Maman et la putain, La (1973) Jean Eustache

=59

Sansho Dayu (1954) Mizoguchi Kenji

This sweeping historical tragedy about two children separated from their parents and sold into slavery

continued a run of late masterpieces from Kenji Mizoguchi.

=63

Wild Strawberries (1957) Ingmar Bergman

On a road trip to receive an honorary degree, an elderly academic (Victor Sjöstrom) looks back over his

life in Ingmar Bergman’s art-cinema classic.

=63

Modern Times (1936) Charles Chaplin

The final outing for Charlie Chaplin’s beloved Tramp character finds him enduring the pratfalls and

humiliations of work in an increasingly mechanised society.

=63

Sunset Blvd. (1950) Billy Wilder

The most caustic of European émigré directors, Wilder explored the movie industry and the delusions of

stardom in Hollywood’s great poison pen letter to itself.

=63

Night of the Hunter, The (1955) Charles Laughton

Actor Charles Laughton’s only film as a director is a complete one-off, a terrifying parable of the

corruption of innocence featuring a career-best performance from Robert Mitchum.

=63

Pickpocket (1959) Robert Bresson

This examination of the method and morality of a pickpocket on the streets of Paris marked a refinement

of Robert Bresson’s spare, unsentimental aesthetic.

=63

Rio Bravo (1958) Howard Hawks

A decade after Red River (1947), Howard Hawks reteamed with John Wayne for this rambling western

riffing on the director’s usual themes of friendship and professionalism.

=69

Blade Runner (1982) Ridley Scott

Loosely adapted from a novel by Phillip K. Dick, Ridley Scott’s dark, saturated vision of 2019 Los

Angeles is a classic of popular science-fiction cinema.

=69

Blue Velvet (1986) David Lynch

In David Lynch’s idiosyncratic drama, a young man’s curiosity draws him into the twisted criminal sub-

culture operating beneath the placid surface of his cosy hometown.

=69

Sans Soleil (1982) Chris Marker

=69

Man Escaped, A (1956) Robert Bresson

=73

Third Man, The (1949) Carol Reed

An American abroad in post-war Vienna pursues his missing friend down a rabbit hole of intrigue and

moral corruption in Carol Reed’s masterpiece of European noir.

=73

eclisse, L' (1962) Michelangelo Antonioni

=73

enfants du paradis, Les (1945) Marcel Carné

Made during the Nazi occupation of France, Marcel Carne’s romantic epic of the 19th-century theatre

world is a life-affirming tribute to love, Paris and the stage.

=73

grande illusion, La (1937) Jean Renoir

Jean Renoir’s pacifist classic is set in a German prisoner-of-war camp during WWI, where class kinship

is felt across national boundaries.

=73

Nashville (1975) Robert Altman

Made to celebrate the bicentennial of American Independence, Robert Altman’s footloose epic blends

the lives of 24 characters in the capital of country music.

=78

Chinatown (1974) Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski’s brilliant thriller stars Jack Nicholson as a private eye uncovering corruption in 1930s

Los Angeles, a desert town where water equals power.

=78

Beau Travail (1998) Claire Denis

=78

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) Sergio Leone

The railroad rushes westward, bringing power and progress with it, in Sergio Leone’s grandest spaghetti

western, an operatic homage to Hollywood’s mythology of the Old West.

=81

Magnificent Ambersons, The (1942) Orson Welles

Among the most famous of broken films, Orson Welles’ masterful follow-up to Citizen Kane was taken

out of his control and re-edited by the studio.

=81

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) David Lean

An eccentric English officer inspires the Arabs to unite against the Turks during WWI in David Lean’s

seven Oscar-winner, an epic in every sense.

=81

Spirit of the Beehive, The (1973) Víctor Erice

=84

Fanny and Alexander (1984) Ingmar Bergman

The grand summation of Ingmar Bergman’s career, this epic family drama drew on the director’s own

childhood experiences in early 20th century Sweden.

=84

Casablanca (1942) Michael Curtiz

Everybody comes to Rick’s bar, including expat Rick’s (Humphrey Bogart) former lover Ilsa (Ingrid

Bergman), in one of Hollywood’s most-loved romantic melodramas.

=84

Colour of Pomegranates, The (1968) Sergei Parajanov

=84

Greed (1925) Erich von Stroheim

Silent cinema’s most famous ‘lost’ film, Von Stroheim’s monumental study of three ordinary lives

destroyed by avarice was ruinously edited down by the studio.

=84

Brighter Summer Day, A (1991) Edward Yang

=84

Wild Bunch, The (1969) Sam Peckinpah

A gang of outlaws goes out in a blaze of violence and glory in Sam Peckinpah’s elegiac film about the

dying days of the wild west.

90

Partie de campagne (1936) Jean Renoir

=90

Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972) Werner Herzog

=90

Matter of Life and Death, A (1946) Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger

In Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s audacious Technicolor fantasy, WWII airman David Niven

finds himself summoned to heaven after surviving a plane crash that should have killed him.

=93

Seventh Seal, The (1957) Ingmar Bergman

During the plague-ravaged middle ages, a knight buys time for himself by playing chess with Death in

Bergman’s much-imitated arthouse classic.

=93

chien andalou, Un (1928) Luis Buñuel

=93

Intolerance (1916) D.W. Griffith

Responding to criticisms of racism for his record-breaking The Birth of a Nation, film-making pioneer

D.W. Griffith made this epic drama depicting intolerance through the ages.

=93

One and a Two, A (1999) Edward Yang

=93

Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The (1943) Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger

=93

Touki Bouki (1973) Djibril Diop Mambéty

=93

Fear Eats the Soul (1974) Rainer Werner Fassbinder

=93

Imitation of Life (1959) Douglas Sirk

93

Madame de… (1953) Max Ophüls

Tragic consequences ensue when a society woman pawns the earrings her husband gave her, in Max

Ophuls’ graceful and opulent period drama.

=102

Wavelength (1967) Michael Snow

=102

Conformist, The (1970) Bernardo Bertolucci

Bernardo Bertolucci’s stylish period thriller stars Jean-Louis Trintignant as a repressed bureaucrat in

Mussolini’s Italy who is assigned to kill his former professor.

=102

Travelling Players, The (1975) Theodoros Angelopoulos

Weaving together recent Greek history and the wanderings of a travelling theatre troupe, Theo

Angelopoulos’ four-hour epic posited a new form of storytelling.

=102

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) Maya Deren/Alexander Hammid

=102

Two or Three Things I Know About Her… (1967) Jean-Luc Godard

Moving ever further away from narrative, Jean-Luc Godard equates consumerism with prostitution in this

radical portrait of a day in the life of a Parisian call girl.

=102

Tree of Life, The (2010) Terrence Malick

=102

Ivan the Terrible (1945) Sergei M Eisenstein

The first part of Sergei Eisenstein’s truncated masterpiece about the 16th-century Russian Tsar sees

young Ivan attempting to unite Russia under a single ruler.

=102

Last Year At Marienbad (1961) Alain Resnais

In Alain Resnais’ infamous art-house teaser, from a screenplay by Alain Robbe-Grillet, a male guest at a

chateau claims he met a woman there the year before.

110

Lady Eve, The (1941) Preston Sturges

Glamorous conwoman Barbara Stanwyck gets millionaire boffin Henry Fonda in her sights in Preston

Sturges’s sparkling screwball comedy.

=110

olvidados, Los (1995) Luis Buñuel

=110

Bringing Up Baby (1938) Howard Hawks

=110

Performance (1970) Donald Cammell/Nicolas Roeg

Nicolas Roeg’s directing career began with this explicit and experimental thriller about a hunted gangster

taking refuge with a reclusive rock star.

=110

Passenger, The (1974) Michelangelo Antonioni

=110

Viridiana (1961) Luis Buñuel

In Luis Buñuel’s controversial masterpiece, a novice nun gets more than she bargains for when she tu