100 Films to See Before you Die

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Criteria for grading a film

There are four:

1 Technical artistry

Films have many departments. I’m looking for mastery over all departments. The really great films are also innovators. Camera, art, lighting, wardrobe, sound design, visual effects…anything that furthers the cause of filmmaking.

2 Storytelling artistry

This is the part that deals with what the audience is aware of. Screenplay, acting, editing and of course, film direction.

3 Cinema as art

Does the movie elevate itself to high art? Does it communicate with us on a deeper level than what’s on the surface? It’s a tricky criterion to score, and everyone will have their own opinions here. It’s definitely the most contentious. Let’s agree to disagree on this one.

4 Cinema as entertainment

Movies are too expensive to ignore finances. If a movie is both art and entertainment, it is the highest form of cinema. You can’t ask more from a film.

What happens when there’s a tie?

I value storytelling over technical artistry. And art over entertainment. Interestingly, there are no two films with the exact same scores in every category!

For a more detailed explanation, read this:

What makes a film great?

100 Films to See Before you Die

Counting down from 100 to 1:

**100. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)**
Director: Frank Kapra
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**99. Blow-Up (1966)**
Director: Michaelangelo Antonioni
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**98. Black Christmas (1974)**
Director: Bob Clark
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**97. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)**
Director: Stanley Kubrick
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**96. Scream (1996)**
Director: Wes Craven
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**95. Iruvar (1997)**
Director: Mani Ratnam
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**94. L’Avventura (1960)**
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
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**93. Memories of Murder (2003) [Salinui chueok]**
Director: Bong Joon Ho
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**92. Sunset Boulevard (1950)**
Director: Billy Wilder
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**91. Fargo (1996)**
Director: Joel and Ethan Coen
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**90. El Topo (1970)**
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
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**89. Les Diaboliques (1955)**
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
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**88. Three Colors: Blue (1993)**
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
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**87. Nosferatu (1922)**
Director: F.W. Murnau
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**86. Halloween (1978)**
Director: John Carpenter
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**85. Rear Window (1954)**
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
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**84. The Color of Pomegranates (1969)**
Director: Sergei Parajanov
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**83. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)**
Director: Sidney Lumet
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**82. Fight Club (1999)**
Director: David Fincher
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**81. All About My Mother** (1999) [Todo sobre mi madre]
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
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**80. The Night of the Hunter (1955)**
Director: M
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**79. The Thin Red Line. (1998)**
Director: Terrence Malick
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**78. Persona (1966)**
Director: Ingmar Bergman
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**77. The 400 Blows (1959) [Les quatre cents coups]**
Director: François Truffaut
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**76. The Double Life of Véronique (1991)**
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
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**75. It Happened One Night (1934)**
Director: Frank Capra
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**74. Stalker (1979)**
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
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**73. Munich (2005)**
Director: Steven Spielberg
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**72. Groundhog Day (1993)**
Director: Harold Ramis
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**71. Fanny and Alexander (1982)**
Director: Ingmar Bergman
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**70. Contempt (1960) [Le Mépris]**
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
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**69. Rocky (1976)**
Director: John G. Avildsen
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**68. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)**
Director: Sergio Leone
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**67. Paris, Texas (1984)**
Director: Wim Wenders
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**66. Bicycle Thieves (1948)**
Director: Vittorio De Sica
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**65. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)**
Director: Michel Gondry
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**64. Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972)** **[Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes]**
Director: Werner Herzog
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**63. Modern Times (1936)**
Director: Charles Chaplin
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**62. The Big Lebowski (1998)**
Director: Joel and Ethan Coen
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**61. La Dolce Vita (1960)**
Director: Federico Fellini
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**60. Requiem for a Dream (2000)**
Director: Darren Aronofsky
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**59. Jurassic Park (1993)**
Director: Steven Spielberg
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**58. Amadeus (1984)**
Director: Milos Forman
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**57. Schindler’s List (1993)**
Director: Steven Spielberg
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**56. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) [Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari]**
Director: Robert Wiene
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**55. Gone with the Wind (1939)**
Director: Victor Fleming, George Cukor and Sam Wood
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**54. Stagecoach (1939)**
Director: John Ford
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**53. Alien (1979)**
Director: Ridley Scott
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**52. Inception (2010)**
Director: Christopher Nolan
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**51. 8½ (1963)**
Director: Frederico Fellini
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**50. Chungking Express (1994) [Chung Hing sam lam**]
Director: Kar-Wai Wong
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**49. Battleship Potemkin (1925) [Bronenosets Potemkin]**
Director: Sergei M. Eisenstein
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**48. Tokyo Story (1953) [Tôkyô monogatari]**
Director: Yasujirô Ozu
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**47. Annie Hall (1977)**
Director: Woody Allen
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**46. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)**
Director: David Lean
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**45. Breathless (1960) [À bout de souffle**]
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
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**44. Before Sunrise (1995)**
Director: Richard Linklater
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**43. A Touch of Evil (1958)**
Director: Orson Welles
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**42. The Birth of a Nation (1915)**
Director: D. W. Griffith
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**41. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)**
Director: F.W. Murnau
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**40. The General (1926)**
Director: Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton
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**39. Apocalypse Now (1979)**
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
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**38. Kagemusha (1980)**
Director: Akira Kurosawa
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**37. Man with a Movie Camera (1929) [Chelovek s kino-apparatom]**
Director: Dziga Vertov
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**36. Chinatown (1974)**
Director: Roman Polanski
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**35. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) [La passion de Jeanne d’Arc**]
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
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**34. Pulp Fiction (1994)**
Director: Quentin Tarantino
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**33. The Rules of the Game (1939) [La règle du jeu**]
Director: Jean Renoir
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**32. Metropolis (1927)**
Director: Fritz Lang
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**31. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)**
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
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**30. Underground (1995)**
Director: Emir Kusturica
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**29. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)**
Director: Sergio Leone
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**28. Goodfellas (1990)**
Director: Martin Scorcese
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**27. There will be Blood (2007)**
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
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**26. Blade Runner (1982)**
Director: Ridley Scott
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**25. Pather Panchali (1955)**
Director: Satyajit Ray
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**24. Life Is Beautiful (1997) [La vita è bella]**
Director: Roberto Benigni
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**23. Lost in Translation (2003)**
Director: Sophia Coppola
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**22. Forrest Gump (1994)**
Director: Robert Zemeckis
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**21. 12 Angry Men (1957)**
Director: Sidney Lumet
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**20. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)**
Director: John Ford
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**19. Se7en (1995)**
Director: David Fincher
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**18. Network (1976)**
Director: Sidney Lumet
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**17. Psycho (1960)**
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
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**16. City of God (2002) [Cidade de Deus]**
Director: Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund
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**15. In the Mood for Love (2000) [Fa yeung nin wah]**
Director: Kar-Wai Wong
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**14. The Godfather (1972)**
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
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**13. The Matrix (1999)**
Director: Lilly and Lana Wachowski
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**12. Raging Bull (1980)**
Director: Martin Scorcese
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**11. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)**
Director: Wes Anderson
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**10. M (1931) [M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder**]
Director: Fritz Lang
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**9. City Lights (1931)**
Director: Charles Chaplin
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**8. The Godfather: Part II (1974)**
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
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**7. Barry Lyndon (1975)**
Director: Stanley Kubrick
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**6. Amélie (2001) [Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain]**
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
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**5. Mulholland Dr. (2001)**
Director: David Lynch
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**4. Rashomon (1950)**
Director: Akira Kurosawa
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**3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)**
Director: Stanley Kubrick
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**2. Citizen Kane (1941)**
Director: Orson Welles
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**1. Seven Samurai (1954)**
Director: Akira Kurosawa
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Hope you liked my list. Don’t ask me why your favorite movie isn’t on this list. It’s on yours!

Trivia

For nerds.

Percentage split between black and white and color film is: 38% for Black and White and 62% for Color.
The ‘Drama’ genre has the greatest representation with 46% of films. Action has 15% and Mystery has 10%.
Number of films by decade: 90s – 21%, 70s – 15% and 60s – 13%.
The USA has the greatest representation with 56% of films.
5 directors with three films each: Akira Kurosawa, Stanley Kubrick, Sidney Lumet, Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola.