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This is the blog of Ian Rosales Casocot. Filipino writer. Sometime academic. Former backpacker. Twink bait. Hamster lover.

Email: icasocot(at)gmail.com

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Monday, December 15, 2025

entry arrow9:36 PM | Rob Reiner, 1947-2025



What grim madness! One of my favorite film directors, Rob Reiner, who helmed contemporary classics such as When Harry Met Sally..., The Princess Bride, This is Spinal Tap, Misery, A Few Good Men, and The American President, is dead, a victim of homicide. Apparently murdered together with his wife by their own son. What a week! A shooting in Brown University, a shooting in Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, and now this. Rest in peace, Mr. Reiner. Thank you for all the movies.

This tweet says a lot about Mr. Reiner's legacy:



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Thursday, August 28, 2025

entry arrow4:06 PM | Mike de Leon, 1947-2025



He was my favorite Filipino film director, rightfully seen as our country's Stanley Kubrick for the way he tackled all kinds of genres and made them bear his mark. Kisapmata. Itim. Kakabakaba Ka Ba? Kung Mangarap Ka’t Magising. Batch '81. Nahahati ang Langit. Bilanggo sa Dilim. Aliwan Paradise. Sister Stella L. Bayaning Third World. Citizen Jake. All masterpieces, especially the first one. I know he had a reputation for being difficult and ornery, but I wish those things can be transcended and he be given a distinction truly and rightfully his: a National Artist for Cinema.

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Thursday, September 22, 2022

entry arrow9:00 AM | A Remembrance of a Dumaguete Filmmaker

Last September 22, we celebrated the 98th birth anniversary of a Dumaguete filmmaker who was acclaimed and well-awarded in his prime, and produced many great works that contributed considerably to Philippine cinema—but is sadly mostly forgotten now. Two weeks ago, a restoration of one of the films he scripted, the classic The Moises Padilla Story, was screened by the Film Development Council of the Philippines in Trinoma, Quezon City, which was part of the celebration of the Philippine Film Industry Month—and the organizers forgot to invite his family.

I am going to devote this space in remembrance of him.




In 28 August 1974, when Cesar Jalandoni Amigo received the Outstanding Sillimanian Award for Scriptwriting and TV/Film Production, he was riding a crest of recognition for a body work that, starting in 1949, had been consistently impressive, and straddled two creative worlds—that of literature and of cinema. His citation for that award begins: “[His] world is the world of film, some of them fiction, but in that world, Mr. Amigo is real. His contribution to the art and profession of filmmaking in the Philippines has been substantial and for this he has been amply awarded.”


Cesar Amigo [right] receives the 1974 Outstanding Sillimanian Award for Screenwriting and TV/Film Production from then University President Cicero Calderon and Board of Trustees Chair Josefa Ilano.

What is the sum of this contribution? In quick consideration, there are the thirty-three films to his credit—all of which he wrote or provided the story for, and four of which he also directed. There are the six FAMAS Awards for his screenplays. And then there are the stories themselves—always with a social bent, geared towards a deeper consideration of what he felt to be the vital issues of the day.

In 3 June 1973, when he received the Patnubay ng Kalinangan [Guardian of Culture] Award, an honor bestowed by the City of Manila, which is considered by many local artists to be one of the most prestigious and the most sought-after cultural award, the noted writer and civic leader Celso Al. Carunungan addressed the city’s Commission on Arts and Culture in testament of his friend:

“Cesar J. Amigo has used his talents not merely for self-aggrandizement, but also as weapons, however modest, in humanity’s fight against traditional enemies: communism and population explosion. In the mid-1950s, Amigo devoted almost two years of his life writing and directing anti-communist films in Vietnam and Cambodia. The early 1970s see him gradually switching from theatrical movies to film featurettes on family planning, which Cesar Amigo now produces and directs for the National Media Production Center, in collaboration with the Population Commission.”


Cesar Amigo at his typewriter. He was most comfortable working late at night.

He was the most lauded scripter of his day, and people could readily recognize his authorial signature in the films that he wrote—one could say he was the precursor, together with Clodualdo Del Mundo Sr., to the likes of Amado Lacuesta, Clodualdo Del Mundo Jr., Ricky Lee, Raquel Villavicencio, and Jun Lana, all of them celebrated screenwriters that came after him.


Cesar J. Amigo was born in Manila on 22 September 1924, but grew up and spent his formative years in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, where he had family. [He is related to the famed Amigo clan in Dumaguete.] He went to kindergarten at what was then Silliman Institute in 1929, proceeding to the primary grades at the same school in 1930. For his intermediate grades, he attended West Central School [now West City Elementary School], graduating in 1937. He attended Negros Oriental High School for his freshman and sophomore years [1937-1939], but transferred to Mindanao and studied at Cotabato High School, where he graduated in 1941. He returned to Dumaguete soon after to study Pre-Law at what was now Silliman University—where he was subsequently elected Vice President of the Silliman Literary Guild [already betraying his literary inclinations at age 17]—but his college education was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II.

When he returned to school in Dumaguete in 1945, right after the war, he shifted gears and this time pursued a degree in political science. He also became part of what was later called the Class of Reconstruction—the cohort of college students at Silliman University who witnessed the biggest social change and cultural development thus far. The war had disrupted their lives, and those who survived the Japanese occupation and its terrors came back to the classroom with a renewed vigor. They brought with them, according to Silliman University President Arthur Carson, an “enthusiasm and … sober maturity,” which then “brought stimulus and reward.”

What should be noted is that this returning group of students—particularly the Class of 1948 [to which Amigo belonged]—brought together at least two generations of young people into war-ravaged Silliman campus: those who had yet to experience college life but were now of age to begin higher studies, and those whose own tertiary matriculation was cut short. The former brought with them fresh vigor, and the latter returned more than ready to begin again—and this combination became a melting pot from which would come much of the creative ferment that cemented Silliman’s [and Dumaguete’s] contribution to the national culture. The next five years after 1945 became a period when student population more than doubled, despite the glaring challenges of post-war education, including the lack of classrooms and the lack of faculty to teach. Because of the massive enrolment that only became even more massive as with passing semester, certain liberties in completing courses were instituted, and the schedule between semesters was tightened. 1946, for example, is known as the year without a summer vacation, as students raced to complete their courses to accommodate incoming students. In 1947, three commencement ceremonies were held for seniors who were able to complete their requirements.

The title “Class of Reconstruction,” which was given to the Class of 1948, is the cohort that felt the joy and the challenges of post-war reconstruction and rehabilitation in campus the most. Swirling around Amigo and his classmates were many things in the local culture that were beginning to stir. In 1948, the Student Government came back to operation, publishing its Constitution in the September 18 issue of The Sillimanian. (The school paper itself resumed publication only in 1946.) Plans for the reviving of the yearbook, The Portal, was also underway. (Its first post-war publication would eventually be released in 1949, reprinting with permission Rafael Zulueta da Costa’s poem “Like the Molave” as a centerpiece to underline a popular post-war sentiment of strength after adversity.) Theatre made a dramatic comeback, with Gilbert and Sullivan musicals and Shakespeare plays being staged to popular reception on campus in the late 1940s on to the 1950s. In 1947, Edilberto K. Tiempo, a returning faculty member, was accepted into the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop, followed the next year by his wife, Edith, who was also admitted into the same program. Campus publication flourished, with Rodrigo Feria at the helm.

And lastly, in 1948, the Sands and Coral was launched.

The first issue of the Sands and Coral was edited by Cesar Amigo and Aida Rivera (now Ford), under the guidance of Rodrigo Feria and Ricaredo Demetillo. This magazine would later make its mark as the preeminent literary publication of Silliman University. The folio caught the attention of national literary circles, was reviewed favorably in newspapers, and signaled Silliman’s growing importance in the contribution to the national literature, particularly that in English, which would be the main engine of the burgeoning Dumaguete literary culture in those years. Alongside Amigo and Rivera would be other Silliman writers who would soon win national accolades and see constant print in national publications—including Jose V. Montebon Jr., Eddie Romero, Kenneth Woods, Reuben Canoy, James Matheson, Edith Tiempo, Edilberto K. Tiempo, Graciano H. Arinday Jr., Ricardo Drilon, Leticia Dizon, David Quemada, and Ricaredo Demetillo. Many of these names would be part of a campus literary group who called themselves The Barbarians, Inc.

Among Amigo’s literary output as a Silliman student are several items published in the 1946 issue of the Sillimanian Magazine, including a poem [“Postlude”] and a short story [“Rain Without Meaning”]. After his editorial stint for Sands and Coral in 1948, he would contribute one more time to the folio, this time with a criticism piece titled “Ideals and the Man” for the 1951 issue edited by Reuben Canoy, Claro Ceniza, Honorio Ridad, and Lugum Uka. In this short piece, Amigo crystallized an abiding philosophy: “The man who considers his ideal as a thing apart from his actual being, a distant goal, makes a perilous mistake. For the ideal is forever enmeshed with the courses of our lives. It never leaves us. A man may indulge in gluttony, but invariably he will despise another glutton because the perception of it revolts his innate principles of abstinence, which is only a factor of a more complex Ideal. In this case, the ideal manifests itself in a physical reaction, as it does in the more superficial motions and opinions of a human being. / Let there be no mistaking it: no man can isolate himself from the Ideal. He may be unconscious of it; he may despise ideals. But there is not a single human being of a sane mind, however stupid or dissipated, who does not erect [consciously or unconsciously] a standard of behavior, a Principal Attitude. What is this standard? An Ideal.”

His son Bob would remember his literary inclinations: “Like most accomplished writers, [my father] was a voracious reader. For the most part of the day, he would soak himself in reading novels, the local dailies, Time and Newsweek, Reader’s Digest, and just about anything he could get his hands on—including spiritual books from almost any religious persuasion. To be sure, this was the foundation that made him the consummate writer that he was. It would seem that this love for the printed page was a passion he learned from his mother, Belen Jalandoni.”

He continued: “As a writer, he was most comfortable working late at night. I remember waking up in the wee hours of the morning hearing him pounding away on his typewriter. And when he was exhilarated about a story or screenplay that he was doing, I would hear him relate this to my mother, Ursula. Oh, how he loved telling her his stories. I suspect that she was the only audience who mattered most to him.”


Soon after graduating from college in 1949, Amigo would return to Manila, where he landed his first job—that of senior scriptwriter for Sampaguita Pictures, following the lead of Romero, who had begun writing screenplays for Gerardo de Leon, starting with Ang Maestra in 1941. [The two would have a long collaborative relationship in the coming decades.]

His stint at Sampaguita would last until 1951, whereupon he began working as a freelance scriptwriter. The gambit paid off, and his screenplay for Buhay Alamang [co-written with Romero] would finally be produced in 1952. The film would also net him his first award, the FAMAS for Best Screenplay. But the following years also saw him drop off from screenwriting altogether, and between 1953 and 1956, he turned to journalism, becoming a movie columnist for Sunday Times Magazine.

In 1956, he began working for the propaganda arm of the U.S. military, specifically as senior scriptwriter and documentary film director for the USIS-Saigon (Vietnam) and USIS-Pnom Penh (Cambodia). In this period, he would write and produce films with an anti-communist bent, notably with Saigon (1956), a film directed by De Leon and starring Leopoldo Salcedo, Ben Perez, Cristina Pacheco, and Khank Ngoc [a famous Vietnamese film actress and singer who would win Best Actress for Anh Sang Mien Nam (1955), a joint Vietnamese-Filipino production, at the Philippine Film Festival Award]. Saigon is a revenge melodrama about ill-starred Vietnamese lovers fleeing the Viet Cong from North Vietnam.

The stint with the U.S. military would last until 1957, and Amigo soon returned to the Philippines to write Ang Kamay ni Cain for De Leon, from a story by Clodualdo Del Mundo Sr. Soon, film assignments rolled in with more regularity, and the rest of the 1950s would see him write the screenplays for Sweethearts (1957), Bakya Mo Neneng (1957), Be My Love (1958), You’re My Everything (1958), Laban sa Lahat (1958), Hanggang sa Dulo ng Daigdig (1958), Rolling Rockers (1959), Eva Dragon (1959), and Hawaiian Boy (1959). Of this titles from this period of resurgence, he would be known most for Hanggang sa Dulo ng Daigdig—a crime film directed by De Leon, about an outlaw [played by Pancho Magalona] out for revenge—for which he would win once more the FAMAS Award for Best Screenplay. For that film, Reel News critic Francisco Villa would write: “[The film boasts of a] treatment at its most imaginative… and realism in its rawest and most stunning presentation.” Amigo’s reputation as a screenwriter was secured.


At the 1959 FAMAS Awards, where Cesar Amigo [left] won Best Screenplay for Hanggang sa Dulo ng Daidig. Its director, Gerardo de Leon [right] won Best Director.

In the 1960s, his screenwriting credits would include Escape to Paradise (1960), Sandakot na Alabok (1960), Kadenang Putik (1960), Sa Ibabaw ng Aking Bangkay (1960), Vengavito (1961), The Moises Padilla Story (1961), Halang ang Kaluluwa (1962) Labanan sa Balicuatro (1962), Falcon (1962), Sa Atin ang Daigdig (1963), Barilan sa Pugad Lawin (1963), Intramuros (1964), Blood is the Color of Night (1964), Magandang Bituin (1965), The Ravagers (1965), 7 Gabi sa Hong Kong (1966), The Passionate Strangers (1966), Gold Bikini (1967), Ang Limbas at ang Lawin (1967), Virgin of Kalatrava Island (1967), Brides of Blood (1968), and Igorota (1968)—a run of films that would exhibit Amigo’s wide-ranging capabilities in handling different genres, from film noir [The Passionate Strangers] to horror [Brides of Blood], from action-filled drama ripped from the headlines [The Moises Padilla Story] to war epics [Escape to Paradise], from historical melodrama [Igorota] to romantic comedies [Magandang Bituin], from musicals [7 Gabi sa Hong Kong] to spy capers [Gold Bikini]. He would also begin writing B-movies for Hollywood around this time, often in association with Eddie Romero, Gerardo De Leon, and Cirio Santiago.

He would also win the FAMAS for Best Screenplay for Kadenang Putik in 1961, and The Moises Padilla Story in 1962. The latter film [directed by De Leon]—about a real-life Occidental Negrense politician who becomes a martyr after a brutal election-related skirmish with a powerful provincial governor—has become an undisputed classic in the canon of Philippine cinema. This film, together with The Passionate Strangers [directed by Romero, and co-written by fellow Sillimanian Reuben Canoy]—which is set in Negros Oriental and is about an American factory owner who faces his demons as he confronts a labor strike and further muddles it with murder—completes Amigo’s duology on Negrense moral horrors.

In 1963, he would direct his first film, Sa Atin ang Daigdig, a story following six people “from the gutters” as they strive to seek success. [The movie’s press bills it as a film that “will startle you with its frankness and stir you for its truth.”] It became the Philippine entry to the prestigious Venice Film Festival—an honor that Amigo took in stride, proclaiming both the success of the production and its inclusion in Venice as “beginner’s luck.” He would also direct two more films in the 1960s—7 Gabi sa Hong Kong [a musical extravaganza starring Gloria Romero, Shirley Gorospe, and Juancho Gutierrez], and Wanted: Johnny L [an anti-crime anthology film he co-directed with De Leon and Romero].

Igorota—directed by Luis Nepomuceno in 1968—would also be a landmark film in Amigo’s screenwriting career, although contemporary critics would come to deride the film for being a “misguided” attempt by the Filipino film industry to crash the international market with its sensational tale of an Igorot maiden who falls in love with a man from the city in the lowlands—their union stirring cultural conflict that end in tragedy. The film would however win eight FAMAS Awards in 1969, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress [for Charito Solis, for whom this would become a milestone role]. Amigo would also serve as associate producer for the film.

The 1970s would herald a trickling down of Amigo’s screenwriting outputs, which would include The Hunted (1970), Pipo (1970), Ang Larawan ni Melissa (1972), The Pacific Connection (1974), Hindi Kami Damong Ligaw (1976), Babae … Sa Likod ng Salamin (1976), and his last film, Sa Dulo ng Kris (1977). The Hunted, which Amigo would also direct, is Nepomuceno’s follow-up to the success of Igorota, also starring Solis. The actress would return for a final engagement with Amigo as director in Babae … Sa Likod ng Salamin, the first film produced by Reuben Canoy. It is a psychological melodrama about a woman with dual personalities—that of a faithful wife by day, and a seductive mistress by night. “I’ve always had a soft heart for Cesar. [He is mild-mannered, soft-spoken, and intelligent director.] Besides, he is really good,” Solis would speak of Amigo in Crispina Martinez-Belen’s Celebrity World column for Manila Bulletin.

In 1972, he would win Best Director and Best Screenplay for Ang Larawan ni Melissa at the Quezon City Film Festival.

In 1977, he would direct Sa Dulo ng Kris, an expansive tale set in contemporary Mindanao detailing the challenges that people from the South regularly faced [including the conflict between Muslim natives and Christian settlers], which was produced by Canoy and starred Joseph Estrada and Vic Vargas. It would prove to be his final film, earning him his last nominations for Best Director and Best Story at the FAMAS.

Sometime in the early 1980s, Amigo returned to journalism full-time, becoming managing editor of The Evening Post. From 1983 to 1986, he also became a regular writer for The Manila Paper, which Reuben Canoy published and edited, putting out a column called “Bench Warming with W. Somerset Moghum.” [W. Somerset Moghum, his pen name, was derived from W. Somerset Maugham. Moghum is a twist of his nickname Mogoy—which only relatives and close friends from Silliman would call him.]

His wife Ursula also would pass away in 1982 at age 52, and he started to develop a love for cooking—perhaps to fill his late wife’s role in the family, as she was known among their friends for her culinary expertise.

In the twilight of his life, he would also return to his literary [and Sillimanian] roots, and help produce Abby R. Jacobs’ wartime memoir We Did Not Surrender in 1986. [Jacobs was an American missionary who taught at Silliman University, and was in Dumaguete when World War II broke out. Together with other American teachers, she evacuated to the hills and mountains of Negros to hide from the Japanese occupying forces, and where they bravely assisted the resistance movement. She taught at Silliman until 1953, and was one of Amigo’s mentors in his student days.]

He later became editor of HOY!, a monthly magazine, in 1987. The April 1987 issue of the magazine would be his last work, as he was diagnosed with colon cancer towards the end of April. He immediately had surgery in May, but the surgery was only a solution to ease his last days. He passed away on June 5 in his house in Mariposa, Quezon City, surrounded by family.



Cesar Amigo with wife Ursula and their family.

His eldest daughter Marika would remember his passion for his work, and his devotion to his family: “Papa’s passion for film was evident with every line he wrote and every frame he shot. But what his patrons would never know was that the only thing this decorated filmmaker loved more than his craft was his family. And his countless home movies and family photographs prove that. The glitz and glam of the limelight never fazed him. His life at home was his priority and he made sure that we all felt the same way. Our dinner table was always bursting with excitement, as each of us would eagerly tell each other of our day. Our guests would even point out that dinners at the Amigo house would always run long because everyone had so many stories to tell. But no one told stories quite like Papa. His eccentricities and his cinematic narration were uniquely his.

“His love for film poured into these conversations, too. This dinner table was where we would unleash our inner movie critic and conduct lengthy discussions on the films we just saw. Film was not just in our blood; it was part of our soul. Papa made sure that the very art form we loved would bring us closer to our loved ones.

“And as the years went by, this has not changed. The Amigo table still has the longest dinners that are chock full of stories we eagerly tell each other sprinkled with unabashed critiques of the latest box office hits. Papa’s love for family was infectious, so much so that we became each other’s closest friends. And although he did not get the chance to meet most of his grandchildren, they share that very same closeness my siblings and I share. Their dinner tables ring of enthusiastic storytelling and meticulous movie critiques too! “As a daughter that still misses her father, I’m grateful that Papa’s passions are still immortalized for the world to see. His award-winning films, and most of all, his influence in his family for generations to come.”

His second-born, Bob—or Bebop, would remember his tenacity regarding film production, insisting always on the paramount importance of story, but also not at the expense of the bottom-line: “As a film director, [my father] believed that the storyline was the centerpiece. But he did not indulge his creative senses in stories that his audience could not relate to. He understood the balance of doing a film that told a good narrative and returned a profit to his producers’ investment at the box- office. To this end, he did not believe in wasting raw footages that merely ended up on the cutting room’s floor. Thus, during production, he meticulously crafted every detail of his shot with the purpose of cutting down on outtakes.

“’Economy of words,’ he once told me, ‘is a skill that every writer should develop.’ I cannot help thinking that many today could benefit from his wisdom—particularly in an age when almost anybody can fancy himself a writer by merely putting out his work on the internet. Cesar J. Amigo belonged to an era of writers whose pen was golden.”

We get the same sense of Amigo as writer from son Ike, the fifth in the brood: “I did not have the opportunity to watch many of my father’s movies, because his prolific writing days were on its tail-end when I was old enough to go to the movie house. However, it’s not hard to see why he was a good scriptwriter. The stories that he’d tell us on the dinner table were always interesting—from how he won over my mother in marriage, to why he lost two fingers on his left hand, to his experiences in Saigon that closely resembled the adventures of Indiana Jones, even though that character wasn’t invented yet. That’s why I looked forward to our time on the dinner table, because it was a guaranteed front-row seat to my father’s next storytelling adventure.”

From Gigi, his fourth-born, we get a sense of Amigo as a man with many facets, including an inherent quirkiness—and further explanation for those two missing fingers: “[My father] was quite the character. He was funny and quirky and a great storyteller. He had a way with words, which is no surprise since he was a writer. But growing up in Dumaguete, his main language was English and Bisaya. His weakness was Tagalog. So what did he do? He invented some Tagalog words. These words seemed so real to us that it was only when I started school that I learned from classmates that I’m using made-up Tagalog words nobody understood. For example, ‘tudoy,’ which apparently was not Tagalog for ‘toe’! He gave funny names to our pets as well, like our dog A-shit, our goldfish Quasimodo, and a pair of carp he named Mr. and Mrs. Carruthers. Even the clueless mailman was baptized as Mr. Estonactok.

“But what everyone who ever met him would probably remember was that he always wore a two-fingered black glove on his left hand. This glove covered two fingers cut in half. Papa had a lot of versions on how he lost his fingers. Some stories were funny, while others were outrageous. But the best story was the real one. He accidentally cut them off with an electric saw mishap while attempting to build a bookshelf! He rushed himself to a nearby clinic just as it was locking up for the night. Papa knocked on the door with his bleeding hand and a beautiful woman opened the door to let him in. And that was how he met the love of his life, my mother. That is a story worth telling through the ages.”

From the youngest, Cesar Jr.—or Jun—we get a sense of a carrying on of that passion for filmmaking: “Pursuing a career in film or production was never a dream of mine. Sure, I was proud to be a film director’s son, and of course I loved movies growing up. But the thought of following in Papa’s footsteps never crossed my mind. Still, Papa had such a unique and impactful personality that it’s almost impossible not to be influenced by him. Seeing him a few times in action on a film set and having those endless discussions about movies during mealtimes gave my siblings and me an appreciation for film production, and depth of cinematic perspective far beyond others our age. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that four of his six children eventually ended up in production at one point or another, myself included. Papa’s been gone for awhile now but his legacy continues on… even to his grandchildren.”


My thanks to the Amigo family, especially Marika Amigo Bulahan, for their assistance in the writing of this article, as well as for the many photos they sent of their father and his work.

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Saturday, June 13, 2020

entry arrow9:00 AM | Going Through 1001 Films You Must Watch Before You Die

[UPDATED 13 JUNE 2020]

You must attribute this list to summer boredom or to the impending certainty of 2012, but I've listed down below the films checklisted by Steven Jay Schneider in his book 1001 Films You Must Watch Before You Die (2003), and I have decided to devote time in the foreseeable future to see the titles on this list ... before I die.

I like this list. And like any list, it necessarily leaves out personal favorites ("The Lion King" but no "Little Mermaid"?), and takes in too many things I suspect to be the result of editorial bias (there's too much Paul Verhoeven here than is necessary). But I like this list nonetheless, because it is generous with what it includes and becomes a virtual cineast feast. It includes celebrated short films and not just full-length features, and strange experimental films (it has Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid's "Meshes in the Afternoon"!), and strange independent films (it has Ken Jacob's "Blonde Cobra"!), and strange horror films (it has Dario Argento's "Suspiria"!), and strange documentaries (it has Terry Zwigoff's "Crumb"!), and avant-garde or risque films you don't think will make such a list (it has Kenneth Anger's very gay "Scorpio Rising"!), and films representative of major world cinemas (it even has Lino Brocka's "Manila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag"!).

I must take note, however, I've been watching movies my whole life -- and studying them as well -- and so there are titles here that feel like I've seen them, but I'm not exactly so sure of the fact, simply because their legend has made them so familiar my memory now plays tricks on me. So then I've decided to check only those titles I'm really sure I've seen.

I've seen 526 out of 1001 so far culled from the 2003 edition.

So, how many films have you seen from this list?



☑ A Trip to the Moon (Georges Melies, 1902)
☑ The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, 1903)
☑ The Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith, 1915)
☐ Les Vampires (Louis Feuillade, 1915)
☑ Intolerance (D.W. Griffith, 1916)
☑ The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1919)
☐ Broken Blossoms (D.W. Griffith, 1919)
☐ Way Down East (D.W. Griffith, 1920)
☐ Within Our Gates (Oscar Micheaux, 1920)
☐ The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjöström, 1921)
☐ Orphans of the Storm (D.W. Griffith, 1921)
☐ The Smiling Madame Beudet (Germaine Dulac, 1922)
☐ Dr. Mabuse, Parts 1 and 2 (Fritz Lang, 1922)
☑ Nanook of the North (Robert J. Flaherty, 1922)
☑ Nosferatu, A Symphony of Terror (F.W. Murnau, 1922)
☐ Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (Benjamin Christensen, 1923)
☐ Foolish Wives (Erich von Stroheim, 1922)
☐ Our Hospitality (John G. Blystone, 1923)
☐ La Roue [The Wheel] (Abel Gance, 1923)
☐ The Thief of Bagdad (Raoul Walsh, 1924)
☑ Strike (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1924)
☐ Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1924)
☑ Sherlock, Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)
☐ The Last Laugh (F.W. Murnau, 1924)
☐ Seven Chances (Buster Keaton, 1925)
☐ The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925)
☑ The Battleship Potemkin (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1925)
☑ The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin, 1925)
☐ The Big Parade (King Vidor, 1925)
☑ Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
☐ Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
☐ The General (Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton, 1927)
☐ The Unknown (Tod Browning, 1927)
☐ October (Grigori Aleksandrov and Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1927)
☑ The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland, 1927)
☐ Napoleon (Abel Gance, 1927)
☐ The Kid Brother (Ted Wilde, 1927)
☐ The Crowd (King Vidor, 1928)
☐ The Docks of New York (Josef von Sternberg, 1928)
☑ Un Chien Andalou (Luis Buñuel, 1928)
☑ The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
☐ Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Charles Reisner, 1928)
☐ Potomok Chingis-Khana [Storm Over Asia] (Vsevolod Pudovkin, 1928)
☐ Blackmail (Alfred Hitchcock, 1929)
☑ The Man with the Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
☐ Pandora's Box (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1929)
☐ The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930)
☐ L'Age D'Or (Luis Buñuel, 1930)
☐ Earth (Aleksandr Dovzhenko, 1930)
☐ Little Caesar (Mervyn LeRoy, 1930)
☑ All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930)
☐ À Nous la Liberté [Freedom For Us] (René Clair, 1931)
☐ Le Million (René Clair, 1931)
☐ Tabu (F.W. Murnau, 1931)
☐ Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931)
☑ Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931)
☑ City Lights (Charlie Chaplin, 1931)
☐ The Public Enemy (William A. Wellman, 1931)
☐ M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
☐ La Chienne [The Bitch] (Jean Renoir, 1931)
☐ Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932)
☐ Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932)
☐ Boudu Saved From Drowning (Jean Renoir, 1932)
☐ I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (Mervyn LeRoy, 1932)
☐ Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
☐ Scarface: The Shame of a Nation (Howard Hawks and Richard Rosson, 1932)
☐ Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg, 1932)
☑ Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932)
☐ Me and My Gal (Raoul Walsh, 1932)
☐ Zero de Conduite (Jean Vigo, 1933)
☐ 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933)
☐ Footlight Parade (Lloyd Bacon, 1933)
☐ Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy, 1933)
☑ She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933)
☑ Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933)
☑ Queen Christina (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933)
☐ Land Without Bread (Luis Buñuel, 1933)
☑ King Kong (Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933)
☐ The Bitter Tea of General Yen (Frank Capra, 1933)
☐ Sons of the Desert (William A. Seiter, 1933)
☐ It's a Gift (Norman Z. McLeod, 1934)
☑ Triumph of the Will (Leni Riefenstahl, 1934)
☐ L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)
☐ The Black Cat (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1934)
☐ Judge Priest (John Ford, 1934)
☑ It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 1934)
☐ The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1934)
☐ Captain Blood (Michael Curtiz, 1935)
☐ Mutiny on the Bounty (Frank Lloyd, 1935)
☑ A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood, 1935)
☑ The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935)
☑ Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935)
☑ Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935)
☐ A Day in the Country (Jean Renoir, 1936)
☑ Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936)
☑ Swing Time (George Stevens, 1936)
☑ My Man Godfrey (Gregory La Cava, 1936)
☐ Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra, 1936)
☐ Camille (George Cukor, 1936)
☑ Sabotage (Alfred Hitchcock, 1936)
☐ Dodsworth (William Wyler, 1936)
☐ Things to Come (William Cameron Menzies, 1936)
☐ The Story of a Cheat (Sacha Guitry, 1936)
☐ Captains Courageous (Victor Fleming, 1937)
☐ Song at Midnight (Weibang Ma-Xu, 1937)
☐ Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)
☑ Stella Dallas (King Vidor, 1937)
☑ The Life of Emile Zola (William Dieterle, 1937)
☑ Make Way for Tomorrow (Leo McCarey, 1937)
☑ Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (William Cottrell and David Hand, 1937)
☑ The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 1937)
☐ Pepe le Moko (Julien Duvivier, 1937)
☑ Jezebel (William Wyler, 1938)
☐ The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, 1938)
☐ Angels with Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz, 1938)
☑ Olympia (Leni Riefenstahl, 1938)
☐ The Baker's Wife (Marcel Pagnol, 1938)
☑ Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938)
☐ Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)
☐ The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1939)
☑ Babes in Arms (Busby Berkeley, 1939)
☑ Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939)
☑ The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)
☐ Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939)
☐ Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks, 1939)
☑ Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939)
☐ Le Jour Se Lève [Daybreak] (Marcel Carné, 1939)
☐ Gunga Din (George Stevens, 1939)
☑ Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch, 1939)
☑ La Règle du Jeu [The Rules of the Game] (Jean Renoir, 1939)
☑ Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, 1939)
☑ His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)
☑ Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)
☑ Fantasia (James Algar and Samuel Armstrong, 1940)
☑ The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940)
☐ The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940)
☐ Dance, Girl, Dance (Dorothy Arzner, 1940)
☑ Pinocchio (Norman Ferguson and T. Hee, 1940)
☐ The Mortal Storm (Frank Borzage, 1940)
☐ The Bank Dick (Edward F. Cline, 1940)
☑ Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
☑ The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941)
☐ The Wolf Man (George Waggner, 1941)
☑ The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)
☐ Sergeant York (Howard Hawks, 1941)
☑ Dumbo (Samuel Armstrong and Norman Ferguson, 1941)
☐ High Sierra (Raoul Walsh, 1941)
☑ Sullivan's Travels (Preston Sturges, 1941)
☑ How Green Was My Valley (John Ford, 1941)
☑ The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 1942)
☑ Now, Voyager (Irving Rapper, 1942)
☑ Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
☑ To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942)
☑ Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)
☑ The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)
☐ Yankee Doodle Dandy (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
☑ Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, 1943)
☐ Fires Were Started (Humphrey Jennings, 1943)
☐ The Man in Grey (Leslie Arliss, 1943)
☐ The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1943)
☑ I Walked With a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)
☐ The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson, 1943)
☐ The Ox-Bow Incident (William A. Wellman, 1943)
☑ Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943)
☐ Ossessione (Luchino Visconti, 1943)
☑ Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)
☐ To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, 1944)
☐ Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944)
☑ Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944)
☐ Henry V (Laurence Olivier, 1944)
☐ Ivan the Terrible, Parts One and Two (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1944)
☑ Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
☐ Murder, My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk, 1944)
☐ The Battle of San Pietro (John Huston and Mark W. Clark, 1945)
☑ Spellbound (Alfred Hitchcock, 1945)
☑ Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945)
☐ Les Enfants du Paradis [The Children of Paradise] (Marcel Carné, 1945)
☐ Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1945)
☑ The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 1945)
☐ Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945)
☐ I Know Where I'm Going! (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1945)
☑ The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946)
☑ Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1946)
☐ Paisan (Roberto Rossellini, 1946)
☐ The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett, 1946)
☐ My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)
☐ The Stranger (Orson Welles, 1946)
☐ Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)
☑ The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)
☐ The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946)
☐ A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1946)
☐ Great Expectations (David Lean, 1946)
☑ Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)
☑ Black Narcissus (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1946)
☑ It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)
☑ Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946)
☑ Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 1947)
☐ Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
☑ The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1947)
☐ Odd Man Out (Carol Reed, 1947)
☑ The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)
☐ Letter From an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948)
☐ Secret Beyond the Door (Fritz Lang, 1948)
☐ Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky, 1948)
☐ Spring in a Small Town (Fei Mu, 1948)
☑ Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)
☑ Rope (Alfred Hitchcock, 1948)
☐ The Snake Pit (Anatole Litvak, 1948)
☐ The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1948)
☐ The Paleface (Norman Z. McLeod, 1948)
☑ The Red Shoes (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948)
☐ The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)
☐ Louisiana Story (Robert J. Flaherty, 1948)
☑ The Heiress (William Wyler, 1949)
☑ Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949)
☐ Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1949)
☑ Adam's Rib (George Cukor, 1949)
☐ Whiskey Galore! (Alexander Mackendrick, 1949)
☐ White Heat (Raoul Walsh, 1949)
☐ The Reckless Moment (Max Ophüls, 1949)
☑ The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
☑ On the Town (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1949)
☐ Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1949)
☐ The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston, 1950)
☑ Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
☐ Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann, 1950)
☐ Rio Grande (John Ford, 1950)
☑ All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950)
☑ Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder, 1950)
☐ Los Olvidados (Luis Buñuel, 1950)
☑ In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)
☐ The Big Carnival [Ace in the Hole] (Billy Wilder, 1951)
☑ A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, 1951)
☑ Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951)
☐ The Lavender Hill Mob (Charles Crichton, 1951)
☐ Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Albert Lewin, 1951)
☑ The African Queen (John Huston, 1951)
☑ Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson, 1951)
☑ An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 1951)
☑ A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 1951)
☐ The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 1951)
☐ The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952)
☐ Jeux Interdits [Forbidden Games] (René Clément, 1952)
☐ Angel Face (Otto Preminger, 1952)
☑ Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952)
☑ Ikiru [To Live] (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
☐ Europa '51 [The Greatest Love] (Roberto Rossellini, 1952)
☑ The Bad and the Beautiful (Vincente Minnelli, 1952)
☐ The Big Sky (Howard Hawks, 1952)
☑ High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)
☐ Umberto D (Vittorio De Sica, 1952)
☐ Le Carrosse D'Or [The Golden Coach] (Jean Renoir, 1952)
☐ The Bigamist (Ida Lupino, 1953)
☐ The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 1953)
☑ The Earrings of Madame De… (Max Ophüls, 1953)
☑  From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953)
☑ Tokyo Story (Yasujirô Ozu, 1953)
☑ Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953)
☑ Le Salaire de la Peur [The Wages of Fear] (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953)
☐ The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann, 1953)
☐ Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller, 1953)
☑ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, 1953)
☑ The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953)
☑ Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (Jacques Tati, 1953)
☑ Voyage in Italy (Roberto Rossellini, 1953)
☐ Tales of Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)
☑ Shane (George Stevens, 1953)
☐ Beat the Devil (John Huston, 1953)
☑ Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)
☑ On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954)
☐ Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen, 1954)
☑ Les Diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1954)
☐ Animal Farm (Joy Batchelor and John Halas, 1954)
☑ Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
☑ A Star Is Born (George Cukor, 1954)
☑ The Barefoot Contessa (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1954)
☐ La Strada (Federico Fellini, 1954)
☑ The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
☐ Senso [The Wanton Countess] (Luchino Visconti, 1954)
☐ Silver Lode (Allan Dwan, 1954)
☑ Carmen Jones (Otto Preminger, 1954)
☐ Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)
☐ Salt of the Earth (Herbert J. Biberman, 1954)
☐ Artists and Models (Frank Tashlin, 1955)
☐ Guys and Dolls (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1955)
☑ Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
☐ Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955)
☐ Les Maîtres Fous [The Mad Masters] (Jean Rouch, 1955)
☐ Giv'a 24 Eina Ona [Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer] (Thorold Dickinson, 1955)
☐ The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick, 1955)
☐ Marty (Delbert Mann, 1955)
☐ Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1955)
☐ Bob Le Flambeur [Bob the Gambler] (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1955)
☐ Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)
☐ The Man from Laramie (Anthony Mann, 1955)
☑ Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955)
☐ The Phenix City Story (Phil Karlson, 1955)
☐ Smiles of a Summer Night (Ingmar Bergman, 1955)
☑ Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955)
☑ The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
☐ The Sins of Lola Montes (Max Ophüls, 1955)
☐ Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956)
☐ The Burmese Harp (Kon Ichikawa, 1956)
☑ The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
☐ A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson, 1956)
☑ Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk, 1956)
☑ The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956)
☑ Giant (George Stevens, 1956)
☑ All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1956)
☑ Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956)
☑ The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956)
☐ Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 1956)
☑ High Society (Charles Walters, 1956)
☑ The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956)
☑ 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957)
☐ The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
☑ An Affair to Remember (Leo McCarey, 1957)
☐ Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
☑ Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957)
☑ Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 1957)
☐ The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold, 1957)
☐ Aparajito [The Unvanquished] (Satyajit Ray, 1957)
☐ Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (John Sturges, 1957)
☑ The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957)
☐ Mother India (Mehboob Khan, 1957)
☐ The Cranes Are Flying (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957)
☑ Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)
☑ Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick, 1957)
☐ Man of the West (Anthony Mann, 1958)
☑ Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)
☐ Bab el Hadid [The Iron Gate/Cairo Station] (Youssef Chahine, 1958)
☑ Gigi (Vincente Minnelli, 1958)
☐ The Defiant Ones (Stanley Kramer, 1958)
☑ Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
☐ Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda, 1958)
☐ Horror of Dracula (Terence Fisher, 1958)
☑ Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati, 1958)
☐ The Music Room (Satyajit Ray, 1958)
☑ The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959)
☑ North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
☑ Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)
☐ Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, 1959)
☐ Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju, 1959)
☐ Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher, 1959)
☐ Black Orpheus (Marcel Camus, 1959)
☐ Shadows (John Cassavetes, 1959)
☑ The World of Apu (Satyajit Ray, 1959)
☑ Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1959)
☑ Ben-Hur (William Wyler, 1959)
☐ Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)
☑ Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)
☐ Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)
☐ The Hole (Frank Capra, 1959)
☑ Floating Weeds (Yasujirô Ozu, 1959)
☐ Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960)
☑ La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960)
☑ Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz, 1960)
☐ Shoot the Piano Player (François Truffaut, 1960)
☑ L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)
☐ The Young One (Luis Buñuel, 1960)
☐ Meghe Dhaka Tara [The Cloud-Capped Star] (Ritwik Ghatak, 1960)
☐ Hanyeo [The Housemaid] (Ki-young Kim, 1960)
☑ Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
☐ Revenge of the Vampire/Black Sunday (Mario Bava, 1960)
☑ Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)
☑ The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)
☑ Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960)
☐ Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan, 1961)
☑ Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961)
☑ La Jetee [The Pier] (Chris Marker, 1961)
☐ One-Eyed Jacks (Marlon Brando, 1961)
☐ Lola (Jacques Demy, 1961)
☑ Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards, 1961)
☐ La Notte [The Night] (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961)
☑ Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, 1961)
☐ Viridiana (Luis Buñuel, 1961)
☑ The Ladies Man (Jerry Lewis, 1961)
☐ Through a Glass Darkly (Ingmar Bergman, 1961)
☐ Chronique d'un Eté [Chronicle of a Summer] (Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, 1961)
☐ The Hustler (Robert Rossen, 1961)
☑ West Side Story (Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, 1961)
☑ Mondo Cane [A Dog's Life] (Paolo Cavara and Gualtiero Jacopetti, 1962)
☐ Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)
☐ Dog Star Man (Stan Brakhage, 1962)
☑ El Ángel Exterminador [The Exterminating Angel] (Luis Buñuel, 1962)
☐ An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujirô Ozu, 1962)
☐ L'eclisse [The Eclipse] (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962)
☑ Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)
☑ To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962)
☑ The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962)
☑ Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962)
☐ O Pagador de Promessas [Keeper of Promises] (Anselmo Duarte, 1962)
☐ The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)
☑ What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (Robert Aldrich, 1962)
☐ Vivre sa Vie [My Life to Live] (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)
☐ Heaven and Earth Magic (Harry Smith, 1962)
☑ The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963)
☑ The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis, 1963)
☐ Blonde Cobra (Ken Jacobs, 1963)
☐ The Cool World (Shirley Clarke, 1963)
☑ 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)
☐ Passenger (Andrzej Munk and Witold Lesiewicz, 1963)
☐ Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)
☐ Hud (Martin Ritt, 1963)
☐ Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman, 1963)
☐ Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith, 1963)
☑ The Great Escape (John Sturges, 1963)
☐ Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller, 1963)
☑ Il Gattopardo [The Leopard] (Luchino Visconti, 1963)
☐ Vidas Secas [Barren Lives] (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1963)
☐ Méditerranée (Jean-Daniel Pollet and Volker Schlöndorff, 1963)
☐ Khaneh Siah Ast [The House is Black] (Forugh Farrokhzad, 1963)
☑  The Haunting (Robert Wise, 1963)
☐ An Actor's Revenge/Revenge of a Kabuki Actor (Kon Ichikawa, 1963)
☐ The Servant (Joseph Losey, 1963)
☑ Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964)
☑ Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1964)
☑ Les Parapluies de Cherbourg [The Umbrellas of Cherbourg] (Jacques Demy, 1964)
☑ Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock, 1964)
☑ My Fair Lady (George Cukor, 1964)
☑ Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)
☑ Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
☑ A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, 1964)
☐ Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964)
☐ Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Sergei Parajanov, 1964)
☐ The Masque of the Red Death (Roger Corman, 1964)
☐ Before the Revolution (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1964)
☐ Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1964)
☑ The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964)
☐ Deus e O Diabo Na Terra Do Sol [Black God, White Devil] (Glauber Rocha, 1964)
☐ Onibaba [The Demon] (Kaneto Shindô, 1964)
☐ Vinyl (Andy Warhol, 1965)
☐ Obch o Na Korze [The Shop on Main Street] (Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos, 1965)
☑ Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965)
☐ The War Game (Peter Watkins, 1965)
☐ Tokyo Olympiad (Kon Ichikawa, 1965)
☑ The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1965)
☑ The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965)
☐ Rękopis Znaleziony w Saragossie [The Saragossa Manuscript] (Wojciech Has, 1965)
☐ Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
☐ Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles, 1965)
☑ Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965)
☑ Giulietta Degli Spiriti [Juliet of the Spirits] (Federico Fellini, 1965)
☐ Pierrot le Fou [Pierrot Goes Wild] (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
☐ Faster, Pussy Cat! Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer, 1965)
☐ Subarnarekha [The Golden River/The Golden Thread] (Ritwik Ghatak, 1965)
☐ De Man Die Zijn Haar Kort Liet Knippen [The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short] (André Delvaux, 1965)
☐ Hold Me While I'm Naked (George Kuchar, 1966)
☑ Blowup (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966)
☑ The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)
☐ Sedmikrásky [Daisies] (Vera Chytilová, 1966)
☐ 大醉俠 [Come Drink With Me] (King Hu, 1966)
☐ Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966)
☑ Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, 1966)
☑ Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
☐ Masculin Féminin (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966)
☐ Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)
☑ In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison, 1967)
☐ Two or Three Things I Know About Her (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
☑ The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)
☑ Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)
☐ Report (Bruce Conner, 1967)
☐ Hombre (Martin Ritt, 1967)
☑ Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel, 1967)
☐ Les Demoiselles de Rochefort [The Young Girls of Rochefort] (Jacques Demy and Agnès Varda, 1967)
☐ Week End (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
☑ Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)
☐ Cool Hand Luke (Stuart Rosenberg, 1967)
☐ Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967)
☑ Wavelength (Michael Snow, 1967)
☑ Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967)
☐ Csillagosok, Katonák [The Red and the White] (Miklós Jancsó, 1967)
☐ Marketa Lazarova (Frantisek Vlácil, 1967)
☑ The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967)
☐ The Fireman's Ball (Milos Forman, 1967)
☐ Terra em Transe [Earth Entranced] (Glauber Rocha, 1967)
☐ Ostře Sledované Vlaky [Closely Watched Trains] (Jiri Menzel, 1967)
☐ Vij [Spirit of Evil] (Konstantin Yershov and Georgi Kropachyov, 1967)
☐ The Cow/Poor Cow (Ken Loach, 1968)
☐ Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
☑ Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1968)
☐ Faces (John Cassavetes, 1968)
☑ Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
☐ If… (Lindsay Anderson, 1968)
☐ Memorias del Subdesarrollo [Memories of Underdevelopment] (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1968)
☑ The Producers (Mel Brooks, 1968)
☐ David Holzman's Diary (Jim McBride, 1968)
☐ Shame (Ingmar Bergman, 1968)
☑ 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
☐ Hour of the Wolf (Ingmar Bergman, 1968)
☐ Targets (Peter Bogdanovich, 1968)
☑ Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968)
☑ My Night at Maud's (Eric Rohmer, 1969)
☐ Lucia (Humberto Solás, 1969)
☐ A Touch of Zen (King Hu, 1969)
☑ Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 1969)
☑ Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969)
☐ Satyricon (Federico Fellini, 1969)
☐ Z (Costa-Gavras, 1969)
☐ The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1969)
☑ Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969)
☐ High School (Frederick Wiseman, 1969)
☐ In the Year of the Pig (Emile de Antonio, 1969)
☑ The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
☐ Andrei Rublev (Andrey Tarkovsky, 1969)
☐ Le Boucher [The Butcher] (Claude Chabrol, 1969)
☑ The Color of Pomegranates (Sergei Parajanov, 1969)
☐ Kes (Ken Loach, 1969)
☐ Tristana (Luis Buñuel, 1970)
☑ Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970)
☐ El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970)
☑ Woodstock (Michael Wadleigh, 1970)
☐ Deep End (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1970)
☐ Strategia del Ragno [The Spider's Stratagem] (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)
☐ Little Big Man (Arthur Penn, 1970)
☐ Ucho [The Ear] (Karel Kachyna, 1970)
☐ Patton (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1970)
☑ M*A*S*H (Robert Altman, 1970)
☐ Performance (Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, 1970)
☐ Gimme Shelter (Albert Maysles and David Maysles, 1970)
☐ Zabriskie Point (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1970)
☐ The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (Dario Argento, 1970)
☐ The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Vittorio De Sica, 1970)
☐ Wanda (Barbara Loden, 1971)
☐ W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (Dusan Makavejev, 1971)
☑ A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
☑ The Sorrow and the Pity (Marcel Ophüls, 1971)
☑ Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, 1971)
☑ McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)
☐ Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg, 1971)
☑ Klute (Alan J. Pakula, 1971)
☑ Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971)
☐ Még Kér a Nép [Red Psalm] (Miklos Jancso, 1971)
☐ Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 1971)
☑ The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971)
☐ Shaft (Gordon Parks, 1971)
☑ Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971)
☑ Le Souffle au Cœur [Murmur of the Heart] (Louis Malle, 1971)
☐ Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (Melvin Van Peebles, 1971)
☑ The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971)
☐ Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah, 1971)
☐ Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman, 1971)
☑ The Heartbreak Kid (Elaine May, 1972)
☑ Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972)
☑ Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972)
☑ Last Tango in Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972)
☐ High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood, 1972)
☑ Sleuth (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1972)
☑ Deliverance (John Boorman, 1972)
☑ Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
☑ The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
☑ Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, 1972)
☐ Fat City (John Huston, 1972)
☑ Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie [The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie] (Luis Buñuel, 1972)
☐ Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant [The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972)
☐ Frenzy (Alfred Hitchcock, 1972)
☑ Pink Flamingos (John Waters, 1972)
☐ Superfly (Gordon Parks Jr., 1972)
☑ The Sting (George Roy Hill, 1973)
☐ La Maman et la Putain [The Mother and the Whore] (Jean Eustache, 1973)
☐ Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973)
☑ American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973)
☐ Papillon (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1973)
☑ Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse, 1973)
☑ Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973)
☐ The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973)
☑ The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)
☑ La Nuit Américaine [Day for Night] (François Truffaut, 1973)
☑ Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)
☑ Sleeper (Woody Allen, 1973)
☐ Serpico (Sidney Lumet, 1973)
☑ The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973)
☐ Turks Fruit [Turkish Delight] (Paul Verhoeven, 1973)
☐ El Espíritu de la Colmena [The Spirit of the Beehive] (Víctor Erice, 1973)
☑ La Planète Sauvage [Fantastic Planet] (René Laloux, 1973)
☑ Amarcord (Federico Fellini, 1973)
☐ The Harder They Come (Perry Henzell, 1973)
☐ Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Sam Peckinpah, 1973)
☐ Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa, 1974)
☑ The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
☑ The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)
☑ Zerkalo [The Mirror] (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974)
☑ A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)
☑ Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 1974)
☑ Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
☐ Céline et Julie Vont en Bateau [Celine and Julie Go Boating] (Jacques Rivette, 1974)
☑ Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 1974)
☑ The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
☐ Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974)
☐ Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah, 1974)
☑ Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975)
☑ One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman, 1975)
☑ Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
☑ The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975)
☐ Deewaar [The Wall] (Yash Chopra, 1975)
☑ Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, 1975)
☑ Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
☐ Faustrecht der Freiheit [Fox and His Friends] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975)
☐ India Song (Marguerite Duras, 1975)
☑ Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975)
☑ Manila sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag [Manila in the Claws of Brightness] (Lino Brocka, 1975)
☑ Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975)
☑ Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)
☐ Cria! (Carlos Saura, 1975)
☐ O Thiassos [The Travelling Players] (Theodoros Angelopoulos, 1975)
☑ Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)
☐ The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes, 1976)
☑ Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976)
☐ The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976)
☑ All the President's Men (Alan J. Pakula, 1976)
☑ Rocky (John G. Avildsen, 1976)
☑ Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
☑ Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976)
☐ Voskhozhdeniye [The Ascent] (Larisa Shepitko, 1976)
☑ In the Realm of the Senses (Nagisa Ôshima, 1976)
☐ 1900 (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1976)
☐ The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 1976)
☑ Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)
☑ Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977)
☐ The Last Wave (Peter Weir, 1977)
☑ Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)
☐ Last Chants for a Slow Dance (Jon Jost, 1977)
☐ Stroszek (Werner Herzog, 1977)
☐ Człowiek z Marmuru [Man of Marble] (Andrzej Wajda, 1977)
☑ Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, 1977)
☑ Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1977)
☐ Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977)
☐ Ceddo (Ousmane Sembene, 1977)
☐ Der Amerikanische Freund [The American Friend] (Wim Wenders, 1977)
☐ The Hills Have Eyes (Wes Craven, 1977)
☐ Soldaat van Oranje [Soldier of Orange] (Paul Verhoeven, 1977)
☑ Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977)
☐ The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (Fred Schepisi, 1978)
☐ 五毒 [Five Deadly Venoms] (Cheh Chang, 1978)
☐ L'Albero Degli Zoccoli [The Tree of Wooden Clogs] (Ermanno Olmi, 1978)
☑ The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978)
☑ Grease (Randal Kleiser, 1978)
☑ Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)
☑ Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero, 1978)
☐ Shaolin Master Killer/The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Chia-Liang Liu, 1978)
☐ Up in Smoke (Lou Adler, 1978)
☑ Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)
☐ The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979)
☐ Real Life (Albert Brooks, 1979)
☐ My Brilliant Career (Gillian Armstrong, 1979)
☐ Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
☑ Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
☐ Breaking Away (Peter Yates, 1979)
☐ Die Blechtrommel [The Tin Drum] (Volker Schlöndorff, 1979)
☑ All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)
☑ Being There (Hal Ashby, 1979)
☑ Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton, 1979)
☑ Life of Brian (Terry Jones, 1979)
☑ Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
☑ The Jerk (Carl Reiner, 1979)
☐ The Muppet Movie (James Frawley, 1979)
☑ Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979)
☑ Mad Max (George Miller, 1979)
☑ Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night (Werner Herzog, 1979)
☑ Ordinary People (Robert Redford, 1980)
☑ Atlantic City (Louis Malle, 1980)
☐ The Last Metro (François Truffaut, 1980)
☑ The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
☑ Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)
☑ The Elephant Man (David Lynch, 1980)
☐ The Big Red One (Samuel Fuller, 1980)
☐ Loulou (Maurice Pialat, 1980)
☑ Airplane! (Jim Abrahams and David Zucker, 1980)
☑ Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
☑ Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981)
☐ Das Boot [The Boat] (Wolfgang Petersen, 1981)
☐ Gallipoli (Peter Weir, 1981)
☑ Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson, 1981)
☑ Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan, 1981)
☑ Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981)
☑ An American Werewolf in London (John Landis, 1981)
☐ Tre Fratelli [Three Brothers] (Francesco Rosi, 1981)
☐ Człowiek z Zelaza [Man of Iron] (Andrzej Wajda, 1981)
☐ Trop Tôt, Trop Tard [Too Early, Too Late] (Daniele Huillet and Jean Marie Straub, 1981)
☑ Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Cameron Crowe, 1981)
☑ E.T.: The Extra-Terestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982)
☑ The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
☑ Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper, 1982)
☑ Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
☑ The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi, 1982)
☑ Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 1982)
☐ Yol [The Way] (Serif Gören, 1982)
☐ Diner (Barry Levinson, 1982)
☑ Fitzcaraldo (Werner Herzog, 1982)
☑ Gandhi (Richard Attenborough, 1982)
☐ La Notte di San Lorenzo [The Night of the Shooting Stars] (Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani, 1982)
☐ De Stilte Rond Christine M. [A Question of Silence] (Marleen Gorris, 1982)
☑ Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)
☑ A Christmas Story (Bob Clark, 1983)
☐ El Norte (Gregory Nava, 1983)
☑ Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)
☑ Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand, 1983)
☑ The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan, 1983)
☐ Sans Soleil [Sunless] (Chris Marker, 1983)
☐ Le Dernier Combat [The Last Battle] (Luc Besson, 1983)
☐ L'Argent [Money] (Robert Bresson, 1983)
☐ Utu (Geoff Murphy, 1983)
☑ Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983)
☐ De Vierde Man [The Fourth Man] (Paul Verhoeven, 1983)
☑ The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese, 1983)
☑ The Right Stuff (Philip Kaufman, 1983)
☑ Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1983)
☑ Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1983)
☑ Scarface (Brian De Palma, 1983)
☐ The Ballad of Narayama (Shôhei Imamura, 1983)
☑ Amadeus (Milos Forman, 1984)
☑ The Terminator (James Cameron, 1984)
☑ Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984)
☑ A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984)
☑ This Is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 1984)
☑ Beverly Hills Cop (Martin Brest, 1984)
☑ Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984)
☑ A Passage to India (David Lean, 1984)
☐ Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch, 1984)
☑ The Killing Fields (Roland Joffé, 1984)
☑ The Natural (Barry Levinson, 1984)
☑ The Breakfast Club (John Hughes, 1985)
☑ Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
☐ Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985)
☐ La Historia Oficial [The Official Story] (Luis Puenzo, 1985)
☑ Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack, 1985)
☑ The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen, 1985)
☑ Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985)
☐ 童年往事 [The Time to Live and the Time to Die] (Hsiao-hsien Hou, 1985)
☑ Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985)
☑ Kiss of the Spider Woman (Hector Babenco, 1985)
☐ The Quiet Earth (Geoff Murphy, 1985)
☑ Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Paul Schrader, 1985)
☑ Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985)
☐ Sans Toit ni Loi [Vagabond] (Agnès Varda, 1985)
☑ Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, 1985)
☑ The Color Purple (Steven Spielberg, 1985)
☑ Manhunter (Michael Mann, 1986)
☑ Stand By Me (Rob Reiner, 1986)
☑ Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)
☑ Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, 1986)
☐ She's Gotta Have It (Spike Lee, 1986)
☐ Le Déclin de L'Empire Américain [The Decline of the American Empire] (Denys Arcand, 1986)
☑ The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986)
☑ Aliens (James Cameron, 1986)
☑ Ferris Bueller's Day Off (John Hughes, 1986)
☐ Down by Law (Jim Jarmusch, 1986)
☑ A Room with a View (James Ivory, 1986)
☑ Children of a Lesser God (Randa Haines, 1986)
☑ Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986)
☑ Caravaggio (Derek Jarman, 1986)
☑ Tampopo (Jûzô Itami, 1986)
☐ 刀馬旦 [Peking Opera Blues] (Hark Tsui, 1986)
☑ Salvador (Oliver Stone, 1986)
☑ Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986)
☐ Sherman's March (Ross McElwee, 1986)
☐ 盗马贼 [The Horse Thief] (Tian Zhuangzhuang, 1986)
☐ Yeelen [Brightness] (Souleymane Cissé, 1987)
☐ Der Himmel über Berlin [Wings of Desire] (Wim Wenders, 1987)
☐ Project A, Part II (Jackie Chan, 1987)
☑ Babettes Gæstebud [Babette's Feast] (Gabriel Axel, 1987)
☑ Raising Arizona (Joel Coen, 1987)
☑ Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987)
☑ Withnail and I (Bruce Robinson, 1987)
☑ Good Morning, Vietnam (Barry Levinson, 1987)
☑ Au Revoir Les Enfants [Goodbye, Children] (Louis Malle, 1987)
☑ Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987)
☐ Housekeeping (Bill Forsyth, 1987)
☑ The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, 1987)
☑ Moonstruck (Norman Jewison, 1987)
☑ The Untouchables (Brian De Palma, 1987)
☐ 红高粱 [Red Sorghum] (Yimou Zhang, 1987)
☑ The Dead (John Huston, 1987)
☑ Fatal Attraction (Adrian Lyne, 1987)
☐ 倩女幽魂 [A Chinese Ghost Story] (Siu-Tung Ching, 1987)
☑ Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios [Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown] (Pedro Almodóvar, 1988)
☑ Spoorloos [The Vanishing] (George Sluizer, 1988)
☑ Bull Durham (Ron Shelton, 1988)
☐ Ariel (Aki Kaurismäki, 1988)
☐ The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1988)
☑ Akira (Katsuhiro Ôtomo, 1988)
☑ Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988)
☐ Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (Marcel Ophüls, 1988)
☑ A Fish Called Wanda (Charles Crichton, 1988)
☑ The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (David Zucker, 1988)
☑ Big (Penny Marshall, 1988)
☑ Dangerous Liaisons (Stephen Frears, 1988)
☑ Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata, 1988)
☐ Topio Stin Omichli [Landscape in the Mist] (Theodoros Angelopoulos, 1988)
☑ Dekalog [The Decalogue] (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1988)
☑ Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988)
☐ Une Histoire de Vent [A Tale of the Wind] (Joris Ivens, 1988)
☑ Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis, 1988)
☑ Rain Man (Barry Levinson, 1988)
☐ Une Affaire de Femmes [The Story of Women] (Claude Chabrol, 1988)
☑ The Accidental Tourist (Lawrence Kasdan, 1988)
☑ Alice (Woody Allen, 1988)
☑ Batman (Tim Burton, 1989)
☑ When Harry Met Sally (Rob Reiner, 1989)
☑ Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen, 1989)
☐ The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (Peter Greenaway, 1989)
☑ Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant, 1989)
☑ My Left Foot (Jim Sheridan, 1989)
☑ 喋血雙雄 [The Killer] (John Woo, 1989)
☑ Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
☑ Roger & Me (Michael Moore, 1989)
☑ Glory (Edward Zwick, 1989)
☐ Astenicheskiy Sindrom [The Asthenic Syndrome] (Kira Muratova, 1989)
☑ sex, lies and videotape (Steven Soderbergh, 1989)
☑ Say Anything (Cameron Crowe, 1989)
☐ The Unbelievable Truth (Hal Hartley, 1989)
☐ 悲情城市 [A City of Sadness] (Hsiao-hsien Hou, 1989)
☐ S'en Fout la Mort [No Fear, No Die] (Claire Denis, 1990)
☑ Reversal of Fortune (Barbet Schroeder, 1990)
☑ Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
☐ Jacob's Ladder (Adrian Lyne, 1990)
☐ King of New York (Abel Ferrara, 1990)
☑ Dances with Wolves (Kevin Costner, 1990)
☑ Europa Europa (Agnieszka Holland, 1990)
☑ Pretty Woman (Garry Marshall, 1990)
☐ Archangel (Guy Maddin, 1990)
☐ Trust (Hal Hartley, 1990)
☐ Nema-ye Nazdik [Close-Up] (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)
☑ Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1990)
☐ Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (John McNaughton, 1990)
☑ Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven, 1990)
☑ 黃飛鴻 [Once Upon a Time in China] (Hark Tsui, 1991)
☑ Boyz n the Hood (John Singleton, 1991)
☑ 大红灯笼高高挂 [Raise the Red Lantern] (Yimou Zhang, 1991)
☐ Delicatessen (Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1991)
☐ 牯嶺街少年殺人事件 [A Brighter Summer Day] (Edward Yang, 1991)
☐ Naked Lunch (David Cronenberg, 1991)
☐ La Belle Noiseuse [The Beautiful Troublemaker] (Jacques Rivette, 1991)
☑ The Rapture (Michael Tolkin, 1991)
☑ My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant, 1991)
☑ Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott, 1991)
☑ Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991)
☑ The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991)
☑ JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)
☑ Slacker (Richard Linklater, 1991)
☐ Tongues Untied (Marlon T. Riggs, 1991)
☑ Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper, 1991)
☑ The Double Life of Veronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1991)
☑ Strictly Ballroom (Baz Luhrmann, 1992)
☑ The Player (Robert Altman, 1992)
☑ Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992)
☐ Romper Stomper (Geoffrey Wright, 1992)
☑ Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley, 1992)
☑ Unforgiven (Cint Eastwood, 1992)
☑ Bram Stoker's Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, 1992)
☑ Candy Man (Bernard Rose, 1992)
☐ A Tale of Winter (Eric Rohmer, 1992)
☑ Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (Nick Broomfield, 1992)
☑ The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, 1992)
☐ C'est Arrivé Près de Chez Vous [Man Bites Dog] (Rémy Belvaux and André Bonzel, 1992)
☐ The Actress (Stanley Kwan, 1992)
☑ 霸王別姬 [Farewell My Concubine] (Chen Kaige, 1993)
☑ Thirty-Two Films about Glenn Gould (François Girard, 1993)
☑ Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
☑ Short Cuts (Robert Altman, 1993)
☑ Philadelphia (Jonathan Demme, 1993)
☑ Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1993)
☑ The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese, 1993)
☐ 戲夢人生 [The Puppetmaster] (Hsiao-hsien Hou, 1993)
☑ Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg, 1993)
☑ Three Colors: Blue (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1993)
☑ The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993)
☐ 蓝风筝 [The Blue Kite] ( Zhuangzhuang Tian, 1993)
☑ 喜宴 [The Wedding Banquet] (Ang Lee, 1993)
☑ Three Colors: Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994)
☑ Hoop Dreams (Steve James, 1994)
☑ Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994)
☑ Clerks (Kevin Smith, 1994)
☑ Four Weddings and a Funeral (Mike Newell, 1994)
☑ The Lion King (Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, 1994)
☐ Satantango [Satan's Tango] (Béla Tarr, 1994)
☑ Natural Born Killers (Oliver Stone, 1994)
☑ The Last Seduction (John Dahl, 1994)
☑ Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
☑ The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994)
☑ Les Roseaux Sauvages [Wild Reeds] (André Téchiné, 1994)
☑ 重庆森林 [Chungking Express] (Wong Kar Wai, 1994)
☑ Crumb (Terry Zwigoff, 1994)
☑ Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson, 1994)
☐ Zire Darakhatan Zeyton [Through the Olive Trees] (Abbas Kiarostami, 1994)
☐ Riget [The Kingdom] (Lars Von Trier, 1994)
☐ Caro Diario [Dear Diary] (Nanni Moretti, 1994)
☑ Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995)
☐ Deseret (James Benning, 1995)
☑ Babe (Chris Noonan, 1995)
☑ Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995)
☑ Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow, 1995)
☑ Braveheart (Mel Gibson, 1995)
☑ Safe (Todd Haynes, 1995)
☑ Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 1995)
☑ Heat (Michael Mann, 1995)
☐ Zero Kelvin (Hans Petter Moland, 1995)
☑ Seven (David Fincher, 1995)
☑ Smoke (Wayne Wang, 1995)
☑ Badkonake Sefid [The White Balloon] (Jafar Panahi, 1995)
☐ Cyclo (Anh Hung Tran, 1995)
☐ Podzemlje [Underground] (Emir Kusturica, 1995)
☐ Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge [The Brave Heart Will Take the Bride] (Aditya Chopra, 1995)
☐ Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995)
☑ The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, 1995)
☑ The Pillow Book (Peter Greenaway, 1996)
☐ Trois Vies et Une Seule Mort [Three Lives and Only One Death] (Raoul Ruiz, 1996)
☑ Fargo (Joel Coen, 1996)
☑ Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996)
☑ Secrets and Lies (Mike Leigh, 1996)
☐ Breaking the Waves (Lars Von Trier, 1996)
☑ The English Patient (Anthony Minghella, 1996)
☐ Gabbeh (Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1996)
☐ Lone Star (John Sayles, 1996)
☑ Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996)
☑ Scream (Wes Craven, 1996)
☑ Deconstructing Harry (Woody Allen, 1997)
☑ L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997)
☑ Happy Together (Wong Kar Wai, 1997)
☑ Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki, 1997)
☐ Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control (Errol Morris, 1997)
☐ The Butcher Boy (Neil Jordan, 1997)
☑ The Ice Storm (Ang Lee, 1997)
☑ Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997)
☑ Kundun (Martin Scorsese, 1997)
☑ The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan, 1997)
☐ Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997)
☐ Ta'm-e Gīlās [Taste of Cherry] (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997)
☑ Abre Los Ojos [Open Your Eyes] (Alejandro Amenábar, 1997)
☐ Mat i Syn [Mother and Son] (Aleksandr Sokurov, 1997)
☑ Titanic (James Cameron, 1997)
☐ Tetsuo [The Iron Man] (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1998)
☐ Festen [The Celebration] (Thomas Vinterberg, 1998)
☑ Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998)
☐ Buffalo 66 (Vincent Gallo, 1998)
☑ Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Guy Ritchie, 1998)
☐ Lola Rennt [Run Lola Run] (Tom Tykwer, 1998)
☑ Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998)
☑ Pi (Darren Aronofsky, 1998)
☑ Happiness (Todd Solondz, 1998)
☑ The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)
☐ Idioterne [The Idiots] (Lars Von Trier, 1998)
☐ Sombre (Philippe Grandrieux, 1998)
☑ Ringu [Ring] (Hideo Nakata, 1998)
☑ There's Something About Mary (Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly, 1998)
☑ Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)
☐ Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999)
☑ The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, 1999)
☐ Gohatto [Taboo] (Nagisa Ôshima, 1999)
☐ Rosetta (Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, 1999)
☑ Todo Sobre Mi Madre [All About My Mother] (Pedro Almodóvar, 1999)
☑ Three Kings (David O. Russell, 1999)
☐ Bād Mā Rā Khāhad Bord [The Wind Will Carry Us] (Abbas Kiarostami, 1999)
☑ Ōdishon [Audition] (Takashi Miike, 1999)
☐ Le Temps Retrouvé [Time Regained] (Raoul Ruiz, 1999)
☑ Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)
☑ Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 1999)
☑ American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999)
☐ Juyuso Seubgyuksageun [Attack the Gas Station!] (Sang-Jin Kim, 1999)
☑ Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)
☑ The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan, 1999)
☑ The Matrix (Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, 1999)
☐ Nueve Reinas [Nine Queens] (Fabián Bielinsky, 2000)
☐ La Captive [The Captive] (Chantal Akerman, 2000)
☑ In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar Wai, 2000)
☐ Ali Zaoua, Prince de la Rue [Ali Zaoua, Prince of the Streets] (Nabil Ayouch, 2000)
☑ Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000)
☐ Kippur (Amos Gitai, 2000)
☑ Yi Yi [A One and a Two] (Edward Yang, 2000)
☑ Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000)
☑ Amores Perros (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2000)
☑ Meet the Parents (Jay Roach, 2000)
☐ Signs and Wonders (Jonathan Nossiter, 2000)
☑ Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000)
☑ Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000)
☐ The Gleaners and I (Agnès Varda, 2000)
☑ Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000)
☑ Dancer in the Dark (Lars Von Trier, 2000)
☑ O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Joel Coen, 2000)
☑ Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
☑ Ni Neibian Jidian [What Time Is It There?] (Tsai Ming-liang, 2001)
☑ Y Tu Mamá También [And Your Mother, Too] (Alfonso Cuarón, 2001)
☐ Kandahar (Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 2001)
☑ Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
☑ La Pianiste [The Piano Teacher] (Michael Haneke, 2001)
☑ La Stanza del Figlio [The Son's Room] (Nanni Moretti, 2001)
☑ Ničija Zemlja [No Man's Land] (Danis Tanovic, 2001)
☑ Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann, 2001)
☑ Monsoon Wedding (Mira Nair, 2001)
☑ Fat Girl (Catherine Breillat, 2001)
☑ Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001)
☑ The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001)
☑ The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2001)
☑ A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001)
☑ Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese, 2002)
☑ The Pianist (Roman Polanski, 2002)
☑ Hable Con Ella [Talk to Her] (Pedro Almodóvar, 2002)
☑ Cidade de Deus [City of God] (Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, 2002)
☑ Russkij Kovcheg [Russian Ark] (Alexandr Sokurov, 2002)
☑ Chicago (Rob Marshall, 2002)
☑ Les Invasions Barbares [The Barbarian Invasions] (Denys Arcand, 2003)
☑ Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003)

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Thursday, September 22, 2016

entry arrow12:31 AM | Curtis Hanson, 71



Curtis Hanson's passing today breaks my heart. Wonder Boys is probably the best film ever made about writers, and was one of the best films of 2000. I love, love, love that film, which contains Michael Douglas's best performance ever. I also loved how Hanson transcended genre, directing with such panache a gritty hiphop musical in 8 Mile, the film noir in L.A. Confidential, psychological horror in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, outdoorsy action thriller in The River Wild, sexy thriller in Bad Influence, and the chick flick in In Her Shoes. That output is awesome, is underrated. Rest in peace, Mr. Hanson.

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Tuesday, January 05, 2016

entry arrow9:00 PM | A Woody Allen Completist's Checklist



CONSTANTLY UPDATED. FIRST POSTED 6 JANUARY 2011. When I first wrote this post, I just finished watching Woody Allen’s lovely Radio Days [1987], one of the few remaining titles in the director’s filmmography I had not seen. It took a while, considering it was a film that’s rarely available anywhere. And after I had seen it, it ranked without doubt among the top contenders of my personal Woody Allen favorites. I know why: it’s a film about the romance of nostalgia, and although I did not grow up with radio, the film’s heart and intentions are universal. It tells the fragmented story of a Jewish family in New York, tidbits woven together by the 1940s radio shows they listened to. It’s funny and light and emotional and deep all at the same time, an Allen film that has much in common with his Everyone Says I Love You [1996].



Radio Days is distinctive of perhaps being the only Allen film that collects most of his regular troupe of actors, from Mia Farrow to Julie Kavner, from Dianne Wiest to Diane Keaton, from Jeff Daniels to Wallace Shawn. It’s a great film to start the week with, but afterwards I wondered: what else had I missed out on?

So I created this completist list...

☐ Crisis in Six Scenes [2016]
☐ Cafe Society [2016]
☑ Irrational Man [2015]  RATING: 
☑ Magic in the Moonlight [2014]  RATING: ★☆☆
☑ Blue Jasmine [2013]  RATING: 
☑ To Rome With Love [2012]  RATING: ★☆☆
☑ Midnight in Paris [2011]  RATING: 
☑ You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger [2010]  RATING: 
☑ Whatever Works [2009]  RATING: 
☑ Vicky Cristina Barcelona [2008]  RATING: 
☐ Cassandra's Dream [2007]
☑ Scoop [2006]  RATING: ★☆☆
☑ Match Point [2005]  RATING: 
☑ Melinda and Melinda [2004]  RATING: 
☑ Anything Else [2003]  RATING: 
☑ Hollywood Ending [2002]  RATING: 
☑ Sound From a Town I Love [2001]  RATING: 
☑ The Curse of the Jade Scorpion [2001]  RATING: ★☆☆
☑ Small Time Crooks [2000]  RATING: 
☑ Sweet and Lowdown [1999]  RATING: 
☑ Celebrity [1998]  RATING: 
☐ Count Mercury Goes to the Suburbs [1997]
☑ Deconstructing Harry [1997]  RATING: 
☑ Everyone Says I Love You [1996]  RATING: 
☑ Mighty Aphrodite [1995]  RATING: 
☑ Don't Drink the Water [1994]  RATING: ★☆☆
☑ Bullets Over Broadway [1994]  RATING: 
☑ Manhattan Murder Mystery [1993]  RATING: 
☑ Husbands and Wives [1992]  RATING: 
☑ Shadows and Fog [1991]  RATING: 
☑ Alice [1990]  RATING: 
☑ Crimes and Misdemeanors [1989]  RATING: ★ 
☑ New York Stories (segment "Oedipus Wrecks") [1989]  RATING: 
☑ Another Woman [1988]  RATING: 
☑ September [1987]  RATING: 
☑ Radio Days [1987]  RATING: 
☑ Hannah and Her Sisters [1986]  RATING: 
☑ The Purple Rose of Cairo [1985]  RATING: 
☑ Broadway Danny Rose [1984]  RATING: 
☑ Zelig [1983]  RATING: 
☑ A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy [1982]  RATING: 
☑ Stardust Memories [1980]   RATING: 
☑ Manhattan [1979]  RATING: 
☑ Interiors [1978]  RATING: 
☑ Annie Hall [1977]  RATING: 
☑ Love and Death [1975]  RATING: 
☑ Sleeper [1973]  RATING: 
☑ Every Thing You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* [1972]  RATING: 
☐ Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story [1971]
☑ Bananas [1971]  RATING: 
☑ Take the Money and Run [1969]  RATING: 
☑ What's Up, Tiger Lily? [1966]  RATING: 


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