Gareth’s Top 100 Films of All Time

March 20, 2020 53 1

By: Gareth Jones

After the Sight and Sound all time best list came out a few weeks ago, many folks asked me if I had such a list. After seeing the astonishing list by dear friend Gregory Lowry, I decided to jot one down. I do have to say that this list is very different from how it would have looked 10 years ago. It does mirror and was influenced by the Sight and Sound list as well as the aforementioned Mr. Lowry. It is hard not to be. That being said, I did add my own touch with some Gilliam, Winterbottom, Ramsay, and Kent. I have ordered it by year. Make what you will of it. It most likely will change again tomorrow.

A Trip to the Moon	George Melies	1902	France
The Immigrant	Charlie Chaplin	1917	USA
The Phantom Carriage	Victor Sjostrom	1921	Sweden
Nosferatu	F. W. Murnau	1922	Germany
Sherlock Jr.	Buster Keaton	1924	USA
Battleship Potemkin	Sergei Eisenstein	1925	Russia
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans	F. W. Murnau	1927	Germany
Passion of Joan of Arc	Carl Theodor Dreyer	1928	Denmark
Man With a Movie Camera	Dziga Vertov	1929	Russia
Earth	Alexander Dovzhenko	1930	Russia
M	Fritz Lang	1931	Germany
Madchen in Uniform	Leontine Sagan	1931	Germany
City Lights	Charlie Chaplin	1931	USA
Vampyr	Carl Theodor Dreyer	1932	Denmark
Scarface	Howard Hawks	1932	USA
Rules of the Game	Jean Renoir	1939	France
The Wizard of Oz	Victor Fleming	1939	USA
Shop Around the Corner	Ernst Lubitsch	1940	USA
The Maltese Falcon	John Huston	1941	USA
Citizen Kane	Orson Welles	1941	USA
Sullivan’s Travels	Preston Sturges	1941	USA
Double Indemnity	Billy Wilder	1944	USA
My Darling Clementine	John Ford	1946	USA
The Red Shoes	Emeric Pressberger, Michael Powell	1948	England
Bicycle Thieves	Vittorio De Sica	1948	Italy
The Third Man	Carol Reed	1949	England
Late Spring	Yasajuro Ozu	1949	Japan
Sunset Boulevard	Billy Wilder	1950	USA
Ikuru	Akira Kurosawa	1952	Japan
Singing in the Rain	Gene Kelley, Stanley Donan	1952	USA
Tokyo Story	Yasajuro Ozu	1953	Japan
The Hitchhiker	Ida Lupino	1953	USA
Ugetsu	Kenji Mizoguchi	1953	Japan
Seven Samurai	Akira Kurosawa	1954	Japan
Rear Window	Alfred Hitchcock	1954	USA
On the Waterfront	Elia Kazan	1954	USA
Ordet	Carl Theodor Dreyer	1955	Denmark
Pather Panchali	Satiajit Ray	1955	India
Night of the Hunter	Charles Laughton	1955	USA
Throne of Blood	Akira Kurosawa	1957	Japan
Seventh Seal	Ingmar Bergman	1957	Sweden
Cairo Station	Youssef Chahine	1958	Egypt
Vertigo	Alfred Hitchcock	1958	USA
Pickpocket	Robert Bresson	1959	France
400 Blows	Francois Truffaut	1959	France
Breathless	Jean-Luc Godard	1960	France
The Apartment	Billy Wilder	1960	USA
Cleo From 5 to 7	Agnes Varda	1962	France
8 !/2	Federico Fellini	1963	Italy
Winter Light	Ingmar Bergman	1963	Sweden
Daisies	Vera Chytilova	1966	Czechoslovakia
Au Hasard Balthazar	Robert Bresson	1966	France
Persona	Ingmar Bergman	1966	Sweden
Playtime	Jacques Tati	1967	France
Weekend	Jean-Luc Godard	1967	France
2001: A Space Odyssey	Stanley Kubrick	1968	USA
Wanda	Barbara Loden	1970	USA
Walkabout	Nicholas Roeg	1971	England
A New Leaf	Elaine May	1971	USA
Solaris	Andrei Tarkovsky	1972	Russia
The Godfather	Frances Ford Coppola	1972	USA
Touki Bouki	Djribil Diop Mambety	1973	Senegal
The Godfather II	Frances Ford Coppola	1974	USA
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre	Toby Hooper	1974	USA
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commence, 1800 Buxelles	Chantal Akerman	1975	France
Nashville	Robert Altman	1975	USA
Harlan County USA	Barbara Kopple	1976	USA
Taxi Driver	Martin Scosese	1976	USA
Stroszek	Werner Herzog	1977	Germany
The American Friend	Wim Wenders	1977	Germany
The Ascent	Larisa Shepitko	1977	Russia
Days of Heaven	Terrence Malick	1978	USA
Stalker	Andrei Tarkovsky	1979	Russia
Alien	Ridley Scott	1979	USA
The Draughtman’s Contract	Peter Greenaway	1982	England
Brazil	Terry Gilliam	1985	USA
The Fly	David Cronenberg	1986	Canada
Where is the Friend’s House?	Abbas Kiarostami	1987	Iran
Do the Right Thing	Spike Lee	1989	USA
Daughters of the Dust	Julie Dash	1991	USA
Breaking the Waves	Lars Von Trier	1996	Denmark
Princess Monanoke	Hayao Miyazaki	1997	Japan
Ratcatcher	Lynne Ramsay	1999	England
Eyes Wide Shut	Stanley Kubrick	1999	USA
In the Mood for Love	Wong Kar-Wai	2000	Hong Kong
Y tu mama tambien	Alfonso Curon	2001	Mexico
Mulholland Drive	David Lynch	2001	USA
Monsoon Wedding	Mira Nair	2001	India
Oldboy	Park Chan-Wook	2003	South Korea
House of Flying Daggers	Zhang Yimou	2004	China
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story	Michael Winterbottom	2005	England
Pan’s Labyrinth	Guillermo del Toro	2006	Mexico
Persepolis	Marjane Satrapi	2007	Iran
There Will Be Blood	Paul Thomas Anderson	2007	USA
Bright Star	Jane Campion	2009	Australia
Girlhood	Celine Sciamma	2014	France
Moonlight	Barry Jenkins	2016	USA
The Rider	Chloe Zhou	2017	China
The Nightingale	Jennifer Kent	2018	Australia
Parasite	Bong Joon-ho	2019	South Korea