Previously on this website, I've listed my top 100 films, but only choosing one film per director. But this is my unconditional list - no rules, no limits. These are what, for me, represent the creme de la creme of cinema, my desert island movies, if you will. I've presented the list in chronological order, and this is how it stands as of January 2024.
1913
Fantomas (Louis Feuillade)
1922
Nosferatu (Friedrich Murnau)
1924
Die Niebelungen (Fritz Lang)
1928
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Dreyer)
1931
M (Fritz Lang)
1932
I Was Born But... (Yasujiro Ozu)
The Music Box (James Parrott/Laurel and Hardy)
Vampyr (Carl Dreyer)
1940
The Shop Around The Corner (Ernst Lubitsch)
1941
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
1942
Cat People (Jacques Tourneur)
Listen To Britain (Humphrey Jennings)
1943
Day Of Wrath (Carl Dreyer)
The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger)
1945
Brief Encounter (David Lean)
A Diary For Timothy (Humphrey Jennings)
1947
Black Narcissus (Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger)
1948
Oliver Twist (David Lean)
1949
Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu)
1950
Francis, God’s Jester (Roberto Rossellini)
In A Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray)
Stromboli (Roberto Rossellini)
1951
Early Summer (Yasujiro Ozu)
The River (Jean Renoir)
1952
The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann)
1953
Journey To Italy (Roberto Rossellini)
1954
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
1955
Night Of The Hunter (Charles Laughton)
Ordet (Carl Dreyer)
1957
Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur)
The Tall T (Budd Boetticher)
12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet)
1958
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
1960
L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni)
Devi (Satyajit Ray)
Peeping Tom (Michael Powell)
1962
L’Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni)
1963
The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
1964
Diamonds Of The Night (Jan Nemec)
Gertrud (Carl Dreyer)
1966
Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky)
Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles)
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone)
Persona (Ingmar Bergman)
1967
Point Blank (John Boorman)
1968
Once Upon A Time In The West (Sergio Leone)
Petulia (Richard Lester)
Queimada! (Gillo Pontecorvo)
Sayat Nova – The Colour of Pomegranates (Sergei Paradjanov)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
1969
Night of the Living Dead (George Romero)
The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah)
1970
Deep End (Jerzy Skolimowski)
Valerie And Her Week of Wonders (Jaromil Jires)
1971
McCabe and Mrs Miller (Robert Altman)
Out One (Jacques Rivette)
Pandemonium (Toshio Matsumoto)
1973
Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid (Sam Peckinpah)
Scenes From A Marriage (Ingmar Bergman)
Spirit Of The Beehive (Victor Erice)
The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy)
1974
Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah)
Celine and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette)
Chinatown (Roman Polanski)
Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky)
1975
Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick)
India Song (Marguerite Duras)
Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
1978
Perceval le Gallois (Eric Rohmer)
1979
Alien (Ridley Scott)
The Fog (John Carpenter)
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky)
1980
The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)
1981
Cutter's Way (Ivan Passer)
Excalibur (John Boorman)
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne (Walerian Borowczyk)
1982
Blade Runner (Ridley Scott)
Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman)
The Thing (John Carpenter)
Videodrome (David Cronenberg)
1983
The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese)
Sans Soleil (Chris Marker)
1986
Aliens (James Cameron)
Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen)
1987
The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (Kazuo Hara)
1988
Hotel Terminus – The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (Marcel Ophuls)
1989
Elephant (Alan Clarke)
1990
Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami)
Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese)
1991
The Quince Tree Sun (Victor Erice)
A Scene At The Sea (Takeshi Kitano)
1993
Moving (Shinji Somai)
1994
Satantango (Bela Tarr)
1995
The Before... Trilogy (Richard Linklater)
1997
Taste Of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami)
1998
After Life (Koreeda Hirokazu)
1999
Flowers of Shanghai (Hou H'siao-H'sien)
2001
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
2004
Woman Is The Future Of Man (Hong Sang-Soo)
2018
An Elephant Sitting Still (Hu Bo)