At the end of each decade, critics are asked to comb through it and come up with their ten best. This time, more than ever, I puzzled over what they were going to pick, seeing as I thought the last decade was a bit of a washout. So, I rustled up some suggestions, which you can see below; then one thing led to another, and I ended up doing the same for every single damn decade. That's being a nerd for you. Only one film per director allowed.
Top 20 Of Each Decade
2010s
Aquarius (Kleber Mendonca Filho)
Asako I+II (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)
Cemetery Of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami)
Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn)
An Elephant Sitting Still (Hu Bo)
Elle (Paul Verhoeven)
Exhibition (Joanna Hogg)
From What Is Before (Lav Diaz)
Kill List (Ben Wheatley)
Manakamana (Stephanie Spray/Pacho Velez)
On The Beach At Night Alone (Hong Sang Soo)
Shoplifters (Koreeda Hirokazu)
Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu)
Sleeping Sickness (Ulrich Kohler)
Story Of My Death (Albert Serra)
The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr)
Zama (Lucrecia Martel)
2000s
Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
Blissfully Yours (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Cafe Lumiere (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
Climates (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
L'Enfant (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne)
Five (Abbas Kiarostami)
Honour Of The Knights (Albert Serra)
The House of Mirth (Terence Davies)
Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki)
The Lady And The Duke (Eric Rohmer)
Land Of The Dead (George Romero)
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
Oasis (Lee Chang Dong)
Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro)
Still Life (Jia Zhangke)
Still Walking (Koreeda Hirokazu)
The Sun (Alexander Sokurov)
Sweetgrass (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Ilisa Barbash)
Valhalla Rising (Nicolas Winding Refn)
Woman Is The Future Of Man (Hong Sang Soo)
Major contenders: Atanarjuat The Fast Runner (Zacharias Kunuk); Gosford Park (Robert Altman); Master And Commander (Peter Weir); Solaris (Steven Soderbergh); Where Lies Your Hidden Smile? (Pedro Costa)
1990s
After Life (Koreeda Hirokazu)
Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater)
La Belle Noiseuse (Jacques Rivette)
The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez)
La Ceremonie (Claude Chabrol)
Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami)
Crumb (Terry Zwigoff)
eXistenZ (David Cronenberg)
Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)
Flowers Of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese)
Husbands And Wives (Woody Allen)
Lost Highway (David Lynch)
Moving (Shinji Somai)
The Ninth Gate (Roman Polanski)
Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki)
The Quince Tree Sun (Victor Erice)
Satantango (Bela Tarr)
A Scene By The Sea (Takeshi Kitano)
Short Cuts (Robert Altman)
Major contenders: The Apple (Samira Makhmalbaf); Cold Water (Olivier Assayas); The Day A Pig Fell Into The Well (Hong Sang Soo); Gohatto (Nagisa Oshima); The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies); A Moment Of Innocence (Mohsen Makhmalbaf); Rosetta (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne); Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee); Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood)
1980s
Aliens (James Cameron)
Blade Runner (Ridley Scott)
The Company Of Wolves (Neil Jordan)
Cutter's Way (Ivan Passer)
Dust In The Wind (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
Elephant (Alan Clarke)
The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (Kazuo Hara)
Excalibur (John Boorman)
Fanny And Alexander (Ingmar Bergman)
The Green Ray (Eric Rohmer)
Hannah And Her Sisters (Woody Allen)
Hotel Terminus (Marcel Ophuls)
The King Of Comedy (Martin Scorsese)
Once Upon A Time In America (Sergio Leone)
Sans Soleil (Chris Marker)
The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)
The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Miss Osbourne (Walerian Borowczyk)
The Thing (John Carpenter)
Videodrome (David Cronenberg)
Where Is The Friend's House? (Abbas Kiarostami)
Major contenders: Belly Of An Architect (Peter Greenaway); Blue Velvet (David Lynch); Mad Max II: The Road Warrior (George Miller); Moonlighting (Jerzy Skolimowski); Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind (Hayao Miyazaki); Nostalghia (Andrei Tarkovsky)
1970s
Alien (Ridley Scott)
Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)
Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick)
Blanche (Walerian Borowczyk)
Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah)
Deep End (Jerzy Skolimowski)
The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie (Luis Bunuel)
Manhattan (Woody Allen)
McCabe And Mrs Miller (Robert Altman)
The Missouri Breaks (Arthur Penn)
Out One (Jacques Rivette)
The Passenger (Michelangelo Antonioni)
Perceval Le Gallois (Eric Rohmer)
Providence (Alain Resnais)
Salo, Or The 120 Days Of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
Shivers (David Cronenberg)
Spirit Of The Beehive (Victor Erice)
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky)
Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders (Jaromil Jires)
The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy)
Major contenders: Chinatown (Roman Polanski); Diane (Alan Clarke); Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg); Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson); India Song (Marguerite Duras); Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai De Commerce, 1080 Brussels (Chantal Akerman); Manila In The Claws Of Neon (Lino Brocka); Monty Python And The Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam/Terry Jones); The Travelling Players (Theo Angelopoulos); The Tree Of Wooden Clogs (Ermanno Olmi)
1960s
Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky)
The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
The Chimes At Midnight (Orson Welles)
Culloden (Peter Watkins)
Devi (Satyajit Ray)
L'Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni)
Gertrud (Carl Dreyer)
Late Autumn (Yasujiro Ozu)
Night Of The Living Dead (George Romero)
Once Upon A Time In The West (Sergio Leone)
Peeping Tom (Michael Powell)
Persona (Ingmar Bergman)
Point Blank (John Boorman)
Queimada! (Gillo Pontecorvo)
Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski)
Sayat Nova – The Colour Of Pomegranates (Sergei Parajanov)
The Taking Of Power By Louis XIV (Roberto Rossellini)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah)
Witchfinder General (Michael Reeves)
Major contenders: Confessions Of An Opium Eater (Albert Zugsmith); La Femme Infidele (Claude Chabrol); The Hill (Sidney Lumet); The Innocents (Jack Clayton); Les Jeux Des Anges (Walerian Borowczyk); Leon Morin Pretre (Jean-Pierre Melville); Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini); Le Mepris (Jean-Luc Godard); Night And Fog In Japan (Nagisa Oshima); Petulia (Richard Lester); Il Posto (Ermanno Olmi); The Sorrow And The Pity (Marcel Ophuls); The Swimmer (Frank Perry)
1950s
Les Cousins (Claude Chabrol)
Day Of The Outlaw (Andre De Toth)
Flowing (Mikio Naruse)
Il Grido (Michelangelo Antonioni)
In A Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray)
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (Don Siegel)
Journey To Italy (Roberto Rossellini)
The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann)
Nazarin (Luis Bunuel)
Night Of The Demon (Jacques Tourneur)
Night Of The Hunter (Charles Laughton)
Ohayo (Yasujiro Ozu)
Ordet (Carl Dreyer)
Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray)
Le Plaisir (Max Ophuls)
The River (Jean Renoir)
The Saga Of Anatahan (Josef Von Sternberg)
Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder)
12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet)
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
Major contenders: Decision At Sundown (Budd Boetticher); Forbidden Planet (Fred McLeod Wilcox); Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich); Night And The City (Jules Dassin); Pickpocket (Robert Bresson); The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman); 3.10 To Yuma (Delmer Daves); Touch Of Evil (Orson Welles); Ugetsu Monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi); While The City Sleeps (Fritz Lang)
1940s
Black Narcissus (Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger)
Brief Encounter (David Lean)
Cat People (Jacques Tourneur)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
Daisy Kenyon (Otto Preminger)
Les Dames Du Bois De Boulogne (Robert Bresson)
Day Of Wrath (Carl Dreyer)
A Diary For Timothy (Humphrey Jennings)
Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder)
Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu)
The Moon And Sixpence (Albert Lewin)
The Mortal Storm (Frank Borzage)
Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock)
Paisa (Roberto Rossellini)
The Reckless Moment (Max Ophuls)
The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson)
The Shop Around The Corner (Ernst Lubitsch)
Spring In A Small Town (Fei Mu)
This Land Is Mine (Jean Renoir)
Went The Day Well? (Alberto Cavalcanti)
1930s
L'Atalante (Jean Vigo)
Back Street (John Stahl)
Dainah La Metisse (Jean Gremillon)
The Edge Of The World (Michael Powell)
La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir)
The Hound Of The Baskervilles (Sidney Lanfield)
Humanity And Paper Balloons (Sadao Yamanaka)
I Was Born But... (Yasujiro Ozu)
Little Man, What Now? (Frank Borzage)
M (Fritz Lang)
Mr Thank You (Hiroshi Shimizu)
The Music Box (James Parrott/Laurel And Hardy)
Song Of Ceylon (Basil Wright)
Spare Time (Humphrey Jennings)
Stagecoach (John Ford)
Tabu (Friedrich Murnau)
Tale Of The Last Chrysanthemum (Kenji Mizoguchi)
The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock)
Trouble In Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch)
Vampyr (Carl Dreyer)
Major contenders: It Happened One Night (Frank Capra); King Kong (Merian C Cooper/Ernest B Schoedsack); The Kiss Before The Mirror (James Whale); The Wizard Of Oz (Victor Fleming)
1895-1930
Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
Blackmail (Alfred Hitchcock)
Les Bords De La Tamise d'Oxford a Windsor (Eclectic-Films)
The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari (Robert Wiene)
Un Chien Andalou (Luis Bunuel)
Fantomas (Louis Feuillade)
Haxan (Benjamin Christensen)
Ingeborg Holm (Victor Sjostrom)
Lonesome (Paul Fejos)
The Man With A Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov)
Die Nibelungen (Fritz Lang)
Nosferatu (Friedrich Murnau)
Pandora's Box (Georg Wilhelm Pabst)
The Passion Of Joan Of Arc (Carl Dreyer)
Perfect Day (James Parrott/Laurel And Hardy)
Secrets (Frank Borzage)
Sherlock Jr (Buster Keaton)
Sir Arne's Treasure (Mauritz Stiller)
A Trip To The Moon (Georges Melies)
Underground (Anthony Asquith)
List completed 11th September, 2019.