One of the things movie lovers absolutely enjoy doing is making list and ranking their favorite films. Every year I create a "top ten" list of the best films of the year and I have creates "top ten" list of the best films of the decades going back to the 1920s but, the one thing I never did was create a list of the 100 greatest films I have ever seen. Why? It would take too long and secondly, I wouldn't know where to begin. There are so many movies I love, many of which I have review, but, while 100 movies may sound like a lot to some, I can assure you, it isn't. I know I left some favorites off this list. But, which one of these movies could I remove? Every movie on this list is special to me.
What is going to separate this list from other lists? First of all, there are Hungarian films included. American movie goers don't appreciate Hungarian films, so, when I wrote, which of these films could I remove to make way for something else, the vast majority of my readers will say; the Hungarian movies! But, you have to remember, I'm Hungarian! Those movies are important to me. I wouldn't want to exclude them.
Readers that remember when I first started writing this blog, back in 2008, might remember I had a series called "masterpiece film series". The original idea I had was the include 100 movies as part of that series and then compile them in one list. But, I discontinued the series. If you remember the "rules" I created though for films that could be included as part of the series applied to this list as well. The rule was, no film made after 1979 could be included. However, I made one exception, the 1986 film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, "The Sacrifice". It is one of my all time favorite films. That will be the most modern film on the list.
I tried my best to put this list in order of preference but I will admit, as I got further and further down the list, it was difficult to say what was my 71st favorite or my 72nd favorite? Or what was my 83rd favorite or my 92nd favorite? After a while it didn't seem to matter it honestly didn't seem to matter.
There will be some who will complain how dare I leave such and such film off the list. I'm sorry if I didn't include your favorite film. Perhaps you can make your own list. This is my list. Also, you have to remember, no films made past 1979. I just have a feeling someone will say, you didn't you include "Raging Bull" (1980), "Schindler's List" (1993) or "GoodFellas" (1990). That's right. I didn't include those movies because they were made after 1979. Please try to remember that.
Some interesting notes about the list; the decade most represented? To my surprise, the 1950s. Twenty-three films made in the 50s are on the list. The 1930s has the second most films represented with 18, followed by 17 from the 40s and the 60s. There are eight silent movies on the list. Forty-four films on the list are spoken in another language. There are some international silent films included, but, I only counted those with the silent movies.
Here now are my top 100 favorite movies of all time!
1. The Bicycle Thieves (1947; Dir. Vittorio De Sica)
2. Wild Strawberries (1957; Dir. Ingmar Bergman)
3. The Godfather (1972; Dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
4. Modern Times (1936; Dir. Charlie Chaplin)
5. Rear Window (1954; Dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
6. Gone with the Wind (1939; Dir. Victor Fleming)
7. Metropolis (1927; Dir. Fritz Lang)
8. Top Hat (1935; Dir. Mark Sandrich)
9. The Sacrifice (1986; Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky)
10. Germany Year Zero (1947; Dir. Roberto Rosellini)
11. 400 Blows (1959; Dir. Francois Truffaut)
12. Nights of Cabiria (1957; Dir. Federico Fellini)
13. Rashomon (1950; Dir. Akiria Kurosawa)
14. The Conformist (1971; Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci)
15. My Night At Maud's (1970; Dir. Eric Rohmer)
16. Ludwig (1973; Dir. Luchino Visconti)
17. Les Biches (1968; Dir. Claude Chabrol)
18. The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971; Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
19. Port of Shadows (1938; Dir. Marcel Carne)
20. Annie Hall (1977; Dir. Woody Allen)
21. Grand Hotel (1932; Dir. Edmund Goulding)
22. Mrs. Miniver (1942; Dir. William Wyler)
23. Casablanca (1942; Dir. Michael Curtiz)
24. Citizen Kane (1941; Dir. Orson Welles)
25. Singin' in the Rain (1952; Dir. Stanley Donen)
26. The Crowd (1928; Dir. King Vidor)
27. My Name Is Ivan (1962; Dir. A. Tarkovsky)
28. Seven Samurai (1954; Dir. A. Kurosawa)
29. Taxi Driver (1976; Dir. Martin Scorsese)
30. The Browning Version (1951; Dir. Anthony Asquith)
31. Fury (1936; Dir. F. Lang)
32. Random Harvest (1942; Dir. Melvin LeRoy)
33. The Godfather Part II (1974; Dir. F. Coppola)
34. It's A Wonderful Life (1946; Dir. Frank Capra)
35. A Gentleman's Agreement (1947; Dir. Elia Kazan)
36. The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946; Dir. W. Wyler)
37. Wuthering Heights (1939; Dir. W. Wyler)
38. Battleship Potemkin (1925; Dir. Sergei M. Eisenstein)
39. M (1931; Dir. F. Lang)
40. Sunrise (1927; Dir. F.W. Murnau)
41. L' Atalante (1934; Dir. Jean Vigo)
42. Paths of Glory (1957; Dir. Stanley Kubrick)
43. Two Women (1960; Dir. V. De Sica)
43. Trouble In Paradise (1932; Dir. Ernst Lubitsch)
44. The Awful Truth (1937; Dir. Leo McCarey)
45. It's A Gift (1934; Dir. Norman McLeod)
46. Ben-Hur (1927; Dir. Fred Niblo)
47. Rules of the Game (1939; Dir. Jean Renoir)
48. Greed (1924; Dir. Erich von Stroheim)
49. Children of Paradise (1946; Dir. M. Carne)
50. Double Indemnity (1944; Dir. Billy Wilder)
51. Daybreak (1939; Dir. M. Carne)
52. Persona (1967; Dir. I. Bergman)
53. Straw Dogs (1971; Dir. Sam Peckinpah)
54. A Man Escaped (1956; Dir. Robert Bresson)
55. Scenes From A Marriage (1974; I. Bergman)
56. Cries & Whispers (1973; I. Bergman)
57. The Gospel According To St. Matthew (1964; Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini)
58. Ugetsu (1953; Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi)
59. Breathless (1959; Jean-Luc Godard)
60. Doctor Zhivago (1965; Dir. David Lean)
61. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939; Dir. F. Capra)
62. All Quiet On The Western Front (1930; Dir. Lewis Milestone)
63. Bridge On The River Kwai (1957; Dir. D. Lean)
64. Lion in Winter (1968; Anthony Harvey)
65. Psycho (1960; Dir. A. Hitchcock)
66. City Lights (1932; Dir. C. Chaplin)
67. Anatomy of A Murder (1959; Dir. Otto Preminger)
68. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951; Dir. E. Kazan)
69. The Seventh Seal (1957; Dir. I. Bergman)
70. La Strada (1954; Dir. F. Fellini)
71. La Notte (1961; Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni)
72. The Killing (1956; Dir. S. Kubrick)
73. Unfaithfully Yours (1948; Dir. Preston Sturges)
74. Late Spring (1949; Dir. Yasujiro Ozu)
75. Rocco & His Brothers (1960; Dir. L. Visconti)
76. Day For Night (1974; Dir. F. Truffaut)
77. Rififi (1955; Dir. Jules Dassin)
78. High Noon (1952; Dir. Fred Zinneman)
79. Mildred Pierce (1945; Dir. M. Curtiz)
80. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962; Dir. John Ford)
81. The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948; Dir. John Huston)
82. The Asphalt Jungle (1950; Dir. J. Huston)
83. Mama Roma (1962; Dir. P. Pasolini)
84. Le Deuxieme Souffle (1966; Jean-Pierre Melville)
85. Horse Feathers (1932; Dir. L. McCarey)
86. The Round-Up (1966; Dir. Miklos Jancso)
87. Day Of Wrath (1943; Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer)
88. The Exorcist (1973; William Friedkin)
89. The Shop On Main Street (1965; Jan Kadar)
90. Father (1967; Dir. Istvan Szabo)
91. Kanal (1957; Dir. Andrzej Wajda)
92. The Big Sleep (1946; Dir. Howard Hawks)
93. Korhinta (1956; Dir. Zoltan Fabri)
94. Barry Lyndon (1975; Dir. S. Kubrick)
95. The General (1926; Dirs. Clyde Bruckman / Buster Keaton)
96. The Big Parade (1925; Dir. K. Vidor)
97. The Freshman (1925; Dirs. Fred C. Newmeyer / Sam Taylor)
98. The Bad Sleep Well (1960; Dir. A. Kurosawa)
99. The Birth Of A Nation (1915; Dir. D.W. Griffith)
100. The Innocent (1979; Dir. L. Visconti)
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