100 Top Films

There’s a lot of this kind of list around: so how does  mine differ from the rest? First, it doesn’t use the word “great” or “greatest”, a claim to have seen all five million films made so far, and to have understood their ethos, technique and achievement. On the contrary, I probably know less about films than you do.

Second, like all other lists including AFI type ones, it’s based on personal preference and says so, and terms such as  “influential”, “innovative” and even “mind boggling” are absent from my list, terms reflecting technical acumen but boiling down to personal taste, despite the “greatest films of all time” title. I have no special expertise.

Third, it doesn’t rank the films: imagine deciding Citizen Kane being no 3 to Star Wars IV number 6! Hello! What’s better, apples or kiwi fruit. Instead I have grouped them under type. ‘ensemble’, ‘romcom’, crime, satire, and on occasion, film director.

But be warned, no horror, violence or animation, all of which rely heavily on Special Effects, which date horribly. I suppose all these films I’ve listed are drama, attempts to portray human character, even when satirical or comedic. I think if you like one film in a group you’ll like others you mayn’t yet have seen. It may be, knowing I like one film in a group, you can recommend one I haven’t listed. 

I think all the films I list are entertaining.That’s all I mean by ’top’. I have found them to be so, over the 10 years I’ve been watching them, more so than the hundreds (thousands?) of other films I’ve seen in that period. I must have seen each one a dozen times, and I still find them entertaining. (“Col” in a film’s description signifies I have watched a colorised version of a B&W film}

Ensemble This means the story concerns a group of people, not one centered on a hero. It requires great acting skills, the ability to play to other characters, and is usually focused on a place, social group or gender group.

Nashville (Director Robert Altman 1975 160m, writers Joan Tewkesbury, Altman). This 20 character epic intertwines storylines without resolving any of them, and features all the behaviours that sometimes alarm people about Americans – including Americans.

Dinner at Eight (Director George Cukor 1934 111m. Writers Frances Marion, Herbert Månkiewicz.col.) A group of affluent business people meet for dinner. But it is the eve of the great depression, and many of their affairs, and lives, are in crisis. In this perfectly constructed and directed comic masterpiece the great stars of the 30s show their talent, none more than brilliant  Jean Harlow.

12 Angry Men (Director Sydney Lumet 1975 96m, writer Reginald Rose. col). The prejudices of 12 jury members cause conflict when one of them pleads “reasonable doubt”, showing how fragile justice can be.

Abigail’s Party (Director and writer Mike Leigh 1977 102m). A fingernail on blackboard satire of middle class pretensions and insecurities. Five neighbours hide out from a party given by one of their children and expose themselves to Leigh’s merciless stare.

Babette’s Feast (Babettes gæstebud. Director Gabriel Axel 1987 103m, writer Karen Blixen, Axel). Blixen and Axel take an isolated religious community in Denmark and a refugee from a war in France, and show two very different concepts of love and generosity.

Beautiful Girls (Director Ted Demme 1996 112m writer Scott Rosenberg). A high school reunion causes a group of five couples and friends to re-evaluate their lives. Art and common sense, fantasy and commitment, love snd self indulgence, are all looked at with insight and wit.

Broken Wings (Knafayim Shvurot.  Director and writer Nir Bergman 2002 87m). A close family group is hurt when a man dies suddenly and leaves his wife and four children to drift aimlessly. The younger children suffer most, but the illness of one brings them together again.

American Graffiti (Director and writer George Lucas, 1973 110m). Three would be couples, a disk jockey, and a local gang spend a night cruising the strip before the boys head off to college the next day. The cars and the music are authentic.Things haven’t changed that much since 1962.

The Gods Must Be Crazy.  (Director and writer Jamie Uys 1980 109m).  If you haven’t yet begun to ask why, this would be a good place to start. It offers a  priceless opportunity to laugh at yourself, no matter what color your skin.                       

Grand Hotel (Director Edmund Goulding 1932 112m. Writer Edgar Woolf and Vikki Baum). It’s a “people come, people go, nothing seems to happen – except behind closed doors” kind of movie. But it’s really about the stars, and their contrasting styles.

Salaam Bombay (Director and writer Mira Nair 1988 117m). Poverty and disease take their toll mainly on children. This is their story, as told to Nair in Bombay, a child’s tale of theft, drugs and violence..

The Truman Show (Director Peter Weir 1998 103m. Writer Andrew Niccol). Is this the ultimate crime; to tell lies about reality and pretend it is the truth? Must we all be complicit for it to work?

Crime We’re all capable of committing crimes. Maybe that’s why we favour the ‘crime doesn’t pay’ message. Depiction of crime has gone hand in hand with the development of the cinema.

Hate (La Haine. Director and Writer Matthieu Kassovitz 1995 98m). The housing estate: punishment for the crime of poverty, where resentment breeds violence. It’s not how you fall that matters it’s where.

Stolen Children (Il ladro di bambini. Director Gianni Amelio 1992 114m. Writer Amelio, Sandro Baraglio). If you had to choose between food and shelter, or emotional support, which way would you go? This is a story of two children who might have had a choice.

The Big Sleep (Director Howard Hawks 1946 114m. Writer William Faulkner. Hawks. col). One of the best noirs, even though it’s not: the goodies win and the main characters fall in love and live happily ever after. But who’s complaining.

Dog Day Afternoon (Director Sidney Lumet 1975 125m. Writer Frank Pierson). A bank robbery gone wrong. There’s no money, hostages need medical attention, the robbers are seen, and not only police and FBI, but the media covers it, and a crowd gathers to watch. It’s a circus.

Fargo (Film makers Joel and Ethan Coen 1996 98m). A kidnapping gone wrong. A most obnoxious kidnapper; and the murder count was seven last time I counted.

Murder My Sweet (Director Edward Dmytryk 1944 98m. Writer John Paxton. col). Powell is a bit more Marlowe than Bogie, for those who care. Adapted from Chandler’s second, and best, book.

Runaway Train (Director Andrey Konchalovsky 1985 111m. Writer Akira Kurosawa). When one of cinema’s greatest film makers couldn’t get funding, at least something was made of his script. It’s about freedom, but you don’t realise it until the end.

Unforgiven (Director Clint Eastwood 1992 130m. Writer David Peoples). This story of a criminal who craves forgiveness, and finds it for a while with someone strong enough to give it, also has things to say about the nature of violence.

The Big Heat (Director Fritz Lang 1953 89m Writer Sydney Boehm. col). Justice: is hating crime a good motive for fighting it? Is revenge an adequate motive? This taut thriller lifts the carpet where questions like this are swept but ends with a copout.

Comedy They say it doesn’t travel, and that each generation evolves its own form of comedy. But with so many forms: standup, slapstick, screwball, satire, parody, farce, there’s bound to be exceptions.

Bombshell(Director Victor Fleming 1933 96m. Writer Jules Furthman. col).The outrageous life of Clara Bow, the It girl of the ’20s, played by Jean Harlow, the Bombshell of the ’30s. The pretensions of Hollywood on ludicrous display.

Bringing Up Baby (Director Howard Hawks 1938 102m. Writer Dudley Nichols. col). Theatre of the absurd crossed with slapstick. Can you believe  a palantologist in women’s clothing encountering  two leopards in  the wilds of Connecticut?

The Importance of Being Ernest (Director Anthony Asquith 1952  95m. Writer Oscar Wilde). Asquith emulates Wilde: classic version of a superb play.

My Man Godfrey (Director Gregory La Cava 1936 94m. Writer Morrie Ryskind. col). Though the story itself is a little preachy, here is great comic acting, none more so than from Carole Lombard. 

Sullivan’s Travels (Director and writer Preston  Sturgis 1941 90m. col). Satire, social commentary, protest at prion farms and racial discrimination, salute to Keaton,  romance, and wry reflection that market forces do least harm. Something for everyone. And laughter.

Twentieth Century (Director Howards Hawks, 1934 91m. Writer Ben Hecht. col). Tells. of the battles between stage impresario Barrymore and rising star Lombard as they mistake stage and screen melodrama for reality and ego for love.

Relationships We all have relationships, hundreds of them. Family. school, neighbours, friends, colleagues, not to mention parents, children and in-laws. Does cinema have anything to say about all this, or only romcom frippery?

The Apartment (L’appartement. Director and writer Gilles Mimouni 1996 116m).With appropriate references to Alfred Hitchcock and Shakespeare, this sophisticated, insightful, flash technique thriller looks at three phases of romantic love as they befall the same three people: first love, fantasy, and pragmatism. See https://phillipkay.wordpress.com/page/2/?s=appartement, one of my two essays on the film.

April Story (Shigatsu monogatori. Director and writer Shunji Iwai 1998 67m). This beautiful and delicate film depicts that stage of romantic love when the loved one is almost immaterial compared to the rush of feeling one is experiencing. 

The Aviator’s Wife (La Femme de l’aviateur. Director and writer Eric Rohmer 1987 107m).This amusing depiction of the state of being in love with love depends on the three chief characters being aged 15, 20 and 25 – and on consummate acting.

Betty Blue (37.2º le matin. Director Jean-Jacques Beineix 1986 119m, Writer Beineix, Philippe Djian). Against a background of Sicilian eccentrics Beineix draws parallels between a writer[s creativity and a woman’s fertility. 

The Big Easy (Director Jim McBride 1986 102m. Writer Daniel Petrie Jnr, McBride). An easy going New Orleans detective thinks corruption is just what everyone does – until he falls in love – with an assistant DA. Spiced with cajun dialect, and music.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Director Richard Brooks 1958 108m. Writer Brooks, Tennessee Williams).Devotion and loyalty in this family are shown by fertility. But respect counts most of all, even when it’s hidden.

Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis. Director Marcel Carné 1945 189m. Writer Jacques Prēvert). Pride and passion, egotism and scorn: is there love for Garance in this heady story of 19th century theatrical life? 

A Day in the Country (Partie de Campagne. Director Jean Renoir 1945 45m. Writer Guy de Maupassant, Renoir). A bourgoise transaction of the passions, set against the powerful forces of nature.

Educating Rita (Director Lewis Gilbert1983 110m. WriterWilly Russell). Explores the bond between student and teacher. Self discovery can be exhilarating, even for cynics.

Ghost World (Director Terry Zwigoff 2001 111m. Writer Daniel Clowes, Zwigoff).  They’re everywhere: people with weird values, odd pastimes, strange attitudes, peculiar ambitions. When ghostly values intrude even on the bond with her best friend one girl discovers you can only rely on yourself.

His Girl Friday (Director Howard Hawks1940 92m writer Charles Lederer Ben Hecht). Watch the movie through before you decide if this is a criticism of the news media or a love story of two people who only think they’re newspaper men.

La Strada (The Road. Director Federico Fellini 1954 108m writer Fellini, Tulio Pinelli). Love comes in many forms. A simple minded girl is exploited by all around her. Now her latest exploiter , a brutal carnival strong man, experiences grief for the first time when he hears of her death. 

The Lady Eve (Director and writer Preston Sturges1941 94m). A wealthy herpetologist (snake expert) is targeted by a con artist ,who falls in love with him instead. He spurns her when he finds out her original intentions. She seeks revenge as the aristocratic Lady Eve, with whom he falls in love. But it all works out in the end.  

Lantana(Director Ray Lawrence 2001 121m. Writer Andrew Bovell). A discerning look at the prickly side of established relationships, and of beginning ones, through the medium of a crime investigation.

Last Life in the Universe (Ruang rak noi nid mahasan. Director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang 2003 112m. Writer Prabula Yoon, Pen-Ek). A free spirited quasi prostitute and an obsessive compulsive yakuza fall in love. He needs to tidy up after a few murders (and an overdue library book), and she is recovering from the death of her sister in a road accident. You can pick your own ending. 

Late Spring (Banshun. Director and writer Yasujiro Ozu 1949 108m).A woman in 40s Japan wants nothing more in life than to care for her beloved widowed father. But custom dictates that by age 24 she should marry. Both prepare for the break. An apple without its skin soon turns brown, reflects the father. 

Libeled Lady (Director Jack Conway 1936 98m writer Maurine Dallas Watkins, Howard Emmett Rogers).A comedy in which news is invented, the wealthy are framed, an editor marries his fiancée to a con man, the con man falls in love with the framed socialite, the fiancée has not one but two divorces, and it all works out in the end.

Life is Sweet (Director and writer Mike Leigh 1990 103m). Good natured to a fault, a cook and his wife cope with the illusions of friends and the plans of their two daughter’s; one copes, the other doesn’t.

Love Letter (Director and writer Shunji Iwai 1995 117m).A woman mourning the recent death of her fiancé receives a letter from a non existent address, and discovers more about the man, including his fellow classmate, who though a woman, has the same name as he, and the same face as herself. An eerily beautiful tracery of what we bring to a relationship.  

A Matter of Life and Death (Director and writer Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger 1946 104m). If bravery deserves death what does love deserve? Made during he last months of the war which showed Britain’s greatness but destroyed it, this film deserves all the sentiment it celebrates.

Relationships

The Mother and the Whore (La maman et la putain. Director and writer Jean Eustache 1973 210m). Who needs relationships when you’ve got yourself?A film that shows how three and a half hours of conversation, much of it pretentious nonsense, can break your heart and change your life.

Mr Deeds Goes to Town (Director Frank Capra 1936 115m. Writer Robert Riskin).Can relationships based on need survive? “ All you need is love”. We already know this is true. What we need to find out is – how true.

Music and Lyrics (Director and writer Marc Lawrence 2007 104m). Relationships as pop music: the basic attraction as melody, the content as lyrics. Might explain why many relationships don’t last. Discerning critique of the pop music industry.

My Night at Maud’s (Ma nuit chez Maud. Director and writer Eric Rohmer 1969 105m). Planning, living with ambition; or responding to the marvellous opportunities that come your way. Which is best? This is the story of a loser, who got what he wanted.

Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud (Director Claude Sautet 1995 106m. Writer Jacques Fieschi, Sautet). A salute to all those relationships that shouldn’t work (“nothing in common”, “doesn’t like gays”, an intellectual and a party person). Here a young girl whose contemporaries all take her for granted meets an older man with experience enough to second guess her, and a relationship starts to develop. 

Only Angels Have Wings(Director Howard Hawks 1939 121m. Writer Jules Furthman, Hawks). Hawkes’ idea of how a woman should relate to a risk taking, adventure seeking man’s man: total support. It leaves out too much for most people, but makes for an exciting movie.

Romeo and Juliet(Director Franco Zefferelli 1968 138m. Writer William Shakespeare, Franco Busati). Back in the day when parents arranged their children’s marriages no one dreamed of falling in love. Why, you might even pick on someone from a family enemy. Shakespeare. charts the beginning of a new trend.  

Scenes From a Marriage (Scener ur ett äktenskap. Director and writer Ingmar Bergman 1973 TV 8 parts 281m, theatrical release 167m). Looks at different aspects of a marriage: surface happiness and hidden problems; different attitudes to infidelity; types of support; affection and resentment; and a pragmatic resolution. Profound.

Separate Tables (Director Delbert Mann 1958 100m writer Terence Rattigan). Fear of other people leads to self deception. while a little acceptance can tear down the walls of pretension, of separate tables of which we have no need.

A Streetcar Named Desire (Director Elia Kazan 1951 122m writer Tennessee Williams).Two sisters meet; one in a deeply satisfying marriage that surmounts class. the other deeply entangled in days of past glory and affluence.These dreams seem dishonest to the sister’s husband who tears them to pieces. Relationships are for living, not for dreaming.  

A Summer’s Tale(Conte été. Director and writer Eric Rohmer 1996 113m). A teenage boy on summer holiday naturally thinks of girls. This one ends up with three. One’s too serious, one’s too flirty, and the third  – might give up her fiancé to be with him. Or would she? Luckily he has music to fall back on, and he chooses that – til next year.

Tokyo Story (Tokyo monogatari. Director and writer Yasujiro Ozu 1953 136m). An elderly couple face up to bitter fact: they’re indispensable to the children while these are young; but become more of a cumbrance as they all grow older. 

Too Many Husbands (Director Wesley Ruggles 1940 81m writer Somerset Maugham). A woman’s husband is lost at sea, so she marries his best friend and business partner. Then he turns up and the court declares her still legally married to him. For a while there she was getting twice as much attention as she was used to.  

Toto the hero (Director Jaco Van Domael 1991 91m writer Didier De Neck). A man loses his father while still a child and comes to believe his prosperous next door neighbour has stolen the wealth that should have been his; that the two babies were switched during a nursery fire. A film that explores how close ‘reality’ and fantasy can come, how the one can transform the other.

Trouble in Paradise (Director Ernst Lubitsch 1932 83m writer Samson Raphaelson). Can you love two people at the same time? This exquisite film explores the subject and has no doubt. (col).

True Love (Director and writer Nancy Savoca 1989 104m). A film that explores the post marriage expectations of both parties and how they differ. 

Trust (Director and writer Hal Hartley 1990 107m). Offspring of two dysfunctional families try to define love. The results are all shown: respect and admiration, oppression and guilt, conformity and idealism – and love thats true enough.

Two Daughters (Teen Kanya. Director and writer Satyajit Ray 1961 114m). Three short films from stories by Tagore each about 40m. A shorter version called Two Daughters was first released before the longer version, Three Daughters, and that’s the version I’ve seen. Ray’s ability to show what his characters are feeling is truely amazing. 

Wild Strawberries (Smultonstället. Director and writer Ingmar Bergman 1957 91m). While preparing to receive an honorary degree, a doctor experiences a series of nightmares and daydreams. He realises how intolerant he has been to close family members, the only people he loves.

Women on Verge of  Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de ‘nervios’. Director and writer Pedro Almodóvar 1988 88m). A woman tries to understand why her lover has left her, and discovers others, whether through lust or politics, who are going through the same crisis. 

Zhou Yu’s Train (Zhou Yu de hua che. Director Zhou Sun 2002 97m writer Cun Bei). While on a train journey, a woman remembers her first two lovers. She travelled on this same train to visit the first every week in the remote town where he lived, and met the second on the journey. Both affairs came to nothing. 

Red Dust (Director Victor Fleming 1932 83m. Writer John Lee Mahin). The manager of a rubber plantation falls in love with his surveyor’s wife.They decide to stop the affair, to protect the woman’s husband. The manager pretends to fall for another woman, who turns out to be his ideal match, a pity as neither are aware of it.  

War and Politics The only reason tp put these two categories together is that one is said to be an extension of the other (I forget which). Certainly they are equally wasteful and destructive.

Forbidden Games (Jeux interdits. Director René Clément 1952 86m writer François Boyer). Shows just how destructive war is to children. The children’s funeral games are punished more harshly even than the adult’s war games of WWII.

Gandhi(Director Richard Attenborough 1982 191m writer John Briley). Good at getting complex issues across in a comprehensive manner. Just why the Muslims felt threatened, the mixed motives of the British, how Gandhi came to reach the position he did by 1948. 

Hiroshima Mon Amour (Director Alain Resnais 1959 90m writer Marguerite Duras). Two of the many victims of WWII who will never be counted meet at Hiroshima. WWII for her meant exile at age 17 for loving a German soldier; for hm meant seeing the town where his parents lived turned unto rubble populated by burnt and crippled women and children. This is their loss. This is  what they share. 

Jesus of Montreal (Director and  writer Denys Arcand 1989 120m). Four ways to change society; warfare, economics, religion and politics. And how interconnected they are. Success in one can subvert all the others. Here a Passion Play transforms the lives of its actors, makes money  for the church, threatens the security of a parish priest, and is invaded  by Big Business. 

Love and Anarchy (Film d’amore e d’anarchia, ovvero ‘stamattina alle 10 in via dei Fiori nella nota casa di tolleranza… Director and writer Lima Wertmüller 1973 120m). Is popularity a source of power? Can you love someone and manipulate them? How different is passion for justice to passion for a woman? Why is ‘law and order’ often in the hands of thugs and gangsters? Wertmüller questions everything.

Macbeth (Director Roman Polanski 1971 140m writer William Shakespeare, Polanski). Polanski’s Macbeth opens up the scenes of the witches and their prophecies, as a film version should, but holds back on scenes like the slaughter of McDuff’s family: Polanski had experienced something similar a few month earlier, courtesy of the Manson family.. The scenes of moral collapse seem a little shallow by comparison. The scenes of defiance at the end though are magnificent. Neither film nor play are historically accurate of 11th century Scotland.

Missing (Director and writer Konstantinos Gavras 1982 122m).   A story based on fact and almost documentary in treatment, of the period in September 1973 when Pinochet began to mop up opposition after the murder of Socialist Prime Minister Allende. The Americans in Chile then believed they would not be touched. The film charts the growing awareness that all their lives were at risk, and that Pinochet was put into office by the American government.  

Paths of Glory (Director and writer Stanley Kubrick 1957 88m). Another true story. During WWI a general agrees to send a battalion against an impregnable position, hoping to win promotion. The attack fails, and the general orders execution for cowardice of three men, chosen by lot. Their defence fails, the men are shot, the generals stay in power. 

Ran (Director and writer Akira Kurosawa 1985 160m). Successful warlords have a hard choice: kill all but the most capable son; or divide the kingdom and risk civil war. Here (as in King Lear) the kingdom is divided – for a time, and the warlord is outraged when he realises he’s on the list to be eliminated. Often dismissed as a costume epic, this is about betrayal where it hurts unendurably. 

Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai. Director and writer Akira Kurosawa 1954 207m). Seven ronin are enlisted by villagers to protect them from bandit raids, for a small amount of food. Even when they realise they are being cheated by the villagers the seven stay on for the love of the contest. With the bandits defeated and most of their number dead, they reflect their day is over. 

The Seventh Seal (Director and writer Ingmar Bergman 1957 96m). Returning from the Crusades, where he has lost his faith, a knight seeks desperately to gain time to save the innocent from his own fate. He plays chess with Death before joining the Dance of Death.

Slaughterhouse Five (Director George Roy Hill 1972 104m writer Kurt Vonnegut jnr). A soldier comes face to face with death three times. While he struggles to make sense of it all, aliens from Tralfamodore seem more interested in watching him mate. They already know when the universe ends (soon). 

Xiu Xiu(The Sent-down Girl. Director and writer Joan Chen 1998 99m). To prepare for the socialist state (and to stay in power) in 1975 the Maoists sent thousands of young people to remote areas to learn traditional trades.This is the story of one, who learned how to herd  horses, how to fall in love, and that the only way to get home was through prostitution. She died without seeing her home, perhaps from shame.

Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister (TV series writer  Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn 1980-81/84/86-88  690m/480m). A TV series often described as a comedy, a satire or a warning. Could it be all three? A mix of Catch 22, 1984 and The Great Dictator?

Z (Director Konstantinos Gavras 1969 127m writer Vassilis Vassilikos, Gavras). Another documentary style thriller from Gavras, who clearly sees reality exciting enough. It’s about the murder of the democrat politician Lambrakis in 1963 just as shown in the film, which led to a military junta which ruled the country until 1974. This realistic detail is worth recalling, as the film is so well constructed one could find it exaggerated and dismiss it.

Portraits Depiction of character and emotion of any depth and subtlety is rarely attempted in film. Voice-over only works at a simple level, and someone who thinks one thing and does another only confuses. Ir works with text because you can express everything, voice, second thoughts, admission of a lie, anything at all. Not in film.But it has been attempted.

Amadeus (Director Milos Forman 1984 160m writer Peter Shaffer). This is the story of Salieri, Court Composer to the Emperor. Through his eyes we catch a glimpse of a minor court functionary called Wolfgang Mozart.  Salieri was jealous of Mozart and discredited him whenever possible; god had given Mozart supreme gifts of composition but only the gift of appreciation of this to himself.  All this seems unbalanced to us.  It’s one way to give depth to a character: show him through the eyes of a biased character and let us determine the extent of the bias.  

Pather Panchali (The Little Road. Directed by Satyajit Ray 1955 125m)

Aparajito (The Unvanquished. Directed by Satyajit Ray 1956 110m)

Apur Sansar (World of Apu. Directed by Satyajit Ray 1959 105m) . Three films about the character Apu, all taken from a book by best selling Bengali writer Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. The first film taught Ray how to direct, made over a 10 year period with funds from his earnings as a best selling detective story writer, loans of equipment and money from friends, and support from the Bengali government. It also showed how little Ray had to learn, that he was already a phenomenally gifted director of actors. The film showed how hard it was for poor people to escape from the poverty that bound them to their traditional way of life and gave heart to many, as did the book. The second film dealt with Apu’s student years and early work experience, and how it separated him from the mother he loved. The final film dealt with Apu’s marriage.

Dekalog (TV series. Writers Krzysztof Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz  1989-1990 10 X 60m). Kjeslowski was to have directed one episode in this program but directed all (though each had a different cinematographer). Too much has been made of the Mosaic decalogue (list of ten rules); Kieslowski lived under another one in socialist Poland. His was a subtle mind, and we should expect to find more than one meaning in anything he tells us. The first episode of the ten is about a little boy who lives with his divorced father in the brooding, ramshackle building that forms the background to each episode, complete with bad plumbing and out of order lift. The boy is a computer prodigy, and has written a program that accurately forecasts weather, and which predicts water temperature will be low enough to form a safe to skate on ice surface. He is a little boy who has just been given a pair of skates, not just a genius. He goes missing and is fished from the river frozen. This could be punishment for: ‘Thou shalt not worship false gods’, but also mean, don’t separate the emotional from the logical (mother and father). There’s other meanings, make room for the laws of chance, and, a planned state cannot always be trusted. Kieslowski’s actors are far from histrionic. They get his suggestions across by expressions, not by speeches as it were: they are transparent. His cinematographers show us long gloomy corridors, but not ones we get lost in, ones in which we lose our way. Watching these ten little stories takes a long time, I mean years, but it’s worth it, every second.

Ikiru (Director and writer Akira Kurosawa  1952 143m). Ikiru is a film about a man dying of cancer, who learns at the last moment how to live well. After his diagnosis he tries drinking, then is attracted to a vivacious girl at work. The solution is at work however. It’s a petition from neighbourhood mothers to turn a vacant lot into a playground. For years it has been going the rounds of government departments. Now it must happen. And it does.  The usual people who delayed the project now claimed credit for it. But it doesn’t matter. Sitting on a swing in the finished playground, even though it’s snowing, the little man dies happy,, a smile on his face. He has lived! 

Intervista (Director and writer Federico Fellini 1987 105m). Fellini is interviewed by a Japanese film crew. They want to know his methods. Methods! Fellini is as evasive as Maigret was when asked the same question. What the Japanese crew get is an autobiographical segment of film when Fellini, a journalist, interviews a star. Stories about the early days of cinema and of some eccentric film people. A tribute to Cinecittà, where all Fellini’s films were made. Rehearsals of Amerika, a film he never made. And shots of the crew interviewing Fellini.All done with charm and modesty – and a masterpiece.

My Dinner with Andre (Directed by Louis Malle 1987 110m writer Wallace Shawn, Andre Gregory). A dinner with two not quite friends who have been going to meet but haven’t made it until now. Quite a contrast: Andre has left his job as a successful stage director to search the world for every New Age gathering that might offer spiritual fulfilment. Wallace is decidedly low brow, an unpublished playwright who clings to his creature comforts. It’s a battle between hope and cynicism. And you know what? We’re on both sides. 

Persona (Director and writer Ingmar Bergman 1966 83m). The ultimate in portraiture is opacity, when we cannot see a person at all. Bergman says here we can only see what we want to observe, and that the one observed obliges by showing us what we want to see. They adopt a mask, as an actor did in ancient theatre, and as Jungian psychology says we all do on social occasions (persona). Here an actress who will not act becomes an unwilling confidante; her suppressed resentment at this role gives rise to more overt resentment on the part of the one who had confided in her, and so we have personal interaction. So says Bergman, careful to show not tell.

Documentary There’s no reason to exclude documentary from lists of this type, other than its content becoming out of date. Some documentary qualifies as works of art.

Hollywood:a celebration of American silent film (TV series. Narrator James Mason, writer Kevin Brownlow, David Gill 1980 676m). The silent film era brought to life by its film makers.

The Human Animal (TV series. Presenter and writer Desmond  Morris 1994 300m). The human species from the point of view of a zoologist.

The Last.Waltz (Director Martin Scorsese 1978 117m writer Mardik Martin). The story of The Band, and a final concert.

Latcho Drom (Director and writer Tony Gatlif 1993 103m). The Gypsies through stories and songs from India, west Asia, central Europe, France and Spain. 

Die Macht der Bilder: Leni Riefenstahl (Director and writer Ray Müller 1993 183m). Riefenstahl is probably the most important film director of the 1930s. After 1938 her reputation was linked to Hitler’s, unfoundedly, and associated with theJewish pogroms. Prior to 1938 Hitler was popular throughout the world, and it was in the mid 30s that Riefenstahl worked for Hitler. It would hav e been difficult to refuse, especially as it gave her funds to experiment with.It’s good to hear her defence and to see this phenomenally gifted woman in action even if the word ’Nazi’ is mentioned ominously too often. 

The Life of Leonardo da Vinci (TV series. Director and writer Renato Casteliani, commentator Giulio Bosetti 1971 300m). Five 1 hour episodes that tell you everything known about Leonardo (by 1971 anyway). Authentic sets and costumes, places and even faces, with Bosetti to point out the far fetched tale or modern theory. It’s both convincing and enjoyable.

Phantom India (L’inde fantôme. TV series. Photographer/editor Louis Malle 1961 378m).Over six hours of Malle’s unstructured impressions of India, with his commentary.Forget those awful slide nights: this is deeply perceptive, beautifully shot by one of the great photographers, and endlessly fascinating.

So there it is, my list of 100 great films which, like a similar list of great books, or music, has at times made life worth living when it should have been unendurable, taught me things I needed to know but hadn’t yet learnt, and explored worlds and concepts I would otherwise never have found. To all the film makers I have mentioned, and the cast and crews I haven’t, thank you.

The list can be read in any order you like, forwards, backwards or sideways. It is a balanced overview of the movies, as it has about 12 films per decade, from introduction of sound in the 1930s, up to the 2000s. The categories should not be taken too seriously. I put them in because I find lists, especially of 100 items, a  bit daunting. The list is more comprehensive geographically than others I have seen, which seem often restricted to American films. Of the 100 films, 42 are from non English speaking countries. I hope you have as much fun in reading my list as I had in writing it.