A Rich List of Cinema
This evolving selection presents over 100 years of cinema via my favourite films. The challenge was to select a single entry for each year from 1920 to the present day. Most film choices were a no-brainer, others I’m sure will change as I continue to discover some blindspots and hidden gems. However, some years made it practically impossible to choose. Ahh... the joy of lists.
To begin at the beginning...
1920 is a year that presents a choice between the inception of the Hollywood action/adventure movie in Fred Niblo’s The Mark of Zorro vs. Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; a seminal work of German Expressionism that sparked what we now see as psychological horror. These are two contrasting works; the choice made from which film I have seen the most, despite how much more entertaining another film may be. 1955 is crucial in the birth of the ‘teenager’, Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause and Richard Brooks’ Blackboard Jungle alone making for a difficult set to choose from... but, in the end, for me, it always comes back to Charles Laughton’s American Gothic masterpiece Night of the Hunter. To be honest 1987 is a flip of the coin and could just as easily have been John McTiernan’s Predator over Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop.
Wherever these selections sit (for now), I hope you find some new films to watch and maybe your own favourites that match.
1920s
(1920) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Director(s): Robert Wiene
Germany
(1921) The Kid
Director(s): Charlie Chaplin
United States
(1922) Häxan
Director(s): Benjamin Christensen
Sweden
(1923) Safety Last!
Director(s): Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
United States
(1924) Sherlock Jr.
Director(s): Buster Keaton
United States
(1925) Battleship Potemkin
Director(s): Sergei Eisenstein
Soviet Union
(1926) Faust
Director(s): F. W. Murnau
Germany
(1927) Wings *
Director(s): William A. Wellman
United States
(1928) The Man Who Laughs
Director(s): Paul Leni
United States
(1929) Diary of a Lost Girl
Director(s): G. W. Pabst
Germany
1930s
(1930) All Quiet on the Western Front
Director(s): Lewis Milestone
United States
(1931) M
Director(s): Fritz Lang
Germany
(1932) Freaks
Director(s): Tod Browning
United States
(1933) King Kong
Director(s): Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack
United States
(1934) Of Human Bondage
Director(s): John Cromwell
United States
(1935) Ruggles of Red Gap
Director(s): Leo McCarey
United States
(1936) The Charge of the Light Brigade
Director(s): Michael Curtiz
United States
(1937) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Director(s): David Hand, Perce Pearce, William Cottrell, Larry Morey, Wilfred Jackson, Ben Sharpsteen
United States
(1938) Angels with Dirty Faces
Director(s): Michael Curtiz
United States
(1939) The Hunchback of Notre Dame *
Director(s): William Dieterle
United States
1940s
(1940) Rebecca
Director(s): Alfred Hitchcock
United States
(1941) The Wolf Man
Director(s): George Waggner
United States
(1942) Cat People
Director(s): Jacques Tourneur
United States
(1943) Heaven Can Wait
Director(s): Ernst Lubitsch
United States
(1944) Double Indemnity
Director(s): Billy Wilder
United States
(1945) Leave Her to Heaven *
Director(s): John M. Stahl
United States
(1946) Gilda
Director(s): Charles Vidor
United States
(1947) Out of the Past
Director(s): Jacques Tourneur
United States
(1948) The Snake Pit
Director(s): Anatole Litvak
United States
(1949) Stray Dog
Director(s): Akira Kurosawa
Japan
1950s
(1950) Sunset Boulevard
Director(s): Billy Wilder
United States
(1951) On Dangerous Ground
Director(s): Nicholas Ray, Ida Lupino
United States
(1952) The Bad and the Beautiful
Director(s): Vincente Minnelli
United States
(1953) Shane
Director(s): George Stevens
United States
(1954) On the Waterfront *
Director(s): Elia Kazan
United States
(1955) The Night of the Hunter
Director(s): Charles Laughton
United States
(1956) Moby Dick
Director(s): John Huston
United States
(1957) 12 Angry Men
Director(s): Sidney Lumet
United States
(1958) The Vikings
Director(s): Richard Fleischer
United States
(1959) Some Like it Hot
Director(s): Billy Wilder
United States
1960s
(1960) Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Director(s): Karel Reisz
United Kingdom
(1961) Yojimbo
Director(s): Akira Kurosawa
Japan
(1962) Harakiri *
Director(s): Masaki Kobayashi
Japan
(1963) The Great Escape
Director(s): John Sturges
United States
(1964) Kwaidan
Director(s): Masaki Kobayashi
Japan
(1965) The Naked Prey
Director(s): Cornel Wilde
United States
(1966) Alfie
Director(s): Lewis Gilbert
United Kingdom
(1967) Le Samouraï
Director(s): Jean-Pierre Melville
France / Italy
(1968) Once Upon a Time in the West
Director(s): Sergio Leone
Italy / United States
(1969) Midnight Cowboy
Director(s): John Schlesinger
United States
1970s
(1970) Little Big Man
Director(s): Arthur Penn
United States
(1971) Wake in Fright
Director(s): Ted Kotcheff
Australia
(1972) Silent Running
Director(s): Douglas Trumbull
United States
(1973) Fantastic Planet
Director(s): René Laloux
France / Czechoslovakia
(1974) Chinatown
Director(s): Roman Polanski
United States
(1975) Jaws *
Director(s): Steven Spielberg
United States
(1976) Taxi Driver
Director(s): Martin Scorsese
United States
(1977) Sorcerer
Director(s): William Friedkin
United States
(1978) Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Director(s): Philip Kaufman
United States
(1979) Alien
Director(s): Ridley Scott
United States
1980s
(1980) The Elephant Man
Director(s): David Lynch
United States
(1981) Raiders of the Lost Ark
Director(s): Steven Spielberg
United States
(1982) The Thing *
Director(s): John Carpenter
United States
(1983) The Dead Zone
Director(s): David Cronenberg
United States
(1984) This is Spinal Tap
Director(s): Rob Reiner
United States
(1985) Witness
Director(s): Peter Weir
United States
(1986) The Fly
Director(s): David Cronenberg
United States
(1987) Robocop
Director(s): Paul Verhoeven
United States
(1988) Akira
Director(s): Katsuhiro Otomo
Japan
(1989) When Harry Met Sally...
Director(s): Rob Reiner
United States
1990s
(1990) Jacob’s Ladder *
Director(s): Adrian Lyne
United States
(1991) Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Director(s): James Cameron
United States
(1992) Candyman
Director(s): Bernard Rose
United States
(1993) Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Director(s): Bruce Timm, Eric Radomski
United States
(1994) The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Director(s): Stephan Elliott
Australia
(1995) Heat
Director(s): Michael Mann
United States
(1996) Trainspotting
Director(s): Danny Boyle
United Kingdom
(1997) L.A. Confidential
Director(s): Curtis Hanson
United States
(1998) The Thin Red Line
Director(s): Terrence Malick
United States
(1999) The Iron Giant
Director(s): Brad Bird
United States
2000s
(2000) Gladiator
Director(s): Ridley Scott
United States
(2001) Frailty
Director(s): Bill Paxton
United States
(2002) The Eye
Director(s): Danny Pang Phat, Oxide Pang Chun (the Pang Brothers)
Hong Kong / Singapore
(2003) The Last Samurai
Director(s): Edward Zwick
United States
(2004) Dead Man’s Shoes
Director(s): Shane Meadows
United Kingdom
(2005) The Descent
Director(s): Neil Marshall
United Kingdom
(2006) The Prestige
Director(s): Christopher Nolan
United States
(2007) Blade Runner: The Final Cut *
Director(s): Ridley Scott
United States
(2008) Lake Mungo
Director(s): Joel Anderson
Australia
(2009) District 9
Director(s): Neil Blomkamp
South Africa / New Zealand / United States
2010s
(2010) How to Train Your Dragon
Director(s): Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders
United States
(2011) Crazy, Stupid, Love
Director(s): Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
United States
(2012) The Hunt
Director(s): Thomas Vinterberg
Denmark
(2013) Prisoners
Director(s): Denis Villeneuve
United States
(2014) Nightcrawler
Director(s): Dan Gilroy
United States
(2015) The Tiger *
Director(s): Park Hoon-jung
South Korea
(2016) The Red Turtle
Director(s): Michaël Dudok de Wit
France / Japan
(2017) War for the Planet of the Apes
Director(s): Matt Reeves
United States
(2018) Upgrade
Director(s): Leigh Whannell
Australia / United States
(2019) Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Director(s): Quentin Tarantino
United States
2020s
(2020) Alone
Director(s): John Hyams
United States
(2021) Dune: Part One *
Director(s): Denis Villeneuve
United States
(2022) Prey
Director(s): Dan Trachtenberg
United States
(2023) Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Director(s): Christopher McQuarrie
United States
(2024) Dune: Part Two
Director(s): Denis Villeneuve
United States
* Film of the Decade.