100 Best Films I’ve never seen
This is a project I’m working on, over the course of a year, I want to have seen all of these films. I’ve limited it to one per director and made it as diverse as possible without betraying my preferences. Every film listed here is one I’m excited to watch, it’s not a chore but a kind of adventure in movie watching :)
A Real Young Girl (Breillat, 1976)
A Special Day (Scola, 1977)
A Sunday in the Country (Tavernier, 1984)
A Time to Love and a Time to Die (Sirk, 1958 )
Adaptation (Jonze, 2002)
All Things Fair (Bo Widerberg, 1995)
An Actor’s Revenge (Kon Ichikawa, 1963)
An Autumn Afternoon (Ozu, 1962)
Autumn Sonata (Bergman, 1978 )
Bad Timing (Roeg, 1980)
Beau Travail (Denis, 1999)
Big Deal on Madonna Street (Monicelli, 1958 )
California Split (Altman, 1977)
Caravaggio (Jarman, 1986)
Carmen Jones (Preminger, 1954)
Carnal Knowledge (Nichols, 1971)
Chelsea Girls (Morrissey& Warhol, 1966)
Chinatown (Polanski, 1974)
Chungking Express (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994)
Cleopatra (DeMille, 1934)
Closely Watched Trains (Menzel, 1966)
Dead Ringers (Cronenberg, 1988)
Dishonored (Von Sternberg, 1931)
Down by the Law (Jarmusch, 1986)
Easy Living (Mitchell Leisen, 1937)
Elle A Passé Tant d’Heures Sous les Sunlights… (Garrel, 1985)
Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Meyer, 1965)
Faust (F.W. Murnau, 1926)
Fear of Fear (Fassbinder, 1975)
Fists in the Pocket (Bellocchio, 1965)
Go, Go Second Time Virgin (Wakamatsu, 1969)
Husbands and Wives (Allen, 1992)
India Song (Duras, 1975)
It’s Always Fair Weather (Donen, 1955)
Jeanne Dielman (Ackerman, 1975)
Jesus de Montreal (Arcand, 1989)
Journey of the Hyena (Djibril Diop Mambéty, 1973)
Joyless Street (Pabst, 1925)
Kes (Loach, 1969)
Kiss me Deadly (Aldrich, 1955)
La Religieuse (Rivette, 1966)
La Verite (Clouzot, 1960)
L’Avventura (Antoinioni, 1960)
Le Boucher (Chabrol, 1970)
Le Crime de Monsieur Lange (Renoir, 1936)
Le Jour se Leve (Carne, 1939)
Le Plaisir (Ophuls, 1952)
Les Amants (Malles, 1958)
Lola (Demy, 1961)
Made in U.S.A. (Godard, 1966)
Make Way for Tomorrow (McCarey, 1937)
Man’s Castle (Borzage, 1933)
Marriage italian style (De Sica, 1964)
Ménilmontant (Kirsanoff, 1926)
Millennium Mambo (Hsiao-hsien Hou, 2001)
My Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days (Zulawski, 1989)
Night and Fog (Resnais, 1955)
Only Yesterday (Isao Takahata, 1991)
Orlando (Potter, 1992)
Peppermint Candy (Chang-dong Lee, 2000)
Perfumed Nightmare (Kidlat Tahimik, 1977)
Pickup on South Street (Fuller, 1953)
Platform (Zhang Ke Jia, 2000)
Pola X (Carax, 1999)
Pygmalion (Asquith, 1938)
Ride Lonesome (Boetticher, 1959)
Safe in Hell (Wellman, 1931)
Safety Last! (Newmeyer, 1923)
Sans Soleil (Marker, 1983)
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Parajanov, 1964)
Sherlock Jr. (Keaton, 1924)
Stolen Kisses (Truffaut, 1968)
Stroszek (Herzog, 1977)
Sweet Movie (Makavejev, 1974)
The Big Parade (Vidor, 1925)
The Double Life of Veronique (Kieslowski, 1991)
The Edge of the World (Powell, 1937)
The Garden (Sulik, 1995)
The Little Foxes (Wyler, 1941)
The Mirror (Tarkovsky, 1975)
The Piano (Campion, 1993)
The Red Violin (Girard, 1998)
The Smiling Madame Beudet (Dulac, 1923)
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (Lubitsch, 1927)
The Wayward Cloud (Tsai, 2005)
The World Of Apu (Ray, 1959)
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (Pollack, 1969)
Throne of Blood (Kurosawa, 1957)
Tobacco Road (Ford, 1941)
Trans-Europ-Express (Robbe-Grillet, 1966)
Tristana (Bunuel, 1970)
Un Homme et une femme (LeLouch, 1966)
Vagabond (Varda, 1985)
Violent Summer (Valerio Zurlini, 1959)
Voyage in Italy (Rossellini, 1954)
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Naruse, 1960)
Wild at Heart (Lynch, 1990)
Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)
Yi Yi (Yang, 2000)
Yolanda and the Thief (Minnelli, 1945)
October 16, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I really want to see “Stolen Kisses” too. You should do “Dead Ringers” for your horror month– I think it’s kinda a “chore” movie, but you might find it provocative for thought. Oh, “Millennium Mambo”s been a big dream on my To Do list– it sounds so moodily louche! And I admit I’m curious for “Sweet Movie”–I looked at a still from the chocolate-commercial scene and it’s been haunting me, insofar as the model seemed to have a very “model-y” look, like “yeah, I’m really into being naked and soaked in chocolate” which haunts me in light of what I understand to be the conclusion of that sequence! But I’m “imagining” rather than knowing how it really plays out– perhaps what I’m interpreting as being “into” the commercial she’s filming is already an expression of horror? Or maybe the scene isn’t even played straight at all?
October 16, 2008 at 7:47 pm
You’re second person who seems utterly meh on Dead Ringers. I’m getting nervous :(
It’s the chocolate scene that maes me want to see it. Chocolate, sexy girl, how can this film fail? (don’t answer that those who’ve seen the film).
October 17, 2008 at 4:01 am
I was just reading something on “Sweet Movie”, trying not to ‘give away’ the whole film to myself but, yeah, apparently this whole writhing-in-chocolate thing is played very sensual!
October 17, 2008 at 4:18 am
Ooo… even more exciting!
October 21, 2008 at 10:34 pm
There are many films on your list that I have yet to see as well. As an Ozu fan, I drove to a different city two hours away from where I live in order to buy “An Autumn Afternoon” the day it came out. It’s wonderful.
October 22, 2008 at 8:13 pm
I’m very happy because my video store got a copy of An Autumn Afternoon, I’m happy I’ll get to watch it (hopefully) so soon. It’ll actually be my first Ozu.
October 23, 2008 at 8:14 am
[...] 100 Best Films I’ve never seen [...]
November 25, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Chinatown? That’s criminal.
November 25, 2008 at 6:53 pm
“Chinatown? That’s criminal.”
Indeed. You should definitely watch this, at least to see if Jack (AND Faye Dunaway for that matter) are worthy of your suave-o-meter ;)
November 25, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I know! It’s probably the biggest whole in my film viewing, the most popular/well respected American film I havent’ seen. Shame on me :(
November 25, 2008 at 7:56 pm
This list is a great idea!
GREAT
A Real Young Girl (Breillat, 1976) This is a great, albeit WEIRD movie. I would say this or Brief Crossing is my favorite by Breillat.
Adaptation (Jonze, 2002)
Bad Timing (Roeg, 1980)
California Split (Altman, 1977)
The Double Life of Veronique (Kieslowski, 1991) – Oh you need to see it! It’s my favorite.
Chinatown (Polanski, 1974)
Chungking Express (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994)
Closely Watched Trains (Menzel, 1966)
Dead Ringers (Cronenberg, 1988)
Down by the Law (Jarmusch, 1986)
Fear of Fear (Fassbinder, 1975) – Top twenty material for me!!
Lola (Demy, 1961)
Ménilmontant (Kirsanoff, 1926)
Safe in Hell (Wellman, 1931) – Fun movie.
Sherlock Jr. (Keaton, 1924)
Stolen Kisses (Truffaut, 1968)
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Naruse, 1960)
Yi Yi (Yang, 2000) – I prefer Brighter Summer Day or The Terrorizers, but all in all, Yiyi is pretty good.
I need to see this too:
Carnal Knowledge (Nichols, 1971) I was reading Robert McKee’s STORY and he described the whole plot and the Jack Nicholson character reminded me of an ex-boyfriend! There are other “classics” he’s mentioned that I’m surprised I haven’t seen. Have to work on other stuff like Ordinary People and the like.
November 26, 2008 at 3:30 am
I’m happy you approve of so many of them! I don’t know what I’ll be seeing next because of my computer/DVD player problems, but it’s good to know I hae so many to look forward to.
February 5, 2009 at 1:43 pm
You can watch Ménilmontant here :
http://www.ubu.com/film/kirsanov.html
About “Last Summer” by Frank Perry, I saw this movie when I was 19 yo ! It’s the first film I wrote about.
I should like to watch it once more, but no DVD in France. Can we found it in the USA ?
February 5, 2009 at 7:14 pm
I’ve seen it, but thank you very much.
I saw it when I was 19 too, so we have that in common! Unfortunately to my knowledge, there is no American (or Canadian) release of the film. It’s on VHS still, but the quality is not too good. It’s unfortunate, because last night I was watching a segment from Indie Sex on teen films, and they included a clip from the film that looked as though it were in decent condition, at least better than what I have. Hopefully we see a release sometime in the near future. I’m thinking a possibility for it’s delay might actually be the soundtrack, but it’s only speculation.