80. Solaris (1972, Tarkovsky)
“You mean more to me than any scientific truth.” A psychologist is called on to inquire into strange occurrences at a space station orbiting a sentient ocean planet, where he encounters his deceased wife. It is a dreamlike contemplation of perception, memory, love and desire, and the unfathomable. (The director, critical of 2001: A Space Odyssey, made this film as a response to it.)
79. The Conformist (1970, Bertolucci)
“Did you ever ask yourself why people want to collaborate with us? Some do it out of fear, most of them for the money. For faith in Fascism, very few. But you, no. I feel that you’re not governed by any of these reasons.” In 1943, a newlywed Fascist travels from Rome to Paris to eliminate a political dissident, his former teacher, using his honeymoon as a cover. Allegiance to an oppressive political system, emotional repression and artificial marriage, separation of personal relationships from professional commitment, and the impact of past events on present motivations and actions are studied. It may have the greatest ever use of color.
78. Close-Up (1990, Kiarostami)
“For me, art is the experience of what you’ve felt inside.” The greatest docufiction (a unique and fascinating blend of documentary and narrative) and the greatest Middle Eastern movie. A pensive, marginalized man obsessed with film faces charges after impersonating a director. It raises questions about self-actualization, identity, and the meaning and impact of art.
77. Ashes and Diamonds (1958, Wajda)
“Or will the ashes hold the glory of a starlike diamond, The Morning Star of everlasting triumph?” As World War II nears its end, a young Polish Underground member who fought the outgoing Nazis now finds himself fighting the incoming Communists. As he and his country face uncertain futures, both must decide to either live in continued defiance to attain liberty and self-determination, or resignation to attain security and a measure of normalcy.
76. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946, Capra)
“Remember no man is a failure who has friends.” A small-town banker constantly endeavors to escape and make his mark on the world, but life keeps getting in the way. His curious odyssey takes him from hope, to disappointment, to despair, to euphoria, as he comes to the realization of what his true worth is. It is a cross between The Crowd and A Christmas Carol.
75. A Woman Under the Influence (1974, Cassavetes)
“Mabel is not crazy, she’s unusual. She’s not crazy, so don’t say she’s crazy.” A mentally ill Los Angeles woman and her husband, who is nearly as unhinged as she is, cope with friends, family, and each other. It is a stark, realistic portrayal of the struggles of those with emotional disorders to maintain a functioning domestic life, harmonize their outward and inward selves, establish connections, and express their love. It features possibly the best female acting ever.
74. The Blue Angel (1930, von Sternberg)
“I knew you’d be back. They all come back for me.” The first great sound movie. A college professor’s life is turned upside down when he falls hard for an alluring cabaret singer. Equal parts comedy and tragedy, he transforms from a sanctimonious dignitary, to an infatuated and jealous protector, to a degraded remnant of his former self, demonstrating the irrationalities, perils, and woes of love and passion. (The German-language version is the one to watch.)
73. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971, Altman)
“I got poetry in me!” An enterprising gambler and his prostitute partner develop a one-horse town in early-1900s Washington state, which draws the unwanted attention of a mining company. With refreshingly natural acting and cinematography along with a melancholic score, it convincingly depicts the gloom and grime, dissolution and greed, humor and affection, and viciousness of the frontier days like no other Western.
72. Fitzcarraldo (1982, Herzog)
“It’s only the dreamers who ever move mountains.” Inspired by the true story of an early-1900s rubber merchant intent on bringing opera to the Amazon jungle. It is a cautionary tale of the abuses of capitalism, the folly of colonialism, the implacability of nature, and the madness of dreams. (Like Apocalypse Now, it is one of the best examples of the insane ambitions of the director mirroring that of the protagonist.)
71. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962, Ford)
“This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” A politician visits his former town and gives an account of its long-forgotten past. A paean to American democracy and an elegy to the Old West, yet a deconstructive allegory which suggests that civilization is founded as much on unchecked freedom and violence as on law and education, and history on myth as much as on reality.
70. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942, Welles)
“And now it came at last: George Amberson Minafer had got his comeuppance. He’d got it three times filled and running over. But those who had longed for it were not there to see it. And they never knew it, those who were still living had forgotten all about it, and all about him.” A wealthy Midwestern family suffers a decline in the late-19th century after failing to adapt to a new age. The heir apparent grows from a spoiled, obnoxious child into a self-absorbed, haughty, petulant, idle, shortsighted man, thus sealing his and his family’s fate as progress and time march inexorably on. (Legendarily butchered by the studio without the director’s approval, it could have been another Citizen Kane.)
69. There Will Be Blood (2007, Anderson)
“I see the worst in people, Henry.” A determined oilman with violent tendencies seeks his fortune in early-1900s California. Capitalist drive, religious fervor, and family bonds share an uneasy relationship in this enthralling, unsettling, uniquely American narrative of Manifest Destiny. It is a combination of Citizen Kane and McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and features one of the all-time best performances.
68. Annie Hall (1977, Allen)
“I feel that life is divided into the horrible and the miserable. That’s the two categories. The horrible are like, I don’t know, terminal cases, you know, and blind people, crippled. I don’t know how they get through life. It’s amazing to me. And the miserable is everyone else. So you should be thankful that you’re miserable, because that’s very lucky, to be miserable.” A maladjusted, misanthropic New Yorker deals with relationships and love. It is an offbeat mix of pointed humor and philosophical drama, as if Bob Hope and Ingmar Bergman made a movie together.
67. Once Upon a Time in America (1984, Leone)
“All that we have left now are our memories.” Two childhood friends, chasing their debased form of the American Dream, begin as petty criminals and later become powerful underworld figures in Prohibition-era New York. While not as grand as The Godfather films, it is more poetic, haunting, and enigmatic, and recalls Citizen Kane in its sweeping scope of a man’s life and the effect of time. (The 229-minute version is the one to watch, as the 139-minute version is a travesty. It is the best final film.)
66. Badlands (1973, Malick)
“I don’t know. I – I always wanted to be a criminal, I guess. Just not this big of one. Takes all kinds, though.” A teenage girl and her boyfriend in the Midwest leave a string of senseless murders in their wake, based on actual events. Gorgeously shot, it is a riveting, disturbing, absurd, blackly comical look at the sudden loss of innocence, tenuousness of relationships, disconnect from reality, and nihilistic violence.
65. Goodfellas (1990, Scorsese)
“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” Inspired by the life of low-level mobster Henry Hill, a boy becomes an associate of the mafia in 1950s New York, culminating in his arrest in 1980. Alternately appalling and funny, it offers an inside perspective of the criminals who are feared, revered, and reviled in equal measure, and the greed, violence, and pretenses of friendship and loyalty they live and die by.
64. Notorious (1946, Hitchcock)
“If you had only once said that you loved me.” A CIA operative and the daughter of a Nazi infiltrate a criminal ring in South America. Loyal to the United States but plagued by her father’s past, she juggles a marriage of deception and a love affair compromised by professional duty. Similar to Casablanca.
63. A Clockwork Orange (1971, Kubrick)
“I was cured, all right!” Adapted from the novel, a young hoodlum in a dystopian, near-future London engages in dreadfully violent acts and undergoes government-sponsored treatment to reform him. Disturbing and controversial, it satirizes the concepts of free will and objective morality, both the liberal and conservative models of social order, and the conviction that human nature is anything but immutable.
62. Man with a Movie Camera (1929, Vertov)
“This experimental work aims at creating a truly international absolute language of cinema based on its total separation from the language of theater and literature.” The greatest documentary. A day in the life of a modern city is exhibited, actually shot over four years and the city is a composite of four Soviet metropolises: Moscow, Kiev, Kharkov, and Odessa. Inventive and astounding, showcasing a host of cinematography and editing techniques which are now second nature, its verve and whimsy mark a time when film was still a nascent art form, provoking the viewer to distinguish reality from illusion and consider cinema’s possibilities. Separated by ideological differences and nearly 100 years, it demonstrates that movies are indeed universal, that people are basically the same everywhere, and that despite technological advancements life has not changed all that much.
61. In the Mood for Love (2000, Wong)
“Feelings can creep up just like that. I thought I was in control.” The greatest Chinese-language movie. In 1960s Hong Kong, neighbors whose spouses are cheating on them together in turn become attracted to each other. With gorgeous if overly conspicuous cinematography, it is episodic and subtle, about the small moments in daily routine which lead to something bigger, unrequited love and the suppression of passion, and life’s fleetingness, missed opportunities, and regrets.
