Cinema

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Must See Cinema

Title	Year	Director	Male Lead	Female Lead	Remarks/Best Scene/Other
Nosferatu	1922	F.W. Murnau	Max Shrek	Greta Shroder	In its day, this silent work scared audiences out of their wits and put both Bram Stoker's Dracula and cinema into human consciousness forever. They had to change the name of the film due to Stoker's rights to the word "Dracula."
Wings	1927	William Wellman	Jack Powell	Mary Preston	A World War One epic winning the first "Best Picture" from the Academy.
Snow White & the Seven Dwarves	1937	Walt Disney	N/A	N/A	"Mirror, mirror, on the wall"
Gone With the Wind	1939	Victor Fleming	Clark Gable	Vivien Leigh	"Frankly, my dear. . ."
Dark Victory	1939	Edmund Goulding	George Brent	Bette Davis	Extraordinary for its day and features Ronald Reagan in a small role. The talent of Davis becomes undeniable with this work. "I'd like some prognosis negative." Later, "The sky sure looks dark." Have tissue.
The Wizard of Oz	1939	Victor Fleming	Several	Judy Garland	"We're not in Kansas anymore."
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington	1939	Frank Capra	Jimmy Stewart	Jean Arthur	Should be required viewing for everyone elected to office.
Citizen Kane	1941	Orson Welles	Orson Welles	Dorothee Comingore	"Rosebud." The first film to feature flashbacks and the extent to which cinema can warp and dance with time.
The Maltese Falcon	1941	John Huston	Humphrey Bogart	Mary Astor	Classic Bogey noir.
Bambi	1942	David Hand	N/A	N/A	In its day, the gunshot ripped through the hearts of the nation's children as no cinematic event had ever done before, and quite possibly, ever since.
Casablanca	1943	Michael Curtiz	Humphrey Bogart	Ingrid Bergman	What man cannot relate to the romantic crucifixion demonstrated so perfectly by Bogart with that late night drink, "Of all the gin joints in the world. . ."
The Seventh Victim	1943	Mark Robson	Tom Conway	Jean Brooks	Classic Val Lewton. This film features the first shower scene later used by Hitchcock in Psycho.
The Song of Bernadette	1943	Henry King	Joseph Cotten	Jennifer Jones	Inspired by higher forces. "I saw her. I really saw her." This film deeply moved and disturbed me. It is NOT fiction. The story, the film, and the story about the film, are all phenomenal. I don't know what happened at the grotto on Thursday, February 11, 1858. Truly, deeply haunting, and utterly real.
Gaslight	1944	Thorold Dickensen	Charlres Boyer	Ingrid Bergman	Bergman's first Academy Award as a woman doubting her sanity while clinging to it.
To Have and Have Not	1944	Howard Hawks	Humphrey Bogart	Lauren Bacall	Based on an Ernest Hemingway story and William Faulkner helped with the script. Fabulous, "You know how to whistle, Steve?"
Double Indemnity	1944	Billy Wilder	Fred MacMurray	Barbara Stanwick	The camera fixed on Barbara's face as she (and we) hear her husband being strangled right next to her in the car is just first rate noir.
The Best Years of Our Lives	1946	William Wyler	Fredric March Mickey Rooney	Dana Andrews Teresa Wright	Garnered seven Academy Awards for capturing the disorientation of GI's returning from the war and trying to fit into society, nightmares, wounds, and all.
It's a Wonderful Life	1947	Frank Capra	James Stewart	Donna Reed	"I'm going to jail. Isn't it wonderful?"
Portrait of Jennie	1948	William Dieterle	Joseph Cotten	Jennifer Jones	Compellingly touching and transcendent.
The Asphalt Jungle	1950	John Huston	Sterling Hayword	Jean Hagan	Among the finest of noir, and oh la femme fatale!!
Sunset Boulevard	1950	Billy Wilder	William Holden	Gloria Swanson
The Day the Earth Stood Still	1951	Robert Wise	Michael Rennie	Patricia Neal	A Cold War classic voice against nuclear proliferation.
A Street Car Named Desire	1951	Elia Kazan	Marlon Brando	Vivien Leigh Kim Hunter	"STELLA!!!!"
Rebel Without A Cause	1955	Nicholas Ray	James Dean	Natalie Wood	Cannot be appreciated without the context of 1955, the brewing teenage angst that would erupt in the following decade, "You people are tearing me apart!!"
Invasion of the Body Snatchers	1956	Don Siegel	Kevin McCarthy	Dana Wynter	Intended as a warning against communism, the film as originally presented was too frightening, so they re-edited to have the story told in flashback (so the viewer knows that the protagonist survives the story).
Forbidden Planet	1956	Fred McLeod Wilcox	Walter Pidgeon	Anne Francis	The first science fiction film to feature those funny sci-fi sound effects. Also introduces Robby the robot, which would form the basis for the robot in the TV Series "Lost in Space."
Wild Strawberries	1957	Ingmar Bergman	Victor Sjostrom	Bibi Andersson	Existentialism Distilled.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof	1958	Richard Brooks	Paul Newman Burl Ives	Elizabeth Taylor	MASTERPIECE. So many to choose from, "Lies and mendacity." I will stick with, "I hurt him, Maggie. I hurt him REAL BAD." Also, "clickety-click."
A Touch of Evil	1958	Orson Welles	Charlton Heston	Janet Leigh	Famous to cinema fans for its opening eight or so minute continuous run without a cut. Hilariously mocked by Robert Altman's 1992 "The Player" which intentionally runs longer while in fact discussing the length of the take.
Ben-Hur	1959	William Wyler	Charlton Heston	Haya Harareet	The chariot race remains one of the greatest moments in the history of cinema, "There's still enough of a man here for you to hate."
Breakfast at Tiffany's	1961	Blake Edwards	George Peppard	Audrey Hepburn	"Moon River" and something about Hepburn made the otherwise so so film. The ending with the cat was cheesy, but delicious.
The Miracle Worker	1962	Arthur Penn	N/A	Anne Bancroft Patty Duke	Bancroft could not have been better. When Patty Duke starts to "get it" the electricity between their hands is tear jerking.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg	1964	Jacques Demy	Nino Castelnuovo	Catherine Deneuve	Yes, they sing, but who cares? Magic descends from who knows where on certain films. This is one of them. There is the romance and idealism of "I will wait for you." Then there is reality. No, she won't.
The Sound of Music	1965	Robert Wise	Christopher Plummer	Julia Andrews	Featuring a script penned by the stellar Ernest Lehman, other than the above this is the only musical I can stand. The evening scene in the gazebo right before they connect features some of the best romantic electricity ever captured on film.
Doctor Zhivago	1965	David Lean	Omar Shariff	Julia Christie	A sweeping epic of solid historical grounding. Shariff delivers too many spectacular moments to name just one.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly	1966	Sergio Leone	Clint Eastwood Eli Wallach	N/A	The best by far of the Eastwood spaghetti westerns. Features the terrific Ennio Morricone soundtrack and perhaps the finest performance of Eli Wallach's career, "Blondie!!!"
Persona	1966	Ingmar Bergman	Gunnar Bjornstrand	Bibi Andersson Liv Ullman	Solid Bergman. Serious inquiries only.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	1966	Mike Nichols	Richard Burton	Elizabeth Taylor	Another Ernest Lehman work of sheer genius based on an Edward Albee play. From a certain perspective, this is the greatest motion picture ever made. Priceless, from "I'm nobody's houseboy now!" to "I'm pre-occupied with history" to "Hump the Hostess," "Get the Guests," and "Oh my God, I think I understand this." If you keep pace with the drinking of the characters, you will not finish the film, "Clink."
The Thomas Crown Affair	1968	Norman Jewison	Steve McQueen	Faye Dunaway	A fascinating paradigm breaking story of cat and mouse that stunned audiences. Not only does the bad guy reject the girl, he GETS AWAY.
The Graduate	1968	Mike Nichols	Dustin Hoffman	Katherine Ross Anne Bancroft	When I graduated from Northwestern in 1983, the graduates gathered to watch this film projected onto the side of the library building. What a cinematic achievement, "Plastics."
2001: A Space Odyssey	1968	Stanley Kubrick	Keir Dullea Gary Lockwood	N/A	I still remember seeing this in original release with my father at the theater. I was six or seven and did not have the vocabulary, so when the film was over and we were driving home, I turned to my father and said the six year old equivalent of "What the fuck?" My father shook his head, "I don't know."
A Clockwork Orange	1971	Stanley Kubrick	Malcolm McDowell	N/A	"I'm Singing in the Rain."
Straw Dogs	1971	Sam Peckinpah	Dustin Hoffman	Susan George	A truly original work that features one of the most thought provoking and disturbing rape scenes ever filmed. Like John Boorman's Deliverance to be filmed a few years later, this work believes in male initiation into manhood by violence.
Cries and Whispers	1972	Ingmar Bergman	Anders Ek	Liv Ullmann	I don't know what to say. It's Bergman. From IMDB, "A haunting and shattering film experience." That's a Yes.
The Godfather	1972	Francis Ford Coppola	Marlon Brando Al Pacino Robert Duvall	Diane Keaton Talia Shire	PERFECT
Solyaris	1972	Andrei Tarkovski	Donatas Banionis	Natalya Bondarchuk	This is the Russian original of the film Soderheim remade with George Clooney. Although long, very thought provoking with outstanding sequences that push the envelope of what it might be like to engage something truly alien and intelligent.
The Exorcist	1973	William Friedkan	Jason Miller	Linda Blair	The film freaked the country. Based on William Peter Blatty's book with Max Von Sydow as the Exorcist, the film captured the realistic granularity to be truly terrifying. Many consider this the most frightening film ever made.
Scenes from a Marriage	1973	Ingmar Bergman	Erland Josephson	Liv Ullmann	Cuts to the marrow quickly and stays there.
Deliverance	1974	John Boorman	Burt Reynolds Jon Voight Ned Beatty	N/A	A manly man's film about humiliation, courage, and violence. Like Straw Dogs, a film where a boy becomes a man by looking death in the face and achieving manhood through the act of taking life. Boorman himself plays a small role at the end as the Sheriff.
Chinatown	1974	Roman Polanski	Jack Nicholson	Faye Dunaway
The Conversation	1974	Francis Ford Coppola	Gene Hackman	Cindy Williams	A fascinating journey into the world of snooping. The perceptive will see Harrison Ford in his first major motion picture appearance, a tiny role with one or two lines.
Network	1976	Sidney Lumet	William Holden	Faye Dunaway	"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
Rocky	1976	John Advilsen	Sylvester Stallone	Talia Shire	The one time shot theme of the film also applied to Stallone personally with this project. Stallone sold his dog to help pay the production costs. When the movie grossed millions and won Best Picture, Stallone bought his dog back.
The Serpent's Egg	1977	Ingmar Bergman	David Carradine	Liv Ullmann	Pre WWII Germany. A Serpent's Egg indeed is about to hatch.
Annie Hall	1977	Woody Allen	Woody Allen	Diane Keaton	"What we have here is a dead shark."
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes	1978	John De Bello	David Miller	Sharon Taylor	Over the top irreverence at its best. Gut busting absurdity as tomatoes embark on a conquest of the planet.
The Deer Hunter	1978	Michael Cimino	Robert DeNiro	Meryl Streep	Russian Roulette at its finest.
Halloween	1978	John Carpenter	Donald Pleasance	Jamie Lee Curtis	Barefooted cuties in nightgowns running from butchers. Why didn't we think of this sooner? Shot for a song, it made Carpenter's career.
Autumn Sonata	1978	Ingmar Bergman	N/A	Ingrid Bergman Liv Ullmann	Extraordinary exploration of mother daughter dynamics. Watch the film knowing that this is Ingrid Bergman's last film and that in real life she is dying of cancer, and she knows she is dying of cancer and that this is her last work, and it becomes a breathtaking experience. Not for the weak.
Alien	1979	Ridley Scott	Tom Skerritt Ian Holm John Hurt	Sigourney Weaver	Saw this in the theater as a high school senior. Now this was horror. Featuring the artwork of the truly twisted H.R. Giger (remember Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery?), Ridley Scott took the concept of the monster to a new level. This film was also one of the first to have the kick-ass character be one "hot, intelligent chick" and was she ever!
Apocalypse Now	1979	Francis Ford Coppola	Marlon Brando Martin Sheen	N/A	Merging Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" with Vietnam, this film almost killed both director and star. The early underwear scene is NOT fiction. The broken mirror was not in the script, and the blood and the breakdown were real. Sheen had a heart attack during the film and Coppola considered suicide. The madness translates to the celluloid, "Get the Roach!"
Blade Runner	1982	Ridley Scott	Harrison Ford Rutger Hauer	Sean Young	Woefully underappreciated during its theatrical release and later redeemed, especially when Scott's director's cut without the voice-over became available. Scott consistently delivers some of the most spectacular cinematography ever filmed, bordering on visual poetry.
A Question of Silence	1982	Marleen Gorris	N/A	Edda Barends	A quality feminist piece, in particular the final scene where the three women stand before the attorney, which I consider a unique moment in the history of cinema.
Scarface	1983	Brian De Palma	Al Pacino	Michelle Pfeiffer	This film features many extraordinary lines. 1. "All I have in this world are my word and my balls, and I don't break 'em for nobody." 2. "You know what a hosser is, Frank? It's a pig that don't fly straight, and neither do you." 3. "A man who's not his word is a cockroach." I could keep going, "I always tell the truth, even when I lie."
The Hunger	1983	Tony Scott	David Bowie	Catherine Deneuve Susan Sarandon	Tony cuts a sharper edge than Ridley, and the opening sequence of this work to Bauhaus, "Bela Lagosi's Dead" is riveting.
The Breakfast Club	1983	John Hughes	Emilio Estevez Anthony Michael Hall Judd Nelson	Molly Ringwald Ally Sheedy	Far and away the best of anything John Hughes ever created, infinitely superior to Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, or Some King of Wonderful. Here, everything came together just right to produce an extraordinary film that applies as much to teenagers today as it did when it was produced.
The Sacrifice	1986	Andrei Tarkovski	Erland Josephson	Susan Fleetwood	Bring your brain. You will need it.
Blue Velvet	1986	David Lynch	Kyle McLaughlin Dennis Hopper	Isabella Rossellini Laura Dern	"Now It's Dark." "Hit me!"
Full Metal Jacket	1987	Stanley Kubrick	Matthew Modine	N/A	"I am in a world of shit." and at the end, "Shoot me."
The Princess Bride	1987	Rob Reiner	Cary Elwes Mandy Patinkin	Robin Wright Penn	There is something wrong with a person that does not enjoy this film, "Inconceivable!!" From the fire swamp to iocaine powder to Billy Crystal's cameo appearance, it's pure cinematic candy.
Goodfellas	1990	Martin Scorcese	Robert DeNiro Ray Liotta Joe Pesci	Lorraine Bracco	Few can make a camera dance like Scorcese.
Silence of the Lambs	1991	Jonathan Demme	Anthony Hopkins	Jodie Foster	"I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti." The final moments of this film with Agent Starling blinded in darkness while Buffalo Bill wears night vision goggles is positively exquisite, as is the end of the film, "I'm having an old friend for dinner."
Reservoir Dogs	1992	Quentin Tarantino	Harvey Keitel Tim Roth Michael Madsen Chris Penn	Yea, right.	Tarantino's first and finest. Madsen's dance with a straight razor to "Stuck in the Middle with You" before blood over duct tape took cinema into new terrain.
Unforgiven	1992	Clint Eastwood	Clint Eastwood Morgan Freeman Gene Hackman Richard Harris	N/A	Won "Best Picture" and deserved it. As Eastwood matured, his interest in the reality of violence and exploring it in cinema developed. This film is a significant step in that direction, further refined by the haunting Mystic River in 2003.
True Romance	1993	Tony Scott	Christian Slater Dennis Hopper Christopher Walken	Patricia Arquette	This film features scenes worth watching dozens of times. The electricity between Gary Oldman and Slater is fabulous, and the scene between Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper is about as good as it gets, with future Soprano star James Gandolfini in a deliciously foreshadowing role.
The Piano	1993	Jane Campion	Harvey Keitel Sam Neill	Holly Hunter	A thoughtful and thought provoking piece. The sexual tension of a finger touching a leg through a hole in a sock is positively succulent.
The Ice Storm	1997	Ang Lee	Kevin Kline Tobey Maguire Elijah Wood	Sigourney Weaver Joan Allen	Most people don't know about Ang Lee's early and extremely creative film about a 1973 Thanksgiving. The work has the quality of an artist who has something to say, not a dollar to make. Weaver lies next to her lover after sex, and he starts talking. She interrupts him, "You're boring me. I already have a husband." The electrocution scene is positively extraordinary.
American Beauty	1999	Sam Mendes	Kevin Spacey	Annette Bening Thora Birch	Written by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under), the film ranks among the finest ever produced. Winning five Academy awards including Best Picture, the work is a must see and those who haven't are missing part of the human experience.
Shadow of the Vampire	2000	E. Elias Merhige	John Malkovich William Dafoe	Catherine McCormack	See the 1922 Nosferatu first. William Dafoe delivers the best performance EVER regarding a vampire. In fact, William Dafoe delivers one of the best performances EVER of anyone ever doing anything in front of a camera. He is THAT good.
Laurel Canyon	2003	Lisa Cholodenko	Christian Bale Alessandro Nivola	Francis McDormand Kate Beckinsale Natascha McElhone	Cholodenko is gifted. The swimming pool scene features energy seldom captured on film and the testing of barriers in the context of bohemian freedom is exhilarating.
21 Grams	2003	Alejandro González Iñárritu	Sean Penn Benicio del Toro	Naomi Watts	A deep and complex work intertwining themes to produce a thought provoking piece exposing the painful aspects of the human condition including guilt, revenge, gratitude, grief, love, hate, loss, and anguish. Not a picker upper.
The Descent	2005	Neil Marshall	N/A	Shauna Macdonald Natalie Mendoza	The claustrophobia is heart-stopping. Not for the timid and brilliantly executed, the piece is literally a descent into darkness and death, blow by crushing blow with a realism not easily forgotten. Macho morons that think women are wimps stay away.
Little Miss Sunshine	2006	Jonathon Dayton Valerie Faris	Greg Kinnear Alan Arkin	Abigail Breslin Toni Collette	A refreshing authentic glimpse into the sloppiness of the reality of the human condition. Heart warming and hilarious.
Inland Empire	2006	David Lynch	Jeremy Irons Harry Dean Stanton	Laura Dern	Filmed without a script and without film, Lynch takes cinema over the edge into uncharted terrain. Genius.