Superb films that should be as famous as Citizen Kane
... Or well, I bet you will know many of these films. This list is a compilation of movies that are masterpieces - in my book. Or at least very good films with an interesting angle or an interesting approach. (Actually, I think Citizen Kane is a good movie - who doesn't?)
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105 titles
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsWalter SlezakBenjamin ChristensenNora GregorTriangle story: painter, his young male model, unscrupulous princess.
- DirectorLeontine SaganCarl FroelichStarsDorothea WieckHertha ThieleEmilia UndaAt an all-girls boarding school, Manuela falls in love with a teacher, to terrific consequences.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsKatharine HepburnCary GrantDoris NolanA young man in love with a girl from a rich family finds his unorthodox plan to go on holiday for the early years of his life met with skepticism by everyone except for his fiancée's eccentric sister and long-suffering brother.
- DirectorEdgar G. UlmerStarsTom NealAnn SavageClaudia DrakeThe life of Al Roberts, a pianist in a New York nightclub, turns into a nightmare when he decides to hitchhike to Los Angeles to visit his girlfriend.
- DirectorRobert WiseStarsClaire TrevorLawrence TierneyWalter SlezakA calculating divorcée risks her chances at wealth and security with a man she doesn't love by getting involved with the hotheaded murderer romancing her foster sister.
- DirectorNicholas RayStarsHumphrey BogartGloria GrahameFrank LovejoyA potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbor clears him. However, she soon starts to have her doubts.
- DirectorHasse EkmanStarsEva HenningUlf PalmeBirgit TengrothAfter a young woman commits suicide, her neighbors try to piece together why she did it by tracking down her acquaintances.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsIngrid BergmanMario VitaleRenzo CesanaKarin, a young woman from the Baltic countries, marries fisherman Antonio to escape from a prison camp. But she cannot get used to the tough life in Antonio's volcano-threatened village, Stromboli.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsClaude LayduNicole LadmiralJean RiveyreA young priest taking over the parish at Ambricourt tries to fulfill his duties even as he fights a mysterious stomach ailment.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsKeiji SadaYoshiko KugaChishû RyûTwo boys begin a silence strike to press their parents into buying them a television set.
- DirectorKaneto ShindôStarsNobuko OtowaTaiji TonoyamaShinji TanakaA family of four are the sole inhabitants of a small island where they struggle each day to irrigate their crops.
- DirectorErmanno OlmiStarsSandro PanseriLoredana DettoCorrado AprileBursting with big dreams and plans, an Italian teen goes to Milan to work in a big impersonal corporate office, where he becomes disillusioned and drained of all his individualism.
- DirectorTony RichardsonStarsRita TushinghamDora BryanRobert StephensA pregnant teenage girl must fend for herself when her mother remarries, leaving the girl with only a new male friend for support.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsLeon NiemczykJolanta UmeckaZygmunt MalanowiczA couple pick up a hitchhiker on the way to their yacht. The husband invites the young man to come along for their day's sailing. As the voyage progresses, the antagonism between the two men grows. A violent confrontation is inevitable.
- DirectorJoseph LoseyStarsDirk BogardeSarah MilesWendy CraigUpper-class Tony hires servant Hugo Barrett, who turns out to have a hidden agenda.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsMonica VittiRichard HarrisCarlo ChionettiIn an industrial area, unstable Giuliana attempts to cope with life by starting an affair with a co-worker at the plant her husband manages.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsNina Pens RodeBendt RotheEbbe RodeIn the elegant world of artists and musicians, Gertrud ends her marriage to Gustav and takes a lover, the composer Erland Jansson.
- DirectorJames B. HarrisStarsRichard WidmarkSidney PoitierJames MacArthurAn American destroyer Captain is determined to confront a Soviet submarine caught violating territorial waters. Perhaps too determined.
- DirectorOtar IosselianiStarsRamaz GiorgobianiGogi KharabadzeMarina KartsivadzeA young idealist takes a job at a local state run winery only to discover and become disillusioned by the corruption of the Soviet State.
- DirectorJirí MenzelStarsVáclav NeckárJosef SomrVlastimil BrodskýAn apprentice train dispatcher at a village station seeks his first sexual encounter and becomes despondent when he is unable to perform.
- DirectorRisto JarvaStarsElina SaloPaul OsipowTitta KarakorpiLeftist welder and right wing clerk get married. Soon enough they find themselves covered with financial and emotional problems.
- DirectorRobert AldrichStarsBeryl ReidSusannah YorkCoral BrowneThe life of a soap opera actress begins to unravel as she fears her character will be written out of the series.
- DirectorMonte HellmanStarsJames TaylorWarren OatesLaurie BirdWhile drag-racing through the American Southwest in a Chevrolet 150, a driver and his mechanic cross paths with an enigmatic hitchhiker and the tall-tale-spinning driver of a GTO.
- DirectorMichael FenglerRainer Werner FassbinderStarsLilith UngererKurt RaabAmadeus FenglerWith slicked-down hair and three-piece suits, dependable Herr Raab is a technical draftsman. He gets along with his colleagues although his boss wants him to go beyond technical cleanliness to problem solving. He's a dutiful husband; his wife's a social climber and pushes him to seek a promotion, but they also share sweet moments. He's a caring father, helping his son with homework. His parents visit; his mother criticizes his wife. Old School friends drop by, as do neighbors. Some comment on Raab's wife's expensive tastes. His promotion may be a long shot, especially after he gives a dull and tipsy toast at an office dinner. But why would Herr Raab run amok?
- DirectorRainer Werner FassbinderStarsMargit CarstensenKarlheinz BöhmBarbara ValentinAfter the death of her abusive father, the lonely librarian Martha marries an equally vile businessman - Helmut. The cruel and torturous nature of their relationship leads Martha to believe Helmut might be trying to kill her.
- DirectorRainer Werner FassbinderStarsMargit CarstensenUlrich FaulhaberBrigitte MiraMargot, who lives in a comfortable middle-class apartment, fears that she is losing her mind after having her second child. Her husband Kurt, who is busy studying for an exam, does not understand her situation. Her mother-in-law and sister-in-law Lore are openly hostile to her. She resorts to Valium and drink and looks for sympathy, but to no avail.
- DirectorChantal AkermanStarsDelphine SeyrigJan DecorteHenri StorckA lonely widowed housewife does her daily chores, takes care of her apartment where she lives with her teenage son, and turns the occasional trick to make ends meet. However, something happens that changes her safe routine.
- DirectorEttore ScolaStarsSophia LorenMarcello MastroianniJohn VernonTwo neighbors, a persecuted journalist and a resigned housewife, meet during Hitler's visit to Italy in May 1938.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsMatt DillonMickey RourkeDiane LaneAbsent-minded street thug Rusty James struggles to live up to his legendary older brother's reputation, and longs for the days of gang warfare.
- DirectorBertrand TavernierStarsLouis DucreuxMichel AumontSabine AzémaAn elderly painter whose son visits with his family on the weekends, is also surprised by a visit from his still-single daughter.
- DirectorElem KlimovStarsAleksey KravchenkoOlga MironovaLiubomiras LauceviciusAfter finding an old rifle, a young boy joins the Soviet resistance movement against ruthless German forces and experiences the horrors of World War II.
- DirectorPercy AdlonStarsMarianne SägebrechtCCH PounderJack PalanceA lonely German woman ends up in the most desolate motel on Earth and decides to make it brighter.
- DirectorGabriel AxelStarsStéphane AudranBodil KjerBirgitte FederspielDuring the late 19th century, a strict religious community in a Danish village takes in a French refugee from the Franco-Prussian War as a servant to the late pastor's daughters.
- DirectorMike LeighStarsPhil DavisRuth SheenEdna DoréThe life of a working class couple living in London and their complicated relationships with other members of the family.
- DirectorTerence DaviesStarsPete PostlethwaiteFreda DowieAngela WalshThe lives of an English working-class family are told out of order in a free-associative manner. The first part, "Distant Voices", focuses on the father's role in the family. The second part, "Still Lives", focuses on his children.
- DirectorÉric RohmerStarsAnne TeyssèdreHugues QuesterFlorence DarelSimple conversations engender complicated human interactions. Jeanne is open and even-tempered, a philosophy teacher at a lycée. Her fiancé is away and she doesn't want to stay at his messy flat; she's loaned hers to a cousin, so she accepts the invitation of Natasha, a music student whom she meets at a party, to sleep in her father Igor's bedroom because he's always with his young girlfriend, Eve. Natasha tells Jeanne a story of a missing necklace and her suspicions of Eve. They all meet at dinner, then again at Igor's country house. Is Natasha scheming to get Igor and Jeanne together alone? Once alone, what determines how they choose to act? And the necklace, what of it?
- DirectorJane CampionStarsKerry FoxAlexia KeoghKaren FergussonJanet Frame was a brilliant child who, as a teen, was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia. Explore Janet's discovery of the world and her life in Europe as her books are published to acclaim.
- DirectorDerek JarmanStarsSteven WaddingtonKevin CollinsAndrew TiernanIn this Derek Jarman version of Christopher Marlowe's Elizabethan drama, in modern costumes and settings, Plantagenet king Edward II hands the power-craving nobility the perfect excuse by taking as lover besides his diplomatic wife, the French princess Isabel, not an acceptable lady at court but the ambitious Piers Gaveston, who uses his favor in bed even to wield political influence - the stage is set for a palace revolt which sends the gay pair from the throne to a terminal torture dungeon.
- DirectorJim JarmuschStarsWinona RyderGena RowlandsLisanne FalkAn anthology of 5 different cab drivers in 5 American and European cities and their remarkable fares on the same eventful night.
- DirectorJames FoleyStarsAl PacinoJack LemmonAlec BaldwinAn examination of the machinations behind the scenes at a real estate office.
- DirectorStephan ElliottStarsHugo WeavingGuy PearceTerence StampTwo drag performers and a transgender woman travel across the desert to perform their unique style of cabaret.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsBrigitte LinTakeshi KaneshiroTony Leung Chiu-waiTwo melancholic Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious female underworld figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal waitress at a late-night restaurant he frequents.
- DirectorClaude ChabrolStarsIsabelle HuppertSandrine BonnaireJacqueline BissetA newly hired maid for a rich countryside family befriends a post-office clerk who encourages her to rebel against her employers.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsAida MohammadkhaniMohsen KafiliFereshteh Sadre OrafaiySeveral people try to help a little girl to find the money her mom gave her to buy a goldfish with.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsKati OutinenKari VäänänenElina SaloThe recession hits a couple in Helsinki.
- DirectorAlan RickmanStarsPhyllida LawEmma ThompsonSheila ReidA recent widow, who is determined to leave Scotland for Australia with her son, gets an unexpected visit from her aging mother.
- DirectorMary HarronStarsLili TaylorJared HarrisMartha PlimptonThe story of Valerie Solanas, a '60s radical who preached misandry in her "Scum" manifesto. She wrote a screenplay for a film that she wanted Andy Warhol to produce, but after he repeatedly ignored her, she shot him.
- DirectorJohn IrvinStarsAnthony BarrileMichael BoatmanDon CheadleA very realistic interpretation of one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.
- DirectorAleksandr SokurovStarsAleksei AnanishnovGudrun GeyerA man goes for a walk through the countryside with his dying mother.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsLeslie CheungTony Leung Chiu-waiChang ChenA couple take a trip to Argentina but both men find their lives drifting apart in opposite directions.
- DirectorSam RaimiStarsBill PaxtonBilly Bob ThorntonBridget FondaThree blue-collar acquaintances come across millions of dollars in lost cash and make a plan to keep their find from the authorities, but it isn't long before complications and mistrust weave their way into the plan.
- DirectorBill CondonStarsIan McKellenBrendan FraserLynn RedgraveThe last days of Frankenstein (1931) director James Whale are explored.
- DirectorVincent GalloStarsVincent GalloChristina RicciBen GazzaraAfter being released from prison, Billy is set to visit his parents with his wife, whom he does not actually have. This provokes Billy to act out, as he kidnaps a girl and forces her to act as his wife for the visit.
- DirectorJean-Pierre DardenneLuc DardenneStarsÉmilie DequenneFabrizio RongioneAnne YernauxYoung and impulsive Rosetta lives with her alcoholic mother and, moved by despair, she will do anything to maintain a job.
- DirectorClaire DenisStarsDenis LavantMichel SuborGrégoire ColinAn ex-Foreign Legion officer recalls his once-glorious life of leading troops in Djibouti.
- DirectorLynne RamsayStarsTommy FlanaganMandy MatthewsWilliam EadieA naïve young lad navigates the dirty squalid streets of 1973 Glasgow and the poor youth around him.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsBehzad DoraniNoghre AsadiRoushan Karam ElmiIrreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.
- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsHossein MahjoubMohsen RamezaniSalameh FeyziThe story of Mohammed, a blind Iranian boy and his father, Hashem, who is always oscillating between accepting his son as he is and abandoning him, as he represents a burden for him, after the loss of his wife.
- DirectorTakeshi KitanoStarsTakeshi KitanoYusuke SekiguchiKayoko KishimotoA young, naive boy sets out alone on the road to find his wayward mother. Soon he finds an unlikely protector in a crotchety man and the two have a series of unexpected adventures along the way.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsNicolas CagePatricia ArquetteJohn GoodmanHaunted by the patients he failed to save, a monumentally burned-out Manhattan ambulance paramedic fights to maintain his sanity over three increasingly turbulent nights.
- DirectorLaurent CantetStarsJalil LespertJean-Claude VallodChantal BarréThe 35-hour work week has all of France in its thrall. This film turns it into a feature about economic and familial politics. Frank, a business school graduate, returns to his provincial hometown to take a management position in the factory where his father has been working for 30 years. First Frank makes the mistake of actually asking the workers on the assembly line for their opinions. Then upper management manipulates his findings to lay off employees. This creates a huge rift, not only between labor and management, but between father and son. A human morality tale that evokes paternal and filial love, and illustrates the personal risk behind political ideas.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsRichard FarnsworthSissy SpacekJane Galloway HeitzAn old man makes a long journey by lawnmower to mend his relationship with an ill brother.
- DirectorSamira MakhmalbafStarsMassoumeh NaderiZahra NaderiGhorban Ali NaderiAfter twelve years of imprisonment by their own parents, two sisters are finally released by social workers to face the outside world for the first time.
- DirectorDavid Gordon GreenStarsCandace EvanofskiDonald HoldenDamian Jewan LeeA group of children, in a depressed small town, band together to cover up a tragic mistake one summer.
- DirectorBéla TarrÁgnes HranitzkyStarsLars RudolphPeter FitzHanna SchygullaA naive young man witnesses an escalation of violence in his small hometown following the arrival of a mysterious circus attraction.
- DirectorDonatello DubiniFosco DubiniStarsJeanette HainNina PetriMonika ArnóIn 1939, the author Annemarie Schwarzenbach and the ethnologist Ella Maillart travel together by car to Kabul, but each is in pursuit of her own project. Annemarie Schwarzenbach, who was among Erika and Klaus Mann's circle of friends in the 30s, is searching for a place of refuge in the Near East to discover her own self. Ella Maillart justifies her restlessness, her need for movement and travel, with a scientific pretext: she would like to explore the mysterious Kafiristan Valley and make a name for herself with publications on the archaic life of the nomads living there. Both women are on the run, but political developments and their own biographies catch up with them again and again. Their mutual journey through the outside world, which runs from Geneva via the Balkans and Turkey to Persia, is compounded by the inner world of emotions with a tender love story.
- DirectorAnh Hung TranStarsNu Yên-Khê TranQuynh NhuKhanh LeWith the brilliant Vietnamese summer as a setting Vertical Ray of the Sun is beautiful from beginning to end. The plot centres around three sisters, two of whom are happily married (or so it appears). The youngest sister is single and living with her cute older brother, whom she is desperately in love with. A second sister is married to a man who has another woman and child elsewhere whom he loves just as much as his wife -with a few conditions, she agrees to carry on with the marriage. The third sister and her husband are overjoyed to discover she is pregnant, and though he is tempted, her husband remains loyal to her. Charming, slow-paced, face value, family saga film.
- DirectorCatherine BreillatStarsAnaïs RebouxRoxane MesquidaLibero De RienzoTwo sisters confront their sexual attitudes and experiences while on a family holiday.
- DirectorKen LoachStarsDean AndrewsThomas CraigJoe DuttineFive Yorkshiremen try to survive after the British Rail is bought out by a private company.
- DirectorGus Van SantStarsCasey AffleckMatt DamonA friendship between two young men is tested when they go for a hike in a desert and forget to bring any water or food with them.
- DirectorJean-Pierre DardenneLuc DardenneStarsOlivier GourmetMorgan MarinneIsabella SoupartA joinery instructor at a rehab center refuses to take a new teen as his apprentice, but then begins to follow the boy through the hallways and streets.
- DirectorNuri Bilge CeylanStarsMuzaffer ÖzdemirMehmet Emin ToprakZuhal GencerAfter his wife leaves him, a photographer has an existential crisis and tries to cope with his cousin's visit.
- DirectorRolf de HeerStarsGary SweetHelen BudayBogdan KocaA regular suburban family man comes home from work on his birthday to find a deserted house and a videotape waiting to be played...
- DirectorTsai Ming-liangStarsKang-sheng LeeShiang-chyi ChenKiyonobu MitamuraOn a dark, wet night a historic and regal Chinese cinema sees its final film. Together with a small handful of souls they bid "Goodbye, Dragon Inn".
- DirectorMichael HanekeStarsIsabelle HuppertAnaïs DemoustierBéatrice DalleWhen Anna and her family arrive at their holiday home, they find it occupied by strangers. This confrontation is just the beginning of a painful learning process.
- DirectorClaire DenisStarsMichel SuborGrégoire ColinYekaterina GolubevaAn emotionally cold man leaves the safety of his Alpine home to seek a heart transplant and an estranged son.
- DirectorAndrey ZvyagintsevStarsVladimir GarinIvan DobronravovKonstantin LavronenkoIn the Russian wilderness, two brothers face a range of new, conflicting emotions when their father - a man they know only through a single photograph - resurfaces.
- DirectorApichatpong WeerasethakulStarsBanlop LomnoiSakda KaewbuadeeHuai DessomA romance between a soldier and a country boy, wrapped around a Thai folk-tale involving a shaman with shape-shifting abilities.
- DirectorAleksandr SokurovStarsIssei OgataRobert DawsonKaori MomoiThird part in Aleksandr Sokurov's quadrilogy of Power, following Moloch (1999) and Taurus (2001), focuses on Japanese Emperor Hirohito and Japan's defeat in World War II when he is finally confronted by General Douglas MacArthur who offers him to accept a diplomatic defeat for survival.
- DirectorJean-Pierre DardenneLuc DardenneStarsJérémie RenierDéborah FrançoisJérémie SegardBruno and Sonia, a young couple living off her benefit and the thefts committed by his gang, have a new source of money: their newborn son.
- DirectorByambasuren DavaaStarsBatchuluun UrjindorjBuyandulam DaramdadiNansal BatchuluunThe little Nansal finds a baby dog in the Mongolian veld, who becomes her best friend against all rejections of her parents.
- DirectorRoyston TanStarsYoung-jun KimAndrew SeowXiao Li Yuan"4:30" traces the relationship between Xiao Wu, an eleven year old Chinese Boy and his tenant Jung, a thirty-something Korean man. Told entirely from the perspective of the boy, Xiao Wu, this story of two very different characters is less about friendship than about a shared experience and appreciation of solitude. "4:30" starts with Xiao sneaking to the room of Jung in the early hours of the morning, and stealing from the Korean man. Just as getting intoxicated is a habit for Jung, who only staggers back to his rented room when drunk, soon stealing for Xiao Wu becomes equally as compulsive. We soon realize that Jung's true intention for staying in Singapore is suicide. It is only through Xiao's encounter with Jung failing in his bid to die that he begins to understand his true fascination with Jung.
- DirectorMichael HanekeStarsDaniel AuteuilJuliette BinocheMaurice BénichouA married couple is terrorized by a series of surveillance videotapes left on their front porch.
- DirectorPhil MorrisonStarsEmbeth DavidtzAlessandro NivolaDavid KuhnA dealer in "outsider" art travels from Chicago to North Carolina to meet her new in-laws, challenging the equilibrium of this middle class Southern home.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsSima Mobarak-ShahiShayesteh IraniAyda SadeqiThe struggle of women in a country that excludes them from entering stadiums.
- DirectorPedro CostaStarsVenturaVanda DuarteBeatriz DuarteWith the destruction of Fontainhas nearly complete, the old man Ventura wanders around a bleak housing project and the ruins of the slums, meeting with his kids and old friends.
- DirectorCorneliu PorumboiuStarsMircea AndreescuTeodor CorbanIon SapdaruA local talk show host organizes an alcoholic professor and a pensioner known for playing Santa Claus to decide whether there was ever a revolution in their town Vaslui.
- DirectorTamara JenkinsStarsLaura LinneyPhilip Seymour HoffmanPhilip BoscoA sister and brother face the realities of familial responsibility as they begin to care for their ailing father.
- DirectorEran KolirinStarsSasson GabayRonit ElkabetzSaleh BakriA band comprised of members of the Egyptian police force head to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center, only to find themselves lost in the wrong town.
- DirectorFatih AkinStarsBaki DavrakGürsoy GemecCengiz DanerA Turkish man travels to Istanbul to find the daughter of his father's former girlfriend.
- DirectorCristian MungiuStarsAnamaria MarincaLaura VasiliuVlad IvanovA woman assists her friend in arranging an illegal abortion in 1980s Romania.
- DirectorPaolo SorrentinoStarsToni ServilloAnna BonaiutoGiulio BosettiThe story of Italian politician Giulio Andreotti, who has served as Prime Minister of Italy seven times since the restoration of democracy in 1946.
- DirectorTomas AlfredsonStarsKåre HedebrantLina LeanderssonPer RagnarOskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl.
- DirectorMike LeighStarsSally HawkinsAlexis ZegermanSamuel RoukinA look at a few chapters in the life of Poppy, a cheery, colorful, North London schoolteacher whose optimism tends to exasperate those around her.
- DirectorClaire DenisStarsAlex DescasMati DiopNicole DoguéThe relationship between a father and daughter is complicated by the arrival of a handsome young man.
- DirectorRuben ÖstlundStarsVillmar BjörkmanLola EwerlundMaria LundqvistIn several unrelated stories, the consequences of putting one's foot down - or failing to do so - are explored.
- DirectorKore-eda HirokazuStarsHiroshi AbeYui NatsukawaYouA family gathers together for a commemorative ritual whose nature only gradually becomes clear.
- DirectorJohn HillcoatStarsViggo MortensenCharlize TheronKodi Smit-McPheeIn a dangerous post-apocalyptic world, an ailing father defends his son as they slowly travel to the sea.
- DirectorAndrea ArnoldStarsKatie JarvisMichael FassbenderKierston WareingEverything changes for 15-year-old Mia when her mum brings home a new boyfriend.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsAndré WilmsBlondin MiguelJean-Pierre DarroussinWhen an African boy arrives by cargo ship in the port city of Le Havre, an aging shoe shiner takes pity on the child and welcomes him into his home.