User:Classic film/Film header

for a filtered down list of purely great films see User:Classic film/Great films. There are currently 4738 films on this list.

Key

- top 10 greatest ever material
- a true masterpiece, top 100 best ever film material. If you spot a 3 or 4 star film on the list you've not seen, I recommend you urgently see it as I don't give away these ratings very often!!
- a truly great film, top 500 best ever film material
- Top 1000 best ever film material. I'm more lenient with this rating, often it's a film that would be candidate for a given year worth considering when drawing up a list of the greatest films ever made, even if sometimes not good enough to really be selected in the eventual top list.
Bold - An excellent to great film
Normal - A satisfactory to very good film
- The best film in a given year
- A rare and special film which I found to move me spiritually or emotionally or has some sort of supernatural feeling or electric atmosphere to it throughout or in part which makes it a special viewing experience
(cinematography) - A technical masterpiece or a film with striking cinematography/set design/costume design but an average or poor plot/acting
(I enjoyed it) - A film which might have been largely panned by critics or be a very questionable choice which is included because I enjoyed it!
(enjoyably bad) or (so silly it was enjoyable!) - A film which might have so many flaws in it, whether it's a dubious plot scenario, bad acting, or low budget production props, which raise a chuckle when watching it to the point that it's fun viewing. Most films like that don't make the list, but some do have a certain charm and likeability despite the serious flaws!
Films which are really bad won't make this list.

Top 50

I originally thought it was too difficult to rank masterpieces as being better than each other, but it now seems reasonable at least to list the top 50 films I think are among the best I've seen. These are truly the great ones highlighted, ones that are must sees for film buffs. I think that The Lord of the Rings Trilogy considered as one film is undoubtedly the greatest technical accomplishment in film history and probably the strongest candidate for best film overall, but ones like Ugetsu and The Ascent rank higher on the list because of the extraordinary emotions you feel in watching them, they're like a force of nature, very powerful films. Obviously there's many more, which is reflected in the full list, but these in my opinion are among the real crème de la crème:

Ugetsu (1953)
The Ascent (1977)
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001)
Ikiru (1952)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
A Dog's Love (1914)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Marketa Lazarová (1967)/Late Spring (1949)
Psycho (1960)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Double Indemnity (1944)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Mirror (1975)
Vertigo (1958)
Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)
Andrei Rublev (1966)
The Kid (1921)
Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
Umberto D. (1952)
Back to the Future Trilogy (1985-90)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)/Wild Tales (2014)
Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
Ben-Hur (1959)
Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Metropolis (1927)
Peeping Tom (1960)
Spirited Away (2001)/The Innocents (1961)
City Lights (1931)/Le bonheur (1965)
The Godfather Trilogy (1972-90)
Breathless/Shoot the Piano Player (1960)
Rashomon (1950)
Schindler's List (1993)/Dr. Zhivago (1965)
Rebecca (1940)
Rear Window (1954)
Barton Fink (1991)/Delicatessen (1991)
Toy Story series (1995-)
Mondo cane (1962)/Sans Soleil (1983)
The Killing (1956)
I am Cuba (1964)/Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)/It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Mulholland Drive (2001)/The Wages of Fear (1953)
Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932)/Baby Face (1933)
The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)/Persona (1966)