Films You Must Watch

Essential viewing from the Film Archive core canon.

# Title Year Director Public Rating Watched
1 Pulp Fiction (1994) 1994 Quentin Tarantino 10.00 —
2 Rashomon (1950) 1950 Akira Kurosawa 10.00 —
3 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) 1966 Sergio Leone 10.00 —
4 As Tears Go By (1988) 1988 Wong Kar-Wai 10.00 —
5 Hibiscus Town (1987) 1987 Xie Jin 10.00 —
6 Mulholland Drive (2001) 2001 David Lynch 10.00 —
7 Nights of Cabiria (1957) 1957 Federico Fellini 10.00 —
8 A Clockwork Orange (1971) 1971 Stanley Kubrick 10.00 —
9 Magnolia (1999) 1999 Paul Thomas Anderson 9.00 —
10 Ashes of Time (1994) 1994 Wong Kar-Wai 10.00 —
11 The Sun Also Rises (2007) 2007 Jiang Wen 9.00 —
12 Barry Lyndon (1975) 1975 Stanley Kubrick 10.00 —
13 Taxi Driver (1976) 1976 Martin Scorsese 10.00 —
14 Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) 1968 Sergio Leone 10.00 —
15 Spirited Away (2001) 2001 Hayao Miyazaki 9.50 —
16 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 1968 Stanley Kubrick 9.00 —
17 Jules and Jim (1962) 1962 François Truffaut 10.00 —
18 Fight Club (1999) 1999 David Fincher 9.00 —
19 The Godfather (1972) 1972 Francis Ford Coppola 9.50 —
20 The Godfather Part II (1974) 1974 Francis Ford Coppola — —
21 Seven Samurai (1954) 1954 Akira Kurosawa 9.00 —
22 Mean Streets (1973) 1973 Martin Scorsese 10.00 —
23 Trainspotting (1996) 1996 Danny Boyle 9.00 —
24 Band of Outsiders (1964) 1964 Jean-Luc Godard 9.67 —
25 Happy Together (1997) 1997 Wong Kar-Wai — —
26 La Dolce Vita (1960) 1960 Federico Fellini 9.00 —
27 The Apartment (1960) 1960 Billy Wilder 10.00 —
28 Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) 1962 Agnès Varda 9.00 —
29 The Wind Will Carry Us (1999) 1999 Abbas Kiarostami 10.00 —
30 There Will Be Blood (2007) 2007 Paul Thomas Anderson — —
31 Eyes Wide Shut (1999) 1999 Stanley Kubrick 9.00 —
32 Blue Velvet (1986) 1986 David Lynch 9.00 —
33 Pickpocket (1959) 1959 Robert Bresson 10.00 —
34 Pierrot le Fou (1965) 1965 Jean-Luc Godard 9.00 —
35 Chungking Express (1994) 1994 Wong Kar-Wai 9.00 —
36 The 400 Blows (1959) 1959 François Truffaut — —
37 Tokyo Story (1953) 1953 Yasujirō Ozu 10.00 —
38 Reservoir Dogs (1992) 1992 Quentin Tarantino 9.00 —
39 Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) 1966 Robert Bresson — —
40 Chinatown (1974) 1974 Roman Polanski 8.75 —
41 Nashville (1975) 1975 Robert Altman 9.00 —
42 GoodFellas (1990) 1990 Martin Scorsese 9.00 —
43 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 1964 Stanley Kubrick — —
44 PlayTime (1967) 1967 Jacques Tati — —
45 Germany, Year Zero (1948) 1948 Roberto Rossellini 10.00 —
46 Parasite (2019) 2019 Bong Joon Ho — —
47 The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) 1928 Carl Theodor Dreyer — —
48 Psycho (1960) 1960 Alfred Hitchcock — —
49 Vertigo (1958) 1958 Alfred Hitchcock 9.00 —
50 Rear Window (1954) 1954 Alfred Hitchcock — —
51 In the Mood for Love (2000) 2000 Wong Kar-Wai 8.50 —
52 Where Is The Friend's House? (1987) 1987 Abbas Kiarostami — —
53 La Strada (1954) 1954 Federico Fellini 9.00 —
54 Breathless (1960) 1960 Jean-Luc Godard 9.00 —
55 My Night at Maud's (1969) 1969 Éric Rohmer — —
56 A City of Sadness (1989) 1989 Hou Hsiao-hsien 9.00 —
57 Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) 1972 Werner Herzog — —
58 All That Heaven Allows (1955) 1955 Douglas Sirk 9.00 —
59 Days of Heaven (1978) 1978 Terrence Malick 9.00 —
60 Three Colors: Red (1994) 1994 Krzysztof Kieślowski — —
61 All About My Mother (1999) 1999 Pedro Almodóvar 9.00 —
62 Vive L'Amour (1995) 1995 Tsai Ming-liang — —
63 Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1976) 1976 Chantal Akerman 9.00 —
64 Fanny and Alexander (1982) 1982 Ingmar Bergman — —
65 Scenes from a Marriage (1974) 1974 Ingmar Bergman — —
66 Persona (1966) 1966 Ingmar Bergman — —
67 The Seventh Seal (1957) 1957 Ingmar Bergman — —
68 The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) 1942 Orson Welles — —
69 Ran (1985) 1985 Akira Kurosawa — —
70 Badlands (1974) 1974 Terrence Malick — —
71 Do the Right Thing (1989) 1989 Spike Lee — —