Cinematic Masterpieces
The best films I’ve seen, sorted in ascending chronological order.
Also on MUBI
Not on IMDb:
Take Five (Zbigniew Rybczyński, 1972)
Spiegel eiland [Sunny Side Up] (Paul Driessen, 1985)
Dla Noemi (Longin Szmyd, Szmyd, 1988)
Mysterious Journey (Jordan Belson, 1997)
Breakdown by decade:
1880s - 00
1890s - 00
1900s - 02
1910s - 00
1920s - 14
1930s - 18
1940s - 12
1950s - 35
1960s - 77 1970s - 77
1980s - 47
1990s - 20
2000s - 19
2010s - 08
Directors with multiple (two or more) entries:
• Luis Buñuel (17)
• Ingmar Bergman (10)
• Takashi Ito, Norman McLaren, Zbigniew Rybczyński, Andrzej Wajda (8)
• Michelangelo Antonioni, Andrei Tarkovsky (7)
• Oskar Fischinger (6)
• Woody Allen, Federico Fellini (5)
• Robert Altman, Tex Avery, Jean-Luc Godard, Mikhail Kalatozov, Akira Kurosawa, Georges Schwizgebel, Orson Welles, Wim Wenders (4)
• Garri Bardin, Lav Diaz, Sergei Eisenstein, Bob Fosse, Stanley Kubrick, F.W. Murnau, Artavazd Peleshian, Aleksandar Petrović, Hawley Pratt, Ken Russell, Jacques Tati, François Truffaut, Peter Watkins (3)
• Antouanetta Angelidi, Theodoros Angelopoulos, Kenneth Anger, Don Askarian, Robert Beavers, Jordan Belson, Patrick Bokanowski, Stan Brakhage, Charles Chaplin, René Clair, Paul Driessen, Bert Haanstra, David Hand, Chuck Jones, Fyodor Khitruk, Ryan Larkin, Terrence Malick, Georges Méliès, Mike Nichols, Yasujirô Ozu, Sergei Parajanov, Aleksandr Petrov, Franco Piavoli, Roman Polanski, Satyajit Ray, Alain Resnais, Ferenc Rófusz, Werner Schroeter, John Whitney Sr. (2)
Also on MUBI
Not on IMDb:
Take Five (Zbigniew Rybczyński, 1972)
Spiegel eiland [Sunny Side Up] (Paul Driessen, 1985)
Dla Noemi (Longin Szmyd, Szmyd, 1988)
Mysterious Journey (Jordan Belson, 1997)
Breakdown by decade:
1880s - 00
1890s - 00
1900s - 02
1910s - 00
1920s - 14
1930s - 18
1940s - 12
1950s - 35
1960s - 77 1970s - 77
1980s - 47
1990s - 20
2000s - 19
2010s - 08
Directors with multiple (two or more) entries:
• Luis Buñuel (17)
• Ingmar Bergman (10)
• Takashi Ito, Norman McLaren, Zbigniew Rybczyński, Andrzej Wajda (8)
• Michelangelo Antonioni, Andrei Tarkovsky (7)
• Oskar Fischinger (6)
• Woody Allen, Federico Fellini (5)
• Robert Altman, Tex Avery, Jean-Luc Godard, Mikhail Kalatozov, Akira Kurosawa, Georges Schwizgebel, Orson Welles, Wim Wenders (4)
• Garri Bardin, Lav Diaz, Sergei Eisenstein, Bob Fosse, Stanley Kubrick, F.W. Murnau, Artavazd Peleshian, Aleksandar Petrović, Hawley Pratt, Ken Russell, Jacques Tati, François Truffaut, Peter Watkins (3)
• Antouanetta Angelidi, Theodoros Angelopoulos, Kenneth Anger, Don Askarian, Robert Beavers, Jordan Belson, Patrick Bokanowski, Stan Brakhage, Charles Chaplin, René Clair, Paul Driessen, Bert Haanstra, David Hand, Chuck Jones, Fyodor Khitruk, Ryan Larkin, Terrence Malick, Georges Méliès, Mike Nichols, Yasujirô Ozu, Sergei Parajanov, Aleksandr Petrov, Franco Piavoli, Roman Polanski, Satyajit Ray, Alain Resnais, Ferenc Rófusz, Werner Schroeter, John Whitney Sr. (2)
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325 titles
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsTwo demons throw helpless captives into a boiling cauldron, and then try to summon forth their spirits.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsCharles ClaudelOctavie HuvierFrançois LallementA man rents an apartment and furnishes it in remarkable fashion.
- DirectorEdward F. ClineBuster KeatonStarsBuster KeatonEdward F. ClineJack DuffyA young couple who live next to each other in tenement apartments do everything they can to be together despite of their feuding families.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsEmil JanningsMaly DelschaftMax HillerAn aging doorman is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbors and society after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel.
- DirectorRené ClairStarsJean BörlinInge FrïssFrancis PicabiaAn absolute dada movie. Somebody gets killed, his coffin gets out of control and after a chase it stops. The person gets out of it and let everybody who followed the coffin dissapear.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsGrigoriy AleksandrovMaksim ShtraukhMikhail GomorovA group of oppressed factory workers go on strike in pre-revolutionary Russia.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsGösta EkmanEmil JanningsCamilla HornThe demon Mephisto wagers with God that he can corrupt a mortal man's soul.
- DirectorTeinosuke KinugasaStarsMasuo InoueAyako IijimaYoshie NakagawaA man takes a job at an asylum with hopes of freeing his imprisoned wife.
- DirectorVsevolod PudovkinStarsVera BaranovskayaNikolay BatalovAleksandr ChistyakovA story about a family torn apart by a worker's strike. At first, the mother wants to protect her family from the troublemakers, but eventually she realizes that her son is right and the workers should strike.
- DirectorAbel GanceStarsAlbert DieudonnéVladimir RoudenkoEdmond Van DaëleA film about the French general's youth and early military career.
- DirectorOskar FischingerExperience in animating a silhouette, with brief essays on three-dimensional dolls, charcoal drawings, cut paper. The main silhouette of the film explores the actions of two bellies in a tavern.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsGeorge O'BrienJanet GaynorMargaret LivingstonA sophisticated city woman seduces a farmer and convinces him to murder his wife and join her in the city, but he ends up rekindling his romance with his wife when he changes his mind at the last moment.
- DirectorDziga VertovStarsMikhail KaufmanElizaveta SvilovaA man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
- DirectorGermaine DulacStarsMarie-Anne MallevilleVisual structure composed of variations on the arabesque: arcs of light, water spouts, spider webs, burgeoning trees, flowers and foliage, a woman's smile, arms stretching, an arm giving rhythm to a rocking chair.
- DirectorRalph SteinerA study on water, the reflections and motions of the liquid that accentuates its ethereality and metallic beauty.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsPierre BatcheffSimone MareuilLuis BuñuelLuis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí present 16 minutes of bizarre, surreal imagery.
- DirectorBoris KaufmanJean VigoWhat starts off as a conventional travelogue turns into a satirical portrait of the town of Nice on the French Cote d'Azur, especially its wealthy inhabitants.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsGaston ModotLya LysCaridad de LaberdesqueA surrealist tale of a man and a woman who are passionately in love with each other, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted by their families, the Church, and bourgeois society.
- DirectorRené ClairStarsRaymond CordyHenri MarchandRolla FranceSeeking better life, two convicts escape from prison.
- DirectorWalter RuttmannStarsNina HamsonThis live action short subject commissioned for the 75th birthday of German romantic composer Robert Schumann juxtaposes flowing water imagery with the piano playing of artist Nina Hanson.
- DirectorMikhail KalatozovStarsAleksandre JaliashviliSiko PalavandishviliAkaki KhoravaSympathetic portrayal of a soldier who inadvertently commits sabotage through his ineptitude on the battlefield.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsPeter LorreEllen WidmannInge LandgutWhen the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
- DirectorBerthold BartoschWhen a liberal idea emerges in a tyranny ruled society, power and wealth unite to bring it down.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsAbel JacquinAlexandre O'NeillA surrealist film, a pseudo-documentary portrait of Las Hurdes, a remote region of Spain where civilisation has barely developed, showing how the local peasants try to survive without even the most basic utilities and skills.
- DirectorLee GarmesBen HechtCharles MacArthurStarsClaude RainsMargoWhitney BourneProminent lawyer shoots unfaithful girlfriend during quarrel, has to establish alibi.
- DirectorOskar FischingerThis is an abstract film in which every motion is in strict synchronization with music, so the description must be read in terms of the overall impression it gives. Within a deep blue environment, one red cube slowly drifts on a reflecting floor. Suddenly there are multiple red cubes drifting and dancing in various formations. Over the course of the film the angularity of square shapes are transformed into circular and cylindrical shapes. The climax of the film features a multitude of these shapes in Busby Berkeley-like formation, as various circular figures grow and disappear among a simulated sky, with the blue colors giving way to red.
- DirectorOskar FischingerShort colour animated film showing shapes moving and set to a musical score. The shapes are coloured and primarily geometric in nature.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinPaulette GoddardHenry BergmanThe Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.
- DirectorOskar FischingerMental imagery of music is visualized with two-dimensional shapes dancing to the rhythm of Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.
- DirectorMary Ellen ButeTo the toccata portion of Bach's "Toccata and fugue in D minor," we watch a play of sorts. Blue smoke forms a background; a grid of black lines is the foreground. Behind the lines, a triangle appears, then patterns of multiple triangles. Their movements reflect the music's rhythm. Behind the barrier of the black lines, the triangle moves, jumps, and takes on multiple shapes. In contrast with the blue and the black, the triangles are warm: orange, red, yellow. The black lines bend, swirl into a vortex, then disappear. The triangle pulsates and a set of many of them rises.
- DirectorWilliam CottrellDavid HandWilfred JacksonStarsAdriana CaselottiHarry StockwellLucille La VerneExiled into the dangerous forest by her wicked stepmother, a princess is rescued by seven dwarf miners who make her part of their household.
- DirectorGraham HeidWilfred JacksonStarsElvia AllmanMarie ArbuckleBarbara BrewsterAs a thunderstorm approaches, birds, mice and other creatures try to stay safe and dry in an old mill.
- DirectorLen LyeAbstract animation drawn directly on Technicolor film, some with underlying real life footage of unrelated subjects. Various colorful shapes and patterns move and interact, set to upbeat music.
- DirectorKarel DodalIrena Dodalová
- DirectorJames AlgarSamuel ArmstrongFord Beebe Jr.StarsLeopold StokowskiDeems TaylorThe Philadelphia OrchestraA series of eight famous pieces of classical music, conducted by Leopold Stokowski and interpreted in animation by Walt Disney's team of artists.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinPaulette GoddardJack OakieDictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesJoseph CottenDorothy ComingoreFollowing the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.'
- DirectorJames AlgarSamuel ArmstrongDavid HandStarsHardie AlbrightStan AlexanderBobette AudreyThe story of a young deer growing up in the forest.
- DirectorOskar Fischinger
- DirectorOrson WellesFred FleckRobert WiseStarsTim HoltJoseph CottenDolores CostelloThe spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsNikolay CherkasovLyudmila TselikovskayaSerafima BirmanDuring the early part of his reign, Ivan the Terrible faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people.
- DirectorOskar FischingerA short painted film by Oskar Fishchinger which films images to the music of Johann Bach.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsRita HayworthOrson WellesEverett SloaneFascinated by gorgeous Mrs. Bannister, seaman Michael O'Hara joins a bizarre yachting cruise, and ends up mired in a complex murder plot.
- DirectorTex AveryStarsPaul FreesColleen CollinsPinto ColvigA black cat explains reason after reason why he cannot stand people, and opts to relocate to the moon. When he does, he finds characters there that make him realize people aren't so bad anyway.
- DirectorKarel ZemanStarsKarel ZemanAn artist takes inspiration from the rain outside.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsAlfonso MejíaRoberto CoboEstela IndaA group of juvenile delinquents live a violent and crime-filled life in the festering slums of Mexico City, as the morals of young Pedro are gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneMachiko KyôMasayuki MoriThe rape of a bride and the murder of her samurai husband are recalled from the perspectives of a bandit, the bride, the samurai's ghost and a woodcutter.
- DirectorBert HaanstraDocumentary about The Netherlands shown as a reflection in a puddle.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsSetsuko HaraChishû RyûChikage AwashimaA family chooses a match for their daughter Noriko, but she, surprisingly, has her own plans.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsEmma GramaticaFrancesco GolisanoPaolo StoppaAn open-hearted, unrelentingly energetic orphan struggles to make the best of his life on the streets of Milan.
- DirectorNorman McLarenDrawn in pastels, and scored with jazzy music, fantastical plant-like things "grow" from the ground, launching five spheres in to space to create even more fantastical scenes.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsBea BenaderetMel BlancA bulldog, charmed by a kitten, tries to keep her hidden from his human guardian.
- DirectorTex AveryStarsDaws ButlerTex AveryCarlos RamírezA magician seeks revenge against an opera singer for refusing to let him perform his magic act. He then devises what he thinks is a clever plan to enact his revenge with some hilarious results.
- DirectorNorman McLarenStarsGrant MunroJean Paul LadouceurA surreal story of two neighbours' destructive feud over a flower.
- DirectorStanley DonenGene KellyStarsGene KellyDonald O'ConnorDebbie ReynoldsA silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his delusionally jealous screen partner are trying to make the difficult transition to talking pictures in 1920s Hollywood.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesMicheál MacLiammóirRobert CooteThe Moorish General Othello is manipulated into thinking that his new wife Desdemona has been carrying on an affair with his Lieutenant Michael Cassio when in reality, it is all part of the scheme of a bitter Ensign named Iago.
- DirectorKenneth AngerStarsCarmilla SalvatorelliA woman dressed in an elegant period dress wanders through the water gardens at the Villa d'Este.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsArturo de CórdovaDelia GarcésAurora WalkerA husband's suave exterior unravels after his marriage, and he unleashes his paranoid and volatile temper on his wife, which escalates to more dangerous and unpredictable tantrums.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsChishû RyûChieko HigashiyamaSô YamamuraAn old couple visit their children and grandchildren in the city, but receive little attention.
- DirectorWard KimballCharles NicholsStarsThe Mellowmen QuartetLoulie Jean NormanCharlie ParlotaA crash course on the history of Western musical instruments.
- DirectorKenneth AngerStarsSamson De BrierMarjorie CameronJoan WhitneyHistorical, biblical, and mythical characters gather in the pleasure dome and become part of a visual feast of superimposed images, hallucinations, and decadence.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsMichel BouquetReinhard HeydrichHeinrich HimmlerThe history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsHenrik MalbergEmil Hass ChristensenPreben Lerdorff RyeFollows the lives of the Borgen family, as they deal with inner conflict, as well as religious conflict with each other, and the rest of the town.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsKanu BannerjeeKaruna BannerjeeSubir BanerjeeImpoverished priest Harihar Ray, dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsUlla JacobssonEva DahlbeckHarriet AnderssonIn Sweden at the turn of the century, members of the upper class and their servants find themselves in a romantic tangle that they try to work out amidst jealousy and heartbreak.
- DirectorTex AveryStarsTex AveryDaws ButlerDal McKennonThe old fishing boat captain tells the story of Chilly Willy, a singing polar bear and a bulldog who quickly falls asleep when he hears a lullaby.
- DirectorAleksandar Petrovic
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsMax von SydowGunnar BjörnstrandBengt EkerotA knight returning to Sweden after the Crusades seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsGabriella PallottaSteve CochranAlida ValliA man wanders aimlessly away from his town, away from the woman he loves, emotionally and socially inactive.
- DirectorAndrzej WajdaStarsTeresa IzewskaTadeusz JanczarWienczyslaw GlinskiIn 1944, during the Warsaw uprising against the Nazis, Polish Lieutenant Zadra and his resistance fighters use Warsaw's sewer system to escape the German encirclement.
- DirectorMikhail KalatozovStarsTatyana SamoylovaAleksey BatalovVasiliy MerkurevVeronica plans a rendezvous with her lover, Boris, at the bank of river, only for him to be drafted into World War II shortly thereafter.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsVictor SjöströmBibi AnderssonIngrid ThulinAfter living a life marked by coldness, an aging professor is forced to confront the emptiness of his existence.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsNikolay CherkasovSerafima BirmanPavel KadochnikovAs Ivan the Terrible attempts to consolidate his power by establishing a personal army, his political rivals, the Russian boyars, plot to assassinate their Tsar.
- DirectorNorman McLarenCut out animation set to the French-Canadian nonsense song 'Le merle' (The Blackbird)
- DirectorJacques TatiStarsJacques TatiJean-Pierre ZolaAdrienne ServantieMonsieur Hulot visits the technology-driven world of his sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, but he can't quite fit into the surroundings.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsSoumitra ChatterjeeSharmila TagoreAlok ChakravartyThis final installment in Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy follows Apu's life as an orphaned adult aspiring to be a writer.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsCharlton HestonJack HawkinsStephen BoydAfter a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend in 1st-century Jerusalem, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJean-Pierre LéaudAlbert RémyClaire MaurierA young boy, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsFrancisco RabalMarga LópezRita MacedoA priest in a poor community lives a charitable life in accordance with his religious principles, but many others do not return the favor.
- DirectorMikhail KalatozovStarsInnokentiy SmoktunovskiyTatyana SamoylovaVasiliy LivanovFour geologists search for diamonds in the wilderness of Siberia.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancThe sheet music for Johann Strauss' "The Blue Danube" is constructed by moving musical symbols. A baton-toting conductor note tries to direct his fellow notes in performing this musical piece, but finds that one of the notes has become drunk after being inside the sheet music for "Little Brown Jug". The drunken note staggers goofily on the staves for the music of "The Blue Danube" and is chased by the conductor.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsGabriele FerzettiMonica VittiLea MassariA woman disappears during a Mediterranean boating trip. During the search, her lover and her best friend become attracted to each other.
- DirectorEvelyn LambartNorman McLarenAn experiment in abstract film-making, this short film (as its name implies) consists only of vertical lines, drawn directly onto each film frame, that change in response to music.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsZachary ScottBernie HamiltonKey MeersmanA jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsCharles AznavourMarie DuboisNicole BergerA pianist helps his brother escape from two gangsters, who retaliate by abducting their kid brother.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsDelphine SeyrigGiorgio AlbertazziSacha PitoëffIn a strange and isolated chateau, a man becomes acquainted with a woman and insists that they have met before.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsJeanne MoreauMarcello MastroianniMonica VittiA day in the life of an unfaithful married couple and their steadily deteriorating relationship.
- DirectorLuis García BerlangaStarsCassenJosé Luis López VázquezElvira QuintilláIn a small Spanish town, a group of old ladies decides to celebrate Christmas Eve with a "seat a poor man at your table" dinner: each wealthy household of the town will have a homeless person dining with them that night. The celebrations also include a parade, and in its midst is Plácido, the humble owner of a three-wheeler, whose family is forced to live in a public lavatory because they lack the money to pay rent, and who must pay the second bill on his vehicle before midnight or else he will lose it.
- DirectorBostjan HladnikStarsDusa PockajMiha BalohRado NakrstPeter is the dark brooding type. Leading a vacuous, shapeless life, he longs for the ideal woman, while at the same time, half heartedly continuing with his habitual girlfriend, Marusa , who is considerably older, a fact that Peter is quick to point out. As an ageing actress, struggling for parts in her local theatre, she oozes insecurity and breathes uncertainty. Together, they spend their time in the local restaurant, smoking, drinking and trading verbal blows. "I bet you'll just end up a drunk," she tells Peter each time. Peter just grins and tells her how old she looks. Compounded by a thankless director who soon shows her the door, Marusa finds her identity being squeezed harder and harder against the wall. To escape, Peter and Marusa dream...
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsSilvia PinalFrancisco RabalFernando ReyViridiana, a young nun about to take her final vows, pays a visit to her widowed uncle at the request of her Mother Superior.
- DirectorJerome RobbinsRobert WiseStarsNatalie WoodGeorge ChakirisRichard BeymerTwo youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsSilvia PinalJacqueline AndereEnrique RambalThe guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave.
- DirectorDusan VukoticStarsZdravko PavlisJelena VernerBoy and girl are fighting as a part of their game. They start slowly by drawing pictures: girl draws flower, boy draws car which run over flower, girl destroys car on a drawing etc... Their fight is increasing until they destroy all the papers and pencils. Nice mixture of animation on real film with very anti-war statement.
- DirectorFyodor KhitrukStarsZinoviy GerdtThe man decides to kill the neighbors because they prevent him from sleeping.
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyEduard AbalovStarsNikolay BurlyaevValentin ZubkovEvgeniy ZharikovDuring WWII, Soviet orphan Ivan Bondarev strikes up a friendship with three sympathetic Soviet officers while working as a scout behind the German lines.
- DirectorStan BrakhageStarsStan BrakhageJane WodeningThe prelude to Dog Star Man (1964), an experimental film wherein a man climbs a mountain along with his dog.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsAnna KarinaSady RebbotAndré S. LabartheTwelve episodic tales in the life of a Parisian woman and her slow descent into prostitution.
- DirectorBert HaanstraWho is watching who in the zoo?
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsMarcello MastroianniAnouk AiméeClaudia CardinaleA harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies.