The Best Films of all Time

An appendix to piero scaruffi's "History of Cinema"
piero scaruffi | Feedback | Back to cinema | Database of filmmakers | History of Cinema
Note: the lists by decade and by year are much more reliable. The list below is a more or less random ordering of the decade lists. It is mostly meant as a teaser to send you to the lists by decade. It is absolutely NOT my final list on the films of all time.
  1. 9.0 Orson Welles: Citizen Kane (1941)
  2. 9.0 Orson Welles: Touch Of Evil (1958)
  3. 8.8 Orson Welles: The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
  4. 8.6 Orson Welles: Lady from Shanghai (1947)
  5. 8.8 Alfred Hitchcock: North By Northwest (1959)
  6. 8.6 Theo Angelopoulos: O Thiasos/ Travelling Players (1975)
  7. 8.6 Ingmar Bergman: Persona (1966)
  8. 8.5 Michelangelo Antonioni: BlowUp (1966)
  9. 8.5 Andrei Tarkovsky: Nostalghia/ Nostalgia (1983)
  10. 8.5 Theodoros Angelopoulos : Topio Stin Omichli/ Landscape In The Mist (1988)
  11. 8.5 Bela Tarr: Werckmeister Harmoniak/ Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
  12. 8.5 Robert Altman: Nashville (1975)
  13. 8.5 Roman Polanski: Chinatown (1974)
  14. 8.5 Akira Kurosawa: Ikiru/To Live (1952)
  15. 8.5 Ingmar Bergman: Det Sjunde Inseglet/ Seventh Seal (1956)
  16. 8.5 Alfred Hitchcock: Vertigo (1958)
  17. 8.4 Fritz Lang: Metropolis (1926)
  18. 8.4 Robert Aldrich: Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964)
  19. 8.4 Lars Von Trier: Riget/ Kingdom (1995)
  20. 8.4 Federico Fellini: La Dolce Vita (1960)
  21. 8.3 Francis Ford Coppola: The Conversation (1974)
  22. 8.3 Sam Peckinpah: The Wild Bunch (1969)
  23. 8.3 Luis Bunuel: Belle de Jour (1967)
  24. 8.3 Federico Fellini: La Strada (1954)
  25. 8.2 Emir Kusturica: Podzemlje/ Underground (1995)
  26. 8.2 Alejandro Jodorowsky: Holy Mountain (1973)
  27. 8.2 Sion Sono: Love Exposure (2008)
  28. 8.2 Robert Aldrich: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962)
  29. 8.2 John Woo: Dip Huet Gai Tau/ Bullet in the Head (1990)
  30. 8.2 John Ford: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
  31. 8.2 Theodoros Angelopoulos : O Melissokomos/ The Beekeeper (1986)
  32. 8.2 Alfred Hitchcock: Psycho (1960)
  33. 8.1 Terrence Malick: Days of Heaven (1978)
  34. 8.1 Martin Scorsese: Taxi Driver (1976)
  35. 8.0 Woody Allen: Manhattan (1979)
  36. 8.0 Sergio Leone: C'era Una Volta il West/ Once Upon a Time (1968)
  37. 8.0 Stanley Kubrick: Dr Strangelove (1964)
  38. 8.0 Majid Majidi: Rang-e Khoda/ Color Of Paradise (1999)
  39. 8.0 Sergej Paradzanov: Sayat Nova/ Tsvet Granata/ Color of Pomegrenates (1969)
  40. 8.0 Satoshi Kon: Perfect Blue (1997)
  41. 8.0 Roman Polanski: Rosemary's Baby (1967)
  42. 8.0 Quentin Tarantino: Pulp Fiction (1994)
  43. 8.0 Vittorio DeSica: Miracolo a Milano/ Miracle in Milan (1951)
  44. 8.0 Nicolas Roeg: Walkabout (1971)
  45. 8.0 Zhang Yimou: Ying Xiong/ Hero (2002)
  46. 8.0 Krzysztof Kieslowski: Rouge (1994)
  47. 8.0 Kim Ki-duk: Shigan/ Time (2006)
  48. 8.0 Josef von Sternberg: Das Blaue Engel/ The Blue Angel (1930)
  49. 8.0 David Lynch: Lost Highway (1997)
  50. 8.0 Chan-wook Park: Sympathy for Mr Vengeance (2002)
  51. 8.0 Michael Haneke: Cache`/ Hidden (2005)
  52. 8.0 Terry Gilliam: Brazil (1985)
  53. 8.0 Bela Tarr: Satantango/ Satan's Tango (1994)
  54. 8.0 John Boorman: Point Blank (1967)
  55. 8.0 Jan Svankmajer: Conspirators of Pleasure (1996)
  56. 8.0 Ingmar Bergman: Smultronstallet/ Wild Strawberries (1957)
  57. 8.0 Edward Yang: Hai Tan de Yi Tian/ That Day on the Beach (1983)
  58. 8.0 Christopher Nolan: Memento (2000)
  59. 8.0 Brian DePalma: Blow Out (1981)
  60. 8.0 Blake Edwards: The Great Race (1965)
  61. 8.0 Alfred Hitchcock: Rear Window(1954)
  62. 8.0 Billy Wilder: Sunset Boulevard (1950)
  63. 8.0 Charles Chaplin: Limelight (1952)
  64. 8.0 Ermanno Olmi: L'Albero degli Zoccoli/ The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)
  65. 8.0 Elia Kazan: On The Waterfront (1954)
  66. 8.0 Howard Hawks: Bringing Up Baby (1938)
  67. 8.0 Ingmar Bergman: Viskningar och Rop/ Cries and Whispers (1972)
  68. 8.0 Terrence Malick: Badlands (1973)
  69. 8.0 Robert Aldrich: Emperor of the North (1973)
  70. 8.0 Michael Haneke: Funny Games (1997)
  71. 8.0 Ingmar Bergman: Ansiktet/ Magician (1957)
  72. 8.0 Fritz Lang: The Big Heat (1953)
  73. 8.0 Federico Fellini: Nights of Cabiria (1957)
  74. 8.0 Andrei Tarkovsky: Stalker (1979)
  75. 8.0 Federico Fellini: 8 1/2 (1963)
  76. 8.0 Charles Chaplin: Modern Times (1936)
  77. 8.0 Billy Wilder: The Apartment (1960)
  78. 8.0 Akira Kurosawa: Shichinin No Samurai/ The Seven Samurai (1954)
    7.9 Rainer Fassbinder: Welt am Draht/ World on a Wire (1973)
    7.9 Peter Greenaway: A Zed and Two Noughts (1986)
    7.9 Pedro Almodovar: Mala Education/ Bad Education (2004)
    7.9 Luis Bunuel: Viridiana (1961)
    7.9 George Stevens: Giant (1956)
    7.9 Manuel DeOliveira: Francisca (1981)
    7.9 Kevin Smith: Dogma (1999)
    7.9 John Boorman: Zardoz (1974)
    7.9 Chan-wook Park: Oldeuboi/ Oldboy (2003)
    7.8 Hirokazu Kore-eda: Afterlife (1998)
    7.8 Theo Angelopoulos: The Suspended Step of the Stork (1991)
    7.8 Stanley Kubrick: 2001: Space Odyssey (1968)
    7.8 King Vidor: The Crowd (1928)
    7.8 Johnnie To: Fong Juk/ Exiled (2006)
    7.8 John Huston: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
    7.8 Jean-Pierre Jeunet : La Cite` des Enfants Perdus/ City of Lost Children (1995)
    7.8 Wim Wenders: Der Himmel uber Berlin/ Wings of Desire (1988)
    7.8 Jean Renoir: La Grande Illusion (1937)
    7.8 Jafar Panahi: Ayneh/ The Mirror (1997)
    7.8 Francis Ford Coppola: The Godfather Part II (1974)
    7.8 Chang-dong Lee: Bakha Satang/ Peppermint Candy (1999)
    7.8 Alice Rohrwacher: Lazzaro Felice/ Happy as Lazzaro (2018)
    7.8 Peter Greenaway: The Cook The Thief His Wife And Her Lover (1989)
    7.8 Pedro Costa: Horse Money (2014)
    7.8 Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu: 21 Grams (2003)
    7.8 George Stevens: Shane (1953)
    7.8 Yasujiro Ozu: Banshun/ Late Spring (1949)
    7.8 Vittorio DeSica: Umberto D (1955)
    7.8 Spike Jonze: Being John Malkovich (1999)
    7.8 Sergei Loznitsa: Schastye Moe/ My Joy (2010)
    7.8 7.8 Sam Peckinpah: Convoy (1978)
    7.8 Alejandro Jodorowsky: The Dance of Reality (2013)
    7.8 Rainer Fassbinder: Veronika Voss (1982)
    7.8 Quentin Tarantino: Reservoir Dogs (1992)
    7.8 Michel Gondry: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
    7.8 Mathieu Kassovitz: La Haine/ Hate (1996)
    7.8 Majid Majidi: Beed-e Majnoon/ The Willow Tree (2005)
    7.8 Luc Besson: Leon/ The Professional (1994)
    7.8 Alfred Hitchcock: Marnie (1964)
    7.8 Alain Resnais: L'Annee Derniere a Marienbad/ Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
    7.8 Lars Von Trier: Zentropa (1991)
    7.8 Gyorgy Palfi: Hukkle (2002)
    7.8 Gaspar Noe: Enter the Void (2009)
    7.8 Fritz Lang: M (1931)
    7.8 Frank Capra: Meet John Doe (1941)
    7.8 Elia Kazan: A Face in the Crowd (1957)
    7.8 Don Siegel: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
    7.8 Brian DePalma: Dressed to Kill (1980)
    7.8 Alfred Hitchcock: To Catch A Thief (1955)
    7.7 Yasujiro Ozu: Ukigusa Monogatari/ Floating Weeds (1934)
    7.7 Theo Angelopoulos: The Weeping Meadow (2004)
    7.7 Sydney Pollack: Tootsie (1982)
    7.7 Shohei Imamura: Dr Akagi (1998)
    7.7 Satoshi Kon: Sennen Joyu/ Millennium Actress (2001)
    7.7 Roman Polanski: Le Locataire/ The Tenant (1976)
    7.7 Pedro Almodovar: Todo Sobre Mi Madre/ All About My Mother (1999)
    7.7 Nagisa Oshima: Koshikei/ Death by Hanging (1968)
    7.7 Miguel Gomes: Arabian Nights (2015)
    7.7 Luc Besson: Leon/ The Professional (1994)
    7.7 Leo McCarey (Marx Brothers): Duck Soup (1933)
    7.7 Hu Bo: An Elephant Sitting Still (2018)
    7.7 Francis Ford Coppola: The Godfather (1972)
    7.7 Fatih Akin: Gegen die Wand/ Head On (2004)
    7.7 David Lynch: Mulholland Drive (2001)
    7.7 Christian Petzold: Die Innere Sicherheit/ The State I Am In (2000)
    7.7 Carlos Reygadas: Post Tenebras Lux (2012)
    7.7 Bernardo Bertolucci: 1900 (1976)
    7.7 Bae Yong-Kyun: Why Has Bodhi Dharma Left For The East (1989)
    7.7 Bae Yong-Kyun: Dalmaga Dongjjogeuro Gan Kkadalgeun?/ Why Has Bodhi Dharma Left For The East (1989)
    7.7 Andrej Tarkovsky: Sacrifice (1986)
    7.7 Akira Kurosawa: Rashomon (1950)
    7.6 Aleksei German: Trudno byt' Bogom/ Hard to Be a God (2013)
    7.6 Yasujiro Ozu: Bakushu/ Early Summer (1951)
    7.6 Wim Wenders: Bis ans Ende der Welt/ Until the End of the World (1991)
    7.6 Tsai Ming-Liang: Rebels of the Neon God (1993)
    7.6 Theodoros Angelopoulos : Taxidi sta Kithira/ Voyage to Cythera (1984)
    7.6 Takeshi Kitano: Sonatine (1993)
    7.6 Sion Sono: Jisatsu Sakuru/ Suicide Club (2001)
    7.6 Satyajit Ray: Aranyer Din Ratri/ Days and Nights in the Forest (1970)
    7.6 Sam Peckinpah: Ballad Of Cable Hogue (1970)
    7.6 Raul Ruiz: Trois Vies & Une Seule Mort/ Three Lives and Only One Death (1996)
    7.6 Preston Sturges: Sullivan's Travels (1941)
    7.6 Pedro Costa: Colossal Youth (2006)
    7.6 Ming-Liang Tsai: Rebels of the Neon God (1992)
    7.6 Michael Powell: Peeping Tom (1960)
    7.6 Michael Cimino: The Deer Hunter (1978)
    7.6 Masahiro Shinoda: Shinju Ten No Amijima/ Double Suicide (1969)
    7.6 Martin Scorsese: Mean Streets (1973)
    7.6 Martin Scorsese: After Hours (1985)
    7.6 Manoel DeOliveira: Viagem ao Principio do Mundo/ Journey to the Beginning of the World (1996)
    7.6 Leos Carax: Holy Motors (2012)
    7.6 Krzysztof Kieslowski: Bleu (1993)
    7.6 Kenji Mizoguchi: Sansho Dayu/ Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
    7.6 Kar-Wai Wong: Chongqing Senlin/ Chungking Express (1994)
    7.6 Joseph Losey: Secret Ceremony (1968)
    7.6 Josef von Sternberg: Morocco (1930)
    7.6 Johnnie To: Mad Detective (2007)
    7.6 John Woo: Face/Off (1997)
    7.6 John Woo: Die Xue Shuang Xiong/ The Killer (1989)
    7.6 John Huston: The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
    7.6 John Huston: The African Queen (1951)
    7.6 John Cassavetes: A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
    7.6 Joel Coen: Fargo (1996)
    7.6 Joachim Trier: Thelma (2017)
    7.6 Jean-Luc Godard: A Bout de Souffle/ Breathless (1959)
    7.6 Jaromil Jires: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)
    7.6 Jacques Tati: Playtime (1967)
    7.6 Istvan Szabo : Tuzolto Utca 25/ 25 Firemen St (1973)
    7.6 Howard Hawks: Rio Bravo (1959)
    7.6 Hirokazu Kore-eda: Maborosi (1995)
    7.6 Harmony Korine: Gummo (1997)
    7.6 Fritz Lang: While the City Sleeps (1956)
    7.6 Francis Ford Coppola: Apocalypse Now (1979)
    7.6 Edward Yang: Yi Yi/ A One And a Two (2000)
    7.6 Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg: Performance (1970)
    7.6 Don Siegel: Charley Varrick (1973)
    7.6 Charlie Chaplin: The Gold Rush (1925)
    7.6 Charlie Chaplin: City Lights (1931)
    7.6 Carl Theodor Dreyer: Ordet (1955)
    7.6 Bela Tarr: Panelkapcsolat/ Prefab People (1982)
    7.6 Arturo Ripstein: La Perdicion de los Hombres/ The Ruination of Men (2000)
    7.6 Anders Thomas Jensen: Retfaerdighedens Ryttere/ Riders of Justice
    7.6 Ama Lily Amirpour: Dokhtari dar sab Tanha be Xane Miravad/ A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
Again, the lists by decade and by year are more updated.
Feedback | Back to cinema | Database of filmmakers | History of Cinema

Lists by Decades

The 1910s
 The 1920s
  The 1930s
   The 1940s
    The 1950s
     The 1960s
      The 1970s
       The 1980s
        The 1990s
         The 2000s
          The 2010s
          The 2020s
Best films by country

Other lists

Thanks to John Davies for providing the data
Sight and Sound, U.K- international critics, 2002
  1. Citizen Kane
  2. Vertigo
  3. La Regle du Jeu
  4. The Godfather 1&2
  5. Tokyo Monogatari
  6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
  7. Battleship Potemkin
  8. Sunrise
  9. 8 1/2
  10. Singin in the Rain
"Positif", France, 1991.
  1. La Regle du Jeu
  2. Citizen Kane
  3. 2001:A Space Odyssey
  4. Vertigo
  5. L'Atalante
  6. 8 1/2
  7. Sunrise
  8. Barry Lyndon
  9. The General
  10. Sansho Dayu
Time Out, U.K 1995
  1. Citizen Kane
  2. The Godfather
  3. La Regle du Jeu
  4. Vertigo
  5. Seven Samurai
  6. Lawrence of Arabia
  7. Raging Bull
  8. Touch of Evil
  9. Tokyo Monogatari
  10. L'Atalante
German poll of international critics, 1995
  1. The Searchers
  2. Taxi Driver
  3. Vertigo
  4. Night of the Hunter
  5. Citizen Kane
  6. Lawrence of Arabia
  7. North by North West
  8. Le Samourai
  9. To Be or Not to Be
  10. The Last Picture Show
France, 1995
  1. Citizen Kane
  2. Battleship Potemkin
  3. La Regle du Jeu
  4. The General
  5. Greed
  6. The Passion of Joan of Arc
  7. Bicycle Thieves
  8. 2001: A Space Odyssey
  9. L'Atalante
  10. Les Enfants du Paradis
"Kinovedcheskie", Russia, 1995
  1. Citizen Kane
  2. Battleship potemkin
  3. Intolerance
  4. 8 1/2
  5. A Bout de Souffle
  6. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
  7. La Regle du Jeu
  8. L'Atalante
  9. The Passion of Joan of Arc
  10. Ivan the Terrible
  11. Man with a Movie Camera
"Village Voice", U.S.A, 2000
  1. Citizen Kane
  2. La Regle du Jeu
  3. Vertigo
  4. The Searchers
  5. Man with a Movie Camera
  6. Sunrise
  7. L'Atalante
  8. The Passion of Joan of Arc
  9. Au Hasard Balthazar
  10. Rashomon
"Editorial Jaguar", Spain, 2001
  1. Citizen Kane
  2. The Leopard (Visconti)
  3. Ordet
  4. Vertigo
  5. The Searchers
  6. The Godfather 1&2
  7. Sunrise
  8. Gertrud
  9. The Man who Shot Liberty Valance
  10. 2001: A Space Odyssey
TM, ®, Copyright © 1998 Piero Scaruffi