Laura Mason

Sr. Lecturer in Film & Media Studies at Johns Hopkins University

The first twenty-five (re-ordered) movies on this list colonized my imagination at some point in my life and still hold an outpost there.  After that, the rankings become increasingly academic, especially when working with others’ 100 favorites.
  1. 2001: A Space Odyssey | Stanley KUBRICK | 1968
  2. Blade Runner | Ridley SCOTT | 1982
  3. Once upon a Time in the West | Sergio LEONE | 1968
  4. Beau Travail | Claire DENIS | 1999
  5. The 400 Blows | François TRUFFAUT | 1959
  6. Chinatown | Roman POLANSKI | 1974
  7. La Dolce Vita | Federico FELLINI | 1960
  8. Man with a Movie Camera | Dziga VERTOV | 1929
  9. The General | Clyde BRUCKMAN & Buster KEATON | 1927
  10. Vertigo | Alfred HITCHCOCK | 1958
  11. Bicycle Thieves | Vittorio DE SICA | 1948
  12. Touch of Evil | Orson WELLES | 1958
  13. L'Avventura | Michelangelo ANTONIONI | 1960
  14. The Leopard | Luchino VISCONTI | 1963
  15. The Night of the Hunter | Charles LAUGHTON | 1955
  16. La Grande Illusion | Jean RENOIR | 1937
  17. The Third Man | Carol REED | 1949
  18. Les Enfants du Paradis | Marcel CARNÉ | 1945
  19. Apocalypse Now | Francis Ford COPPOLA | 1979
  20. L'Atalante | Jean VIGO | 1934
  21. The Battle of Algiers | Gillo PONTECORVO | 1966
  22. Psycho | Alfred HITCHCOCK | 1960
  23. Lawrence of Arabia | David LEAN | 1962
  24. In the Mood for Love | WONG Kar-wai | 2000
  25. Blue Velvet | David LYNCH | 1986
  26. Nashville | Robert ALTMAN | 1975
  27. Breathless | Jean-Luc GODARD | 1960
  28. Singin' in the Rain | Stanley DONEN & Gene KELLY | 1952
  29. Citizen Kane | Orson WELLES | 1941
  30. Metropolis | Fritz LANG | 1927
  31. Sherlock Jr. | Buster KEATON | 1924
  32. Seven Samurai | KUROSAWA Akira | 1954
  33. The Seventh Seal | Ingmar BERGMAN | 1957
  34. The Godfather | Francis Ford COPPOLA | 1972
  35. Battleship Potemkin | Sergei EISENSTEIN | 1925
  36. The Passion of Joan of Arc | Carl Th. DREYER | 1928
  37. Journey to Italy | Roberto ROSSELLINI | 1954
  38. Rear Window | Alfred HITCHCOCK | 1954
  39. Casablanca | Michael CURTIZ | 1942
  40. Modern Times | Charles CHAPLIN | 1936
  41. The Searchers | John FORD | 1956
  42. Play Time | Jacques TATI | 1967
  43. Taxi Driver | Martin SCORSESE | 1976
  44. Tokyo Story | OZU Yasujirō | 1953
  45. The Magnificent Ambersons | Orson WELLES | 1942
  46. L'Eclisse | Michelangelo ANTONIONI | 1962
  47. Pierrot le Fou | Jean-Luc GODARD | 1965
  48. Rashomon | KUROSAWA Akira | 1950
  49. Some Like It Hot | Billy WILDER | 1959
  50. 8½ | Federico FELLINI | 1963
  51. M | Fritz LANG | 1931
  52. La Maman et la Putain | Jean EUSTACHE | 1973
  53. A Man Escaped | Robert BRESSON | 1956
  54. La Jetée | Chris MARKER | 1962
  55. Shoah | Claude LANZMANN | 1985
  56. The Spirit of the Beehive | Víctor ERICE | 1973
  57. City Lights | Charles CHAPLIN | 1931
  58. The Godfather: Part II | Francis Ford COPPOLA | 1974
  59. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans | F.W. MURNAU | 1927
  60. Ugetsu Monogatari | MIZOGUCHI Kenji | 1953
  61. Touki-Bouki | Djibril DIOP MAMBÉTY | 1973
  62. Greed | Erich VON STROHEIM | 1924
  
Have Not Seen

Don’t Like These Enough to Include in a Top 100

Lists like these are useful because they encourage us to watch new films or remind us of old ones we ought to see again.  But they have their limitations.  I don’t think the Sight and Sound list includes enough female directors and I find it too serious.  It is, as well, tilted overwhelmingly to the U.S. and Europe.  My substitutions and additions don’t address the last issue so I very much hope others point me to Asian, African, and Latin American jewels.  But I do hope I have begun to get at some of the other issues.

Some Personal Favorites (in chronological order after the first film, which stands apart because its absence from the Sight and Sound list is a serious omission).

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