Apu's Essential Films (March 18th, 2014)
Created by Apu.
Favorited 13 times, disliked 0 times, added to 3 watchlists.
I added this list after I had watched my 5000th feature film, House of Games (1987)
The idea behind it was that if I only had the opportunity to pick 10% of all the feature films I've seen in my life (i.e. 500 films) and put them all together into a personal canon, this would be the end result.
Broadly speaking, these are the 500 films I'd want to have with me on a desert island.
The criterion I've used for the inclusion of films are, for a lack of a better world, personal. For example, I haven't factored in any sense of historical importance a film might or might not have. These 500 films are not necessarily the best films I've seen (although it should be very close to it) but the films that fascinate me the most, the films I find most aesthetically pleasing, films that are important to me nostalgically, and films I basically could re-watch at any given time. In my opinion, all films included in this list possess a certain re-watch-value that films not included might lack.
Omissions, of course, are inevitable. I've made an effort to be exhaustive, and if, for instance, none or only a few films from a certain director/wave/movement/period/genre made it into this list, it's because I don't value it as much as others.
Omissions also apply to many of the films I've seen that, for some reason or another, didn't make it, as well as all (acclaimed) films I haven't yet caught up with. However, it may also be that if a certain film is absent, it's absent because I don't value it as much as those I've included.
Riefenstahl's Olympia (1938) is divided into two parts, hence why there are 501 entries instead of 500.
See also my Essential Short Film list.
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42 new
The Birds
1963, in 18 top lists Check -
105 new
Dial M for Murder
1954, in 9 top lists Check -
258 new
Notorious
1946, in 24 top lists Check -
285 new
Psycho
1960, in 39 top lists Check -
291 new
Rear Window
1954, in 31 top lists Check -
292 new
Rebecca
1940, in 23 top lists Check -
301 new
Rope
1948, in 10 top lists Check -
304 new
Saboteur
1942, in 2 top lists Check -
315 new
Shadow of a Doubt
1943, in 15 top lists Check -
330 new
Strangers on a Train
1951, in 17 top lists Check -
367 new
Vertigo
1958, in 42 top lists Check -
384 new
The Wrong Man
1956, in 8 top lists Check -
483 new
The Man Who Knew Too Much
1934, in 2 top lists Check -
487 new
The 39 Steps
1935, in 16 top lists Check -
494 new
Frenzy
1972, in 7 top lists Check
Last updated on Mar 13, 2014;