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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6 new
The African Queen
1951, in 11 top lists Check -
9 new
Aliens
1986, in 24 top lists Check -
34 new
Barry Lyndon
1975, in 24 top lists Check -
76 new
The Court Jester
1955, in 5 top lists Check -
92 new
Deliverance
1972, in 15 top lists Check -
106 new
Neotpravlennoe pismo
1960 — a.k.a. Letter Never Sent, in 4 top lists Check -
113 new
Dr. No
1962, in 7 top lists Check -
123 new
El Norte
1983, in 5 top lists Check -
131 new
Fail Safe
1964, in 6 top lists Check -
137 new
The Flame and the Arrow
1950, in 1 top list Check -
148 new
From Russia with Love
1963, in 4 top lists Check -
150 new
Le salaire de la peur
1953 — a.k.a. The Wages of Fear, in 29 top lists Check -
155 new
The General
1926, in 33 top lists Check -
191 new
Jaws
1975, in 28 top lists Check -
216 new
Les vampires
1915, in 14 top lists Check -
217 new
The Lion King
1994, in 24 top lists Check -
218 new
Zendegi va digar hich
1992 — a.k.a. And Life Goes On, in 10 top lists Check -
223 new
Lost Horizon
1937, in 6 top lists Check -
233 new
The Mark of Zorro
1940, in 2 top lists Check -
262 new
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
1969, in 3 top lists Check -
283 new
Gake no ue no Ponyo
2008 — a.k.a. Ponyo, in 3 top lists Check -
295 new
Red River
1948, in 16 top lists Check -
311 new
The Searchers
1956, in 26 top lists Check -
346 new
Thunderball
1965, in 4 top lists Check -
354 new
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1948, in 25 top lists Check -
362 new
Walkabout
1971, in 13 top lists Check -
379 new
Viva Maria!
1965, in 1 top list Check -
381 new
The Wizard of Oz
1939, in 38 top lists Check -
383 new
Wong Fei-Hung
1991 — a.k.a. Once Upon a Time in China, in 9 top lists Check -
385 new
Ofelas
1987 — a.k.a. Pathfinder, in 3 top lists Check -
409 new
Dersu Uzala
1975, in 11 top lists Check -
462 new
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas
1931, in 11 top lists Check
Last updated on Mar 13, 2014;