The Guardian's 1000 Films to See Before You Die

Bianca, a tenth grader has never gone on a date, but she isn't allowed to go out with boys until her older sister gets a boyfriend. The problem is, Kat rubs nearly everyone the wrong way. But Bianca and the guy she has her eye on, Joey, are eager, so Joey fixes Kat up with Patrick, a new kid in town just bitter enough for Kat.

The highly respected and often cited milestone in Science Fiction cinema. Director Stanley Kubrick takes us into the future, into outer space and aboard a spacecraft that’s controlled by a seemingly trustworthy computer named HAL.

In 1976, Tony Wilson sets up Factory Records and brings Manchester's music to the world.

A lackadaisical handyman and aspiring novelist tries to support his younger girlfriend as she slowly succumbs to madness.

The 39 Steps is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpieces. A romantic thriller that revolves around a Canadian tourist visiting London who gets caught in the middle of a murder plot that has police and the secret service after him. A classic Hitchcock of romance mixed with adventure and picturesque scenes.

The setting is Detroit in 1995. The city is divided by 8 Mile, a road that splits the town in half along racial lines. A young white rapper, Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith Jr summons strength within himself to cross over these arbitrary boundaries to fulfill his dream of success in hip hop. With future and the three one third all he has to do is not choke.

With 8 ½ Frederico Fellini leaves a self-portrait where dreams and reality are a mix. With help from a most excellent cast and unique scenery this self reflecting film is one of his master works.

A bout de Souffle is Godard’s debut film and a French classic. With this film Godard begins a new style of filming that revolutionized the film industry.

A man tries to find out who his real mother is after the woman who raised him tells him the truth.

One of the most scathing indictments of American culture ever produced by a Hollywood filmmaker. Kirk Douglas gives the fiercest performance of his career as Chuck Tatum, an amoral newspaper reporter caught in dead-end Albuquerque who happens upon the story of a lifetime and will do anything to ensure he gets the scoop.

He's Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Jim Carrey is on the case to find the Miami Dolphins' missing mascot and quarterback Dan Marino. He goes eyeball to eyeball with a man-eating shark, stakes out the Miami Dolphins and woos and wows the ladies. Whether he's undercover, under fire or underwater, he always gets his man . . . or beast!

In director Abel Ferrara's THE ADDICTION, New York University anthropology grad student Kathleen (Lili Taylor) becomes a philosophic vampire after an alleyway attack, trying to come to terms with her new lifestyle and frequent craving for human blood.

A reflection about what makes everyone's life unique, through the story of Noah's family. Noah is an adjuster, having sex with his customers. His wife Hera watches pornographic movies for the Board of Censors. They live with their son Simon and Hera's sister in a show-flat. One day, they meet Bubba, who wants to make a movie in their house.

Adventurer/surgeon/rock musician Buckaroo Banzai and his band of men, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, take on evil alien invaders from the 8th dimension.

Robin Hood (Errol Flynn) fights nobly for justice against the evil Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone) while striving to win the hand of the beautiful Maid Marian (Olivia de Havilland).

A bored, buttoned up button down word processor (Griffin Dunne) sets out on a late-night date. He's about to become the punchline of a giant cosmic joke.

A few decades after the destruction of the Inca Empire, a Spanish expedition led by the infamous Aguirre leaves the mountains of Peru and goes down the Amazon River in search of the lost city of El Dorado. When great difficulties arise, Aguirre’s men start to wonder whether their quest will lead them to prosperity or certain death.

A fictionalized retelling of the story of Sada Abe, whose affair with her master quickly turned obsessive and sadomasochistic.

Airplane is an American comedy that parodies the airplane catastrophe films from the 70’s. The film was a huge commercial success and is one of the most important films in American cinema history.

A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath that only two teenagers and a group of psychics can stop.

When German knights invade Russia, Prince Alexander Nevsky must rally his people to resist the formidable force. After the Teutonic soldiers take over an eastern Russian city, Alexander stages his stand at Novgorod, where a major battle is fought on the ice of frozen Lake Chudskoe. While Alexander leads his outnumbered troops, two of their numbe...

The film tells the story of a young man who leads a promiscuous lifestyle until several life reversals make him rethink his purposes and goals in life.

During a rescue mission on an unknown planet an unidentified creature comes aboard a crews ship. Soon the fight for life and death begins. A masterful British science fiction horror film from Ridley Scott.

Friends and family want a rich widow (Jane Wyman) to end her romance with a tree surgeon (Rock Hudson) about 15 years her junior.

Director/choreographer Bob Fosse tells his own life story as he details the sordid career of Joe Gideon, a womanizing, drug-using dancer.

All the President’s Men is a political thriller from director Alan J. Pakula based on the Watergate scandal and starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.

In this technologically dated but still thought-provoking classic by Jean-Luc Godard, American Private Investigator Lemmy Caution tries to solve a mystery in Alphaville, a city on another planet.

Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Salzburger composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Set against Paris' oldest bridge, the Pont Neuf, while it was closed for repairs, this film is a love story between two young vagrants: Alex, a would be circus performer addicted to alcohol and sedatives and Michele, a painter driven to a life on the streets because of a failed relationship and an affliction which is slowly turning her blind.

A shallow, provincial wife finds her life changed overnight by a sudden tryst with an unpretentious, young architect.

American Beauty is a film about a well situated family man in suburbia who yearns for something besides the seemingly normal and good life he lives. As he and his family change, so does the neighborhood as examples of freedom, love, beauty and the pursuit of happiness come up in the film.

Atlantis is more visual art than nature film and a 'must see' for any Luc Besson fan. The film captures the feel of what it's actually like to swim underwater better than any film I've ever seen, perfectly illustrating the form and texture of sea water. Beautiful. Highly recommended for anyone interested in visual arts or diving.

American Graffiti takes place in the early 1960’s depicting one eventful graduation night for four friends one their last day together before college – before adulthood. A comedy from director George Lucas and his first extremely successful film.

Three friends struggle to find work in Paris. Things become more complicated when two of them fall in love with the same woman.

AMERICAN MOVIE is the story of filmmaker Mark Borchardt, his mission, and his dream. Spanning over two years of intense struggle with his film, his family, financial decline, and spiritual crisis, AMERICAN MOVIE is a portrayal of ambition, obsession, excess, and one man's quest for the American Dream.

Four teenage boys enter a pact to lose their virginity by prom night.

An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar.

An American Werewolf in London is John Landis’ horror film from 1981 in which an American student turns into a werewolf during a full moon in London. From director John Landis who also directed Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

In Mexico City the lives and stories of three people become tied up in an intense Oscar winning film. Valeria and El Chivo have one thing in common: their souls stimulate them towards a relationship with their dogs. Amores Perros is the first in a film trilogy from Inárritus

Semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her. Over the course of an extensive trial, Biegler parries with District Attorney Lodwick and out-of-town prosecutor Claude Dancer to set his client free, but his case rests on the victim's mysterious ...

After four years of production the film by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky would be banned soon after it’s release leading it to be shown only at foreign film festivals. The film is about a Russian icon painter Andrej Rubljow and the relationship of artists and their unique power.

Janet Frame grows up in a poor family. She is different than the other kids. She is considered abnormal and locked away in a mental institution for eight years. Everything changes when she starts writing books.

A simple, delicate, melodramatic German film about a loneliness. With a double moral story about the tainted love between an old woman and a younger dark-colored immigrant worker.

At a weekend gathering, a man tells a woman that they had spent time there together a year prior. But, the woman has no recollection whatsoever and is convinced that he is simply fabricating the encounter. The more he speaks about their activities the previous year however, the more compelling he becomes. The question remains however – did they ...

The neurotic New Yorker Woody Allen tells one of the greatest romantic comedies to be set in the city of New York.

The Apartment came out shortly after the success of ‘Some Like it Hot’ from director Billy Wilder and thus making it the most successful films of the year. Full of trivialities this comedy is a harsh critic of coporate world and the American way of life.

During the Vietnam War, the assigned mission of Captain Willard take him through some strange and seemingly impossible scenarios in the jungle of Vietnam. Little by little Willard forgets his mission’s purpose as he becomes more and more hallucinatory and starts to lose sense of reality.

Max is a former playboy who has decided to settle down by marrying his current love, Muriel. However, when Max catches a glimpse of the great lost love of his life, he becomes obsessed with rekindling their relationship.

Atmospheric and gripping, Army of Shadows is Jean-Pierre Melville’s masterpiece about the French Resistance underground fighters who must grapple with their own brand of honor in their battle against Hitler’s regime.

Based on the famous book by Jules Verne the movie follows Phileas Fogg on his journey around the world. Which has to be completed within 80 days, a very short period for those days.