The Guardian's 1000 Films to See Before You Die

The American screwball comedy from 1944 based off of the theatrical piece of the same name from Joseph Kesselring adapted from the author Julius J. Epstein. Cary Grant’s hands are full when his crazy family neglects his marriage.

A self-assured business man murders his employer, the husband of his adulterer, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.

Recently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider, with funding from Alonzo Emmerich, a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in the Midwest for a big jewel heist.

The lone inhabitants of an abandoned police station are under attack by the overwhelming numbers of a seemingly unstoppable street gang.

Newly married couple Juliette and ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'Atalante along with the captain's first mate and a cabin boy.

Based on a local legend and set in an unknown era, it deals with universal themes of love, possessiveness, family, jealousy and power. Beautifully shot, and acted by Inuit people, it portrays a time when people fought duels by taking turns to punch each other until one was unconscious, made love on the way to the caribou hunt, ate walrus meat an...

In a corrupt city, a small-time gangster and the estranged wife of a pot dealer find themselves thrown together in an escapade of love, money, drugs and danger.

The story of a donkey Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel but all with motivations beyond his understanding. Balthazar, whose life parallels that of his first keeper, Marie, is truly a beast of burden, suffering the sins of humankind. But despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly.

Au revoir les enfants tells a heartbreaking story of friendship and devastating loss concerning two boys living in Nazi-occupied France. At a provincial Catholic boarding school, the precocious youths enjoy true camaraderie—until a secret is revealed. Based on events from writer-director Malle’s own childhood, the film is a subtle, precisely obs...

An out of control comedy and parody of secret agent films like James Bond. This is the first from three total films starring the secret agent Austin Powers. Produced and written by Mike Myers who also plays Powers as well as his arch nemesis Dr. Evil.

A woman disappears during a Mediterranean boating trip. But during the search, her lover and her best friend become attracted to each other.

Two boys meet at an opera training school in Peking in 1924. Their resulting friendship will span nearly 70 years and endure some of the most troublesome times in China's history.

Babe is a little pig who doesn't quite know his place in the world. With a bunch of odd friends, like Ferdinand the duck who thinks he is a rooster and Fly the dog he calls mum, Babe realises that he has the makings to become the greatest sheep pig of all time, and Farmer Hoggett knows it. With the help of the sheep dogs, Babe learns that a pig ...

A French housekeeper with a mysterious past brings quiet revolution in the form of one exquisite meal to a circle of starkly pious villagers in late 19th century Denmark.

The first film of the trilogy as teenager Marty Mcfly travels back in time with help from his friend and time machine inventor Dr. Brown. Marty travels from 1985 back to 1955 running into people he knows like his parents. When it’s time to go back to the future Marty runs into a few unforeseen problems and time is running out.

Bad Boy Bubby is just that: a bad boy. So bad, in fact, that his mother has kept him locked in their house for his entire thirty years, convincing him that the air outside is poisonous. After a visit from his estranged father, circumstances force Bubby into the waiting world, a place which is just as unusual to him as he is to the world.

A one handed stranger comes to a tiny town possessing a terrible past they want to keep secret, by violent means if necessary.

While investigating a young nun's rape, a corrupt New York City police detective, with a serious drug and gambling addiction, tries to change his ways and find forgiveness.

A miserable conman and his partner pose as Santa and his Little Helper to rob department stores on Christmas Eve. But they run into problems when the conman befriends a troubled kid, and the security boss discovers the plot.

Several people try to take advantage of a little girl's innocence to hustle money her mom gave to her to buy a goldfish with.

Dramatization of the Starkweather-Fugate killing spree of the 1950's, in which a teenage girl and her twenty-something boyfriend slaughtered her entire family and several others in the Dakota badlands.

The animated story of Bambi, a young deer hailed as the 'Prince of the Forest' at his birth. As Bambi grows, he makes friends with the other animals of the forest, learns the skills needed to survive, and even finds love. One day, however, the hunters come, and Bambi must learn to be as brave as his father if he is to lead the other deer to safety.

Two crooks with a fondness for old Hollywood B-movies convince a languages student to help them commit a robbery.

The story of bandit queen Phoolan Devi, who was sent to prison in 1983 and released in 1994.

In the far future, a highly sexual woman is tasked with finding and stopping the evil Durand-Durand. Along the way she encounters various unusual people.

An Irish rogue uses his cunning and wit to work his way up the social classes of 18th century England, transforming himself from the humble Redmond Barry into the noble Barry Lyndon.

Barton Fink is a Hollywood satire from the Coen Brothers. A New York writer named Barton Fink goes to Hollywood to write a book and discovers in his hotel a world full light. This neighbor Charlie becomes part of the light.

Batman finds himself up against a new enemy in the Joker, who is spreading fear and chaos on the streets of Gotham. Batman has to face not only his enemy, but the person who created his dark persona and reconcile his desire to combat evil with his desire for a normal life and romance.

In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.

The French Colonel...who was forced even to torture! One of the many women...who stopped at nothing to win! The Algerian Street Boy...who became a rebel hero!

Foreign Legion officer Galoup recalls his once glorious life, training troops in the Gulf of Djibouti. His existence there was happy, strict and regimented, until the arrival of a promising young recruit, Sentain, plants the seeds of jealousy in Galoup's mind.

Thomas Becket, Henry II's longtime advisor, finds his friendship with the debauched king corroding when he is unwillingly appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury in an attempt to gain absolute loyalty from the Church.

A dialogue marathon of a film, this fairy tail love story of an American boy and French girl. During a day and a night together in Vienna their two hearts collide.

Spike Jone’s debut feature film is a love story mix of comedy and fantasy. The story is about an unsuccessful puppeteer named Craig, who one day at work finds a portal into the head of actor John Malkovich. The portal soon becomes a passion for anybody who enters it’s mad and controlling world of over overtaking another human body.

A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television.

A bored wife of a wealthy doctor spends her afternoons exploring exciting escapades as a call-girl in a chic Paris brothel.

The former famous painter Frenhofer lives quietly with his wife on a countryside residence in the French Provence. When the young artist Nicolas visits him with his girlfriend Marianne, Frenhofer decides to start again the work on a painting he long ago stopped: La Belle Noiseuse. And he wants Marianne as model.

Ben Hur is the critically acclaimed monumental masterpiece historical film starring Charlton Heston as a chariot racer in the first century. The film is a cult classic.

Séverine and her husband Roubaud kill their former employer in a train. Engineer Jacques watches them, but doesn't tell the police, because he's in love with Severine. But in an epileptic attack he kills her...

The head of a failing French family thinks that fate has smiled down on him when the daughter of a wealthy man agrees to be married to his son. The daughter and her aunt then travel out to the French countryside to meet with the family, unaware that a mysterious 'beast' is stalking the vicinity.

A high-school student becomes depressed when his girlfriend dumps him for a boorish ski jock, but a French exchange student changes his outlook on life.

Beverly Hills Cops gave Eddie Murphy his biggest breakthrough as to being one of the biggest superstars of the 1980’s. Quoted by some to be one of the funniest movies off all time. This action/comedy cop movie tells the story of Detroit cop Axel Foley.

A hip and happenin' all girl rock group head to LA to claim lead-singer Kelly's inheritance and make it (and make it) in LA. Soon the girls fall into a morass of drugs and deceit as their recording success soars. It takes several tragedies to make them stop and think... but is it too late?

Seven old college friends gather for a weekend reunion after the funeral of one of their own.

Police Lt. Leonard Diamond vies to bring a clever, well connected, and sadistic gangster to justice all the while obsessing over the gangsters' girlfriend.

Tough cop Dave Bannion takes on a politically powerful crime syndicate.

The Coen Brothers bring to life a ficticious day in the life of "The Dude” through Bowling, Joints, and an endless supply of “White Russian” cocktails. An off the wall adventure of mix-ups, dirty carpets, pornography producers, Nihilists, and psychopaths make this one of the most celebrated films of the ninties.

Primo & Secondo, two immigrant brothers, pin their hopes on a banquet honoring a Louis Prima to save their struggling restaurant.

The story of an idle rich boy who joins the US Army's Rainbow Division and is sent to France to fight in World War I, becomes friends with two working class men, experiences the horrors of trench warfare, and finds love with a French girl.

The Big Sleep is a film noir based on the novel of the same name by Raymond Chandler. Directed by Howard Hawks and starring Humphrey Boogart and Lauren Becall.