The Guardian's 1000 Films to See Before You Die

'Big Wednesday' is a gentle rites-of-passage movie that covers many years in the lives of three friends as they grow up but never entirely grow apart. Both touching and humorous, the film authentically recreates the spirit of 60s and 70s America, looking at the big issues of the time through the eyes of three ordinary young men.

Two seemingly dumb teens struggle to prepare a historical presentation with the help of a time machine.

The Birds is a classic cult film from Alfred Hitchcock. His new horror elements made film history and one of hismasterpieces.

The Birth of A Nation is a silent film from 1915 and the highest grossing film in film history. The film tells a romance story during the American civil war.

Richard Dadier is a teacher at North Manual High School, an inner-city school where many of the pupils frequently engage in anti-social behavior. Dadier makes various attempts to engage the students' interest in education, challenging both the school staff and the pupils. He is subjected to violence as well as duplicitous schemes.

From the atmospheric vision of Ridley Scott comes this futuristic film noir declared by many as the greatest Science Fiction movie of all time. Based on the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick.

In October of 1994 three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, while shooting a documentary...A year later their footage was found.

The Blue Angel / Der Blaue Engel is a 1930 German film from Josef von Starnberg. An adaptation of the 1905 novel “The Blue Angel: Small Town Tyrant.”

A town—where everyone seems to be named Johnson—stands in the way of the railroad. In order to grab their land, robber baron Hedley Lamarr sends his henchmen to make life in the town unbearable. After the sheriff is killed, the town demands a new sheriff from the Governor, so Hedley convinces him to send the town the first black sheriff in the w...

A mansion is a large and stately dwelling house for the wealthy.

BLOW-UP is the story of a successful fashion photographer, Thomas (David Hemmings), who, whilst scouting for fresh subjects in a park one afternoon, photographs a mysterious couple in 'flagrante delicto.' Upon returning to his studio loft later that day, he develops the pictures and discovers that he has inadvertently stumbled upon a murder.

This film noir stars Alan Ladd as a war veteran framed for the murder of his own wife and follows his search for the real murderer. Veronica Lake plays the sultry femme fatale who provides unexpected help.

P.C. George Dixon is a long-serving traditional copper who is due to retire shortly. He takes a new recruit under his aegis and introduces him to the easy-going night beat. Dixon is a classic ordinary hero but also anachronistic, unprepared and unable to answer the violence of the 1950s.

Blue Velvet is a thriller from David Lynch that depicts the contrariness of two worlds that Jeffery is a part of - and torn apart from. The film is very ambivalent in the style that Lynch fans have come to love.

Direct out of jail, Jake Blues and his Brother Elwood are off on a “mission from god” to raise funds for the orphanage in which they grew up. The only thing they can do is do what they do best: play music. So they get their old band together and they're on their way yet not without getting in a bit of trouble here and there.

In Paris, Bob Montagne is practically synonymous with gambling -- and winning. He is kind, classy and well-liked by virtually everyone in town, including police inspector Ledru. However, when Bob's luck turns sour, he begins to lose friends and makes the most desperate gamble of his life: to rob the Deauville casino during Grand Prix weekend, wh...

Charley Davis, against the wishes of his mother, becomes a boxer. As he becomes more successful the fighter becomes surrounded by shady characters, including an unethical promoter named Roberts, who tempt the man with a number of vices. Charley finds himself faced with increasingly difficult choices.

This South Korean film depicts the life of the ever overwhelming course of nature in the changing seasons.

Bonnie and Clyde is based on the true stories of the gangster pair Bonnie Parker and Clyde Parker who in the 1930’s began robbing banks in all the main US cities until they were eventually killed. The film takes on the aesthetical movement of New Hollywood.

Eddie Addams wants to be an actor and becomes one. Although different than he aspired, he is discovered by a porn director. The movie shows the development of porn industry in the late 70's and 80's. Eddie's carrier is altered by the arrival of video.

A German submarine hunts allied ships during the Second World War. Soon it becomes hunted itself. The crew tries to survive below the surface, while stretching both the boat and themselves to their limits...

A pretend Kazakhstan reporter Borat visits the United States to learn the cultural differences between his homeland and the US. The film is a clever mix of documentation and comedy. Sacha Baron Cohen won a Golden Globe for his acting.

Boston is being terrorized by a series of seemingly random murders of women. Based on the true story, the film follows the investigators path through several leads before introducing the Strangler as a character. It is seen almost exclusively from the point of view of the investigators who have very few clues to build a case upon.

An unlikely friendship between a dour, working class butcher and a repressed schoolteacher coincides with a grisly series of Ripper-type murders in a provincial French town.

Michael Moore tries to find more information on the Columbine shooting incident and the larger picture of arms control in the USA.

Boyz N The Hood is the popular and successful film and social criticism from John Singleton about the conditions in South Central Los Angeles where teenagers are involved in gun fights and drug dealing on a daily basis.

The original 70's TV family is now placed in the 1990's, where they're even more square and out of place than ever.

Enraged at the slaughter of Murron -- his new bride and childhood love -- legendary Scottish warrior William Wallace slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village to revolt and, eventually, the entire country to rise up against English rule.

Brazil is a Terry Gilliam dystopic black comedy film that reflects the melancholy, dreamlike quality of a famous Brazilian song that’s been translated into English. The film parodies the mostly dysfunctional bureaucratic world we live in and takes us to a post-apocalyptic world in the future yet with our present day attitudes in mind.

fortune hunter Holly Golightly finds herself captivated by aspiring writer Paul Varjak, who's moved into her building on a wealthy woman's dime. As romance blooms between Paul and Holly, Doc Golightly shows up on the scene, revealing Holly's past.

Dave, nineteen, has just graduated high school, with his 3 friends, The comical Cyril, the warm hearted but short-tempered Moocher, and the athletic, spiteful but good-hearted Mike. Now, Dave enjoys racing bikes and hopes to race the Italians one day, and even takes up the Italian culture, much to his friends and parents annoyance.

Breaking the Waves is Lars von Tier’s intimate story of love, loss, faith, and tragedy. Filmed in the Dogma 95 style; a woman tries to keep a relationship with her husband during hard times. The scenic imagery and excellent performances create a powerful film.

A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.

Bride of Frankenstein begins where James Whale's Frankenstein from 1931 ended. Dr. Frankenstein has not been killed as previously portrayed and now he wants to get away from the mad experiments. Yet when his wife is kidnapped by his creation, Frankenstein agrees to help him create a new monster, this time a woman.

A classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson , the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

Brief Encounter is a classic from British director David Lean about two people who fall in love yet face the fact that they are already married and can never be together.

Centring on the activities of a gang of assorted criminals and, in particular, their leader – a vicious young hoodlum known as "Pinkie" – the film's main thematic concern is the criminal underbelly evident in inter-war Brighton.

An American bartender and his prostitute girlfriend go on a road trip through the Mexican underworld to collect a $1 million bounty on the head of a dead gigolo.

Bringing Up Baby is an American screwball comedy starring Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn.

A hapless talent manager named Danny Rose, by helping a client, gets dragged into a love triangle involving the mob. His story is told in flashback, an anecdote shared amongst a group of comedians over lunch at New York's Carnegie Deli. Rose's one-man talent agency represents countless incompetent entertainers, including a one-legged tap dancer,...

Brokeback Mountain is an Ang Lee film about two modern day cowboys who meet on a shepherding job in the summer of ’63. The two share a raw and powerful summer together that turns into a life long relationship conflicting with the lives they are supposed to live.

Battleship Potemkin is the classic masterpiece silent film from director Sergej Eisenstein from 1925. The film is based on the true events of the Russian Revolution of 1905. The film had an incredible impact on the development of cinema and was a masterful example of montage editing.

Die Büchse der Pandora, meaning Pandora’s Box, is a classic German silent film from director Pabst. This is the third film about the Lulu-Stoffes character from Frank Wedekind and is deemed a masterpiece.

Billy is released after five years in prison. In the next moment, he kidnaps teenage student Layla and visits his parents with her, pretending she is his girlfriend and they will soon marry.

New York, 1929, a war rages between two rival gangsters, Fat Sam and Dandy Dan. Dan is in possession of a new and deadly weapon, the dreaded "splurge gun". As the custard pies fly, Bugsy Malone, an all-round nice guy, falls for Blousey Brown, a singer at Fat Sam's speakeasy. His designs on her are disrupted by the seductive songstress Tallulah w...

Bull Durham is a film about a baseball league and a triangle relationship. The film was one of the most successful sport films in American.

Bullitt is an American action thriller from director Peter Yates from 1968. Steven Mcqueen plays the leading role as a mafia-chasing police officer who must protect a valuable witness. The film’s ten minute high speed pursuit is legendary.

Scoundrels are competing for 200,000 dollars hidden in a grave. The third Italian-Western film of a trilogy from director Sergio Leone gives Western films a new (bloody) color.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a western comedy from 1969 starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, two robbers with one more job to finish. The film was biggest box-office hit of the 60’s.

Inside the Kit Kat Club of 1931 Berlin, starry-eyed singer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) and an impish emcee (Joel Grey) sound the clarion call to decadent fun, while outside a certain political party grows into a brutal force.