1000 Best Movies AFI
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- DirectorSidney LumetStarsHenry FondaLee J. CobbMartin BalsamThe jury in a New York City murder trial is frustrated by a single member whose skeptical caution forces them to more carefully consider the evidence before jumping to a hasty verdict.
- DirectorBernardo BertolucciStarsRobert De NiroGérard DepardieuDominique SandaThe epic tale of a class struggle in twentieth-century Italy as seen through the eyes of two childhood friends on opposing sides.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsKeir DulleaGary LockwoodWilliam SylvesterAfter uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsRobert DonatMadeleine CarrollLucie MannheimA man in London tries to help a counter-espionage agent, but when the agent is killed and the man stands accused, he must go on the run to save himself and stop a spy ring that is trying to steal top-secret information.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJean-Pierre LéaudAlbert RémyClaire MaurierA young boy, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.
- DirectorLloyd BaconStarsWarner BaxterBebe DanielsGeorge BrentWhen the leading lady of a Broadway musical breaks her ankle, she is replaced by a young unknown actress, who becomes the star of the show.
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsChôjûrô KawarasakiYoshizaburo ArashiUtaemon IchikawaThe legendary Forty-seven ronin plot to avenge the death of their lord, Asano Naganori, by killing Kira Yoshinaka, a shogunate official responsible for Asano being forced to commit seppuku.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsMarcello MastroianniAnouk AiméeClaudia CardinaleA harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies.
- DirectorRené ClairStarsRaymond CordyHenri MarchandRolla FranceSeeking better life, two convicts escape from prison.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsFranco CittiFranca PasutSilvana CorsiniA pimp with no other means to provide for himself finds his life spiraling out of control when his prostitute is sent to prison.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsKirk DouglasJan SterlingRobert ArthurA frustrated former big-city journalist now stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to rekindle his career, but the situation quickly escalates into an out-of-control circus.
- DirectorKon IchikawaStarsKazuo HasegawaFujiko YamamotoAyako WakaoYukinojo, a Kabuki actor, seeks revenge by destroying the three men who caused the deaths of his parents. Also involved are the daughter of one of Yukinojo's targets, two master thieves, and a swordsman who himself is out to kill Yukinojo.
- DirectorLotte ReinigerCarl KochA handsome prince rides a flying horse to faraway lands and embarks on magical adventures, which include befriending a witch, meeting Aladdin, battling demons and falling in love with a princess.
- DirectorMichael CurtizWilliam KeighleyStarsErrol FlynnOlivia de HavillandBasil RathboneWhen Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence in 1190s England, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a resistance movement.
- DirectorLeo McCareyStarsCary GrantDeborah KerrRichard DenningA couple falls in love and agrees to meet in six months at the Empire State Building - but will it happen?
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsHumphrey BogartKatharine HepburnRobert MorleyIn WWI East Africa, a gin-swilling Canadian riverboat captain is persuaded by a strait-laced English missionary to undertake a trip up a treacherous river and use his boat to attack a German gunship.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsGaston ModotLya LysCaridad de LaberdesqueA surrealist tale of a man and a woman who are passionately in love with each other, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted by their families, the Church, and bourgeois society.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsDaniel Day-LewisMichelle PfeifferWinona RyderA tale of nineteenth-century New York high society in which a young lawyer falls in love with a woman separated from her husband, while he is engaged to the woman's cousin.
- DirectorGlauber RochaStarsMaurício do ValleJece ValadãoAntonio PitangaFour Third-World Christs try to stop the American industrialist John Brahms in Glauber Rocha's experimental film inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini's murder.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsKlaus KinskiRuy GuerraHelena RojoIn the 16th century, the ruthless and insane Don Lope de Aguirre leads a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinDmitriy VasilevStarsNikolay CherkasovNikolai OkhlopkovAndrei AbrikosovThe story of how a great Russian prince led a ragtag army to battle an invading force of Teutonic Knights.
- DirectorRainer Werner FassbinderStarsBrigitte MiraEl Hedi ben SalemBarbara ValentinA lonely widow meets a much younger Moroccan worker in a bar during a rainstorm. They fall in love, to their own surprise and to the outright shock of their families, colleagues, and drinking buddies.
- DirectorWim WendersStarsYella RottländerRüdiger VoglerLisa KreuzerA German journalist is saddled with a nine-year-old girl after encountering her mother at a New York airport.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsSigourney WeaverTom SkerrittJohn HurtThe crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.
- DirectorJames CameronStarsSigourney WeaverMichael BiehnCarrie HennDecades after surviving the Nostromo incident, Ellen Ripley is sent out to re-establish contact with a terraforming colony but finds herself battling the Alien Queen and her offspring.
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsBette DavisAnne BaxterGeorge SandersA seemingly timid but secretly ruthless ingénue insinuates herself into the lives of an aging Broadway star and her circle of theater friends.
- DirectorPedro AlmodóvarStarsCecilia RothMarisa ParedesCandela PeñaA comedy-drama about a bereaved mother, and overwrought actress, her jealous lover, and a pregnant nun.
- DirectorLewis MilestoneStarsLew AyresLouis WolheimJohn WrayA German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wanes as he gets a firsthand view of the horror.
- DirectorDouglas SirkStarsJane WymanRock HudsonAgnes MooreheadAn upper-class widow falls in love with a much younger, down-to-earth nurseryman, much to the disapproval of her children and criticism of her country club peers.
- DirectorBob FosseStarsRoy ScheiderJessica LangeAnn ReinkingDirector/choreographer Bob Fosse tells his own life story as he details the sordid career of Joe Gideon, a womanizing, drug-using dancer.
- DirectorAlan J. PakulaStarsDustin HoffmanRobert RedfordJack Warden"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsEddie ConstantineAnna KarinaAkim TamiroffA U.S. secret agent is sent to the distant space city of Alphaville where he must find a missing person and free the city from its tyrannical ruler.
- DirectorMilos FormanStarsF. Murray AbrahamTom HulceElizabeth BerridgeThe life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
- DirectorLeos CaraxStarsJuliette BinocheDenis LavantKlaus-Michael GrüberAlex, who's homeless and addicted to alcohol, and Michèle, who's losing her sight, form a relationship while sleeping rough on Paris's Pont-Neuf bridge.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsMagali NoëlBruno ZaninPupella MaggioA series of comedic and nostalgic vignettes set in a 1930s Italian coastal town.
- DirectorElia KazanStarsStathis GiallelisFrank WolffElena KaramA young Greek stops at nothing to secure a passage to America.
- DirectorPaul SchraderStarsRichard GereLauren HuttonHector ElizondoA Los Angeles escort is accused of a murder which he did not commit.
- DirectorGeorge LucasStarsRichard DreyfussRon HowardPaul Le MatA group of teenagers in California's central valley spend one final night after their 1962 high school graduation cruising the strip with their buddies before they pursue their varying goals.
- DirectorJacques RivetteStarsBulle OgierJean-Pierre KalfonJosée DestoopDuring the rehearsals for the production of the tragedy Andromaque, the leading actress and her director, a couple behind the scenes, can't find a way to leave their personal problems at home. And life imitates fiction, creating a real tragedy for this couple when the man finds comfort with other women while the actress prefers to stay focused on her work, as if nothing is happening with her partner.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsAkemi NegishiTadashi SuganumaKisaburo SawamuraFrom June 1944, twelve Japanese seamen are stranded for seven years on an abandoned and forgotten island called Anatahan.
- DirectorOtto PremingerStarsJames StewartLee RemickBen GazzaraAn upstate Michigan lawyer defends a soldier who claims he killed an innkeeper due to temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?
- DirectorRoger VadimStarsBrigitte BardotCurd JürgensJean-Louis TrintignantIn sunny St. Tropez, a young woman loves one brother but marries the other.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsFarhad KheradmandPouya PayvarBehrouz AbediniA director and his son return to a region damaged by the Guilan earthquake, hoping to find the children who appeared in his film a few years earlier.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsFreddie JonesBarbara JeffordVictor PolettiIn 1914, a luxury ship leaves Italy in order to scatter the ashes of a famous opera singer. A lovable bumbling journalist chronicles the voyage and meets the singer's many eccentric friends and admirers.
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsAnatoliy SolonitsynIvan LapikovNikolay GrinkoThe life, times and afflictions of the fifteenth-century Russian iconographer St. Andrei Rublev.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsMarlene DietrichHerbert MarshallMelvyn DouglasA woman and her husband take separate vacations, and she falls in love with another man.
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsWoody AllenDiane KeatonTony RobertsAlvy Singer, a divorced Jewish comedian, reflects on his relationship with ex-lover Annie Hall, an aspiring nightclub singer, which ended abruptly just like his previous marriages.
- DirectorGlauber RochaStarsMaurício do ValleOdete LaraOthon BastosIn this sequel to "Black God, White Devil", Antonio das Mortes must return back to action after killing the last of the Cangaceiros 29 years ago, when a new outlaw appears, who will eventually reveal as an idealist and mark him profoundly.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsPinaki SenguptaSmaran GhosalKamala AdhikariFollowing his father's death, a boy leaves home to study in Calcutta, while his mother must face a life alone.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsJack LemmonShirley MacLaineFred MacMurrayA Manhattan insurance clerk tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsMartin SheenMarlon BrandoRobert DuvallA U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsNinetto DavoliFranco CittiFranco MerliIn ancient Arabia, a beautiful slave girl chooses a youth to be her new master, then she is kidnapped and they must search for each other. Stories are told within stories: love, travel and the whims of destiny.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsChristian PateySylvie Van den ElsenMichel BriguetA counterfeit bill that starts off as a schoolboy prank leads to incarceration and violence.
- DirectorJean-Pierre MelvilleStarsLino VenturaPaul MeurisseJean-Pierre CasselAn account of underground resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied France.
- DirectorAuguste LumièreLouis LumièreStarsMadeleine KoehlerMarcel KoehlerMrs. Auguste LumiereA train arrives at La Ciotat station.
- DirectorAleksandr DovzhenkoStarsSemyon SvashenkoGeorgi KhorkovAmvrosi BuchmaA soldier returns to Kyiv after surviving a train crash and encounters clashes between nationalists and collectivists.
- DirectorStan BrakhageThis film is a 'deconstruction' of 'Dog Star Man'. It takes the four 'rolls' of super-fast edited, often poetic, imagery of 'Dog Star Man' and shows them first combined, then each combination of three rolls(=4) then each combination of two rolls (=6) then each individual roll (=4). The 'plot' is of a man who goes up a mountain with a dog to chop down a tree, but he has some unspecified transcendental experience while he is there.
- DirectorLarisa ShepitkoStarsBoris PlotnikovVladimir GostyukhinSergey YakovlevTwo Soviet partisans on a mission to gather food contend with the winter cold, the occupying Germans, and their own psyches.
- DirectorAndrzej WajdaStarsZbigniew CybulskiEwa KrzyzewskaWaclaw ZastrzezynskiAs World War II and the German occupation ends, the Polish resistance and the Soviet forces turn on each other in an attempt to take over leadership in Communist Poland.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsSterling HaydenLouis CalhernJean HagenA major heist goes off as planned, but then double crosses, bad luck and solid police work cause everything to unravel.
- DirectorJean VigoStarsDita ParloJean DastéGilles MargaritisNewly married couple Juliette and a ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'atalante along with the captain's first mate Le père Jules and a cabin boy.
- DirectorLouis MalleStarsBurt LancasterSusan SarandonKate ReidIn 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.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsAnne WiazemskyWalter GreenFrançois LafargeThe story of a mistreated donkey and the people around him. A study on saintliness and a sister piece to Bresson's Mouchette.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsChishû RyûShima IwashitaKeiji SadaAn aging widower arranges a marriage for his only daughter.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsJack LemmonJuliet MillsClive RevillA successful businessman goes to Italy to arrange for the return of his tycoon father's body--and discovers that Dad died with his long-time mistress.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsGabriele FerzettiMonica VittiLea MassariA woman disappears during a Mediterranean boating trip. During the search, her lover and her best friend become attracted to each other.
- DirectorRaj KapoorStarsRaj KapoorNargisPrithviraj KapoorA poor young man named Raj joins a criminal gang to feed his mother. But when he falls in love with Rita, he decides to reform himself for her.
- DirectorLeo McCareyStarsIrene DunneCary GrantRalph BellamyA married couple file an amicable divorce, but find it harder to let go of each other than they initially thought.
- DirectorElia KazanStarsKarl MaldenCarroll BakerEli WallachAn immature, naive teenage bride holds her anxious husband at bay while flirting with an amorous Sicilian farmer.
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsMichael J. FoxChristopher LloydLea ThompsonMarty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.
- DirectorVincente MinnelliStarsLana TurnerKirk DouglasWalter PidgeonAn unscrupulous movie producer uses an actress, a director and a writer to achieve success.
- DirectorNicolas RoegStarsArt GarfunkelTheresa RussellHarvey KeitelA psychiatrist, living in Vienna, enters a torrid relationship with a married woman. When she ends up in the hospital from an overdose, an inspector becomes set on discovering the demise of their affair.
- DirectorTerrence MalickStarsMartin SheenSissy SpacekWarren OatesAn impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town, and her older greaser boyfriend, embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota Badlands.
- DirectorMarcel PagnolStarsRaimuGinette LeclercFernand CharpinA small village rejoices at the arrival of a new baker. But when his young wife runs off with another man, he is unable to keep baking and the village is thrown into disarray.
- DirectorShôhei ImamuraStarsKen OgataSumiko SakamotoTonpei HidariIn a poor 19th century rural Japanese village, everyone who reaches the age of 70 has to climb a nearby mountain to die. An elderly woman is reaching close to her cut-off age during her last days with her family.
- DirectorJames AlgarSamuel ArmstrongDavid HandStarsHardie AlbrightStan AlexanderBobette AudreyThe story of a young deer growing up in the forest.
- DirectorVincente MinnelliStarsFred AstaireCyd CharisseOscar LevantA pretentiously artistic director is hired for a new Broadway musical and changes it beyond recognition.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsAnna KarinaClaude BrasseurDanièle GirardTwo crooks with a fondness for old Hollywood B-movies convince a languages student to help them commit a robbery.
- DirectorEdward F. ClineStarsW.C. FieldsCora WitherspoonUna MerkelHenpecked Egbert Sousé has comic adventures as a substitute film director and unlikely bank guard.
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsHumphrey BogartAva GardnerEdmond O'BrienThis is the life of a Hollywood movie star named Maria, as told by writer/director Harry Dawes, from being discovered in Madrid, Spain, until her funeral in Italy.
- DirectorNelson Pereira dos SantosStarsÁtila IórioMaria RibeiroOrlando MacedoA poor family in the Northeast of Brazil (Fabiano, the father; Sinhá Vitória, the mother; their 2 children and a dog called Baleia) wander about the barren land searching for a better place to live, with food and work. But the drought and misery destroy their hopes.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsRyan O'NealMarisa BerensonPatrick MageeAn Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's aristocratic position in 18th-century England.
- DirectorJoel CoenEthan CoenStarsJohn TurturroJohn GoodmanJudy DavisA renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood.
- DirectorGillo PontecorvoStarsBrahim HadjadjJean MartinYacef SaadiIn the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsAleksandr AntonovVladimir BarskiyGrigoriy AleksandrovIn the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel's officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police massacre.
- DirectorClaire DenisStarsDenis LavantMichel SuborGrégoire ColinAn ex-Foreign Legion officer recalls his once-glorious life of leading troops in Djibouti.
- DirectorBernardo BertolucciStarsAdriana AstiFrancesco BarilliAllen MidgetteFollowing the death of his friend, an Italian youth grows increasingly closer to his young aunt.
- DirectorHal AshbyStarsPeter SellersShirley MacLaineMelvyn DouglasAfter the death of his employer forces him out of the only home he's ever known, a simpleminded, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful tycoon and an insider in Washington politics.
- DirectorJerry LewisStarsJerry LewisAlex GerryBob ClaytonMute bellboy Stanley works at the luxurious Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. In spite of being a serviceable and friendly employee, the clumsy Stanley gets successively into trouble with his mistakes.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsCatherine DeneuveJean SorelMichel PiccoliA frigid young housewife decides to spend her midweek afternoons as a prostitute.
- DirectorJean CocteauRené ClémentStarsJean MaraisJosette DayMila ParélyA beautiful young woman takes her father's place as the prisoner of a mysterious beast, who wishes to marry her.
- DirectorJacques RivetteStarsMichel PiccoliJane BirkinEmmanuelle BéartThe former famous painter Frenhofer revisits an abandoned project using the girlfriend of a young visiting artist. Questions about truth, life, and artistic limits are explored.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsAnna MagnaniWalter ChiariTina ApicellaA woman from the lower class desperately tries to get her daughter into the movies.
- DirectorFred NibloCharles BrabinChristy CabanneStarsRamon NovarroFrancis X. BushmanMay McAvoyA Jewish prince seeks to find his family and revenge himself upon his childhood friend who had him wrongly imprisoned.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsCharlton HestonJack HawkinsStephen BoydAfter a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend in 1st-century Jerusalem, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.
- StarsGünter LamprechtClaus HolmHanna SchygullaIn late-1920s Berlin, Franz Biberkopf is released from prison and vows to go straight. However, he soon finds himself embroiled in the city's criminal underworld.
- DirectorWalter RuttmannStarsPaul von HindenburgThis movie shows us one day in Berlin, the rhythm of that time, starting at the earliest morning and ends in the deepest night.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsMyrna LoyDana AndrewsFredric MarchThree World War II veterans, two of them traumatized or disabled, return home to the American midwest to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsJean GabinJulien CaretteSimone SimonIn this classic adaptation of Emile Zola's novel, a tortured train engineer falls in love with a troubled married woman who has helped her husband commit a murder.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsDana AndrewsJoan FontaineSidney BlackmerA novelist aided by his future father-in-law conspires to frame himself for the murder of a burlesque dancer as part of an effort to ban capital punishment.