The Greatest Films of All Time – Gokul Prasad

This is an audacious attempt to compile the best films of all time. The history of cinema is filled with auteurs and establishing a ranking of the best is a perilous exercise. In this tedious task, I preferred to be objective and rank them in order. Here you go.

1. Andrei Rublev – Andrei Tarkovsky (1966, Russia)
2. Human Condition Trilogy – Masaki Kobayashi (1959-61, Japan)
3. Satantango – Bela Tarr (1994, Hungary)
4. Nazarin – Luis Bunuel (1959, Spain)
5. Shoah – Claude Lanzmann (1985, France)
6. The Fifth Seal – Zoltan Fabri (1976, Hungary)
7. The Roof – Vittorio De Sica (1956, Italy)
8. The Passion of Joan of Arc – Carl Theodor Dryer (1928, Denmark)
9. Berlin Alexanderplatz – Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1980, Germany)
10. The White Ribbon – Michael Haneke (2009, Germany)
11. Melancholia – Lav Diaz (2008, Philippines)
12. Germany Pale Mother – Helma Sanders- Brahms (1981. Germany)
13. The Emigrants & The New Land – Jan Troell (1972, Sweden)
14. Mandala – Im Kwon-taek (1981, South Korea)
15. Au Hazard Balthazar – Robert Bresson (1966, France)
16. Out 1 – Jacques Rivette (1971, France)
17. Trilogy of Borders – Theo Angelopoulos (1991-98, Greece)
18. The Turin Horse – Bela Tarr (2011, Hungary)
19. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels – Chantal Akerman (1975, Belgium)
20. Umberto D. – Vittorio De Sica (1952, Italy)
21. Lucia – Humberto Solas (1968, Cuba)
22. Dead Souls – Wang Bing (2018, China)
23. Heimat – Edgar Reitz (1984, Germany)
24. Boyhood – Richard Linklater (2014, USA)
25. Winter Sleep – Nuri Bilge Ceylan (2014, Turkey)
26. Amour – Michael Haneke (2012, Germany)
27. The Tree of Life – Terrence Malick (2011, USA)
28. The Leopard – Luchino Visconti (1963, Italy)
29. Leviathan – Andrey Zvyagintsev (2014, Russia)
30. Bicycle Thieves – Vittorio De Sica (1948, Italy)
31. A City of Sadness – Hou Hsiao-hsien (1989, Taiwan)
32. Samurai Rebellion – Masaki Kobayashi (1967, Japan)
33. A Man Escaped – Robert Bresson (1956, France)
34. Evolution of a Filipino Family – Lav Diaz (2004, Philippines)
35. The Boys of Paul Street – Zoltan Fabri (1969, Hungary)
36. La Belle Noiseuse – Jacques Rivette (1991, France)
37. Ordet – Carl Theodor Dreyer (1955, Denmark)
38. Ikiru – Akira Kurosawa (1952, Japan)
39. Raise the Red Lantern – Zhang Yimou (1991, China)
40. Salvatore Giuliano – Francesco Rosi (1962, Italy)
41. Cemetery of Splendour – Apichatpong Weerasethakul (2015, Thai)
42. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors – Sergei Parajanov (1965, Russia)
43. Sunrise, A Song of Two Humans – F.W.Murnau (1927, Germany)
44. Mysteries of Lisbon – Raul Ruiz (2010, Portugal)
45. Loveless – Andrey Zvyagintsev (2017, Russia)
46. Pickpocket – Robert Bresson (1959, France)
47. No Mercy No Future – Helma Sanders-Brahms (1981, Germany)
48. Wild Strawberries – Ingmar Bergman (1957, Sweden)
49. The Silence of the Sea – Jean-pierre Melville (1949, France)
50. Ugetsu Monogatari – Kenji Mizoguchi (1953, Japan)
51. Still Walking – Hirokazu Kore-eda (2008, Japan)
52. Arabian Nights Trilogy – Miguel Gomes (2015, Portugal)
53. Los Olvidados – Luis Bunuel (1950, Spain)
54. Still Life – Jia Zhangke (2006, China)
55. Harakiri – Masaki Kobayashi (1962, Japan)
56. Rashomon – Akira Kurosawa (1950, Japan)
57. The Child – Dardenne brothers (2005, Belgium)
58. The Ballad of Narayama – Shohei Imamura (1983, Japan)
59. Here Is Your Life – Jan Troell (1966, Sweden)
60. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives – Apichatpong Weerasethakul (2010, Thai)
61. An Elephant Sitting Still – Hu Bo (2018, China)
62. The Tree of Wooden Clogs – Ermanno Olmi (1978, Italy)
63. The Blue Angel – Josef von Sternberg (1930, Germany)
64. Hero – Zhang Yimou (2002, China)
65. The Life of Oharu – Kenji Mizoguchi (1952, Japan)
66. Bob the Gambler – Jean-pierre Melville (1956, France)
67. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant – Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1972, Germany)
68. Two Days, One Night – Dardenne brothers (2014, Belgium)
69. Christ Stopped at Eboli – Francesco Rosi (1979, Italy)
70. Shoah, Four Sisters – Claude Lanzmann (2017, France)
71. The Round-Up – Miklós Jancsó (1966, Hungary)
72. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days – Cristian Mungiu (2007, Romania)
73. House of Flying Daggers – Zhang Yimou (2004, China)
74. Hungarians – Zoltan Fabri (1978, Hungary)
75. Songs from the Second Floor / You the Living / A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence – Roy Andersson (2000 – 2014, Sweden)
76. Marketa Lazarová – František Vláčil (1967, Czech)
77. The Seventh Seal – Ingmar Bergman (1957, Sweden)
78. Long Day’s Journey into Night – Bi Gan (2018, China)
79. Playtime – Jacques Tati (1967, France)
80. The Wild Pear Tree – Nuri Bilge Ceylan (2018, Turkey)
81. Man Is Not a Bird – Dušan Makavejev (1965, Yugoslavia)
82. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie / The Phantom of Liberty / That Obscure object of Desire – Luis Bunuel (1972 – 77, Spain)
83. The Look of Silence – Joshua Oppenheimer (2014, Denmark)
84. Manchester by the Sea – Kenneth Lonergan (2016, USA)
85. The Grapes of Wrath – John Ford (1940, USA)
86. Diary for My Children – Márta Mészáros (1984, Hungary)
87. White Material – Claire Denis (2009, France)
88. Gett the Trial of Viviane Amsalem – Ronit Elkabetz & Shlomi Elkabetz (2015, Israel)
89. The Rules of the Game – Jean Renoir (1939, France)
90. 8 1/2 – Federico Fellini (1963, Italy)
91. Ossos / In Vanda’s Room / Colossal Youth (Lisbon Trilogy) – Pedro Costa (1997 – 2006, Portugal)
92. East Of Eden – Elia Kazan (1955, USA)
93. A Brighter Summer Day – Edward Yang (1991, Taiwan)
94. Portrait of a Lady on Fire – Céline Sciamma (2019, France)
95. Werckmeister Harmonies – Béla Tarr (2000, Hungary)
96. Stray Dogs – Tsai Ming-liang (2013, Taiwan)
97. Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud (2007, France)
98. A Prophet – Jacques Audiard (2009, France)
99. Proletariat Trilogy – Aki Kaurismaki (1986 – 1990, Finland)
100. Nostalgia for the Light – Patricio Guzmán (2010, Chile)
101. The Best of Youth – Marco Tullio Giordana (2003, Italy)
102. The Fog of War – Errol Morris (2003, USA)
103. The Gatekeepers – Dror Moreh (2012, Israel)
104. The Constant Factor – Krzysztof Zanussi (1980, Poland)
105. Underground – Emir Kusturica (1995, Yugoslavia)
106. The General – Buster Keaton (1926, USA)
107. Electra, My Love – Miklós Jancsó (1974, Hungary)
108. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu – Cristi Puiu (2005, Romania)
109. The Burmese Harp – Kon Ichikawa (1956, Japan)
110. R.: Mysteries of the Organism – Dušan Makavejev (1971, Yugoslavia)
111. The Overnighters – Jesse Moss (2014, USA)
112. Young Torless – Volker Schlöndorff (1966, Germany)
113. Meghe Dhaka Tara – Ritwik Ghatak (1960, India)
114. Elena – Andrey Zvyagintsev (2011, Russia)
115. Poetry – Lee Chang-dong (2010, South Korea)
116. Twenty Hours – Zoltán Fábri (1965, Hungary)
117. Das Boot – Wolfgang Petersen (1981, Germany)
118. The Lobster – Yorgos Lanthimos (2015, Greece)
119. There Will be Blood – Paul Thomas Anderson (2007, USA)
120. Hard to Be a God – Aleksei Yuryevich German (2013, Russia)
121. Dosar – Rituparno Ghosh (2006, India)
122. Greed – Erich Von Stroheim (1924, USA)
123. Modern Times – Charlie Chaplin (1936, USA)
124. Maidan – Sergei Loznitsa (2014, Ukraine)