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Most Highbrow Films (#1-200)

Rank Title Year Director(s) Overall
Rank
1 Tokyo Story 1953 Yasujirô Ozu 78
2 Breathless 1960 Jean-Luc Godard 97
3 The 400 Blows 1959 François Truffaut 70
4 Rashômon 1950 Akira Kurosawa 65
5 M 1931 Fritz Lang 84
6 Pather Panchali 1955 Satyajit Ray 155
7 Persona 1966 Ingmar Bergman 122
8 Aguirre: The Wrath of God 1972 Werner Herzog 178
9 La Dolce Vita 1960 Federico Fellini 124
10 In the Mood for Love 2000 Kar-Wai Wong 94
11 The Rules of the Game 1939 Jean Renoir 138
12 8 1/2 1963 Federico Fellini 100
13 The Passion of Joan of Arc 1928 Carl Theodor Dreyer 152
14 Sunrise 1927 F.W. Murnau 117
15 The Bicycle Thief 1948 Vittorio De Sica 69
16 The Grand Illusion 1937 Jean Renoir 180
17 Metropolis 1927 Fritz Lang 43
18 The Battle of Algiers 1966 Gillo Pontecorvo 158
19 The Night of the Hunter 1955 Charles Laughton 57
20 L'Avventura 1960 Michelangelo Antonioni 299
21 Fanny and Alexander 1982 Ingmar Bergman 253
22 The Battleship Potemkin 1925 Sergei Eisenstein 131
23 Andrei Rublev 1966 Andrei Tarkovsky 264
24 Children of Paradise 1945 Marcel Carné 216
25 Wild Strawberries 1957 Ingmar Bergman 245
26 Nosferatu 1922 F.W. Murnau 107
27 The Seventh Seal 1957 Ingmar Bergman 118
28 Ikiru 1952 Akira Kurosawa 223
29 L'Atalante 1934 Jean Vigo 332
30 Ugetsu 1953 Kenji Mizoguchi 352
31 Jules and Jim 1962 François Truffaut 241
32 Ran 1985 Akira Kurosawa 186
33 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 1972 Luis Buñuel 368
34 Playtime 1967 Jacques Tati 328
35 The General 1926 Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton 86
36 Wings of Desire 1987 Wim Wenders 277
37 Touch of Evil 1958 Orson Welles 87
38 Seven Samurai 1954 Akira Kurosawa 24
39 The Man with the Movie Camera 1929 Dziga Vertov 240
40 Au hasard Balthazar 1966 Robert Bresson 365
41 The Red Shoes 1948 Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger 150
42 Beauty and the Beast 1946 Jean Cocteau 201
43 The Conformist 1970 Bernardo Bertolucci 287
44 Three Colors: Red 1994 Krzysztof Kieslowski 208
45 Sansho the Bailiff 1954 Kenji Mizoguchi 414
46 Stalker 1979 Andrei Tarkovsky 195
47 The Spirit of the Beehive 1973 Víctor Erice 390
48 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 1920 Robert Wiene 174
49 Jeanne Dielman 1975 Chantal Akerman 321
50 The Searchers 1956 John Ford 53
51 Rome, Open City 1945 Roberto Rossellini 360
52 The Leopard 1963 Luchino Visconti 340
53 Hiroshima mon amour 1959 Alain Resnais 432
54 His Girl Friday 1940 Howard Hawks 98
55 Three Colors: Blue 1993 Krzysztof Kieslowski 322
56 The Third Man 1949 Carol Reed 42
57 Last Year at Marienbad 1961 Alain Resnais 433
58 Shoah 1985 Claude Lanzmann 254
59 City Lights 1931 Charles Chaplin 40
60 Bringing Up Baby 1938 Howard Hawks 128
61 Mulholland Dr. 2001 David Lynch 89
62 Solaris 1972 Andrei Tarkovsky 170
63 Brief Encounter 1945 David Lean 211
64 Modern Times 1936 Charles Chaplin 61
65 Ordet 1955 Carl Theodor Dreyer 514
66 The Wages of Fear 1953 Henri-Georges Clouzot 269
67 Belle de Jour 1967 Luis Buñuel 378
68 Rosemary's Baby 1968 Roman Polanski 77
69 La Strada 1954 Federico Fellini 366
70 Come and See 1985 Elem Klimov 255
71 Duck Soup 1933 Leo McCarey 129
72 Contempt 1963 Jean-Luc Godard 496
73 Viridiana 1961 Luis Buñuel 485
74 The Gold Rush 1925 Charles Chaplin 171
75 Days of Heaven 1978 Terrence Malick 243
76 Once Upon a Time in the West 1968 Sergio Leone 76
77 Barry Lyndon 1975 Stanley Kubrick 233
78 Ali: Fear Eats the Soul 1974 Rainer Werner Fassbinder 471
79 Chungking Express 1994 Kar-Wai Wong 372
80 Cleo from 5 to 7 1962 Agnès Varda 383
81 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 1962 John Ford 230
82 Close-Up 1990 Abbas Kiarostami 531
83 The Umbrellas of Cherbourg 1964 Jacques Demy 292
84 Yi yi: A One and a Two... 2000 Edward Yang 457
85 Eraserhead 1977 David Lynch 249
86 The Big Sleep 1946 Howard Hawks 215
87 Badlands 1973 Terrence Malick 272
88 Don't Look Now 1973 Nicolas Roeg 160
89 Blue Velvet 1986 David Lynch 133
90 Stagecoach 1939 John Ford 183
91 The Apartment 1960 Billy Wilder 59
92 The Decalogue 1989 Krzysztof Kieslowski 508
93 Paris, Texas 1984 Wim Wenders 353
94 Le Samouraï 1967 Jean-Pierre Melville 455
95 The Conversation 1974 Francis Ford Coppola 207
96 Un chien andalou 1929 Luis Buñuel 382
97 La Jetée 1962 Chris Marker 474
98 All about My Mother 1999 Pedro Almodóvar 320
99 Bride of Frankenstein 1935 James Whale 123
100 Rio Bravo 1959 Howard Hawks 202
101 Sherlock, Jr. 1924 Buster Keaton 281
102 Nashville 1975 Robert Altman 161
103 Peeping Tom 1960 Michael Powell 274
104 Pierrot le Fou 1965 Jean-Luc Godard 671
105 Blow-Up 1966 Michelangelo Antonioni 346
106 A Woman under the Influence 1974 John Cassavetes 449
107 Late Spring 1949 Yasujirô Ozu 593
108 The Wild Bunch 1969 Sam Peckinpah 88
109 The World of Apu 1959 Satyajit Ray 492
110 Umberto D. 1952 Vittorio De Sica 491
111 Paths of Glory 1957 Stanley Kubrick 127
112 A Matter of Life and Death 1946 Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger 316
113 To Be or Not to Be 1942 Ernst Lubitsch 251
114 Sweet Smell of Success 1957 Alexander Mackendrick 209
115 Manhattan 1979 Woody Allen 191
116 The Mirror 1975 Andrei Tarkovsky 597
117 The Lady Eve 1941 Preston Sturges 239
118 Brazil 1985 Terry Gilliam 114
119 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 1943 Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger 394
120 McCabe & Mrs. Miller 1971 Robert Altman 337
121 Los Olvidados 1950 Luis Buñuel 570
122 Double Indemnity 1944 Billy Wilder 51
123 Yojimbo 1961 Akira Kurosawa 354
124 A Man Escaped 1956 Robert Bresson 617
125 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 1974 Tobe Hooper 179
126 The Magnificent Ambersons 1942 Orson Welles 456
127 Out of the Past 1947 Jacques Tourneur 461
128 Greed 1924 Erich von Stroheim 473
129 The Earrings of Madame De… 1953 Max Ophüls 801
130 A Brighter Summer Day 1991 Edward Yang 659
131 My Life to Live 1962 Jean-Luc Godard 724
132 Ashes and Diamonds 1958 Andrzej Wajda 680
133 Kind Hearts and Coronets 1949 Robert Hamer 345
134 L'Eclisse 1962 Michelangelo Antonioni 806
135 Raise the Red Lantern 1991 Yimou Zhang 509
136 Hidden 2005 Michael Haneke 501
137 Nights of Cabiria 1957 Federico Fellini 693
138 Sullivan's Travels 1941 Preston Sturges 389
139 Diary of a Country Priest 1951 Robert Bresson 715
140 Beau travail 1999 Claire Denis 512
141 Pickpocket 1959 Robert Bresson 752
142 Freaks 1932 Tod Browning 247
143 Eyes without a Face 1960 Georges Franju 381
144 Suspiria 1977 Dario Argento 228
145 Diabolique 1955 Henri-Georges Clouzot 295
146 Black Narcissus 1947 Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger 446
147 Amarcord 1973 Federico Fellini 554
148 My Neighbor Totoro 1988 Hayao Miyazaki 144
149 Night of the Living Dead 1968 George A. Romero 102
150 Oldboy 2003 Park Chan-wook 141
151 The Shop around the Corner 1940 Ernst Lubitsch 260
152 Sátántangó 1994 Béla Tarr 776
153 Trouble in Paradise 1932 Ernst Lubitsch 540
154 The Lives of Others 2006 Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck 244
155 Throne of Blood 1957 Akira Kurosawa 592
156 Notorious 1946 Alfred Hitchcock 148
157 Army in the Shadows 1969 Jean-Pierre Melville 424
158 Day of Wrath 1943 Carl Theodor Dreyer 799
159 Let the Right One in 2008 Tomas Alfredson 290
160 Cries and Whispers 1972 Ingmar Bergman 695
161 Killer of Sheep 1978 Charles Burnett 434
162 Rififi 1955 Jules Dassin 419
163 The Birds 1963 Alfred Hitchcock 226
164 Celine & Julie Go Boating 1974 Jacques Rivette 764
165 The Manchurian Candidate 1962 John Frankenheimer 261
166 City of God 2002 Fernando Meirelles 103
167 The Exterminating Angel 1962 Luis Buñuel 896
168 Strangers on a Train 1951 Alfred Hitchcock 286
169 Woman in the Dunes 1964 Hiroshi Teshigahara 805
170 My Darling Clementine 1946 John Ford 450
171 Day for Night 1973 François Truffaut 662
172 Johnny Guitar 1954 Nicholas Ray 477
173 This Is Spinal Tap 1984 Rob Reiner 143
174 Meet Me in St. Louis 1944 Vincente Minnelli 284
175 Red River 1948 Howard Hawks 319
176 Rocco and His Brothers 1960 Luchino Visconti 838
177 Kiss Me Deadly 1955 Robert Aldrich 480
178 Mr. Hulot's Holiday 1953 Jacques Tati 525
179 Harold and Maude 1971 Hal Ashby 185
180 The Thing 1982 John Carpenter 63
181 Fitzcarraldo 1982 Werner Herzog 712
182 Aparajito 1956 Satyajit Ray 651
183 Vertigo 1958 Alfred Hitchcock 15
184 Breaking the Waves 1996 Lars von Trier 580
185 Annie Hall 1977 Woody Allen 33
186 Mean Streets 1973 Martin Scorsese 283
187 Laura 1944 Otto Preminger 408
188 Repulsion 1965 Roman Polanski 396
189 Napoléon 1927 Abel Gance 621
190 Sans soleil 1983 Chris Marker 700
191 The Thin Red Line 1998 Terrence Malick 380
192 Intolerance 1916 D.W. Griffith 369
193 Imitation of Life 1959 Douglas Sirk 571
194 In a Lonely Place 1950 Nicholas Ray 568
195 The Gospel According to St. Matthew 1964 Pier Paolo Pasolini 845
196 Three Colors: White 1994 Krzysztof Kieslowski 600
197 Grave of the Fireflies 1988 Isao Takahata 210
198 The Maltese Falcon 1941 John Huston 81
199 A Hard Day's Night 1964 Richard Lester 303
200 Voyage in Italy 1954 Roberto Rossellini 833
Go to the next 200 most highbrow films
This page was last modified on March 30, 2025