Alice's 500 Greatest Films
The goal in this compilation was to determine film history's definitive creme de la creme. The titles considered to be the greatest of the great from around the world and throughout the history of film.. So, after an in-depth analysis of respected critics and publications from around the globe, cross referenced and tweaked to arrive at the ranking of films representing, we believe, the greatest cinema can offer.
Scroll, contemplate and enjoy.....
Want a printable list of the 500 greatest to check off? Click here
Open City ( aka Rome, Open City ) (1945)
6.4/10
Director: Roberto Rossellini
Starring: Anna Magnani, Aldo Fabrizi, Marcello Pagliero
Aka "Roma, Citta Aperta". A superb film based on the true story of Don Morosi, a priest and resistance worker shot by the Germans in wartime Rome. Fil... Read more
High Noon (1952)
8/10
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Starring: Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado, Grace Kelly, Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper is the marshall who fights alone for upholding the law when the entire town is paralysed with fear. Famously played out in real-time, star... Read more
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
8.2/10
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Starring: Renee Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, Andre Berley, Maurice Schutz, Antonin Artaud
With it's stunning camerawork and striking compositions, Dreyer's film convinced the world that movies could be art. Renee Falconetti (in her only rol... Read more
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
8.1/10
Director: William Wyler
Starring: Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Teresa Wright, Dana Andrews, Virginia Mayo, Cathy O'Do...
One of Hollywood's best. Three men return home after WWII and must re-adjust to civilian life, to their families, to their own changed lives. Expertly... Read more
The Lady Eve (1941)
8/10
Director: Preston Sturges
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, Martha O'Driscol...
A conniving father and daughter meet up with the heir to a brewery fortune - a wealthy but naive snake enthusiast - and attempt to bamboozle him at a... Read more
Stagecoach (1939)
7.9/10
Director: John Ford
Starring: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Andy Devine, Louise Platt
John Ford at his greatest in a story of nine passengers on a Cheyenne-bound stagecoach, each with a singular reason for the journey, determined to liv... Read more
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
8.4/10
Director: Sergio Leone
Starring: Elizabeth McGovern, Robert De Niro, James Woods, Joe Pesci, Burt Young, Tuesday...
Ten years in the planning, Sergio Leone's epic portrays 50 years of riveting underworld history and offers rich roles to a remarkable cast. Robert De... Read more
Once Upon a Time in America ( Blu-ray ) (1984)
8.4/10
Director: Sergio Leone
Starring: Burt Young, Elizabeth McGovern, James Woods, Jennifer Connelly, Robert De Niro,...
Ten years in the planning, Sergio Leone's epic portrays 50 years of riveting underworld history and offers rich roles to a remarkable cast. Robert De... Read more
The King of Comedy (1982)
7.8/10
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Diahnne Abbott, Tony Randall, Sandra Bernhard
Robert De Niro is an obsessive stand-up comic performing in front of cardboard cut-outs in is mum's basement. Jerry Lewis is the host of a talk show t... Read more
Madame de... ( Earrings of Madame de... ) (1953)
8/10
Director: Max Ophuls
Starring: Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux, Vittorio De Sica
Aka "The Earrings of Madame De...". Max Ophuls' lavish costume drama traces an 18th-century French countess's doomed affair with a handsome diplomat.... Read more
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
8/10
Director: Roman Polanski
Starring: John Cassavetes, Mia Farrow, Ralph Bellamy, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Mauric...
Horrifying and darkly comic, "Rosemarys Baby" was Roman Polanski's Hollywood debut. This wildly entertaining nightmare, faithfully adapted from Ira L... Read more
Rosemary's Baby ( Blu-ray ) (1968)
8/10
Director: Roman Polanski
Starring: John Cassavetes, Mia Farrow, Ralph Bellamy, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Mauric...
Horrifying and darkly comic, "Rosemarys Baby" was Roman Polanski's Hollywood debut. This wildly entertaining nightmare, faithfully adapted from Ira L... Read more
Out of the Past (1947)
8.1/10
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas
This masterful brooding film noir has Robert Mitchum playing a man with a past embroiled with murder and deceit at the hands of a reckless woman and a... Read more
Notorious (1946)
8/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Cary Grant
In this brilliant allegory of love and betrayal, Hitchcock fuses two of his favourite elements: suspense and romance. A beautiful woman with a tainted... Read more
Los Olvidados ( The Young and the Damned ) (1950)
8.8/10
Director: Luis Bunuel
Starring: Miguel Inclan, Roberto Cobo, Estela Inda, Alfonso Mejia
The best known film of Luis Bunuel's Mexican period, "Los Olvidados" looks unflinchingly at life in a festering Mexico City slum. A group of juvenile... Read more
Top Hat (1935)
7.8/10
Director: Mark Sandrich
Starring: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton
Commonly called the quintessential Astaire-Rogers musical, Top Hat is a breathless combination of glorious music, marvelous dance routines which seem... Read more
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Director: James Whale
Starring: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson, Elsa Lanchester
Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive) makes a bride for his creature (Boris Karloff), and all hell breaks loose. Arguably better than the orginal - both emot... Read more
M*A*S*H (1969)
8.4/10
Director: Robert Altman
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, Gary Burghoff,...
Director Robert Altman's innovative dark comedy about the everyday escapades of an Army medical unit during the Korean War stars Elliott Gould, Donald... Read more
M*A*S*H ( Blu-ray ) (1969)
8.4/10
Director: Robert Altman
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Rene Auberjonois, Robert Duvall, Sally Kellerm...
Director Robert Altman's innovative dark comedy about the everyday escapades of an Army medical unit during the Korean War stars Elliott Gould, Donald... Read more
Don't Look Now (1973)
7.3/10
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Julie Christie, Hilary Mason
Excellent psychic thriller about a married couple who, just after the accidental drowning of their young daughter, start having strange occurences in... Read more