My Essentials — Film & TV Favorites

Matthew Oquendo

May 15, 2016·4 min read

Listing here for personal reference. I hope to write about all of them someday. To address people who ask me (likely in outrage), “Why is so-and-so film, director… missing?” This list doesn’t necessarily have the greatest works of all time — rather, these are works that have influenced, shaped, and made an impression on my ongoing filmmaking journey. For example, Hitchcock’s Psycho isn’t on here; does that mean I didn’t like it? No—Psycho is a great film but for reasons unexplained, I enjoy Vertigo, Rear Window, Shadow of a Doubt… more.

Films underlined will link to an essay I’ve written on them.

In Chronological Order:

1. A Trip to the Moon (1902) dir. George Melies
2. Metropolis (1927) dir. Fritz Lang
3. Un Chien Andalou (1928) dir. Luis Buñuel/Salvador Dali
4. Shadow of a Doubt (1943) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
5. Detour (1945) dir. Edgar G. Ulmer
6. The Red Shoes (1948) dir. Powell + Pressburger
7. The Third Man (1949) dir. Carol Reed
8. Los Olvidados (1950) dir. Luis Bunuel
9. Sunset Boulevard (1950) dir. Billy Wilder
10. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Elia Kazan
11. Ikiru (1952) dir. Akira Kurosawa
12. La Strada (1954) dir. Federico Fellini
13. Seven Samurai (1954) dir. Akira Kurosawa
14. Rear Window (1954) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
15. Wild Strawberries (1955) dir. Ingmar Bergman
16. Mon Oncle (1956) dir. Jacques Tati
17. Touch of Evil (1957) dir. Orson Welles
18. Vertigo (1958) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
19. Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) dir. Alain Resnais
20. The Twilight Zone (1959–1964) cr. Rod Serling
21. La Dolce Vita (1960) dir. Federico Fellini
22. 8 1/2 (1963) dir. Federico Fellini
23. La Rivière du Hibou (1963) dir. Robert Enrico (short)
24. From Russia with Love (1963) dir. Terence Young
25. Blow-Up (1966) dir. Michaelangelo Antonioni
26. Persona (1966) dir. Ingmar Bergman
27. Belle de Jour (1967) dir. Luis Buñuel
28. Weekend (1967) dir. Jean-Luc Godard
29. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1967) dir. Sergio Leone
30. Rosemary’s Baby (1968) dir. Roman Polanski
31. Bullitt (1968) dir. Peter Yates
32. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) dir. Stanley Kubrick
33. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) dir. George Roy Hill
34. The Conformist (1970) dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
35. Five Easy Pieces (1970) dir. Bob Rafelson
36. The French Connection (1971) dir. William Friedkin
37. The Godfather I (1972) dir. Francis Ford Coppola
38. The Getaway (1972) dir. Sam Peckinpah
39. La Cabina (1972) dir. Antonio Mercero (short)
40. Last Tango in Paris (1973) dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
41. The Last Detail (1973) dir. Hal Ashby
42. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) dir. Sam Peckinpah
43. The Conversation (1974) dir. Francis Ford Coppola
44. The Godfather II (1974) dir. Francis Ford Coppola
45. Chinatown (1974) dir. Roman Polanski
46. The Phantom of Liberty (1974) dir. Luis Buñuel
47. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) dir. Milos Forman
48. Barry Lyndon (1975) dir. Stanley Kubrick
49. The Mirror (1975) dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
50. The Passenger (1975) dir. Michaelangelo Antonioni
51. The Tenant (1976) dir. Roman Polanski
52. Taxi Driver (1976) dir. Martin Scorsese
53. Sorcerer (1977) dir. William Friedkin
54. The Deer Hunter (1978) dir. Michael Cimino
55. Apocalypse Now (1979) dir. Francis Ford Coppola
56. Manhattan (1979) dir. Woody Allen
57. Raging Bull (1980) dir. Martin Scorsese
58. The Shining (1980) dir. Stanley Kubrick
59. Blow Out (1981) dir. Brian De Palma
60. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) dir. Steven Spielberg
61. The Thing (1982) dir. John Carpenter
62. Videodrome (1983) dir. David Cronenberg
63. Once Upon a Time in America (1984) dir. Sergio Leone
64. Back to the Future (1985) dir. Robert Zemeckis
65. After Hours (1985) dir. Martin Scorsese
66. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) dir. Woody Allen
67. Blue Velvet (1986) dir. David Lynch
68. Full Metal Jacket (1987) dir. Stanley Kubrick
69. Spoorloos (1988) dir. George Sluizer
70. I…Dreaming (1988) dir. Stan Brakhage (short)
71. Life Lessons (1989) dir. Martin Scorsese (short)
72. Goodfellas (1990) dir. Martin Scorsese
73. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) dir. Jonathan Demme
74. Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1992) dir. James Cameron
75. Carlito’s Way (1993) dir. Brian De Palma
76. Menace II Society (1993) dir. The Hughes Brothers
77. The Age of Innocence (1993) dir. Martin Scorsese
78. The X-Files (1993–2016) cr. Chris Carter
79. Pulp Fiction (1994) dir. Quentin Tarantino
80. Casino (1995) dir. Martin Scorsese
81. Before Sunrise/Sunset (1995; 2004) dir. Richard Linklater
82. The Bridges of Madison County (1995) dir. Clint Eastwood
83. Heat (1995) dir. Michael Mann
84. Se7en (1995) dir. David Fincher
85. Cure (1997) dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa
86. Lost Highway (1997) dir. David Lynch
87. L.A. Confidential (1997) dir. Curtis Hanson
88. Jackie Brown (1997) dir. Quentin Tarantino
89. Saving Private Ryan (1998) dir. Steven Spielberg
90. The Ninth Gate (1999) dir. Roman Polanski
91. Eyes Wide Shut (1999) dir. Stanley Kubrick
92. Traffic (2000) dir. Steven Soderbergh
93. Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) dir. Alfonso Cuaron
94. Mulholland Drive (2001) dir. David Lynch
95. Punch-Drunk Love (2002) dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
96. 25th Hour (2002) dir. Spike Lee
97. The Pianist (2002) dir. Roman Polanski
98. Cache (2005) dir. Michael Haneke
99. Match Point (2005) dir. Woody Allen
100. Three Times (2005) dir. Hou Hsiao Hsien
101. No Country for Old Men (2007) dir. The Coen Brothers
102. There Will Be Blood (2007) dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
103. The Dark Knight (2008) dir. Christopher Nolan
104. Breaking Bad (2008–2013) cr. Vince Gilligan
105. The Ghost Writer (2009) dir. Roman Polanski
106. Tree of Life (2011) dir. Terrence Malick
107. Midnight in Paris (2011) dir. Woody Allen
108. The Master (2012) dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
109. True Detective S1 (2014) dir. Cary Fukanaga / cr. Nic Pizzalatto
110. Interstellar (2014) dir. Christopher Nolan
111. Burning (2018) dir. Lee Chang Dong
112. The Irishman (2019) dir. Martin Scorsese