
My Essentials — Film & TV Favorites
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:
- A Trip to the Moon (1902) dir. George Melies
- Metropolis (1927) dir. Fritz Lang
- Un Chien Andalou (1928) dir. Luis Buñuel/Salvador Dali
- Shadow of a Doubt (1943) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
- Detour (1945) dir. Edgar G. Ulmer
- The Red Shoes (1948) dir. Powell + Pressburger
- The Third Man (1949) dir. Carol Reed
- Los Olvidados (1950) dir. Luis Bunuel
- Sunset Boulevard (1950) dir. Billy Wilder
- A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Elia Kazan
- Ikiru (1952) dir. Akira Kurosawa
- La Strada (1954) dir. Federico Fellini
- Seven Samurai (1954) dir. Akira Kurosawa
- Rear Window (1954) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
- Wild Strawberries (1955) dir. Ingmar Bergman
- Mon Oncle (1956) dir. Jacques Tati
- Touch of Evil (1957) dir. Orson Welles
- Vertigo (1958) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
- Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) dir. Alain Resnais
- The Twilight Zone (1959–1964) cr. Rod Serling
- La Dolce Vita (1960) dir. Federico Fellini
- 8 1/2 (1963) dir. Federico Fellini
- La Rivière du Hibou (1963) dir. Robert Enrico (short)
- From Russia with Love (1963) dir. Terence Young
- Blow-Up (1966) dir. Michaelangelo Antonioni
- Persona (1966) dir. Ingmar Bergman
- Belle de Jour (1967) dir. Luis Buñuel
- Weekend (1967) dir. Jean-Luc Godard
- The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1967) dir. Sergio Leone
- Rosemary’s Baby (1968) dir. Roman Polanski
- Bullitt (1968) dir. Peter Yates
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) dir. Stanley Kubrick
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) dir. George Roy Hill
- The Conformist (1970) dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
- Five Easy Pieces (1970) dir. Bob Rafelson
- The French Connection (1971) dir. William Friedkin
- The Godfather I (1972) dir. Francis Ford Coppola
- The Getaway (1972) dir. Sam Peckinpah
- La Cabina (1972) dir. Antonio Mercero (short)
- Last Tango in Paris (1973) dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
- The Last Detail (1973) dir. Hal Ashby
- Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) dir. Sam Peckinpah
- The Conversation (1974) dir. Francis Ford Coppola
- The Godfather II (1974) dir. Francis Ford Coppola
- Chinatown (1974) dir. Roman Polanski
- The Phantom of Liberty (1974) dir. Luis Buñuel
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) dir. Milos Forman
- Barry Lyndon (1975) dir. Stanley Kubrick
- The Mirror (1975) dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
- The Passenger (1975) dir. Michaelangelo Antonioni
- The Tenant (1976) dir. Roman Polanski
- Taxi Driver (1976) dir. Martin Scorsese
- Sorcerer (1977) dir. William Friedkin
- The Deer Hunter (1978) dir. Michael Cimino
- Apocalypse Now (1979) dir. Francis Ford Coppola
- Manhattan (1979) dir. Woody Allen
- Raging Bull (1980) dir. Martin Scorsese
- The Shining (1980) dir. Stanley Kubrick
- Blow Out (1981) dir. Brian De Palma
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) dir. Steven Spielberg
- The Thing (1982) dir. John Carpenter
- Videodrome (1983) dir. David Cronenberg
- Once Upon a Time in America (1984) dir. Sergio Leone
- Back to the Future (1985) dir. Robert Zemeckis
- After Hours (1985) dir. Martin Scorsese
- Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) dir. Woody Allen
- Blue Velvet (1986) dir. David Lynch
- Full Metal Jacket (1987) dir. Stanley Kubrick
- Spoorloos (1988) dir. George Sluizer
- I…Dreaming (1988) dir. Stan Brakhage (short)
- Life Lessons (1989) dir. Martin Scorsese (short)
- Goodfellas (1990) dir. Martin Scorsese
- The Silence of the Lambs (1991) dir. Jonathan Demme
- Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1992) dir. James Cameron
- Carlito’s Way (1993) dir. Brian De Palma
- Menace II Society (1993) dir. The Hughes Brothers
- The Age of Innocence (1993) dir. Martin Scorsese
- The X-Files (1993–2016) cr. Chris Carter
- Pulp Fiction (1994) dir. Quentin Tarantino
- Casino (1995) dir. Martin Scorsese
- Before Sunrise/Sunset (1995; 2004) dir. Richard Linklater
- The Bridges of Madison County (1995) dir. Clint Eastwood
- Heat (1995) dir. Michael Mann
- Se7en (1995) dir. David Fincher
- Cure (1997) dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa
- Lost Highway (1997) dir. David Lynch
- L.A. Confidential (1997) dir. Curtis Hanson
- Jackie Brown (1997) dir. Quentin Tarantino
- Saving Private Ryan (1998) dir. Steven Spielberg
- The Ninth Gate (1999) dir. Roman Polanski
- Eyes Wide Shut (1999) dir. Stanley Kubrick
- Traffic (2000) dir. Steven Soderbergh
- Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) dir. Alfonso Cuaron
- Mulholland Drive (2001) dir. David Lynch
- Punch-Drunk Love (2002) dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
- 25th Hour (2002) dir. Spike Lee
- The Pianist (2002) dir. Roman Polanski
- Cache (2005) dir. Michael Haneke
- Match Point (2005) dir. Woody Allen
- Three Times (2005) dir. Hou Hsiao Hsien
- No Country for Old Men (2007) dir. The Coen Brothers
- There Will Be Blood (2007) dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
- The Dark Knight (2008) dir. Christopher Nolan
- Breaking Bad (2008–2013) cr. Vince Gilligan
- The Ghost Writer (2009) dir. Roman Polanski
- Tree of Life (2011) dir. Terrence Malick
- Midnight in Paris (2011) dir. Woody Allen
- The Master (2012) dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
- True Detective S1 (2014) dir. Cary Fukanaga / cr. Nic Pizzalatto
- Interstellar (2014) dir. Christopher Nolan
- Burning (2018) dir. Lee Chang Dong
- The Irishman (2019) dir. Martin Scorsese