Bogdanovich's finest effort; bleak and beguiling.

Charade is a finely crafted thriller that has a lot to offer beyond its clever plot. The radiant Hepburn's romance with the suave Grant is delightfully handled; the Oscar-nominated theme song by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer is superb; the location photography is exquisite and the rooftop fight scene between Grant and Kennedy is truly harrowing.

This quintessential film noir catapulted contract player Robert Mitchum into superstardom and set the standard for the genre for years to come.

Probably the director's most ambitious film, The Wild Child spins a modern myth with resonances for parents and children, teachers and students, and even filmmakers, actors and audiences.

One of the greatest films of all time and one of the handful of masterpieces to emerge from the Italian neo-realist period, Umberto D is as cerebral as it is emotional, as bleak as it is warm.

Indeed, all of the performers in the film truly shine, and all of them can probably thank Sam Mendes for creating an ideal environment.

This exceptional film features some of the most beautiful cinematography ever seen on film, in service of some of the most horrible images imaginable.

Director Stephen Frears and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi have fashioned a wonderfully fresh examination of the political and racial climate of Margaret Thatcher's Britain.

Jerzy Kosinski's modern fable gets a terrific translation to the screen due to his tight screenplay, capable direction by Ashby, and a marvelous performance by Sellers, one unlike any other in his career.

Despite the absence of dialogue -- the mice squeak and the oak creatures caw like ravens -- Cegavske imbues her scrappy little creatures with disturbingly complex personalities. And if the tale's moral is less than clear, its haunting images speak directly to some dark, preverbal corner of the heart.

To quote Olivia de Havilland, "Everytime I see it, I find something fresh, some shade of meaning I hadn't noticed before."

8 1/2 is a grab-bag of Felliniesque delights, with stunning photography by Di Venanzo, superb performances, a haunting score from Nino Rota, and a labyrinthine structure that keeps the viewer in a pleasurable state of confusion.

The cast is wonderful--especially McGavin, Billingsley and Petrella--the laughs are nonstop if rarely subtle, and the whole thing deserves to become a Christmastime classic.

Shattering social and sexual conventions, Last Tango in Paris stands as one of Bernardo Bertolucci's finer achievements.

An enormously entertaining adventure that is as much about John Wayne's image as it is about a girl seeking revenge for her father's murder.

I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING! is a beautiful film about the profound effects of nature on people, and that fact that the universe can be a wondrous and magical place if one keeps oneself open to its vast mysteries.

Serenely stunning.

One of the seminal achievements of Hollywood cinema, this brilliant sequel to the original Frankenstein is one of the greatest films of its genre and remains a lasting tribute to the unique genius of director Whale.

The songs are all Gershwin Brothers standards; Kelly's choreography is breathtaking; the original screenplay by playwright Alan Jay Lerner is alternately witty and touching; and Minnelli's direction feels buoyantly assured.

Deft comedy set in a neurotic town. People may argue about the relative merits of Annie Hall vis-a-vis Manhattan, which is a better and more fully realized film. By this time Allen had forsworn the glib one-liner and spent more time developing well-rounded characters.

Close to perfect. A magical blend of the right story, a great score, and the astonishing choreography of Michael Kidd, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is one of the big screen's most entertaining musicals.

Brilliantly conceived, imaginatively structured, superbly written, stylishly composed and photographed, and very often wryly funny, Killer of Sheep lives up to its official designation as a national treasure.

Hadzihalilovic succeeds brilliantly at crafting a meaningful enigma that somehow grasps the essence of adolescence, but only grows more mysterious with each revelation.

Everything about this film is touching; master director John Ford builds one simple scene upon another with very little plot, using incidents in the life of one family to tell the general tale, demonstrating changes and recording milestones.

The Stranger is not as wildly creative as his other films, but all the Welles trademarks are present, including superior lighting, inventive camera angles, strong transitions, and characters silhouetted in darkness.

So it should come as no surprise that what Maddin eventually produced is a film about HIS Winnipeg, a psychological terrain that's no more -- nor less -- "real" than William Carlos William's Paterson or Marcel Proust's Combray.

Though W. Somerset Maugham's story could easily have been filmed as a turgid melodrama, director William Wyler's magnificent handling of the material and Bette Davis's taut and calculated performance converted it into enduring cinematic art.

Top Hat may be more energetic and glossy, but Swing Time is arguably the most magical of the ten films Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made together. Their dancing and acting rapport are at a peak and director George Stevens shows more finesse than Mark Sandrich in lending the couple's rocky romance a genuinely heartfelt quality.

A deeply emotional experience that is also a grand entertainment, The Searchers is a true American masterpiece.

Directed with restraint and impeccable taste by Cukor, produced by Selznick, David Copperfield is diverse and satisfying intellectually and emotionally, capturing the unparalleled beauty of Dickens's melancholic truths about life's hardships and human survival.

An undeniably brilliant, nightmarish portrait of one man's personal hell.

Rather than adapt the novel per se, Winterbottom has adapted Sterne's hilarious attempts to make the mess of life fit the neat contours of the novel by making a movie about an attempt to make Sterne's chaotic and confusing novel fit the contours of a film.

Peckinpah's attention to detail and character makes this film a multifaceted jewel to be studied and enjoyed again and again. The honest, subtle, and consummately skillful performances by Scott and McCrea and promising newcomer Mariette Hartley continue to draw viewers in.

A masterpiece. It is a credit to Cocteau's genius (and to that of his collaborators) that he has taken the unreal world of a fairy tale and made it as real as the world around us.

Harvey Milk embodied the concept that "all politics is personal," and by presenting the famed Mayor of Castro Street's personal and public lives with such clarity and empathy, Van Sant has made something very rare in Hollywood -- a genuinely powerful political film that works equally well as a story of personal triumph.

There is much to recommend in this film, and sheer energy pours off the screen in every frame.

A wickedly funny black comedy that follows the increasingly bizarre series of events that befall hapless word-processer Griffin Dunne after he ventures out of his apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and goes downtown in search of carnal pleasures.

Brooks's most accomplished work, combining his well-known brand of comedy with stylish direction and a uniformly excellent cast.

Documentary filmmakers Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine found an ingenious way to tell their story in a film that is as unflinching as it is uplifting.

Room at the Top memorably conveys the snobbery, poverty, desperation, and politics of class in provincial England.

An undisputed masterpiece, and that rarest of films that achieves absolute perfection in every area.

Actor-turned-writer Dan Futterman's smart, subtle screenplay, which explores both Capote's determination to turn murder into literature and the deeply troubling questions he raised in the process.

The film perfectly captured a specific time and place, illuminating simple truths regarding the human condition, while unveiling an important, powerful, and visionary new force in the American cinema.

Wu is able to demonstrate both the timelessness and the universality of stories which, on the surface, sound extreme and unique.

Not for everyone, but those who respond to it will find it unforgettable.

An exceptional film.

Big, funny, tender and humane all at the same time, The Sundowners is a true "family" film, without any of the cloying connotations of that term.

The effect is one of gorgeous puppets, a removed perspective that makes some of the most powerful political and social events in history seem like the sad, desperate flailing of monkeys.

The most innovative, intelligent, and visually sumptuous horror film of recent years.

A consistently hilarious parody of the noir and detective genres, expertly blending classic archival footage with the action.

Edwards's direction was smooth and neither he nor Miller ever took a stance or moralized. They just showed what it was like to be an alcoholic in the 1960s and let the audience draw its own conclusions.

Terrific, crackling dialogue, especially in the slangy, machine-gun mouth of La Stanwyck.

Flynn gives one of his most convincing and powerful performances, and Raoul Walsh's direction is nothing less than excellent, with the great action director maintaining a harrowing pace, providing a wealth of interesting military detail, and delivering one thrilling scene after another.

A touching, exquisitely handled film dealing with two ordinary people who accidentally fall in love.

The film has enough adventure and excitement to satisfy, and the faintly bittersweet note of the ending is made deliciously palatable by its artistic rightness.

It's a creepily sensuous film that suggests that the dark and troubling things we like to repress inhabit dresser drawers, live behind the radiator or lie under the bed. They are part of the environment.

The film is flushed with bright light and cartoon hues, nicely accenting the fast-paced stew of incidents.

Director Steven Spielberg has achieved something close to the impossible--a morally serious, aesthetically stunning historical epic that is nonetheless readily accessible to a mass audience.

Expertly crafted and brilliantly acted, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY is one of the most durable and engrossing adventure films ever made.

It's heartfelt entertainment and anyone who ever whistled a tune, tapped a toe or hummed a bar of music will love it.

Director-writer Philip Kaufman's script brings a wealth of humor to a faithful retelling of the astronauts' fascinating stories, the actors fit smoothly into their roles and even physically resemble their characters, and the direction is well-paced and visually exciting.

[An] utterly beguiling film.

Patton is a war movie of unusual depth and a landmark in screen biographies.

A superb motion picture, and one in which Ford's obsession with Americana and the forces and emotions that made this country what it is are plainly in view.

Throughout this raw, often brilliant drama, the Dardennes refuse to judge these deeply flawed characters. They instead maintain a moral objectivity that ultimately leaves room for the possibility of redemption, no matter how dire the sins committed.

Superb drama from New York-based filmmakers Ryan Flek and Anna Boden.

While MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON is the most moral of films, it is so artfully filled with real emotion that it never becomes heavy-handed.

Birdy is one of those rare movies that successfully brings a psychological novel to the screen without sacrificing its saliency or complexity.

One of the most powerful boxing films ever made.

A rich cinematic experience, this uplifting British production will leave you in awe of the extraordinary Christy Brown.

A searing example of writer-director Billy Wilder at his most brilliantly misanthropic. An uncompromising portrait of human nature at its worst, the film was so far ahead of its time in its depiction of a media circus and the public's appetite for tragedy that it was a commercial disaster when first released, but now stands as one of the great American films of the 1950s.

Kubrick's liberal, anti-authoritarian reading of Anthony Burgess's very Catholic allegorical novel is morally confused but tremendously powerful... No serious moviegoer can afford to ignore it.

For Western viewers unfamiliar with Hong Kong gangster films, there's no better introduction.

One of the great New York films, swathing the city in a layers of dewy love and glossy chic. [Review of re-release]

The sly Hitchcock made this chiller all the more frightening by having his crafty homicidal maniac intrude into the tranquility of a warm, middle-class family living in a small town, deeply developing his characters and drawing from the soft-spoken Joseph Cotten one of the actor's most remarkable and fascinating performances.

Flynn's star-making swashbuckler is right on target.

Manages to inject more than a little humor into this tension-filled genre classic.

The sets are as much a part of the story as the dialogue, and set designer John Bryan's work is effectively photographed by Guy Green. All the acting is first-rate, and there is not a false note from the cast.

One of the better, if not the best, of the famous screwball comedies of the era, Godfrey stands as an excellent example of witty scripting, direction, and editing.

The wonderful performances by Ford's stock company in these roles help make THE QUIET MAN an utterly moving and fascinating portrait of rural life in Ireland.

There have been many classic westerns but this Hawks masterpiece certainly ranks among the best of the genre.

There's no place like home, and there will never be another movie like this one, a dazzling fantasy musical so beautifully directed and acted that it deserves its classic status.

This quintessential movie on movies is an engrossing, seductive Minnelli epic, graced with superb performances.

One of the most original, visually stunning, and provocative films of the 1970s, Walkabout is timeless in its beauty and unique approach to a classic coming-of-age story. The film is arguably director Nicolas Roeg's finest achievement.

Much imitated, still unsurpassed. By critical consensus one of the best movies ever made, The Seven Samurai covers so much emotional, historical, and cinematic ground that that it demands to be viewed over and over again.

A superbly restrained piece of filmmaking, with Zinnemann directing in simple, unadorned style and Hepburn giving a truly radiant performance.

A brilliant surrealistic joke about a group of friends whose attempts to dine are continually thwarted.

Perhaps Kenji Mizoguchi's greatest achievement, SANSHO THE BAILIFF is a visually mesmerizing picture that pays great and careful attention to the smallest details of nature and environment, highlighted by Mizoguchi's use of the long take and deep-focus shots.

At its best, Force achieves a style at once brutal and poetic, documentarian and noir.

Clever camera setups, Altman's patented overlapping dialogue, wonderful sight gags and situations, and universally fine ensemble performances combine to make this one the most enjoyable war-themed films ever.

Perhaps the greatest antiwar film ever made, holding considerable power even now due to Lewis Milestone's inventive direction.

This nightmarish descent into dark entertainment has so much weirdness going on it's amazing.

A gripping, beautifully structured picture and a tour de force from British director Carol Reed...It's hard to choose just one scene to sum up this poetic thriller, but the legendary scene on the ferris wheel may best represent its perfect blend of great writing, acting, and directing. The fadeout, too, is unforgettable.

A marvelous black comedy full of wit and journalistic wisdom in the grand and capricious style of Hecht (he and Charles MacArthur co-wrote The Front Page), this film is all the more stunning thanks to the outrageous and hilarious performance of super comedienne Lombard.

An arresting, superbly produced and downbeat Western photographed in stark black and white, The Gunfighter presents an unglorified view of the Old West as a grim, dirty and decidedly desperate place.

The best coming home movie ever made. "I don't care if it doesn't make a nickel," Sam Goldwyn reportedly said of THE BEST YEARS, "I just want every man, woman, and child in America to see it."

A chilling, manipulative rollercoaster ride.

Tati, who's brilliant at commenting on modernization, here again provides insights into modern life that make for one of the freshest and funniest pictures to hit the screen in years.