The 135 Movies You Must See to Understand Cinema

If you wish to become a cinephile wor­thy of the title, you must first pledge nev­er to refuse to watch a film for any of the fol­low­ing rea­sons. First, that it is in a dif­fer­ent lan­guage and sub­ti­tled; sec­ond, that it is too old; third, that it is too slow; fourth, that it is too long; and fifth, that it has no “sto­ry.” These cat­e­gories of refusal are what Lewis Bond, co-cre­ator of the YouTube chan­nel The House of Tab­u­la, calls “the five car­di­nal sins of cin­e­ma,” and no one who com­mits them can ever attain an under­stand­ing of the art form, its nature, its his­to­ry, and its poten­tial. Once you’ve made your vow, you’ll be ready to watch through the 135 chrono­log­i­cal­ly ordered motion pic­tures that con­sti­tute The House of Tab­u­la’s “Ulti­mate Film Stud­ies Watch­list,” ful­ly explained in the video above.

While the movies first emerged in the nine­teenth cen­tu­ry, and plen­ty con­tin­ue to be made here in the twen­ty-first, they stand unop­posed as the defin­ing pop­u­lar art form of the twen­ti­eth. And it is from the span of that cen­tu­ry that all the films on this list are drawn, from Georges MĂ©liès’ Le Voy­age dans la Lune and D. W. Grif­fith’s The Birth of a Nation to all the way to Quentin Taran­ti­no’s Pulp Fic­tion and the Wachowskis’ The Matrix.

What hap­pened to cin­e­ma between those peri­ods was, in a sense, a process of tech­no­log­i­cal and artis­tic evo­lu­tion, but as Bond’s com­men­tary under­scores, old­er films aren’t super­seded by new­er ones — or at least, old­er films of val­ue aren’t. Indeed, the ambi­tion and cre­ativ­i­ty of these decades, or even cen­tu­ry-old movies, puts many a cur­rent release to shame.

By no means is the list dom­i­nat­ed by obscu­ri­ties. Gone with the Wind, Fan­ta­sia, Sin­gin’ in the Rain, Psy­cho, Jaws, Alien: even the least cin­e­mat­i­cal­ly inclined among us have seen a few of these movies, or at least they feel like they have. Maybe they’ve nev­er got around to watch­ing Cit­i­zen Kane, but they’ll have a sense that it belongs on any syl­labus meant to cul­ti­vate an under­stand­ing of film as an art form. The pres­ence of Star Wars may come as more of a sur­prise, but no less than Cit­i­zen Kane, it illus­trates the ben­e­fit of watch­ing your way through cin­e­ma his­to­ry: if you do, you’ll expe­ri­ence just how much of a break they rep­re­sent­ed with all that came before. Ordi­nary movie­go­ers may feel like they’ve seen it all before, but cinephiles — espe­cial­ly those who’ve made the jour­ney through The House of Tab­u­la’s watch­list — know how vast an area of cin­e­mat­ic pos­si­bil­i­ty remains unex­plored.

Relat­ed con­tent:

78 Great Direc­tors Who Shaped the His­to­ry of Cin­e­ma: An Intro­duc­tion

The 30 Great­est Films Ever Made: A Video Essay

Mar­tin Scors­ese Cre­ates a List of 39 Essen­tial For­eign Films for a Young Film­mak­er

The Evo­lu­tion of Cin­e­ma: Watch Near­ly 140 Years of Film His­to­ry Unfold in 80 Min­utes

Take a 16-Week Crash Course on the His­to­ry of Movies: From the First Mov­ing Pic­tures to the Rise of Mul­ti­plex­es & Net­flix

The 15 Great­est Doc­u­men­taries of All Time: Explore Films by Wern­er Her­zog, Errol Mor­ris & More

Based in Seoul, Col­in Marshall writes and broad­casts on cities, lan­guage, and cul­ture. His projects include the Sub­stack newslet­ter Books on Cities and the book The State­less City: a Walk through 21st-Cen­tu­ry Los Ange­les. Fol­low him on the social net­work for­mer­ly known as Twit­ter at @colinmarshall.


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Comments (7)
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  • Robert Terhune says:

    Excel­lent his­to­ry study, must watch

  • cisco says:

    where is the list?? you real­ly expect your read­ers to watch 2 hours of video to find the top 135 films??? sure­ly you must have the list avail­able for those who do not have the time..

  • R Bear says:

    amen, broth­er, amen.

  • Glen says:

    Ahem you said a list , Where is it.
    This sounds like click­bait about dead or sick cel­e­braties

  • Pamela Shields says:

    Agree we need a list. I am hard of hear­ing.

  • Jim Kennedy says:

    The list seems to come from imdb but I’m not allowed paste a link in here appar­ent­ly, so here’s the raw list.

    Title — Direc­tors
    Annie Oak­ley — William K.L. Dick­son
    The Box­ing Cats (Prof. Wel­ton’s) — William K.L. Dick­son, William Heise
    Buf­fa­lo Dance — William K.L. Dick­son
    The Bar­ber­shop — William K.L. Dick­son, William Heise
    Edi­son Kine­to­scop­ic Record of a Sneeze — William K.L. Dick­son
    Car­menci­ta — William K.L. Dick­son
    Pil­low Fight — William Heise
    The Horn­backer-Mur­phy Fight — William K.L. Dick­son
    The Arrival of a Train — Auguste Lumière, Louis Lumière
    Débar­que­ment d’une mouche — Georges Hatot
    Enfants jouant aux billes — Louis Lumière
    Boat Leav­ing the Port — Louis Lumière
    Acteurs japon­ais: Exer­ci­ce de la per­ruque — Con­stant Girel
    Fish­ing for Gold­fish — Louis Lumière
    The Big Swal­low — James Williamson
    A Trip to the Moon — Georges Méliès
    The Great Train Rob­bery — Edwin S. Porter
    A Fan­ta­sy — Émile Cohl
    Sus­pense — Phillips Smal­l­ey, Lois Weber
    The Birth of a Nation — D.W. Grif­fith
    Intol­er­ance: Love’s Strug­gle Through­out the Ages — D.W. Grif­fith
    J’ac­cuse — Abel Gance
    The Cab­i­net of Dr. Cali­gari — Robert Wiene
    The Phan­tom Car­riage — Vic­tor Sjöström
    Häx­an: Witch­craft Through the Ages — Ben­jamin Chris­tensen
    Sher­lock Jr. — Buster Keaton
    Greed — Erich von Stro­heim
    The Last Laugh — F.W. Mur­nau
    Bat­tle­ship Potemkin — Sergei Eisen­stein
    A Page of Mad­ness — Teinosuke Kin­u­gasa
    Metrop­o­lis — Fritz Lang
    Napoleon — Abel Gance
    Sun­rise: A Song of Two Humans — F.W. Mur­nau
    The Pas­sion of Joan of Arc — Carl Theodor Drey­er
    Un chien andalou — Luis Buñuel
    Man with a Movie Cam­era — Dzi­ga Ver­tov
    M — Fritz Lang
    Freaks — Tod Brown­ing
    The Tes­ta­ment of Dr. Mabuse — Fritz Lang
    Duck Soup — Leo McCarey
    L’Ata­lante — Jean Vigo
    Mod­ern Times — Charles Chap­lin
    Snow White and the Sev­en Dwarfs — William Cot­trell, David Hand, Wil­fred Jack­son, Lar­ry Morey, Perce Pearce, Ben Sharp­steen
    Stage­coach — John Ford
    The Rules of the Game — Jean Renoir
    Gone with the Wind — Vic­tor Flem­ing
    The Great Dic­ta­tor — Charles Chap­lin
    Fan­ta­sia — James Algar, Samuel Arm­strong, Ford Beebe Jr., Nor­man Fer­gu­son, David Hand, Jim Han­d­ley, T. Hee, Wil­fred Jack­son, Hamil­ton Luske, Bill Roberts, Paul Sat­ter­field, Ben Sharp­steen
    Cit­i­zen Kane — Orson Welles
    To Be or Not to Be — Ernst Lubitsch
    Mesh­es of the After­noon — Maya Deren, Alexan­der Ham­mid
    Casablan­ca — Michael Cur­tiz
    Dou­ble Indem­ni­ty — Bil­ly Wilder
    Ivan Groznyy — Sergei Eisen­stein
    La Belle et la Bête — Jean Cocteau, René Clé­ment
    Paisan — Rober­to Rosselli­ni
    Brief Encounter — David Lean
    Bicy­cle Thieves — Vit­to­rio De Sica
    Chil­dren of the Bee­hive — Hiroshi Shimizu
    The Red Shoes — Michael Pow­ell, Emer­ic Press­burg­er
    The Third Man — Car­ol Reed
    Sun­set Blvd. — Bil­ly Wilder
    Los Olvi­da­dos — Luis Buñuel
    Rashomon — Aki­ra Kuro­sawa
    Sin­gin’ in the Rain — Stan­ley Donen, Gene Kel­ly
    Tokyo Sto­ry — Yasu­jirô Ozu
    Uget­su — Ken­ji Mizoguchi
    Rear Win­dow — Alfred Hitch­cock
    The Night of the Hunter — Charles Laughton
    Ordet — Carl Theodor Drey­er
    Pather Pan­chali — Satya­jit Ray
    Sev­en Samu­rai — Aki­ra Kuro­sawa
    The Searchers — John Ford
    A Man Escaped — Robert Bres­son
    The Cranes Are Fly­ing — Mikhail Kala­to­zov
    Touch of Evil — Orson Welles
    Ver­ti­go — Alfred Hitch­cock
    The 400 Blows — François Truf­faut
    Psy­cho — Alfred Hitch­cock
    L’Avven­tu­ra — Michelan­ge­lo Anto­nioni
    Lawrence of Ara­bia — David Lean
    La jetée — Chris Mark­er
    Vivre Sa Vie — Jean-Luc Godard
    8½ — Fed­eri­co Felli­ni
    It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World — Stan­ley Kramer
    The Umbrel­las of Cher­bourg — Jacques Demy
    Woman of the Dunes — Hiroshi Teshi­ga­hara
    Per­sona — Ing­mar Bergman
    The Bat­tle of Algiers — Gillo Pon­tecor­vo
    Andrei Rublev — Andrei Tarkovsky
    Play­time — Jacques Tati
    2001: A Space Odyssey — Stan­ley Kubrick
    Kes — Ken Loach
    Once Upon a Time in the West — Ser­gio Leone
    The Col­or of Pome­gran­ates — Sergei Para­janov
    Army of Shad­ows — Jean-Pierre Melville
    The Con­formist — Bernar­do Bertoluc­ci
    A Touch of Zen — King Hu
    The God­fa­ther — Fran­cis Ford Cop­po­la
    The God­fa­ther Part II — Fran­cis Ford Cop­po­la
    Pink Flamin­gos — John Waters
    The Spir­it of the Bee­hive — Víc­tor Erice
    The Exor­cist — William Fried­kin
    The Moth­er and the Whore — Jean Eustache
    Bad­lands — Ter­rence Mal­ick
    The Con­ver­sa­tion — Fran­cis Ford Cop­po­la
    A Woman Under the Influ­ence — John Cas­savetes
    Jeanne Diel­man, 23, quai du Com­merce, 1080 Brux­elles — Chan­tal Aker­man
    Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom — Pier Pao­lo Pasoli­ni
    Nashville — Robert Alt­man
    Jaws — Steven Spiel­berg
    Bar­ry Lyn­don — Stan­ley Kubrick
    Taxi Dri­ver — Mar­tin Scors­ese
    Eraser­head — David Lynch
    Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope — George Lucas
    House — Nobuhiko Ôbayashi
    Alien — Rid­ley Scott
    Apoc­a­lypse Now — Fran­cis Ford Cop­po­la
    Stalk­er — Andrei Tarkovsky
    Rag­ing Bull — Mar­tin Scors­ese
    The Shin­ing — Stan­ley Kubrick
    Pixote — Hec­tor Baben­co
    Koy­aanisqat­si — God­frey Reg­gio
    Video­drome — David Cro­nen­berg
    Ran — Aki­ra Kuro­sawa
    Come and See — Elem Klimov
    Angel’s Egg — Mamoru Oshii, Stephanie Sheh, Michael Sin­terniklaas
    A Short Film About Killing — Krzysztof Kies­lows­ki
    A City of Sad­ness — Hsiao-Hsien Hou
    The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover — Peter Green­away
    Tet­suo: The Iron Man — Shin’ya Tsukamo­to
    Do the Right Thing — Spike Lee
    Good­Fel­las — Mar­tin Scors­ese
    Close-Up — Abbas Kiarosta­mi
    A Brighter Sum­mer Day — Edward Yang
    Man Bites Dog — Rémy Bel­vaux, André Bonzel, Benoît Poelvo­orde
    Hard Boiled — John Woo
    Sátán­tangó — Béla Tarr
    Pulp Fic­tion — Quentin Taran­ti­no
    Clerks — Kevin Smith
    The Lion King — Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff
    La haine — Math­ieu Kasso­vitz
    Cure — Kiyoshi Kuro­sawa
    The Cel­e­bra­tion — Thomas Vin­ter­berg
    Beau tra­vail — Claire Denis
    Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samu­rai — Jim Jar­musch
    The Matrix — Lana Wachows­ki, Lil­ly Wachows­ki
    Amer­i­can Movie — Chris Smith

  • Steve says:

    I did­n’t ver­i­fy this for accu­ra­cy, but here is what Gem­i­ni said were the 135 movies men­tioned in the watch­list:

    Fred Ott’s Sneeze (5:25)
    The Big Swal­low (6:56)
    A Voy­age to the Moon (7:55)
    The Great Train Rob­bery (9:05)
    Fan­tas­magorie (10:08)
    Sus­pense (10:56)
    The Birth of a Nation (11:42)
    Intol­er­ance (13:48)
    J’ac­cuse (14:57)
    The Cab­i­net of Dr. Cali­gari (15:51)
    The Phan­tom Car­riage (16:46)
    Häx­an (17:29)
    Sher­lock Jr. (18:07)
    Greed (18:50)
    The Last Laugh (19:34)
    Bat­tle­ship Potemkin (20:24)
    A Page of Mad­ness (22:25)
    Metrop­o­lis (23:10)
    Napoleon (23:52)
    The Pas­sion of Joan of Arc (25:55)
    Un Chien Andalou (26:57)
    Man with a Movie Cam­era (27:22)
    M (28:50)
    Freaks (29:35)
    The Tes­ta­ment of Dr. Mabuse (30:24)
    Duck Soup (30:55)
    L’Ata­lante (32:04)
    Mod­ern Times (33:00)
    Snow White and the Sev­en Dwarfs (33:36)
    Stage­coach (35:45)
    The Rules of the Game (36:26)
    Gone With The Wind (37:47)
    The Great Dic­ta­tor (39:17)
    Fan­ta­sia (39:59)
    Cit­i­zen Kane (41:17)
    The Mag­nif­i­cent Amber­sons (42:59)
    To Be or Not to Be (43:16)
    Mesh­es of the After­noon (44:57)
    Casablan­ca (45:49)
    Dou­ble Indem­ni­ty (46:55)
    Ivan the Ter­ri­ble (48:19)
    Beau­ty and the Beast (48:50)
    Paisan (49:50)
    Rome Open City (50:33)
    Ger­many Year Zero (50:33)
    Brief Encounter (51:00)
    Chil­dren of Par­adise (51:36)
    The Best Years of Our Lives (52:16)
    The Lady from Shang­hai (53:05)
    Bicy­cle Thieves (53:32)
    The Red Shoes (54:19)
    Rashomon (55:31)
    A Street­car Named Desire (56:06)
    Ikiru (56:39)
    Tokyo Sto­ry (57:12)
    Rear Win­dow (57:48)
    Sev­en Samu­rai (58:24)
    La Stra­da (58:59)
    Godzil­la (59:33)
    Pather Pan­chali (1:00:08)
    The Searchers (1:00:43)
    Flesh and the Dev­il (1:01:21)
    The Sev­enth Seal (1:01:45)
    Ver­ti­go (1:02:18)
    Some Like It Hot (1:02:51)
    The 400 Blows (1:03:22)
    North by North­west (1:03:57)
    Hiroshi­ma Mon Amour (1:04:31)
    Wild Straw­ber­ries (1:05:04)
    Breath­less (1:05:37)
    Psy­cho (1:06:12)
    La Dolce Vita (1:06:45)
    L’Avven­tu­ra (1:07:20)
    Peep­ing Tom (1:07:54)
    The Apart­ment (1:08:29)
    Yojim­bo (1:09:03)
    West Side Sto­ry (1:09:37)
    Cléo from 5 to 7 (1:10:13)
    Lawrence of Ara­bia (1:10:48)
    Win­ter Light (1:11:21)
    8½ (1:11:56)
    Dr. Strangelove (1:12:51)
    A Hard Day’s Night (1:13:25)
    The Umbrel­las of Cher­bourg (1:14:00)
    Sev­en Up! (1:14:35)
    Harakiri (1:15:09)
    The Act of See­ing with One’s Own Eyes (1:15:43)
    Per­sona (1:16:16)
    The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1:16:51)
    Play­time (1:17:26)
    Bon­nie and Clyde (1:18:01)
    2001: A Space Odyssey (1:18:36)
    Once Upon a Time in the West (1:19:10)
    Rose­mary’s Baby (1:19:45)
    The Wild Bunch (1:20:19)
    Mid­night Cow­boy (1:20:54)
    Z (1:21:28)
    Easy Rid­er (1:22:04)
    The French Con­nec­tion (1:28:21)
    A Clock­work Orange (1:29:05)
    Harold and Maude (1:29:40)
    The God­fa­ther (1:30:15)
    Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1:30:50)
    Don’t Look Now (1:31:25)
    The Exor­cist (1:32:00)
    Chi­na­town (1:32:35)
    The God­fa­ther Part II (1:33:10)
    Nashville (1:33:45)
    Jeanne Diel­man, 23 quai du Com­merce, 1080 Brux­elles (1:34:20)
    Jaws (1:34:55)
    One Flew Over the Cuck­oo’s Nest (1:35:30)
    Taxi Dri­ver (1:36:04)
    Net­work (1:36:39)
    Annie Hall (1:37:14)
    Eraser­head (1:37:49)
    Close Encoun­ters of the Third Kind (1:38:24)
    Apoc­a­lypse Now (1:38:59)
    Alien (1:39:34)
    The Act of Killing (1:40:09)
    Stalk­er (1:40:44)
    Rag­ing Bull (1:48:38)
    Air­plane! (1:49:13)
    Blade Run­ner (1:49:48)
    Fan­ny and Alexan­der (1:50:23)
    Once Upon a Time in Amer­i­ca (1:50:58)
    Amadeus (1:51:33)
    Come and See (1:52:08)
    Ran (1:52:43)
    Brazil (1:53:18)
    Shoah (1:53:53)
    Blue Vel­vet (1:54:28)
    Wings of Desire (1:55:03)
    Robo­Cop (1:55:38)
    The Last Temp­ta­tion of Christ (1:56:13)
    Do the Right Thing (1:56:48)
    Deka­log (1:57:23)
    My Neigh­bor Totoro (1:57:58)
    Good­fel­las (2:00:49)
    Silence of the Lambs (2:01:24)
    Ter­mi­na­tor 2: Judg­ment Day (2:01:59)
    Raise the Red Lantern (2:02:34)
    Unfor­giv­en (2:03:09)
    Pulp Fic­tion (2:03:44)
    The Shaw­shank Redemp­tion (2:04:19)
    For­rest Gump (2:04:54)
    Far­go (2:05:29)
    Trainspot­ting (2:06:04)
    Princess Mononoke (2:06:39)
    Sav­ing Pri­vate Ryan (2:07:14)
    The Big Lebows­ki (2:07:49)
    Fight Club (2:08:24)

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