Blu-ray Forum - View Single Post - Blu-ray.com Community's Top Criterion Films (Please Read First Post)

jvince · 09-08-2012, 03:21 PM

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

THE THIRD MAN (1949)
IMDb: 8.5 | RT: 100%

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Genre: Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller
Synopsis: After arriving in post-World War II Vienna, unemployed pulp novelist Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) learns that his friend Harry (Orson Welles) has died in an accident. Compelled to investigate the death, Holly slowly uncovers startling revelations about Harry's life. Based on a novel by Graham Greene, this classic film noir thriller earned an Academy Award nomination for director Carol Reed and won an Oscar for Best Cinematography.

SEVEN SAMURAI (1954)
IMDb: 8.8 | RT: 100%

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Genre: Adventure | Drama
Synopsis: Akira Kurosawa's heroic tale of honor and duty begins with master samurai Kambei (Takashi Shimura) posing as a monk to save a kidnapped child. Impressed by his bravery, a group of farmers begs him to defend their village from encroaching bandits. Kambei agrees and assembles a group of six other samurai, and together they build a militia with the villagers while the bandits loom nearby. Soon the raids begin, culminating in a bloody battle.

12 ANGRY MEN (1957)
IMDb: 8.9 | RT: 100%

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Genre: Drama
Synopsis: Knowing full well that a guilty verdict means death, a jury of 12 men (including Jack Warden and Jack Klugman) must decide the fate of an 18-year-old boy accused of fatally stabbing his father. But only one juror (Henry Fonda) wants to take the time to coolly deliberate the case. Sidney Lumet (Network) made his directorial debut with this Oscar-nominated drama that illuminates all the petty impediments on the path to justice.

PATHS OF GLORY (1957)
IMDb: 8.6 | RT: 93%

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Genre: Drama | War
Synopsis: Col. Dax leads a weary regiment of French army soldiers during World War I. When French generals order the regiment to carry out what amounts to a suicide mission against German fire, some of the men refuse and are tried on charges of cowardice.

M (1931)
IMDb: 8.6 | RT: 100%

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Genre: Thriller
Synopsis: Propelled by a compulsion he can't control, plump pedophile Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) escapes the eye of the law -- but not the wrath of the Berlin underworld being blamed for his crimes.

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (1966)
IMDb: 8.2 | RT: 99%

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Genre: Crime | Drama | History
Synopsis: One of the most influential films in the history of political cinema, Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers focuses on the events of 1957, a key year in Algeria's struggle for independence from France. Shot in the streets of Algiers in documentary style, the film vividly re-creates the tumultuous Algerian uprising against the occupying French. The violence soon escalates on both sides in this war drama that's still astonishingly relevant.

THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE (1991)
IMDb: 7.8 | RT: 85%

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Genre: Drama | Fantasy | Music | Romance
Synopsis: Irene Jacob stars in a dual role as Polish singer Weronika and French music teacher Veronique -- two women who share a deeply haunting emotional bond, though neither is consciously aware of the other's existence. Krzysztof Kieslowski directs this universally beloved, enigmatic piece about identity and human connection, enhanced by an operatic score from Zbigniew Preisner and rich visual cinematography from Slawomir Idziak.

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957)
IMDb: 8.2 | RT: 98%

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Genre: Drama | Film-Noir
Synopsis: Walter Winchell-style columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) uses his power to steamroll both friends and enemies. Fawning press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis), desperate to promote his client in Hunsecker's column, pesters Hunsecker until he's finally drawn into the columnist's devious plan to ruin a jazz guitarist who's angered Hunsecker by daring to date his sister. No one is left unscathed in this sinister tale of greed and corruption.

THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957)
IMDb: 8.4 | RT: 94%

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Genre: Drama | Fantasy
Synopsis: Exhausted and disillusioned, a medieval knight (Max von Sydow) makes the journey home after years of combat in the Crusades. But when the black-robed figure of Death confronts him, the knight challenges him to a game of chess.

THE GOLD RUSH (1925)
IMDb: 8.3 | RT: 100%

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Genre: Adventure | Comedy | Family | Romance | Western
Synopsis: Charlie Chaplin's comic masterpiece centers on the hardships of life on the Alaskan frontier. The Little Tramp plays a pathetic, lonely prospector who journeys to the Klondike hoping to discover gold and make his fortune. Instead, he gets mixed up with some burly characters and falls in love with the beautiful Georgia (Georgia Hale).

THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940)
IMDb: 8.5 | RT: 95%

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Genre: Comedy | Drama | War
Synopsis: In this prescient twist on the immortal prince-and-the-pauper tale, Charlie Chaplin plays polar-opposite dual roles: look-alikes Adenoid Hynkel -- Tomania's anti-Semitic ruler -- and an amnesiac Jewish barber. After 20 years in a hospital, the barber goes home, oblivious to the plight of Tomania's Jews. Soon, Hynkel cracks down on them, but a case of mistaken identity gives the unassuming barber a chance to make an impassioned plea for democracy.