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Alice's 500 Greatest Films

The goal in this compilation was to determine film history's definitive creme de la creme. The titles considered to be the greatest of the great from around the world and throughout the history of film.. So, after an in-depth analysis of respected critics and publications from around the globe, cross referenced and tweaked to arrive at the ranking of films representing, we believe, the greatest cinema can offer. Scroll, contemplate and enjoy..... Want a printable list of the 500 greatest to check off? Click here

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Special Edition) (1977)

7.7/10
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon, Francois Truffaut

Writer/director Steven Spielberg's intelligent sci-fi story stars Richard Dreyfuss as an Indiana electrical lineman whose close encounter with a UFO o... Read more

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

8.6/10
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tom Sizemore, Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Edward Burns

This highly acclaimed portrait about one unit's search for a soldier who has been ordered home stars Tom Hanks and Matt Damon. Famous for its intense... Read more

Ordinary People (1980)

7.8/10
Director: Robert Redford
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Judd Hirsch, Mary Tyler Moore, Timothy Hutton

An intense examination of a family being torn apart by tragedy and tension, 'Ordinary People' won four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Direc... Read more

A Room with a View (1985)

7.4/10
Director: James Ivory
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Denholm Elliott, Helena Bonham Carter, Judi Dench, Julian Sand...

"A Room with a View" is the film that defined Merchant-Ivory as the masters of the romantic period piece and this exceptional adaptation of E.M. Forst... Read more

The Lost Weekend (Blu-ray) (1945)

7.9/10
Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Ray Milland, Phillip Terry, Jane Wyman

Billy Wilder's Oscar-winning social drama stars Ray Milland as an alcoholic writer who falls into a maelstrom of delusion and dementia and winds up in... Read more

The Conversation (Blu-ray) (1974)

7.8/10
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Teri Garr, John Cazale, Harrison Ford, Gene Hackman, Frederic Forrest, Cindy Wil...

Gene Hackman is brilliant as Harry Caul, the surveillance man who becomes the object of surveillance himself. Coppola's great achievement is evoking a... Read more

Heat (1995)

8.2/10
Director: Michael Mann
Starring: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Tom Sizemore, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Diane Venora, A...

This intense police story showcases Al Pacino as a frazzled Los Angeles detective out to stop a group of thieves headed by mastermind Robert De Niro,... Read more

Babette's Feast (1987)

7.8/10
Director: Gabriel Axel
Starring: Stephane Audran, Jean-Philippe Lafont, Jarl Kulle

Awarded the Best Foreign Language film of 1987 by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Stephane Audran is Babette, an exiled French cook-... Read more

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly ( Blu-ray ) (2007)

8/10
Director: Julian Schnabel
Starring: Emmanuelle Seigner, Mathieu Amalric, Max von Sydow, Niels Arestrup, Patrick Ches...

Based on the best-selling memoir of the same name, this is the remarkable true story of Jean Dominic Bauby, wealthy playboy and editor of the French '... Read more

Secrets and Lies (1996)

7.7/10
Director: Mike Leigh
Starring: Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan, Timothy Spall, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Claire Rus...

A 27 year old black London Optometrist decides to seek out the woman who gave her up for adoption after she was born. The search leads to a surprising... Read more

Enter the Dragon (1973)

7.7/10
Director: Robert Clouse
Starring: Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Jim Kelly, Ahna Capri, Bob Wall, Shih Kien

One of the biggest martial arts epics ever filmed. Forget the plot and concentrate on the mind-blowing action as Bruce Lee infiltrates a strange tourn... Read more

Trainspotting (1995)

8.2/10
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Ewen Bremner, Robert Carlyle, Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Kel...

A gritty, graphically painful and, at times, blackly funny look at a group of heroin addicts in Edinburgh, Scotland focusing on one young man as he re... Read more

Doctor Zhivago (1965)

8/10
Director: David Lean
Starring: Alec Guinness, Geraldine Chaplin, Julie Christie, Omar Sharif, Ralph Richardson,...

David Lean demonstrates again why he's a peerless filmmaker of substance and scale, directing Boris Pasternak's tumultuous tale of Russia divided by w... Read more

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1984)

7.7/10
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello, Dianne Wiest

Mia Farrow stars as a waifish Depression-era waitress who is swept off her feet by Jeff Daniels, the star of her favorite movie. The catch, of course,... Read more

The Intouchables ( Blu-ray ) (2011)

8.5/10
Director: Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache
Starring: Francois Cluzet, Omar Sy, Anne Le Ny, Audrey Fleurot, Clotilde Mollet

A.k.a. "Intouchables", "Untouchable". Philippe (Francois Cluzet) is a wealthy Parisian left paralyzed from the neck down after a paragliding accident.... Read more

Planet of the Apes (1967)

5.7/10
Director: Franklin J Schaffner
Starring: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, Jame...

The original, classic sci-fi film based on Pierre Boulle's novel "Monkey Planet" stars Charlton Heston as Taylor, an astronaut who ends up stranded on... Read more

The Long Goodbye (1973)

7.7/10
Director: Robert Altman
Starring: Elliott Gould, Nina Van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden

A quirky, semi-satiric, updating of Raymond Chandler stars Elliott Gould as laid-back gumshoe Philip Marlowe, investigating the murder of his friend's... Read more

Braveheart ( Blu-ray ) (1995)

8.4/10
Director: Mel Gibson
Starring: Catherine McCormack, Mel Gibson, Patrick McGoohan, Sophie Marceau

The epic tale of 13th century Scottish rebel warrior William Wallace (Mel Gibson), who builds a grass-roots resistance against the tyranny of English... Read more

Blue Velvet (1986)

7.8/10
Director: David Lynch
Starring: Laura Dern, Dennis Hopper, Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dean Stockwell

The most talked about film of the '80s, David Lynch's controversial, surreal mystery is set amid the manicured lawns of small town America where a wor... Read more

Un Chien Andalou / Land Without Bread ( Las Hurdes ) (1929)

Director: Luis Bunuel

Luis Bunuel's first film, the surrealistic masterpiece "Un Chien Andalou" ("An Andalusian Dog"), was based after an exchange of dreams with co-writer... Read more