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
Forbidden Games (1952)
8/10
Director: Rene Clement
Starring: Brigitte Fossey, Georges Poujouly
A timeless evocation of childhood innocence corrupted, Rene Clement's ("Purple Noon") undisputed masterpiece tells the story of a young girl orphaned... Read more
Ikiru (1952)
8.3/10
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Kyoko Seki
A brilliant study of a man who finds he is dying of cancer and determines to spend his final months giving meaning to his life by constructing a child... Read more
High Noon (1952)
8/10
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Starring: Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado, Grace Kelly, Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper is the marshall who fights alone for upholding the law when the entire town is paralysed with fear. Famously played out in real-time, star... Read more
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
8.3/10
Director: Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
Starring: Millard Mitchell, Jean Hagen, Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Cyd...
Silent movies are giving way to Talking Pictures and a hoofer-turned-matinee idol (Gene Kelly) is caught in that bumpy transition, as well as his budd... Read more
Umberto D. (1952)
8.2/10
Director: Vittorio De Sica
Starring: Carlo Battisti, Maria Pia Casilio, Lina Gennari
One of the masterpieces of Italian Neo-Realist cinema - the Italian postwar Renaissance. The story centres on a retired civil servant, living only on... Read more
The Quiet Man (1952)
7.8/10
Director: John Ford
Starring: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald
Galway in the 1920's. After a long and profitable career as a boxer, Irish-born American Sean Thornton returns to his home village to settle down and... Read more
Mr Hulot's Holiday ( Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot ) (1952)
Director: Jacques Tati
Starring: Jacques Tati, Nathalie Pascaud, Michelle Rolla
This wonderfully comic plotless movie about Monsieur Hulot's vacation trip to the seashore features hilarious situations and a brilliant performance b... Read more
The Day the Earth Stood Still ( Blu-ray ) (1951)
7.8/10
Director: Robert Wise
Starring: Billy Gray, Hugh Marlowe, Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Sam Jaffe
A spacecraft lands in Washington D.C. and an alien emerges, with a menacing robot whose destructive powers defy imagination. So begins the science-fic... Read more
A Streetcar Named Desire ( Blu-ray ) (1951)
8/10
Director: Elia Kazan
Starring: Karl Malden, Kim Hunter, Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh
Blanche du Bois, the magnificently brooding Vivien Leigh, a faded descendant of the once-proud Southern gentry, comes to live with her matter-of-fact... Read more
The African Queen ( Blu-ray ) (1951)
7.9/10
Director: John Huston
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Peter Bull, Robert Morley, Theodore Bikel
One of the all-time greats, "The African Queen" stars Humphrey Bogart (in his Oscar-winning role) and Katharine Hepburn as unlikely lovebirds who enco... Read more
An American in Paris ( Blu-ray ) (1951)
7.2/10
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Starring: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Nina Foch, Oscar Levant
No film can match 'An American in Paris' for all the joy, all the songs, and all the romance in music and dance. Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron star in t... Read more
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
7.8/10
Director: Robert Wise
Starring: Billy Gray, Hugh Marlowe, Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Sam Jaffe
A spacecraft lands in Washington D.C. and an alien emerges, with a menacing robot whose destructive powers defy imagination. So begins the science-fic... Read more
The African Queen (1951)
7.9/10
Director: John Huston
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Peter Bull, Robert Morley, Theodore Bikel
One of the all-time greats, "The African Queen" stars Humphrey Bogart (in his Oscar-winning role) and Katharine Hepburn as unlikely lovebirds who enco... Read more
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
8/10
Director: Elia Kazan
Starring: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden
Blanche du Bois, the magnificently brooding Vivien Leigh, a faded descendant of the once-proud Southern gentry, comes to live with her matter-of-fact... Read more
An American in Paris (1951)
7.2/10
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Starring: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Nina Foch
No film can match 'An American in Paris' for all the joy, all the songs, and all the romance in music and dance. Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron star in t... Read more
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
7.9/10
Director: John Huston
Starring: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Marilyn Monroe
One of director Huston's most memorable efforts, this taut drama is a brilliantly stylized crime story about a group of hoods plotting a major heist.... Read more
Diary of a Country Priest (1950)
8/10
Director: Robert Bresson
Starring: Claude Laydu, Antoine Balpetre, Gaston Severin
A priest (Claude Laydu) arrives in the French country village of Ambricourt to attend to his first parish. The apathetic and hostile rural congregatio... Read more
Sunset Boulevard ( Blu-ray ) (1950)
8.5/10
Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Buster Keaton, Erich Von Stroheim, Fred Clark, Gloria Swanson, Jack Webb, Nancy...
Billy Wilder's classic drama stars Gloria Swanson as reclusive silent movie queen Norma Desmond. Sharing a mansion with her live-in butler/former husb... Read more
Los Olvidados ( The Young and the Damned ) (1950)
8.8/10
Director: Luis Bunuel
Starring: Miguel Inclan, Roberto Cobo, Estela Inda, Alfonso Mejia
The best known film of Luis Bunuel's Mexican period, "Los Olvidados" looks unflinchingly at life in a festering Mexico City slum. A group of juvenile... Read more
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
8.5/10
Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Buster Keaton, Erich Von Stroheim, Fred Clark, Gloria Swanson, Jack Webb, Nancy...
Billy Wilder's classic drama stars Gloria Swanson as reclusive silent movie queen Norma Desmond. Sharing a mansion with her live-in butler/former husb... Read more