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3000+ Super Sound Films

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Cinemacom was created and this list first compiled during the summer months of 2002, and most recently updated April 2007. Working mainly from memory aided by a few lists and director searches via the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), I've sought to include all the most worthwhile films, including those that I've never seen as well as many I personally find enjoyable. Certainly I could not fail to overlook some titles. During a recent revision, I suddenly discovered that I'd failed to list Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool from 1969. Please email me any titles I've overlooked, your personal faves or otherwise, with the release year and director's name according the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), which is exclusively used for release dates, regardless of USA.
Thank you sincerely! Simón Cherpitel

A good film is one that calls to be seen more than once, a film that lingers and invites us back for repeated viewings. A great film is one that often seems to get better each time we see it.

How many movies can a person reasonably see in a lifetime? So far, I guess I've seen around 12,000 different films during my life, and at least a quarter of these I've seen more than once. A professional critic might easily see two or three times that number, an average movie lover, far less.

We now have a list of over 3000 sound-era films, which will be added to until we reach our goal of 5,000. (Silent films are listed on another page.) Except for the James Bond movies, we list no series films and only superior sequels. Right now some extremely popular movies are not included, such as Cameron's Titanic and Kleiser's Grease. However, as the latter received one vote in the recent Sight & Sound survey, I may include it if I decide to add the roughly 100 films, not now listed, which also received a single vote, most all of which I've never seen. At the same time, some movies from recent years are likely to be deleted, many of which I've never seen.

Why do obsure films like World for Ransom (Aldrich, 1954, with Dan Duryea) or Ulmer's The Naked Dawn with Arthur Kennedy from 1955, stick in my mind though I saw them only once years ago? (The latter got one vote in the recent Sight & Sound 2002 survey, but it's likely that only a small number of critics or directors who voted have seen it.) These films left an impression because of the talent of the director.

Simultaneously, I believe a good script is the most important element in making a film good, which is mainly why James Cameron's enormously successful Titanic failed as film art, in my opinion, boring me with its overblown banality. Cameron has made a number of exceptional movies, three of which I have in my limited personal collection. Meanwhile, a film like Crosland's 1927 The Jazz Singer is listed here because it is both the first sound film and also on the AFI top 100 list, and although certainly not a "great" film, it did not bore me, partly because of Jolson's passionate performance.

Some films, which have obtained status on the United States Library of Congress yearly selection of 25 films (their criteria: the movie must be at least 10 years old), are only film documents, such as the short Zapruda Film of J.F.K.'s assassination. Although of not the same historical import, if we were to include this, we might as well include any of the best clips from TV docs of humorious home videos or stupid pet tricks. Thus, not included, are the Tex Avery cartoon or the British Airways commercial that were listed in the recent S&S survey. However, Stan Brakhage's 'home' movies Window Water Baby Moving (1959) and The Art of Vision (1965) are listed, and also Bruce Baillie's biker film Mass for the Dakota Sioux (1964), for these are great 'underground' auteur cinema creations, at least to me.

Cinemacom is director oriented, an appreciation that began in the 1950s with budding Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) French directors-to-be who wrote for Les Cahiers du Cinema. They recognized that the real art of the cinema was in the hands of the person who essentially supervised all the other talent involved in the complex making of a film, the auteur or author. Although Jean-Luc Godard is the most revered among these directors today, one should note that his first and still most highly-rated film is the 1960 A Bout de Souffle (Breathless), which was written by François Truffaut, while Truffaut's own Jules et Jim (1961) places only one vote behind in the 2002 S&S survey. Although Godard is now the most enduring of the nouvelle vague directors, to me, it is Truffaut who exerted the real emotional influence on world cinema in the French tradition of Jean Renoir and Jean Vigo, and I believe his body of work will ultimately be recongnised as the highest in value.

There are a virtual plethora of films worth seeing, even if only one time. So many that it is impossible to see them all, for each can take roughly two hours of one's life, not like great paintings where, if necessary, one can perceive the inner sense of the art within a few minutes. Even those who make their living from reviewing films cannot see everything. I believe it is a huge challenge for a new critic beginning today to gain the sort of background & awareness of past films for a proper perspective of his criticism.

'100 Best Film Lists' ultimately fail because so many valuable films are always omitted. At Cinemacom we are striving for a listing of probably a maximum of 5000 films, all feature-length with a few exceptions. It's possible that we will cut this list into a second list at some point, say the 1500 to 2000 most essential films.

In practical terms, each of us has roughly 70 years of film viewing available to us, and we can maybe reasonably see no more than an average of 2.2 films per week, while having a normal life. The math: 70 years x 52 weeks x 2.2 films = 8,000 films. However, there are all the new films being released, which will account for half of our viewing time, at home or in a theatre. So that leaves the number of around 4,000 older films that we may ever be able to reasonably see, if we care about the art.

Also, ideally, at least half the films we choose to see are worth seeing a second time, some even more.

Far too many movies leave us with nothing except a waste of our time. The Internet Movie Database (url at top) has circa 350,000 catalogued, of which around 50,000 are shorts, and another 33,000 are movies made for television. I estimate that around 150,000 films have seen actual theatrical release internationally (beyond the borders of the producing country) over the last 100 years.

All art is subjective. To compile our list, we have the input of many sources, not just mine (I've seen only about 90% of films listed here). Besides myself, direct Cinemacom contributors have been Robert Feltman, Kurt Hotaling, Andrea Ueberall, Sebastian Quiblier, Roger Passaro and William Stan Murdock. New contributors are always welcome.

To our picks, any film that received three or more votes in the 1992 & 2002 Sight & Sound Magazine polls were added. Eventually the 150 films that received one or two votes in the 2002 Sight and Sound poll, which are not already on our list, will also be included. What makes the S&S survey the most authoritative is its broad international polling of over 250 film critics and directors, and the magazine has been doing it every 10 years since 1952.

Other sources checked are various best movie lists, such as various critics' 100 lists, as well as yearly English & non-English language picks from top critics' awards, such as the NY and LA Film Critics circles, in addition to the top 100 from the British film poll and the AFI's top 100. Lately I've used Roger Ebert's reviews as a 'check' & have come to respect his views, since I find I agree with him about 80% of the time. The other 20% is the 'subjective' element, which we are all prone to, however, he makes his living from film criticism, i do not.

Our poster selection along the left is pegged toward good graphic art with an emphasis on lessor known great films.

For titles and dating, we nearly always use the IMDb's year date, which generally is the year of first release in the country of origin, but are erratic in using the film's original or English title. Thus the Leone-Eastwood westerns of the 60s are listed as much as two years earlier than their release dates in the U.S. Crash was first publically shown in 2004, although it won the Best Picture Oscar for 2005.

You are invited to contribute quality film essays. Each Cinemacom associate receives a special listings page, when I have time to mount it with appropriate posters, where he or she writes an essay, which can be brief, and names his or her top films, which can be any number as long as they are presented in the Cinemacom format of year, title and director's full name. Please contact me if you are interested:

The 3000+ List

Updated April 2007