300 Holiday (1938 / George Cukor)
Witty romantic comedy starring an energetic Cary Grant and youthful Katherine Hepburn. Grant is surprised that, after a whirlwind romance, the girl he is engaged to comes from a very wealthy family and that she has a spirited sister (Hepburn) who begins to fall for him.
299 Margin Call (2011 / JC Chandor)
Utterly gripping drama focusing on the staff of an investment bank as the recent financial crisis hits them. All to believable with a highly literate script and great performances all round, particularly from Kevin Spacey, Simon Baker and Stanley Tucci.
298 Passport to Pimlico (1949 / Henry Cornelius)
This Ealing comedy is a perfect film for a rainy Monday afternoon. During the second world war, the residents of Pimlico discover that they are part of Burgundy and declare independence from Britain. Slyly and subtly satirical, it is packed with great British comedic acting talent, headed by Stanley Holloway.
297 Intruder in the Dust (1949 / Clarence Brown)
Unjustly neglected groundbreaking drama about a black man in Mississippi being wrongfully accused of murdering a white man. It avoids falling into the trap of being preachy and really does feel ahead of its time.
296 The Wild Bunch (1969 / Sam Peckinpah)
Peckinpah’s best film, that brutally gave the Western genre a jolt in the arm. William Holden and Robert Ryan give career best performances as aging outlaws looking for one last big score.
295 Lincoln (2012 / Steven Spielberg)
A measured but fascinating portrayal of the last few year’s of Lincoln’s life dominated by a towering performance by Daniel Day-Lewis as the dignified US President.
294 It Started with Eve (1941 / Henry Koster)
A delightful musical comedy starring Deanna Durbin as a shop girl posing as man’s fiancée to make his dying father happy. Charles Laughton steals the film as the father.
293 Argo (2012 / Ben Affleck)
Although Argo contains Affleck’s best performance in years, it also confirms that his long term future is behind the camera. This gripping story, based on the real life events surrounding the freeing of US hostages in Iran was a surprise best film winner at the Oscars.
292 Casino Royale (2006 / Martin Campbell)
After a lacklustre last outing by Pierce Brosnan, the James Bond series needed a shot in the arm and it got it with the first appearance of Daniel Craig as the secret agent. Grittier and more realistic, it is only surpassed by the first few films in the series.
291 The Best Man (1964 / Franklin J. Schaffner)
Giving a real insight into the political process of its day, The Best Man stars a typically earnest Henry Fonda vying for the leadership of his party with the underrated Cliff Robertson.
290 Gettysburg (1993 / Ronald F Maxwell)
At 4 hours 20 minutes, this is almost certainly the longest film in my top 500 and probably features the most facial hair! In fact, it was shown in two parts in the cinemas here as I remember having to wait a week for the second half to be shown. A detailed account of one of the most important battles of the American civil war, it is a pity that there isn’t anything similar for our civil war.
289 Naked (1993 / Mike Leigh)
This film is dominated by a magnificent performance by David Thewlis as Johnny, a man whose life is spiralling out of control as he flees from Manchester to London . Sharply observed, sad, and very funny in equal measures.
288 Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006 / Ken Loach)
Controversial for showing the IRA in the early part of the 20th century in a sympathetic light, this is one of Loach’s most overtly political films. Whatever your political viewpoint, this is an interesting period of history explored in a powerful way.
287 The Good, the Bad and The Ugly (1966 / Sergio Leone)
The film that helped launch Clint Eastwood as a movie star is one of the best known and most imitated westerns ever. Eastwood, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef (both at the top of their game) are searching for buried gold whilst double crossing each other. Full of Leone’s distinctive camerawork and also featuring Ennio Morricone’s memorable score.
286 Marty (1955 / Delbert Mann)
Like the recently released Enough Said, this film tells the touching and realistic story of two ordinary middle aged people falling in love. Written by one of the all time greatest screenwriters, Paddy Chayevsky, and featuring a career defining performance by Ernest Borgnine.
285 Letters from Iwo Jima (2006 / Clint Eastwood)
The story of the battle of Iwo Jima told from the Japanese point of view. Made as a companion piece to Flags of our Fathers, which told the same story from the American perspective, this film surpasses that in its depiction of the futility of war.
284 Bobby (2006 / Emilio Estevez)
Interwoven plotlines abound in this story of the hours leading up to and the aftermath of Robert Kennedy’s assassination. Not very well received critically, but I found the fascinating subject matter was surprisingly well handled by Estevez. Also features excellent performances from William H. Macy, Helen Hunt and Lindsay Lohan (at a time when she was a very promising actress – see also The Prairie Home Companion).
283 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962 / John Ford)
One of a number of westerns from the 1960’s depicting what feels like the end of the west as we know it from so many films made in the previous 30 years, many off them by the same director. Also featuring two of the genres’s greatest stars, James Stewart and John Wayne, this is a sad, meditative film.
282 5×2 (2004 / Francois Ozon)
A couple’s relationship is told in five scenes, with the most recent scene depicting their divorce shown first and the scene showing their meeting shown last. The device could have been a gimmick but in the capable hands of Ozon and the assured performances of Stephane Freiss and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, it seems to add more insight and heartbreak.
281 Brassed Off (1996 / Mark Hermon)
This story of a struggling colliery brass band during the time of Margaret Thatcher’s pit closures of the 1980’s is one of the most moving films I’ve seen. A dignified portrayal of people trying to find something meaningful in their lives whilst whole communities fall apart as a government’s singular ideology takes hold. The much missed Pete Postlethwaite was never better.
280 LA Confidential (1997 / Curtis Hansen)
A series of murders are investigated by three very different cops in 1950’s Los Angeles. A rare example of a successful recent noir, based on a lauded James Ellroy book and the smart dialogue is well delivered by Kevin Spacey and Russell Crowe. A great performance by Kim Basinger as well, though the expected re-launch of her career as a result didn’t really happen.
279 Arabesque (1966 / Stanley Donen)
When I was a kid, Arabesque cropped up regularly in the BBC1 Saturday night schedules, but now it seems to have faded into obscurity. Gregory Peck stars as a university professor who is unwittingly caught up in an espionage plot with the mysterious and beautiful Sophia Loren. It clips along at a good pace with plenty of twists and turns handled well by Donen who made the similar, and slightly superior, Charade three years earlier.
278 Topkapi (1964 / Jules Dassin)
A glossy caper movie about the theft of jewellery from an Istanbul museum. It is loads of fun, especially the great heist sequences and the performances of Peter Ustinov and Robert Morley.
277 Farewell My Lovely (1944 / Edward Dmytryk)
Also known as Murder My Sweet in the US, Dick Powell plays Philip Marlowe hunting for a missing girl. A bold casting choice as Powell was known mostly for musicals (and the title was changed in America to make it clear it was not a musical). He is no Humphrey Bogart but this is still an intriguing film noir.
276 Drowning By Numbers (1988 / Peter Greenaway)
After a cover up of a wife’s drowning of her adulterous husband, her two daughters decide to follow suit with their unfaithful partners. Typically stimulating and oddball stuff from Greenaway’s most interesting period, you can see and sometimes hear the numbers 1 to 100 (in order) appear throughout the film.
