ALICE IN THE CITIES Wim Wenders' portait of an unlikely friendship between a photographer and a young girl is the choice of Walter Salles, the director of Linha De Passe and The Motorcycle Diaries, who calls it "sublime and unique". Listen again to his comments. Read more about this film at IMDb
ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN Alan J Pakula's drama about the investigation that uncovered the Watergate scandal was one of the major inspirations for Frost/Nixon scribe Peter Morgan.
AND SOON THE DARKNESS This British thriller about two girls on a cycling holiday in France is the choice of novelist Jonathan Coe, who regards it as one of the best examples of the wave of British psycholigical chillers made in the late 60s and early 70s.
AZUR AND ASMAR One of Frank Cottrell Boyce's choice of children's film, this "dazzling" animation focuses on two childhood friends who have the same wet nurse but grow up to become deadly rivals.
BADLANDS Terrence Malick's stunning debut was chosen by Jeremy Thomas, the producer of Eureka, The Last Emperor and The Naked Lunch, who describes it as a "perfect film full of creativity, modesty and emotion".
BARRY LYNDON Stanley Kubrick's stunning adaptation of Thackeray's novel was a major influence on The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford and its director Andrew Dominik, who has seen the film at least once every year.
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THE BILL DOUGLAS TRILOGY The autobiographical series about the Scottish film-maker's upbringing is the choice of Duane Hopkins, the director of Better Things, who says they're as good as anything made by Robert Bresson or the French New Wave.
COOL RUNNINGS The Hollywood comedy about the Jamaican bobsleigh team who entered the Olympics is the choice of writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who believes that it's one of the great screenplays of all time, and one of cinema's best sporting movies.
DEEWAAR Yash Chopra's phenomenally successful Bollywood crime picture is the choice of expert Anil Sinanan.
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THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY Julian Schnabel's unique take on the life of Jean-Dominique Bauby is the choice of Nic Roeg, who found it "marvellous" and "extraordinary".
FAUST David Thomson's choice is a masterpiece of German Expressionism from the 1920s by director F.W. Murnau, who "could have had an outstanding career" if he'd lived for another 10 years.
FEAR EATS THE SOUL A major influence on Hanif Kureishi, Fassbinder's tale of a Moroccan immigrant's love affair with a West German cleaning lady is one of the first, and most important, European films about racism and multi-culturalism.
FITZCARRALDO/BURDEN OF DREAMS Baz Lurhmann, the director of Moulin Rouge and Australia, is "just crazy about the Fitzcarraldo documentary Burden Of Dreams". The behind-the-scenes study of Werner Herzog's odyssey in the Amazon jungle made Lurhmann "excited about making an epic on location"
FOUR MONTHS, THREE WEEKS AND TWO DAYS Stephen Frears recommends the film he chose as President of the Cannes Jury in 2007 - a "stunning", "powerful" thriller about a woman seeking an abortion in 1980's Romania
THE GOLD RUSH Charlie Chaplin's Klondike comedy was one of the major inspirations for Withnail And I, according to its writer and director Bruce Robinson
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THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST MATTHEW Pier Paolo Pasolini's neo-realist epic was recommended by Michael Radford, the director of Il Postino, 1984 and The Merchant Of Venice, who calls it a perfect movie.
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THE GREEN RAY Eric Rohmer's "magical and beautiful" character study of a young girl's attempt to take a holiday is the choice of Joanna Hogg, the award-winning director of Unrelated.
THE HIRELING Alan Bridges' adaptation of L.P. Hartley's novel shared the main prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973, but is unjustly neglected nowadays, according to The Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw, who calls it "a little gem of a movie".
I AM CURIOUS YELLOW Mike Figgis urges people to watch Vilgot Sjoman's "masterpiece" from 1967, which was banned on its release in the United States, becoming a cause celebre.
IN A LONELY PLACE Adrian Wootton, director of the Crime Scene Festival, says this is one of the best film noirs ever made, about a doomed romance between alcoholic screenwriter Humphrey Bogart and starlet Gloria Grahame
KIRIKOU AND THE SORCERESS This "magical" animation by Michel Ocelot is the choice of award winnning children's author and screen-writer Frank Cottrell Boyce.
KISS ME STUPID Billy Wilder's cynical take on human nature stars Dean Martin as a singer called Dino who's lured into a honey-trap by aspiring song-writers. The film wasn't a hit, but David Thomson believes that it repays repeat viewing.
LA GRANDE BOUFFE Marco Ferreri's controversial comedy about a group of men who set out to eat themselves to death is another choice of Withnail And I director Bruce Robinson.
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THE LAST WAVE Peter Weir's ecological thriller is the choice of Sir Ridley Scott, who would love to re-make it, but admits he could never improve on the original.
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE John Frankenheimer's complex and prescient political satire starring Frank Sinatra is Clive Owen's favourite paranoid conspiracy thriller.
MARY REILLY Stephen Frears' "grievously overlooked" horror movie is the choice of David Thomson, who argues that this take on Jeckyll And Hyde will stand the test of time.
MILLIONS According to Gurinder Chadha, the director of Bend It Like Beckham and Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging, Danny Boyle's children's movie is "a wonderful morality tale for our times."
THE PASSENGER An alternative choice from Walter Salles, who also recommends Blow Up and Zabriksie Point. They form what Salles calls Antonioni's trilogy on identity - the loss of identity (Blow Up) , the change of identity (The Passenger) and the implosion of identity (Zabriskie Point) - "wonderful films we tend to forget."
PRIVATE ROAD This counter-culture romance stars Bruce Robinson, the creator of Withnail And I, and was directed by Barney Platts-Mills, who Matthew Sweet describes as one of the great forgotten directors of British cinema.
RAISING ARIZONA The Coen Brothers' cult classic is the choice of Simon Pegg because it's the movie that made him realise that the camera can be just as important as the script and performance in film comedy.
RASHOMON Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece which introduced Western audiences to Japanese cinema was chosen by film-maker Richard Jobson who describes it as "full of dazzling technique that defined a new type of acting".
THE RED BALLOON Chosen by Sir Alan Parker and Terence Davies, this short film about a boy and his balloon is beautiful in its simplicity, according to Parker, and Davies claims he would trade all his movies to make The Red Balloon, which is "utterly perfect".
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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD This gripping adaptation of Harper Lee's novel is the choice of actor Toby Jones, the star of Infamous, W. and The Mist, who particularly recommends the performance of Gregory Peck as both a parent and a parent of the community.
TOUKI BOUKI This 1973 movie about a couple who want to leave Senegal and return to Paris is "a lost masterpiece" according to producer and director Don Boyd.
THE WAY WE WERE "The perfect love story", according to novelist and critic Norman Le Brecht, who calls the Barbara Streisand/Robert Redford weepie a "great work of economy and therefore a great work of art."
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