I hope i'm not posting into a void.

12. APOCALYPSE NOW (COPPOLA, 1979) 

Mad, mesmerising, ambitious, ambiguous, giddily glamorous, operatic, hallucinatory, drug-enhanced journey deep into Vietnam's, and warfare's, heart of darkness. Little wonder Coppola's monumental "folly" was recently voted by critics the finest film of the last 25 years.


11. L'AVVENTURA (ANTONIONI, 1960)

So here is the seminal Antonioni classic that for many is virtually the definition of intellectual "arthouse", and that brought a torrent of jeers and boos at Cannes, for its length, slow pacing, sense of alienation and disdain for conventional plot. "A Nightmarish masterpiece of tedium" Time called it. 

The main apparent storyline, and potentially fascinating mystery- of a woman who goes missing from a small island off the coast of Sicily while on a small group's yachting trip- is left to drift off, while a tentative and hardly joyous relationship develops between her fiancé and best friend who travel together in search of her. 

 Far from boring, cold, pretentious, self-indulgent, hollow nihilism, L'Avventura is a milestone that deserves a place at the very forefront of film achievement. Aldo Scavarda's cinematography is quite outstanding, Eraldo da Roma's editing (though many complain the film should have been clipped) nigh on flawless, and the use of buildings and environment to suggest a range of enigmatic feelings is masterful. Throw in a languorous elegance, enhanced by Monica Vitti, and even a lingering  sense of further mystery- this despite the neglect of the original puzzle. 

It's wholly cinematic yet feels like a great novel. After 2 hours 25 I wanted it to go on and on. From a time of seismic international change, excitement and vitality (Les 400 Coups, Hiroshima mon Amour, Breathless, La Dolce Vita, Last Year at Marienbad, 8 1/2...) it towers over the mass of today's shallow, juvenile, derivative, overblown and overrated efforts like a colossus.


10. BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (EISENSTEIN, 1925)

This revolutionary red fire-snorting dragon was probably the most important and influential film since the birth of the medium.  Much more than mere Soviet propaganda, its acute sense of rhythm, symphonic pacing and structure, eye for composition, and magnificent choreography alone make for a memorable experience. Following on from Kuleshov's theories and the director's own radical experiments in Strike (itself a work of unadulterated genius), Potemkin was propelled to lasting international recognition by the landmark dynamic montage editing, which peaks in the celebrated and still mightily impressive Odessa Steps sequence. Although Eisenstein's reputation seems to have undeservedly slipped a little, it's hard to imagine Psycho's shower scene or today's pyro-technics without it. 

