(26) Star Wars (1977), d. George Lucas, US
No drop yet in the voltage.

-- Withnail & I (1986), d. Bruce Robinson, GB
A gloriously funny British comedy, about two no-hope actors, with a cult status that won't stop growing.

(28) Singin' In The Rain (1952), d. Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly, US
Kelly gets his trousers wet as the movies learn to talk. Great satire, great music, great dance.

(29) The Night of the Hunter (1955), d. Charles Laughton, US
A magical Depression-era fable in which murderous rogue preacher Mitchum and stout-hearted angel Gish battle for the souls of two innocent children, overseen by the stars and God's small creatures.

-- Psycho (1960), d. Alfred Hitchcock, US
The mild mannered motel keeper; the shower curtain and the shadow of the knife; the wig; the mummy - scream and scream again.

-- The Wild Bunch (1969), d. Sam Peckinpah, US
The Western bites the dust and Peckinpah sounds this ecstatis, slo-mo death rattle. Bill Holden, Ernie Borgnine, Robert Ryan and Warren Oates go along for the ride.

(32) The Shawshank Redemption (1994), d. Frank Darabont, US
Tim Robbins, unjustly jailed for murder, takes time to execute his very satisfying revenge.

(33) Three Colors: Red (1994), d. Krzysztof Kieslowski, Fr/Pol/Switz
Kieslowski's valedictory trilogy culminates in wise affirmation: a classic for tomorrow.

(34) The Big Sleep (1946), d. Howard Hawks, US
Marlowe mixes it with the Sternwoods and you'll never, ever figure out exactly who did what to whom.

(35) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975), d. Milos Forman, US
Breaking out of the asylum - and ex-hippies are rooting for the inmates all the way.

(36) Paris, Texas (1984), d. Wim Wenders, WGer/Fr/GB
Harry Dean Stanton emerges from the desert and heads for home: an achingly sad German-American masterpiece.

(37) Blue Velvet (1986), d. David Lynch, US
Middle America under the microscope - and it's freak city, daddy-o. Surrealist Lynch hits his peak.

(38) Tokyo Story (1953), d. Yasujiro Ozu, Jap
Philosophical calm in the face of inescapable hardship reigns supreme in this moving exploration of the gulf between parents and children.

(39) The Deer Hunter (1978), d. Michael Cimino, US
Still America's most controversial (and affecting) movie about the US experience of the Vietnam War.

-- Three Colors: Blue (1993), d. Krzysztof Kieslowski, Fr
What happens when the nerve fails on the brink of suicide? The first part of Kieslowski's magisterial trilogy.

(41) Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), d. Sergio Leone, It
The horse opera as myth; a magnificent, baroque costume picture written in the dust.

(42) The Piano (1993), d. Jane Campion, NZ/Fr
Bronte-like melodrama: a mute wife, a clueless husband, and a naked, tattooed Harvey Keitel.

(43) Double Indemnity (1944), d. Billy Wilder, US
Sexual dominance, guilt, suspicion and insurance fraud define a generic mood of dark pessimism.

-- Once Upon a Time in America (1983), d. Sergio Leone, US
A mature meditation on time, honor, and brotherhood, and another gangster epic on a grand scale.

(45) L'Atalante (1934), d. Jean Vigo, Fr
One of the cinema's very greatest (unsentimental) romances, set on a Seine barge skippered by the imperishable Michel Simon, about the pitfalls of marriage and possessive relationships.

(46) Aliens (1986), d. James Cameron, US
Monstrous hi-tech mayhem to the max as Sigourney goes gunning.

(47) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying... (1964), d. Stanley Kubrick, GB
This is how the world ends, with a bang and Peter Sellers in three roles.

-- Performance (1970), d. Nicolas Roeg/Donald Cammell, GB
Sixties psychological psychedelia from jigsaw-makers Roeg and Cammell.

(49) Wings of Desire (1987), d. Wim Wenders, WGer/Fr
The angels are listening - and falling in love.

(50) Brazil (1985), d. Terry Gilliam, GB
A terrifying comic view of the future: anarchic, inventive, visually arresting - and sometimes in danger of being hoist by its own petard.