25 films you must see before you die

  

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie has been named as Australia’s favourite foreign film after two weeks of online voting conducted by World Movies.

Roberto Benigni’s Oscar-winning Life is Beautiful came in at a close second and classic Cinema Paradiso followed closely behind.

Completing the top five were Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon at number four and the Brazilian gangland masterpiece City of God at number five.

ArtsHub has picked out five of the 25 that may not have been the most popular, but if you don’t have time for all 25, these are the ones you should make sure you have seen.

City of God

The 2002 Brazilian film Cidade de Deus (City of God) directed by Fernando Meirelles and co-directed by Kátia Lund was adapted from the novel of the same name by Paulo Lins. It tells the story of two boys from the same neighbourhood who take very different paths and the growth of organised crime in Rio’s favelas in the late 60s up until the early 80s.

This film doesn’t dance around the violence present in Rio at this time and isn’t for the faint hearted. As Brazil continues to boom while the western world flails, it remains an important account of a turmoil that while abating, is still very fresh and real for a lot of Rio’s citizens.

Metropolis

‘The film that started it all’ claims its trailer, and Fritz Lang’s sci-fi masterpiece is considered a linchpin of the genre. It is a groundbreaking critique of the social crisis between workers and owners in capitalist society, told through a futuristic dystopia and all created in 1927 during the stable period of the Weimar Republic – a hotbed for creativity.

In The Mood For Love

Cinema Studies lecturers will tell you that Wong Kar-wai is a master of his craft, and they’re not wrong. In The Mood For Love is a Hong Kong film made in 2000 that means literally "the age of blossoms" or "the flowery years" – a Chinese metaphor for the fleeting nature of youth. Set in the 60s, the film follows a man and a woman who live in neighbouring apartments and bond when they both suspect that their partners are being unfaithful.

Mon Oncle

Mon Oncle (My Uncle) is a 1958 film comedy by French filmmaker Jacques Tati and was the first of his films to be released in colour. Protagonist Monsieur Hulot is as awkward as he is loveable and the film centres on his inability to fit into the technology-driven world of his sister, brother-in-law, and nephew. The film won the won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; a Special Prize at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival,[5] and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

8 ½

Fellini's eighth and a half film as a director 8 ½ sees famous Italian film director Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni), suffering from "director's block” and unable to continue work on his latest vaguely autobiographical science fiction film. As he deals with the work in a lacklustre manner a series of dreams and flashbacks find him stuck somewhere between fantasy and reality.

The full list is below:

1. Amelie
2. Life Is Beautiful
3. Cinema Paradiso
4. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
5. City of God
6. Seven Samurai
7. Das Boot
8. Run Lola Run
9. Ring
10. Three Colours: Blue
11. Metropolis
12. In The Mood For Love
13. La Dolce Vita
14. Mon Oncle
15. Breathless
16. The Seventh Seal
17. Wings of Desire
18. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
19. The Bicycle Thief
20. 8 ½
21. Belle de Jour
22. Les Enfants Du Paradis
23. The Rules of the Game
24. Y Tu Mama Tambien
25. Jules et Jim