How many masterpieces are there?

Although they were all marginal, I have added:
The Travelling Players (1975)
Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

that gets me up to 143 I believe.

I will reconsider whether I ought to designate any of the following as masterpieces in my list:
YES
*Dante's Inferno 1911 Italy Francesco Bertolini YES OK
*20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 1916 USA Stuart Paton YES OK
*Intolerance 1916 USA DW Griffith YES OK
*The Blue Bird 1918 France Maurice Tourneur YES OK
*The Mark of Zorro 1920 USA Fred Niblo YES
*The Phantom Carriage 1921 Sweden Victor Sjostrom YES OK
*Dr Mabuse the Gambler 1922 YES
*Nosferatu 1922 Germany FW Murnau YES OK
*The Toll of the Sea 1922 USA Chester M. Franklin YES
Sherlock Jr 1924 USA Buster Keaton YES
The Thief of Bagdad 1924 USA Raoul Walsh YES OK
*Die Nibelungen 1924 USA Fritz Lang YES
*Seven Chances 1925 USA Buster Keaton
*Strike 1925 USSR Sergei Eisenstein
*The Phantom of the Opera 1925 USA Rupert Julian
*A Page of Madness 1926 Japan Teinosuke Kinugasa YES
*The Big Trail 1930 USA Raoul Walsh YES OK
*King Kong 1933 USA Merian C Cooper
The Roaring Twenties 1939 USA Raoul Walsh YES OK
There Was a Father 1942 Japan Yasujiro Ozu YES OK
Leave Her to Heaven 1945 USA John M. Stahl YES OK
Brief Encounter 1945 UK David Lean YES
*Notorious 1946 USA Alfred Hitchcock
*Kind Hearts and Coronets 1949 UK Robert Hamer
A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 USA Elia Kazan YES
Singin' In the Rain 1952 USA Gene Kelly YES
The First Echelon 1955 USSR Mikhael Kalatazov YES
*A Man Escaped 1956 France Robert Bresson
The Cranes are Flying 1957 USSR Mikhail Kalatozov YES OK
Cleo from 5 to 7 1962 France Agnès Varda YES
Le Petit Soldat 1963 France Jean-Luc Godard YES OK
Pierrot Le Fou 1965 France Jean Luc Godard OK THEN
Repulsion 1965 UK Roman Polanski YES
*Persona 1966 Sweden Ingmar Bergman FINE
Walkabout 1971 UK Nicholas Roeg GO ON THEN
Cabaret 1972 USA Bob Fosse GO ON THEN
*The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant 1972 Rainer Werner Fassbinder YES FINE
Don't Look Now 1973 UK Nicholas Roeg
Badlands 1973 USA Trevor Malick
Jaws 1975 USA Steven Spielberg
Dog Day Afternoon 1975 USA Sidney Lumet
Star Wars: a New Hope 1977 USA George Lucas
Superman 1978 USA Richard Donner
The Terminator 1984 USA James Cameron
Paris, Texas 1984 USA Wim Wenders
*Come and See 1985 Soviet Union Elem Klimov
Withnail & I 1987 UK Bruce Robinson
*Landscape in the Mist 1988 Greece Theodoros Angelopoulos
*The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover 1989 UK Peter Greenaway
*The Puppet Master 1993 Taiwan Hou Hsiao-hsien
Pulp Fiction 1994 USA Quentin Tarantino
Il Postino 1994 Italy Michael Radford
A Moment of Innocence 1996 Iran Mohsen Makhmalbaf
*Trainspotting 1996 UK Danny Boyle
The Matrix 1999 USA The Wachowskis
Café Lumiere 2003 Japan Hou Hsiao-hsien
There Will be Blood 2008 USA Paul Thomas Anderson
Arrival 2016 USA Denis Villeneuve



NO
*Poor Little Rich Girl 1917 France Maurice Tourneur NO
*Broken Blossoms 1919 USA DW Griffith NO
*Last of the Mohicans 1920 France Maurice Tourneur NO
*Flesh and the Devil 1926 USA Clarence Brown NO
The Blue Angel 1930 Germany Josef von Sternberg NO
*Blood of a Poet 1932 France Jean Cocteau NO
*Shanghai Express 1932 USA Josef von Sternberg NO
*Modern Times 1936 USA Charles Chaplin NO
Port of Shadows 1938 France Marcel Carné NO
Rebecca 1940 UK Alfred Hitchcock NO
The Maltese Falcon 1941 USA John Houston NO
Casablanca 1942 USA Michael Curtiz NO
Laura 1944 USA Otto Preminger NO
My Darling Clementine 1946 USA John Ford NO
Key Largo 1948 USA John Huston NO
Stromboli (italian version) 1950 Italy Roberto Rossellini NO
Rashomon 1950 Japan Arika Kurosawa NO NOT FOR ME
Sunset Boulevard 1950 USA Billy Wilder NO
In a Lonely Place 1950 USA Nicholas Ray NO
The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951 USA NO
Limelight 1952 USA Charles Chaplin NO
*Summer With Monika 1952 Sweden Ingmar Bergman NO
*Gentleman Prefer Blondes 1953 USA Howard Hawks NO
A Geisha 1953 Japan Kenji Mizoguchi NO
La Strada 1954 Italy Federico Fellini NO
Rebel Without a Cause 1955 USA Nicholas Ray NO
The Killing 1955 USA Stanley Kubrick NO
*Bad Day at Blackrock 1955 USA John Sturges NO
*The Searchers 1956 USA John Ford NO NOT QUITE
The King and I 1956 USA Walter Lang NO
Forbidden Planet 1956 USA Fred Wilcox NO NOT QUITE
Il Grido 1957 Italy Michelangelo Antonioni NO
Paths of Glory 1957 USA Stanley Kubrick NO
Sweet Smell of Success 1957 USA Alexander Mackendrick NO
*Hiroshima Mon Amore 1959 Japan/France Alain Resnais NO
*Floating Weeds 1959 Japan Yasujirō Ozu NO
Devi 1960 India Satyajit Ray
*Chronicle of a Summer 1961 France Jean Rouch*&*Edgar Morin
Rocco and his Brothers 1961 Italy Luchino Visconti
These Are The Damned 1962 UK Joseph Losey
*An Autumn Afternoon 1962 Japan Yasujirō Ozu
The Birds 1963 USA Alfred Hitchcock
Le Mepris 1963 France Jean-Luc Godard
Dr Strangelove 1964 UK Stanley Kubrick
Woman in the Dunes 1964 Japan Hiroshi Teshigahara
*The Battle of Algiers 1966 Algeria Gillo Pontecorvo
*Un Homme at Une Femme 1966 France Claude Leloch
*Daisies 1966 Czechoslovakia Věra Chytilová
*Le Samourai 1967 France Jean-Pierre Melville
Point Blank 1967 USA John Boorman
In The Heat of the Night 1967 USA Norman Jewison
Belle de Jour 1967 France Luis Buñuel
Oliver 1968 UK Carol Reed
Barbarella 1968 USA Roger Vadim
*Bullitt 1968 USA Peter Yates
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969 USA
Two Lane Blacktop 1971 USA Monte Hellman
The Andromeda Strain 1971 USA Robert Wise
Straw Dogs 1971 USA Sam Peckinpah
The Day of the Jackal 1973 France Fred Zinnemann
The Exorcist 1973 USA William Friedkin
Enter the Dragon 1973 Hong Kong Robert Clouse
American Graffiti 1973 USA George Lucas
Je, Tu, Elle, Il 1974 France Chantal Akerman
Kings of the Road 1975 Germany Wim Wenders
*India Song 1975 France Marguerite Duras
Taxi Driver 1976 USA Martin Scorsese
Network 1976 USA Sidney Lumet
The Omen 1976 Richard Donner
All the President's Men 1976 Alan J Pakula
The Deer Hunter 1978 Michael Cimino
The Warriors 1979 USA Walter Hill
Manhattan 1979 USA Woody Allen
*Raging Bull 1980 USA Martin Scorsese
Airplane 1980 Jim Abrahams
Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 USA Steven Spielberg
Local Hero 1983 UK Bill Forsyth
Ghostbusters 1984 USA Ivan Reitman
Beverly Hills Cop 1984 USA Martin Brest
Manhunter 1986 USA Michael Mann
Hannah and Her Sisters 1986 USA Woody Allen
*Empire of the Sun 1987 USA Steven Spielberg
Fatal Attraction 1987 USA Adrian Lyne
Where is my Friend's House? 1987 Iran Abbas Kiarostami
Spoorloos The Vanishing 1988 France George Sluizer
Cinema Paradiso 1988 Italy Giuseppe Tornatore
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1989 USA Steven Spielberg
Batman 1989 USA Tim Burton
*Rainman 1988 USA Barry Levinson
*Wild at Heart 1990 USA David Lynch
*The Commitments 1991 Ireland Alan Parker
Goodfellas 1991 USA Martin Scorsese
Toto the Hero 1991 Belgium Jaco Van Dormael
*The Double Life of Veronique 1991 France Krzysztof Kieślowski
*A Brighter Summer Day 1991 Taiwan Edward Yang
*Reservoir of Dogs 1992 USA Quentin Tarantino
Groundhog Day 1993 UK Harold Ramis
The Remains of the Day 1993 UK James Ivory
True Romance 1993 USA Tony Scott
*Leon the Professional 1994 USA Luc Besson
Seven 1995 USA David Fincher
Trees Lounge 1996 USA Steve Buscemi
Taste of Cherry 1997 Iran Abbas Kiarostami
Beau Travail 1999 France Claire Denis
Sexy Beast 2000 UK Jonathan Glazer
The Others 2001 Spain Alejandro Amenábar
City of God 2002 Brazil Fernando Meirelles
Pan's Labrynth 2006 Spain Guillermo Del Toro
Persepolis 2007 Iran Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi
Let the Right One in 2008 Sweden Tomas Alfredson
Sea of Darkness (doc) 2008 USA Michael Oblowitz
Inglourious Basterds 2009 USA Quentin Tarantino
Fish Tank 2009 UK
Django Unchained 2012 USA Quentin Tarantino
Argo 2012 USA Ben Affleck
Drive 2012 USA Nicolas Winding Refn
*The Dark Knight 2013 USA
The Great Gatsby 2013 USA Baz Luhrmann
Nightcrawler 2014 USA Dan Gilroy
Leviathan 2014 Russia Andrey Zvyagintsev
Whiplash 2014 USA Damien Chazelle
You Were Never Really Here 2017 USA Lynne Ramsay
1917 2018 UK Sam Mendes
The Zone of Interest 2023 UK Jonathan Glazer
Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio 2022 USA Guillermo Del Toro

Guy Maddin's The Heart of the World would be something i'd consider a fitting masterpiece celebrating the medium fittingly.

From the silent era i consider The Passion of Joan of Arc, Die Nibelungen, Sunrise, The General, The Gold Rush, The Thief of Bagdad, The Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame to name just some of the most famous, i simply love looking at them, there is just such a great style to them.

From the 30's James Whale's 2 Frankensteins, but most of all Renoir's Rules of the Game, and Dreyer's Vampyr

From the 40's ... i dunno this is my least valued decade

Film noir however i think Out of the Past could be seen as a masterpiece.

Ingmar Bergman owned the 50's, my pick would be Wild Strawberries

Jean Luc Godard similarly owned the 60's my personal favorite is defined by it's imperfections Les carabiniers

Rainer Werner Fassbinder owned the 70's, perfection thy name is Petra von Kant

other stray films i can think of at the moment i would deem masterful

mother! -- how that progresses is astounding
Whiplash mentioned above that i saw i heartily agree

In sum, a masterpiece is not so black and white a thing, there are a fixed amount a large amount would agree are great however, so perhaps the cumulative amount would be symbolically 666, because entertainment is inherently evil!!

Many thanks for the contribution.

Many of the ones you mention I have already included.

I'll review some of the others which I had not considered.

Cheers.

Edit: Die Nibelungen I wasn't aware of, and is a fantastic suggestion. I'll add it.

Also Mabuse the Gambler from Lang, i think Metropolis is a little overhyped, yw

Yes, there is something historically and grammatically limited about the definition of "masterpiece" once the word has been used.
If film A by artist X is considered a masterpiece then it doesn't make sense to say that film B by that same artist is a masterpiece. It's a one of a kind thing that can't be retconned.
And you can't say "film A is a masterpiece but film B is masterpiecer".

And it's very frustrating to read on wiki that several films are considered "the greatest of all time" on their respective pages (of course we all know that fanboys can alter the information).

However, there's a big difference between factual and representative, it's sort of like saying that an athlete can't beat his own record, or anyone's record for that matter.
And yet there is something fascinating and iconic about an athlete's or artist's first great achievement, so perhaps it could work with the representative angle - the signature songs, as it were.

@Jeff

So I now have the following up to 1937:

The Flying Train 1902 Germany -
Dante's Inferno 1911 Italy Francesco Bertolini
Birth of a Nation 1915 USA DW Griffith
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 1916 USA Stuart Paton
Intolerance 1916 USA DW Griffith
The Blue Bird 1918 France Maurice Tourneur
J'Accuse 1919 France Abel Gance
Way Down East 1920 USA DW Griffith
The Mark of Zorro 1920 USA Fred Niblo
The Phantom Carriage 1921 Sweden Victor Sjöström
Dr Mabuse the Gambler 1922 Germany Fritz Lang
Nosferatu 1922 Germany FW Murnau
The Toll of the Sea 1922 USA Chester M. Franklin
The Great White Silence 1924 UK Herbert Ponting (documentary)
Sherlock Jr 1924 USA Buster Keaton
The Thief of Bagdad 1924 USA Raoul Walsh
Die Nibelungen 1924 Germany Fritz Lang
Seven Chances 1925 USA Buster Keaton
Strike 1925 Sergei Eisenstein Soviet Union NEW
The Phantom of the Opera 1925 USA Rupert Julian
The Adventures of Prince Achmed 1926 Germany Lotte Reinger
The General 1926 USA Buster Keaton
A Page of Madness 1926 Japan Teinosuke Kinugasa
The Lodger 1927 UK Alfred Hitchcock
Metropolis 1927 Germany Fritz Lang
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans 1927 USA F.W. Murnau
Napoleon 1927 France Fritz Lang Abel Gance
The Passion of Joan of Arc 1928 France Carl Theodor Dreyer
Blackmail 1929 UK Alfred Hitchcock
Pandora's Box 1929 Germany G.W. Pabst
Man With a Movie Camera 1929 USSR Dziga Vertov (documentary)
The Big Trail 1930 USA Raoul Walsh
Salt for Svanetia 1930 USSR Mikhael Kalatazov
M 1931 Germany Fritz Lang
Limite 1931 Brazil Mário Peixoto
Vampyr 1932 Germany Carl Theodor Dreyer
King Kong 1933 USA Merian C Cooper
A Night at the Opera 1935 USA Sam Wood
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937 USA

New editions in red

1938-1959

The Adventures of Robin Hood 1938 USA Michael Curtiz
The Wizard of Oz 1939 USA Victor Fleming
Gone With the Wind 1939 USA Victor Fleming
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums 1939 Japan Kenji Mizoguchi
Mr Smith Goes to Washington 1939 USA Frank Capra
The Roaring Twenties 1939 USA Raoul Walsh
Citizen Kane 1941 USA Orson Welles
Ornamental Hairpin 1941 Japan Hiroshi Shimizu
There Was a Father 1942 Japan Yasujiro Ozu
Day of Wrath 1943 Denmark Carl Theodor Dreyer
Meshes of the Afternoon 1943 USA Maya Deren
Sanshiro Sugata 1943 Japan Akira Kurosawa
Rome, Open City 1945 Italy Roberto Rossellini
Leave Her to Heaven 1945 USA John M. Stahl
Brief Encounter 1945 UK David Lean
La Belle et La Bete 1946 France Jean Cocteau
Panique 1946 France Julien Duvivier
Notorious 1946 USA Alfred Hitchcock
Out of the Past 1947 USA Jacques Tourneur
Bicycle Thieves 1948 Italy Vittorio De Sica
Late Spring 1949 Japan Yasujiro Ozu
The Third Man 1949 UK Carol Red
Stray Dog 1949 Japan Akira Kurosawa
Kind Hearts and Coronets 1949 UK Robert Hamer
A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 USA Elia Kazan
Singin' In the Rain 1952 USA Gene Kelly
Rear Window 1954 USA Alfred Hitchcock
Journey to Italy 1954 Italy Roberto Rossellini
On the Waterfront 1954 USA Elia Kazan
Pather Panchali 1955 India Satyijat Ray
La Pointe Courte 1955 France Agnès Varda
The First Echelon 1955 USSR Mikhael Kalatazov
The Silent World 1956 France Louis Malle and Jacques Cousteau (documentary)
Bob Le Flambeur 1956 France Jean-Pierre Melville
*A Man Escaped 1956 France Robert Bresson
Bridge On The River Kwai 1957 UK David Lean
12 Angry Men 1957 USA Sydney Lumet
The Cranes are Flying 1957 USSR Mikhail Kalatozov
The Music Room 1958 India Satyajit Ray
Touch of Evil 1958 USA Orson Welles
Elevator to the Gallows 1958 France Louis Malle
Rio Bravo 1959 USA Howard Hawks
Anatomy of a Murder 1959 USA Otto Preminger
North by Northwest 1959 USA Alfred Hitchcock


New additions in red.

60s and 70s
The Naked Island 1960 Japan Kaneto Shindô
Psycho 1960 USA Alfred Hitchcock
Lola 1961 France Jacques Demy
Last Year at Marienbad 1961 France Alain Resnais
La Notte 1961 Italy Michaelangelo Antonioni
La Jetee 1962 France
Lawrence of Arabia 1962 UK David Lean
L'Eclisse 1962 Italy Michelangelo Antonioni
Cleo from 5 to 7 1962 France Agnès Varda
Le Petit Soldat 1963 France Jean-Luc Godard
8/12 1963 Italy Federico Fellini
High and Low 1963 Japan Akira Kurosawa
The Leopard 1963 Italy Luciano Visconti
Onibaba 1964 Japan Kaneto Shindô
Soy Cuba 1964 USSR Mikhail Kalatozov
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg 1964 France Jacques Demy
Alphaville 1965 France Jean-Luc Godard
Le Bonheur 1965 France Agnès Varda
For a Few Dollars More 1965 Italy Sergio Leone
Pierrot Le Fou 1965 France Jean Luc Godard
Repulsion 1965 UK Roman Polanski
*Persona 1966 Sweden Ingmar Bergman
Au Hasard Balthazar 1966 France Robert Bresson
Blow Up 1966 UK/Italy Michelangelo Antonioni
Closely Watched Trains 1966 Czech Jirí Menzel
Bonnie and Clyde 1967 USA
The Graduate 1967 USA Mike Nichols
Dragon Inn 1967 Taiwan King Hu
2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 UK Stanley Kubrick
Once Upon a Time in the West 1968 USA Sergio Leone
Stolen Kisses 1968 France François Truffaut
Kuroneko/Black Cat 1968 Japan Kaneto Shindô
The Color of Pomegranates 1969 USSR/Armenia Sergey Paradzhanov
KES 1969 UK Ken Loach
McCabe and Mrs Miller 1971 USA Robert Altman
A Touch of Zen 1971 Taiwan King Hu
Walkabout 1971 UK Nicholas Roeg
The Godfather 1972 USA Francis Ford Coppola
Cabaret 1972 USA Bob Fosse
*The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant 1972 Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Don't Look Now 1973 UK Nicholas Roeg
Badlands 1973 USA Trevor Malick
Le Cousin Jules 1973 France (documentary)
Mean Streets 1973 USA Martin Scorsese
The Godfather Part 2 1974 USA Francis Ford Coppola
Fear Eats the Soul 1974 Germany Rainer Fassbender
Chinatown 1974 USA Roman Polanski
Mirror 1975 USSR Andrei Tarkovsky
The Passenger 1975 Italy/Spain Michelangelo Antonioni
Barry Lyndon 1975 UK Stanley Kubrick
*The Travelling Players 1975 Greece Theodoros Angelopoulos
Jaws 1975 USA Steven Spielberg
Dog Day Afternoon 1975 USA Sidney Lumet
Killer of Sheep 1977 USA Charles Burnett
Star Wars: a New Hope 1977 USA George Lucas
Superman 1978 USA Richard Donner
Apocalypse Now 1979 USA Francis Ford Coppola
Alien 1979 USA Ridley Scott


New additions in red

80s and 90s
Bodyheat 1981 USA Lawrence Kasdan
Koyaanisqatsi 1982 USA Godfrey Reggio (documentary)
The King of Comedy 1982 USA Martin Scorsese
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial 1982 USA Steven Spielberg
Entre Nous 1983 France Diane Kurys
L'Argent 1983 France Robert Bresson
Stranger Than Paradise 1984 USA
The Runner 1984 Iran Amir Naderi
Homecoming 1984 Hong Kong Yim Ho
The Terminator 1984 USA James Cameron
Paris, Texas 1984 USA Wim Wenders
Come and See 1985 Soviet Union Elem Klimov
Taipei Story 1985 Taiwan Edward Yang
Blue Velvet 1986 USA David Lynch
Au Revoir Les Enfants 1987 France
Withnail & I 1987 UK Bruce Robinson
Landscape in the Mist 1988 Greece Theodoros Angelopoulos
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover 1989 UK Peter Greenaway
When Harry Met Sally 1989 USA Rob Reiner
For All Mankind 1989 USA Al Reinert (documentary)
Days of Being Wild 1990 Hong Kong Wong Kar-Wai
Blade Runner (Director's Cut) 1992 USA Ridley Scott
The Player 1992 USA Robert Altman
Rebels of the Neon God 1992 Taiwan Tsai Ming-liang
*The Puppet Master 1993 Taiwan Hou Hsiao-hsien
Vive L'Amour 1994 Taiwan Tsai Ming-liang
Pulp Fiction 1994 USA Quentin Tarantino
Il Postino 1994 Italy Michael Radford
A Moment of Innocence 1996 Iran Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Trainspotting 1996 UK Danny Boyle
Voices Through Time 1996 Italy (documentary)
L.A. Confidential 1997 USA Curtis Hanson
Saving Private Ryan 1998 USA Steven Spielberg
The Matrix 1999 USA The Wachowskis

New additions in red

To give myself a break, before I move on to finalising the 21st century up to date, I'm going to check out a couple more Fassbinder films.

That's way too many. You can't have 2057894 masterpieces. Then it devalues the word a la inflation and makes it meaningless. Now you just have a list of good films.

__________________
I destroyed the dastardly dairy dame! I made mad milk maid mulch!
He hid in the forest, read books with great zeal
He loved Che Guevera, a revolutionary veal
Cow Tse Tongue

The complete updated list. New additions in red.

The Flying Train 1902 Germany -
Dante's Inferno 1911 Italy Francesco Bertolini
The Great Train Robbery 1903 USA Edwin S Porter
Birth of a Nation 1915 USA DW Griffith
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 1916 USA Stuart Paton
Intolerance 1916 USA DW Griffith
The Blue Bird 1918 France Maurice Tourneur
J'Accuse 1919 France Abel Gance
Way Down East 1920 USA DW Griffith
The Mark of Zorro 1920 USA Fred Niblo
The Phantom Carriage 1921 Sweden Victor Sjöström
Dr Mabuse the Gambler 1922 Germany Fritz Lang
Nosferatu 1922 Germany FW Murnau
The Toll of the Sea 1922 USA Chester M. Franklin
The Great White Silence 1924 UK Herbert Ponting (documentary)
Sherlock Jr 1924 USA Buster Keaton
The Thief of Bagdad 1924 USA Raoul Walsh
Die Nibelungen 1924 Germany Fritz Lang
Strike 1925 Sergei Eisenstein Soviet Union
Seven Chances 1925 USA Buster Keaton
The Phantom of the Opera 1925 USA Rupert Julian
The Adventures of Prince Achmed 1926 Germany Lotte Reinger
The General 1926 USA Buster Keaton
A Page of Madness 1926 Japan Teinosuke Kinugasa
The Lodger 1927 UK Alfred Hitchcock
Metropolis 1927 Germany Fritz Lang
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans 1927 USA F.W. Murnau
Napoleon 1927 France Fritz Lang Abel Gance
The Passion of Joan of Arc 1928 France Carl Theodor Dreyer
Blackmail 1929 UK Alfred Hitchcock
Pandora's Box 1929 Germany G.W. Pabst
Man With a Movie Camera 1929 USSR Dziga Vertov (documentary)
The Big Trail 1930 USA Raoul Walsh
Salt for Svanetia 1930 USSR Mikhael Kalatazov
M 1931 Germany Fritz Lang
Limite 1931 Brazil Mário Peixoto
Vampyr 1932 Germany Carl Theodor Dreyer
King Kong 1933 USA Merian C Cooper
A Night at the Opera 1935 USA Sam Wood
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937 USA
The Adventures of Robin Hood 1938 USA Michael Curtiz
The Wizard of Oz 1939 USA Victor Fleming
Gone With the Wind 1939 USA Victor Fleming
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums 1939 Japan Kenji Mizoguchi
Mr Smith Goes to Washington 1939 USA Frank Capra
The Roaring Twenties 1939 USA Raoul Walsh
Citizen Kane 1941 USA Orson Welles
Ornamental Hairpin 1941 Japan Hiroshi Shimizu
There Was a Father 1942 Japan Yasujiro Ozu
Day of Wrath 1943 Denmark Carl Theodor Dreyer
Meshes of the Afternoon 1943 USA Maya Deren
Sanshiro Sugata 1943 Japan Akira Kurosawa
Rome, Open City 1945 Italy Roberto Rossellini
Leave Her to Heaven 1945 USA John M. Stahl
Brief Encounter 1945 UK David Lean
La Belle et La Bete 1946 France Jean Cocteau
Panique 1946 France Julien Duvivier
Notorious 1946 USA Alfred Hitchcock
Out of the Past 1947 USA Jacques Tourneur
Bicycle Thieves 1948 Italy Vittorio De Sica
Kind Hearts and Coronets 1949 UK Robert Hamer
Late Spring 1949 Japan Yasujiro Ozu
The Third Man 1949 UK Carol Red
Stray Dog 1949 Japan Akira Kurosawa
A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 USA Elia Kazan
Singin' In the Rain 1952 USA Gene Kelly
Rear Window 1954 USA Alfred Hitchcock
Journey to Italy 1954 Italy Roberto Rossellini
On the Waterfront 1954 USA Elia Kazan
Pather Panchali 1955 India Satyijat Ray
La Pointe Courte 1955 France Agnès Varda
The First Echelon 1955 USSR Mikhael Kalatazov
The Silent World 1956 France Louis Malle and Jacques Cousteau (documentary)
Bob Le Flambeur 1956 France Jean-Pierre Melville
*A Man Escaped 1956 France Robert Bresson
Bridge On The River Kwai 1957 UK David Lean
12 Angry Men 1957 USA Sydney Lumet
The Cranes are Flying 1957 USSR Mikhail Kalatozov
The Music Room 1958 India Satyajit Ray
Touch of Evil 1958 USA Orson Welles
Elevator to the Gallows 1958 France Louis Malle
Rio Bravo 1959 USA Howard Hawks
Anatomy of a Murder 1959 USA Otto Preminger
North by Northwest 1959 USA Alfred Hitchcock
The Naked Island 1960 Japan Kaneto Shindô
Psycho 1960 USA Alfred Hitchcock
Lola 1961 France Jacques Demy
Last Year at Marienbad 1961 France Alain Resnais
La Notte 1961 Italy Michaelangelo Antonioni
La Jetee 1962 France
Lawrence of Arabia 1962 UK David Lean
L'Eclisse 1962 Italy Michelangelo Antonioni
Cleo from 5 to 7 1962 France Agnès Varda
Le Petit Soldat 1963 France Jean-Luc Godard
8/12 1963 Italy Federico Fellini
High and Low 1963 Japan Akira Kurosawa
The Leopard 1963 Italy Luciano Visconti
Onibaba 1964 Japan Kaneto Shindô
Soy Cuba 1964 USSR Mikhail Kalatozov
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg 1964 France Jacques Demy
Alphaville 1965 France Jean-Luc Godard
Le Bonheur 1965 France Agnès Varda
For a Few Dollars More 1965 Italy Sergio Leone
Pierrot Le Fou 1965 France Jean Luc Godard
Repulsion 1965 UK Roman Polanski
*Persona 1966 Sweden Ingmar Bergman
Au Hasard Balthazar 1966 France Robert Bresson
Blow Up 1966 UK/Italy Michelangelo Antonioni
Closely Watched Trains 1966 Czech Jirí Menzel
Bonnie and Clyde 1967 USA
The Graduate 1967 USA Mike Nichols
Dragon Inn 1967 Taiwan King Hu
2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 UK Stanley Kubrick
Once Upon a Time in the West 1968 USA Sergio Leone
Stolen Kisses 1968 France François Truffaut
Kuroneko/Black Cat 1968 Japan Kaneto Shindô
The Color of Pomegranates 1969 USSR/Armenia Sergey Paradzhanov
KES 1969 UK Ken Loach
McCabe and Mrs Miller 1971 USA Robert Altman
A Touch of Zen 1971 Taiwan King Hu
Walkabout 1971 UK Nicholas Roeg
The Godfather 1972 USA Francis Ford Coppola
Cabaret 1972 USA Bob Fosse
*The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant 1972 Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Don't Look Now 1973 UK Nicholas Roeg
Badlands 1973 USA Trevor Malick
Le Cousin Jules 1973 France (documentary)
Mean Streets 1973 USA Martin Scorsese
The Godfather Part 2 1974 USA Francis Ford Coppola
Fear Eats the Soul 1974 Germany Rainer Fassbender
Chinatown 1974 USA Roman Polanski
Mirror 1975 USSR Andrei Tarkovsky
The Passenger 1975 Italy/Spain Michelangelo Antonioni
Barry Lyndon 1975 UK Stanley Kubrick
*The Travelling Players 1975 Greece Theodoros Angelopoulos
Jaws 1975 USA Steven Spielberg
Dog Day Afternoon 1975 USA Sidney Lumet
Killer of Sheep 1977 USA Charles Burnett
Star Wars: a New Hope 1977 USA George Lucas
Superman 1978 USA Richard Donner
Apocalypse Now 1979 USA Francis Ford Coppola
Alien 1979 USA Ridley Scott
Bodyheat 1981 USA Lawrence Kasdan
Koyaanisqatsi 1982 USA Godfrey Reggio (documentary)
The King of Comedy 1982 USA Martin Scorsese
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial 1982 USA Steven Spielberg
Entre Nous 1983 France Diane Kurys
L'Argent 1983 France Robert Bresson
Stranger Than Paradise 1984 USA
The Runner 1984 Iran Amir Naderi
Homecoming 1984 Hong Kong Yim Ho
The Terminator 1984 USA James Cameron
Paris, Texas 1984 USA Wim Wenders
Come and See 1985 Soviet Union Elem Klimov
Taipei Story 1985 Taiwan Edward Yang
Blue Velvet 1986 USA David Lynch
Au Revoir Les Enfants 1987 France
Withnail & I 1987 UK Bruce Robinson
Landscape in the Mist 1988 Greece Theodoros Angelopoulos
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover 1989 UK Peter Greenaway
When Harry Met Sally 1989 USA Rob Reiner
For All Mankind 1989 USA Al Reinert (documentary)
Days of Being Wild 1990 Hong Kong Wong Kar-Wai
Blade Runner (Director's Cut) 1992 USA Ridley Scott
The Player 1992 USA Robert Altman
Rebels of the Neon God 1992 Taiwan Tsai Ming-liang
*The Puppet Master 1993 Taiwan Hou Hsiao-hsien
Vive L'Amour 1994 Taiwan Tsai Ming-liang
Pulp Fiction 1994 USA Quentin Tarantino
Il Postino 1994 Italy Michael Radford
A Moment of Innocence 1996 Iran Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Trainspotting 1996 UK Danny Boyle
Voices Through Time 1996 Italy (documentary)
L.A. Confidential 1997 USA Curtis Hanson
Saving Private Ryan 1998 USA Steven Spielberg
The Matrix 1999 USA The Wachowskis
In the Mood for Love 2000 Hong Kong Kar-Wai Wong
Donnie Darko 2001 USA Richard Kelly
Mulholland Drive 2001 USA David Lynch
Uzak 2002 Turkiye Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Café Lumiere 2003 Japan Hou Hsiao-hsien
No Country for Old Men 2007 USA Joel and Ethan Cohen
There Will be Blood 2008 USA Paul Thomas Anderson
Man on Wire 2008 UK James Marsh (documentary)
Wall-E 2008 USA Andrew Stanton
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia 2011 Turkiye Nuri Bilge Ceylan
The Master 2012 USA Paul Thomas Anderson
Frances Ha 2012 USA Noah Baumbach
The Look of Silence 2014 Indonesia Joshua Oppenheimer (documentary)
Virunga 2015 UK Orlando von Einsiedel (documentary)
La La Land 2016 USA Damien Chazelle
Embrace of the Serpent 2016 Colombia Ciro Guerra
Arrival 2016 USA Denis Villeneuve
The Killing of a Sacred Deer 2017 USA Yorgos Lanthimos
Roma 2018 Mexico Alfonso Cuarón
Apollo 11 2019 USA Todd Douglas Miller (documentary)
The Lighthouse 2019 USA Robert Eggers
Diego Maradona 2019 UK Asif Kapadia (documentary)
Fire of Love 2022 France Sara Dosa (documentary)
Whitney Houston: A Concert For A New South Africa 2024 USA Pat Houston (documentary)


(I have one documentary to watch tomorrow which it's possible might make it)

I think that's 195.

Which is too many. Now your definition of "masterpiece" is just "a great movie". Surely you're just trying to be the biggest Internet troll ever, then?

I'm actually tempted to start in 1920 with Way Down East, and forget Intolerance, Birth of a Nation, Dante's Inferno etc as being great efforts which contain interesting work, but which don't nevertheless amount to a great viewing experience.

All the feature films I gave a 10/10... To me it means I wouldn't change a thing about it. A lot of it is a feeling, like not wanting it to end.

Your Ratings

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It's my favorite Griffith, and a surprisingly consensus favorite in a very controversial director.

Anyway, to answer the question, I'm going to say there are approximately... I don't know, 10,000 masterpieces? That would be like 1% or less of the total available films, which should be an acceptable enough ratio. I have watched around 300 of them, according to my 10/10 ratings.