Legendary Movies

Legendary Movies, by Paolo d'Agostini, features 140 films arranged chronologically and selected for their artistic, cultural, and commercial significance. It was originally written for the Italian market, as I Grandi Film: Quando Il Cinema Diventa Leggenda, and consequently there is a distinctly Italian bias to the list.

There are plenty of genuinely legendary films in the book, though there are also quite a few popular yet insubstantial (and frankly awful) titles: A Summer Place, The Pink Panther, Mary Poppins, Love Story, Forrest Gump, and Life Is Beautiful. Also, very recent films (such as the Bourne and Pirates Of The Caribbean trilogies) could hardly be described as legendary.

The Legendary Movies are as follows:

• Cabiria
  
• The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari
  
• Nosferatu
  
• Battleship Potemkin
  
• Metropolis
  
• The Blue Angel
  
• Frankenstein
  
• Grand Hotel
  
• King Kong
  
• It Happened One Night
  
• Modern Times
  
• Grand Illusion
  
• The Wizard Of Oz
  
• Ninotchka
  
• Stagecoach
  
• Gone With The Wind
  
• Citizen Kane
  
• Casablanca
  
• Arsenic & Old Lace
  
• Rome: Open City
  
• Gilda
  
• It's A Wonderful Life
  
• Bicycle Thieves
  
• The Asphalt Jungle
  
• Sunset Boulevard
  
• Singin' In The Rain
  
• High Noon
  
• Don Camillo
  
• The Wild One
  
• Roman Holiday
  
• From Here To Eternity
  
• A Star Is Born
  
• On The Waterfront
  
• Sabrina
  
• Seven Samurai
  
• Rear Window
  
• Rebel Without A Cause
  
• & God Created Woman
  
• The Ten Commandments
  
• The Seventh Seal
  
• The Bridge On The River Kwai
  
• The Great War
  
• Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ
  
• Some Like It Hot
  
• A Summer Place
  
• La Dolce Vita
  
• Breathless
  
• Two Women
  
• Psycho
  
• The Magnificent Seven
  
• Breakfast At Tiffany's
  
• West Side Story
  
• Lolita
  
• Jules & Jim
  
• Lawrence Of Arabia
  
• The Pink Panther
  
• 8½
  
• The Leopard
  
• A Fistful Of Dollars
  
• Goldfinger
  
• Mary Poppins
  
• Dr Zhivago
  
• A Man & A Woman
  
• Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
  
• The Dirty Dozen
  
• Belle De Jour
  
• The Graduate
  
• In The Heat Of The Night
  
• Romeo & Juliet
  
• Planet Of The Apes
  
• Bullitt
  
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
  
• Rosemary's Baby
  
• Easy Rider
  
• Midnight Cowboy
  
• Love Story
  
• M*A*S*H
  
• Dirty Harry
  
• A Clockwork Orange
  
• Cabaret
  
• The Godfather
  
• The Sting
  
• American Graffiti
  
• The Exorcist
  
• Jaws
  
• One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
  
• Nashville
  
• Taxi Driver
  
• Rocky
  
• In The Realm Of The Senses
  
• Saturday Night Fever
  
• Star Wars IV: A New Hope
  
• Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
  
• The Deer Hunter
  
• Grease
  
• Apocalypse Now
  
• Manhattan
  
• Alien
  
• The Blues Brothers
  
• The Shining
  
• American Gigolo
  
• The Party
  
• Raiders Of The Lost Ark
  
• Escape From New York
  
• First Blood
  
• ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
  
• Blade Runner
  
• Once Upon A Time In America
  
• A Nightmare On Elm Street
  
• Back To The Future
  
• Top Gun
  
• 9½ Weeks
  
• Wings Of Desire
  
• The Last Emperor
  
• Rain Man
  
• Nikita
  
• Pretty Woman
  
• Edward Scissorhands
  
• Raise The Red Lantern
  
• The Silence Of The Lambs
  
• Thelma & Louise
  
• Basic Instinct
  
• Batman Returns
  
• Schindler's List
  
• Forrest Gump
  
• Pulp Fiction
  
• Seven
  
• Mission: Impossible
  
• Life Is Beautiful
  
• Titanic
  
• The Matrix
  
• Gladiator
  
• The Lord Of The Rings I-III
  
• Amelie
  
• Talk To Her
  
• Kill Bill I-II
  
• The Last Samurai
  
• Million Dollar Baby
  
• The Bourne Identity/Supremacy/Ultimatum
  
• Pirates Of The Caribbean I-III

Note that Ben-Hur, Frankenstein, and The Ten Commandments are all sound films and not the earlier silent versions. Some Like It Hot is the 1959 comic masterpiece, not the obscure 1939 comedy. Also, Titanic is the 1997 James Cameron version (as opposed to the earlier 1943 and 1953 versions). There have been many filmed adaptations of Romeo & Juliet; this one is the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli version.