We’ve seen streaming services spend money hand over fist to acquire content, but few take a curator’s approach to the titles in their catalog. You’ll often find Adam Sandler comedies sitting alongside foreign films with little rhyme or reason. For viewers of more discerning taste, the folks at France’s La Cinetek have taken a bold approach.
READ MORE: The 20 Best Films Of 2014
Télérama reports that the streaming service asked distinguished filmmakers to provide their own lists of the Top 50 films made before 2000 (in no particular order), and La Cinetek is sourcing the movies for their platform from those choices. Smart As you’ll see among the selected lists from James Gray, Olivier Assayas, Lynne Ramsay, Jacques Audiard and Bong Joon-ho below, it’s wide ranging but definitely cinephile friendly. There are lots of shorts, foreign films and the classics you’d expect, but also John McTiernan‘s "Predator" and Clint Eastwood‘s "Honkytonk Man."
Check out the lists below and hit La Cinetek to see lists from filmmakers like Arnaud Desplechin, Ira Sachs, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Agnes Varda, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Costa Gavras, Michel Hazanavicius and more.
Bong Joon-Ho
“Vengeance Is Mine” Shohei Imamura – 1979
“Intentions Of Murder” Shohei Imamura – 1964
“Cure” Kiyoshi Kurosawa – 1997
“Face” Junji Sakamoto – 2000
“The Housemaid” Kim Ki-young – 1960
“Chungyo” Kim Ki-young – 1972
“Io Island” Kim Ki-young – 1977
“A City Of Sadness” Hou Hsiao-Hsien – 1989
“A Brighter Summer Day” Edward Yang – 1991
“Deep Crimson” Arturo Ripstein – 1996
“The Silence of the Lambs” Jonathan Demme – 1991
“Psycho” Alfred Hitchcock – 1959
“Vertigo” Alfred Hitchcock – 1957
“Grande Illusion” Jean Renoir – 1937
“Wages Of Fear” Henri-Georges Clouzot – 1951
“400 Blows” François Truffaut – 1958
“Shoot The Piano Player” François Truffaut – 1959
“This Man Must Die” Claude Chabrol – 1969
“Wedding In Blood” Claude Chabrol – 1972
“The Day A Pig Fell Into The Well” Hong Sang-soo – 1996
“Foul King” Kim Jee-woon – 2000
“Aguirre, Wrath Of God” Werner Herzog – 1972
“Ressources Humaines” Laurent Cantet – 1999
“Nights Of Cabiria” Federico Fellini – 1956
“Amarcord” Federico Fellini – 1973
“1900” Bernardo Bertolucci – 1974
“The Thing” John Carpenter – 1982
“They Live” John Carpenter – 1988
“Eraserhead” David Lynch – 1972
“Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me” David Lynch – 1991
“Mean Streets” Martin Scorsese – 1973
“Raging Bull” Martin Scorsese – 1980
“Goodfellas” Martin Scorsese – 1989
“Fargo” Joel Coen – 1995
“Barton Fink” Joel Coen – 1990
“Welcome to the Dollhouse” Todd Solondz – 1995
“Onibaba” Kaneto Shindô – 1965
“High And Low” Akira Kurosawa – 1963
“Ran” Akira Kurosawa – 1985
“The Grapes of Wrath” John Ford – 1939
“Carlito’s Way” Brian De Palma – 1993
“Rosemary’s Baby” Roman Polanski – 1968
“The Shining” Stanley Kubrick – 1980
“Full Metal Jacket” Stanley Kubrick – 1986
“Close Encounters of the Third Kind” Steven Spielberg – 1977
“Heaven’s Gate” Michael Cimino – 1979
“Marathon Man” John Schlesinger – 1975
“Ed Wood” Tim Burton – 1993
“Seconds” John Frankenheimer – 1965
“Deliverance” John Boorman – 1972
James Gray
“Umberto D.” Vittorio De Sica – 1951
“Bicycle Thieves” Vittorio De Sica – 1947
“Contempt” Jean-Luc Godard – 1963
“Andreï Rubelev” Andreï Tarkovski – 1966
“City Lights” Charlie Chaplin – 1930
“Rome, Open City” Roberto Rossellini – 1945
“Sunrise” Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau – 1927
“Au Hasard Balthazar” Robert Bresson – 1965
“Scenes From A Marriage” Ingmar Bergman – 1973
“Rocco And His Brothers” Luchino Visconti – 1960
“The Leopard” Luchino Visconti – 1963
“The Godfather” Francis Ford Coppola – 1971
“The Godfather: Part II” Francis Ford Coppola – 1973
“Amarcord” Federico Fellini – 1973
“La Strada” Federico Fellini – 1954
“8 1/2” Federico Fellini – 1962
“Nights Of Cabiria” Federico Fellini – 1956
“Soy Cuba” Mikhaïl Kalatozov – 1964
“The Searchers” John Ford – 1955
“My Darling Clementine” John Ford – 1946
“Citizen Kane” Orson Welles – 1940
“The Magnificent Ambersons” Orson Welles – 1941
“Falstaff” Orson Welles – 1964
“The Conformist” Bernardo Bertolucci – 1969
“Double indemnity” Billy Wilder – 1943
“Rules Of The Game” Jean Renoir – 1939
“Dr Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” Stanley Kubrick — 1964
“2001 : A Space Odyssey” Stanley Kubrick – 1966
“Barry Lyndon” Stanley Kubrick – 1973
“It Happened One Night” Frank Capra – 1934
“400 Blows” François Truffaut – 1958
“Duck Soup” Leo McCarey – 1933
“Metropolis” Fritz Lang – 1925
“M” Fritz Lang – 1931
“Vertigo” Alfred Hitchcock – 1957
“Raging Bull” Martin Scorsese – 1980
“Belle de Jour” Luis Buñuel – 1966
“Tokyo Story” Yasujirô Ozu – 1953
“Playtime” Jacques Tati – 1964
“A Woman Under the Influence” John Cassavetes – 1974
“The Scarlet Empress” Josef von Sternberg – 1934
“Seven Samurai” Akira Kurosawa – 1954
“Ran” Akira Kurosawa – 1985
“Bonnie and Clyde” Arthur Penn – 1966
“Ugetsu monogatari” Kenji Mizoguchi – 1953
“Ordet” Carl Theodor Dreyer – 1954
“Day Of Wrath” Carl Theodor Dreyer – 1943
“Aguirre, Wrath Of God” Werner Herzog – 1972
“Walkabout” Nicolas Roeg – 1971
“Apocalypse Now” Francis Ford Coppola – 1976
Lynne Ramsay
“Persona” Ingmar Bergman – 1965
“La Strada” Federico Fellini – 1954
“The Virgin Spring” Ingmar Bergman – 1960
“Come And See” Elem Klimov – 1985
“Beau Travail” Claire Denis – 1999
“Twin Peaks : Fire Walk with Me” David Lynch – 1991
“Five Easy Pieces” Bob Rafelson – 1970
“400 Blows” François Truffaut – 1958
“Vertigo” Alfred Hitchcock – 1957
“Midnight Cowboy” John Schlesinger – 1968
“The Mirror” Andreï Tarkovski – 1974
“Vagabond” Agnès Varda – 1985
“Badlands” Terrence Malick – 1973
“Mildred Pierce” Michael Curtiz – 1944
“All About Eve” Joseph L. Mankiewicz – 1950
“Sunset Boulevard” Billy Wilder – 1949
“Taxi Driver” Martin Scorsese – 1975
“Imitation of Life” Douglas Sirk – 1958
“The Servant” Joseph Losey – 1963
“Walkabout” Nicolas Roeg – 1971
“Don’t Look Now” Nicolas Roeg – 1973
“Scum” Alan Clarke – 1979
“If…” Lindsay Anderson – 1968
“My Childhood” Bill Douglas – 1972
“Once Upon A Time In The West” Sergio Leone – 1968
“Repulsion” Roman Polanski – 1964
“Knife In The Water” Roman Polanski – 1962
“Teorema” Pier Paolo Pasolini – 1968
“Mouchette” Robert Bresson – 1966
“A Man Escaped” Robert Bresson – 1956
“Shock Corridor” Samuel Fuller – 1963
“The Naked Kiss” Samuel Fuller – 1964
“The Last Picture Show” Peter Bogdanovich – 1971
“Chinatown” Roman Polanski – 1973
“Seven Beauties” Lina Wertmüller – 1975
“The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” Tony Richardson – 1962
“Paths of Glory” Stanley Kubrick – 1957
“Boogie Nights” Paul Thomas Anderson – 1997
“Stalker” Andreï Tarkovski – 1979
“Eyes Without A Face” Georges Franju – 1959
“Peeping Tom” Michael Powell – 1959
“Point Blank” John Boorman – 1967
“Rashômon” Akira Kurosawa – 1950
“An Autumn Afternoon” Yasujirô Ozu – 1962
“Two-Lane Blacktop” Monte Hellman – 1970
“What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” Robert Aldrich – 1962
“Kes” Ken Loach – 1969
“La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc” Carl Theodor Dreyer – 1927
“Le Samouraï” Jean-Pierre Melville – 1967
“My Ain Folk” Bill Douglas – 1973
“My Way Home” Bill Douglas – 1978
Olivier Assayas
“…All the Marbles” Robert Aldrich – 1981
“California split” Robert Altman – 1974
“Invocation of My Demon Brother” Kenneth Anger – 1969
“Inferno” Dario Argento – 1980
“The Touch” Ingmar Bergman – 1970
“Wooden Crosses” Raymond Bernard – 1932
“L’Inferno” Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, Giuseppe de Liguoro – 1911
“The Pelican” Gérard Blain – 1974
“L’Argent” Robert Bresson – 1982
“Jaguar” Lino Brocka – 1979
“Prince of Darkness” John Carpenter – 1987
“A Piece of Pleasure” Claude Chabrol – 1974
“A King in New York” Charlie Chaplin – 1956
“Videodrome” David Cronenberg – 1982
“Carlito’s Way” Brian De Palma – 1993
“Critique Of Separation” Guy Debord – 1961
“La Drôlesse” Jacques Doillon – 1979
“Gertrud” Carl Theodor Dreyer – 1964
“Pyaasa” Guru Dutt – 1957
“The Apostle” Robert Duvall – 1997
“Honkytonk Man” Clint Eastwood – 1983
“The Bitter Tears Of Petra von Kant” Rainer Werner Fassbinder – 1972
“Les Vampires” Louis Feuillade – 1915 & 1916
“The Iron Horse” John Ford – 1924
“La Cicatrice intérieure” Philippe Garrel – 1970
“Je vous salue Marie + Le Livre de Marie” Jean-Luc Godard – 1985
“Intolérance” David Wark Griffith – 1916
“Le Comédien” Sacha Guitry – 1947
“A Time To Live, A Time To Die” Hou Hsiao-Hsien – 1985
“Come Drink With Me” King Hu – 1965
“Wise Blood” John Huston – 1979
“La Désenchantée” Benoît Jacquot – 1989
“Days Of Being Wild” Wong Kar Wai – 1990
“L’Argent” Marcel L’Herbier – 1928
“Spies” Fritz Lang – 1928
“Le Cercle rouge” Jean-Pierre Melville – 1970
“Solo” Jean-Pierre Mocky – 1969
“Sogni d’oro” Nanni Moretti – 1981
“Viennese Love“ Georg Wilhelm Pabst – 1925
“The Gospel According To St. Matthew” Pier Paolo Pasolini – 1964
“La Maison des bois” Maurice Pialat – 1970
“French Cancan” Jean Renoir – 1954
“The Castaways Of Turtle Island” Jacques Rozier – 1976
“Casino” Martin Scorsese – 1995
“Berg Ejvind och hans hustru” Victor Sjöström – 1917
“Solaris” Andreï Tarkovski – 1972
“L’Histoire d’Adèle H.” François Truffaut – 1975
“Peking Duck Soup” René Viénet – 1976
“The Damned” Luchino Visconti – 1968
“Chelsea Girls” Andy Warhol – 1966
“Ådalen 31” Bo Widerberg – 1968
“Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan” Chu Yuan – 1972
“Walden” Jonas Mekas – 1964
Jacques Audiard
“Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” Rouben Mamoulian – 1931
“La Poison” Sacha Guitry – 1951
“Lady Killer” Jean Grémillon – 1937
“La Tête d’un homme” Julien Duvivier – 1932
“They Were Five” Julien Duvivier – 1936
“Wages Of Fear” Henri-Georges Clouzot – 1951
“The Essanay Comedies” Charlie Chaplin – 1915-1916
“The Keystone Comedies” Charlie Chaplin – 1914
“The Mutual Comedies” Charlie Chaplin – 1916-1917
“Sherlock Junior” Buster Keaton – 1924
Lumières Brothers Films – 1895
“Tabu” Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau – 1929
“Pandora’s Box” Georg Wilhelm Pabst – 1929
“The Testament Of Dr.Mabuse” Fritz Lang – 1932
“Golddigger” Michael Curtiz – 1914
“Fat City” John Huston – 1971
“The Enigma Of Kasper Hauser” Werner Herzog – 1974
“Der Tod der Maria Malibran” Werner Schroeter – 1971
“Hitler – ein Film aus Deutschland” Hans-Jürgen Syberberg – 1977
“Kings Of The Road” Wim Wenders – 1975
“The Big Combo” Joseph H. Lewis – 1955
“Invasion of the Body Snatchers” Don Siegel – 1956
“Night of the Demon” Jacques Tourneur – 1957
“The River’s Edge” Allan Dwan – 1957
“Diary Of A Country Priest” Robert Bresson – 1950
“Mouchette” Robert Bresson – 1966
“Sylvia Scarlett” George Cukor – 1935
“The Philadelphia Story” George Cukor – 1940
“A Dirty Story” Jean Eustache – 1977
“Leaving Las Vegas” Mike Figgis – 1995
“Goodbye South, Goodbye” Hou Hsiao-Hsien – 1996
“Happy Together” Wong Kar Wai – 1996
“Platform” Jia Zhang-Ke – 2000
“Pigs And Battleships” Shohei Imamura – 1961
“The Go-Between” Joseph Losey – 1970
“The Haunting” Robert Wise – 1963
“Carne” Gaspar Noé – 1991
“Sombre” Philippe Grandrieux – 1998
“71 Fragments Of A Chronology Of Chance” Michael Haneke – 1993
“Pink Narcissus” James Bidgood – 1971
“Dawn of the Dead” George A. Romero – 1978
“Duel” Steven Spielberg – 1971
“The Lady Eve” Preston Sturges – 1941
“It Happened One Night” Frank Capra – 1934
“His girl friday” Howard Hawks – 1939
“The Awful Truth” Leo McCarey – 1937
“Que la bête meure” Claude Chabrol – 1969
“Blood Simple” Joel Coen – 1984
“Entr’acte” René Clair – 1924
“Predator” John McTiernan – 1986
“The Straight Story” David Lynch – 1999
“Scarecrow” Jerry Schatzberg – 1972
“Puzzle of a Downfall Child” Jerry Schatzberg – 1970 – États-Unis