I am actually quite pleasantly surprised by the choices here, given the demographics I expected movies from the last two or three decades, but instead many of the choices are older than me. Which means both I and others here didn't watch these movies when they were current but much later, which is kinda a trait of a cinephile, not only following current trends.
Anyways, of the ones names I second quite a few. Vertigo is also for me the best Hitchcock, although I think Rear Window or North by Northwest are easier to digest as an entry point to Hitchcock. Kurosawa was named, I think Seven Samurais is great, but I would give the edge to Ran, classical Shakespeare (it's King Lear). Modern Times is a great movie by Chaplin, probably the best of him, The great Dictator being close second. Shoutout to Stalker, one weird ass movie that always plays with the idea of the supernatural, but it never is. Yes, the movie is connected to the game series Stalker, both are based on the novel Roadside Picnic, which differs a lot from the movie and is a good read. Casablanca is an absolutely great movie which has some of the best one-liner:
- I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
- Round up the Usual Suspects!
The second one is inspiration for the title of the movie the Usual suspects, which is also one of the greatest movies and I think wasn't mentioned so far:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3t0Nc6fg7w
Dr. Strangelove was mentioned in passing, I want to highlight it more, IMHO one of the best dark comedies ever and the best Kubrick film (which might be controversial given his movies are all great and some are more well-known):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rF5XftjRGM
Ghibli was mentioned, but not the in my opinion best Ghibli movie (which is not a Miyazaki movie) - Grave of the Fireflies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhlh7JVcTt8
(just watching the trailer let's me tear up again)
And the best Hayao Miyazaki movie (which is not technically a Ghibli movie) - Nausicaä:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l46khRlReRc
I see a lot of these are war-themed. Maybe go to lighter themes, I think Tarantino is a great more modern director, and the best work is IMHO Pulp Fiction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7EdQ4FqbhY
Maybe I should stop for now, let's just do one more. Highly experimental iranian movie. I was a third in when I realized that the movie is (except the beginning and the end) is shot in one long 90 minute take. The camera is following one guy that plays himself in a police reenactement of him killing another person (which is considered self-defense but the police still wants to get the details straight), but beside the reenactment we see also other things happening now and possibly what really happened. Also they have three rounds of reenactement and the roles are switching somehow. Very abstract and metaphorical. And the last thing I expected of an Iranian movie were themes of homosexuality. I watched it at a festival, the crew was there, the cameraman talked about how the take was planned out in detail, even how long he would stand still and which of these were long enough for him to take a sip of water. Not the easiest movie to watch, but probably the weirdest movie you can find. Hojoom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmDtY_Bllak
There seems to be the full movie on Youtube too, which will otherwise probably be hard to find, so you can search for it.
