9 Movies That Every Cinephile Must Watch [2021]

Today we are listing down “9 Movies That Every Cinephile Must Watch”. We believe these are some of the best movies that are ever made in Hollywood that every cinephile would appreciate.

9 Movies That Every Cinephile Must Watch:

Memento

A memory inside a memory, Memento is a complicated head spinning adventure. Leonard is determined to avenge his wife’s murder. However, unable to remember anything that happens day-to-day due to a condition he sustained, short term memory loss, he has to write himself note after note that still doesn’t mean anything after he falls asleep.

The film goes back in time to reveal each little bit of the puzzle as he tries to find out the person who killed his wife and makes the audience feel just as confused as he is. The narrative closely follows a phone call Pearce has in which he talks about Sammy Jankis a former client of his who he believed had the same condition.

The film takes an unexpected twist as the two characters have a lot more in common than is initially put across.

Year: 2000
Rated: R
Released: 25 May 2001
Runtime: 113 min
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Christopher Nolan (screenplay), Jonathan Nolan (short story \Memento Mori\)
Actors: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior
IMDB: 8.4
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
Metacritic: 80
Language: English

A Separation

In an Iranian court of law, husband Nader and wife Simin confront each other. She wants to leave the country to find a better life for their 11-year-old daughter. He wants to stay, mainly to look after his aged, senile father.

Too stubborn to agree, they separate. Nader must hire someone to look after the old man while he’s at work; he finds Razieh, whose husband, Hodjat, is desperately in debt. Nader comes home one day to find his father on the floor and Razieh nowhere in sight.

She turns up, making vague excuses. Enraged, he pushes her out. It comes out that she has now had a miscarriage. Thus begins a complicated mystery of who knew what, and when.

Year: 2013
Released: 07 Mar 2014
Runtime: 70 min
Genre: Documentary, Drama, Family
Director: Karin Ekberg
Writer: Karin Ekberg (story)
Actors: N/A
IMDB: 7.0
Language: Swedish

Cinema Paradiso

A boy who grew up in a native Sicilian Village returns home as a famous director after receiving news about the death of an old friend. Told in a flashback, Salvatore reminiscences about his childhood and his relationship with Alfredo, a projectionist at Cinema Paradiso.

Under the fatherly influence of Alfredo, Salvatore fell in love with filmmaking, with the duo spending many hours discussing films and Alfredo painstakingly teaching Salvatore the skills that became a stepping stone for the young boy into the world of filmmaking.

The film brings the audience through the changes in cinema and the dying trade of traditional filmmaking, editing, and screening. It also explores a young boy’s dream of leaving his little town to foray into the world outside.

Year: 1988
Rated: PG
Released: 23 Feb 1990
Runtime: 155 min
Genre: Drama, Romance
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Writer: Giuseppe Tornatore, Vanna Paoli, Richard Epcar
Actors: Philippe Noiret, Enzo Cannavale, Antonella Attili
IMDB: 8.5
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Metacritic: 80
Language: Italian

The Apartment

Of all the ways to climb the corporate ladder, C.C. Baxter, a loyal, resourceful, and cooperative clerk in a giant Manhattan insurance firm, has come up with the fastest: lend the key of his convenient bachelor apartment to his womanizing bosses.

Indeed, Baxter’s strategy is infallible, and as the meek but ambitious employee is starting to enjoy the fruit of his labor, he catches the eye of the company’s philandering big boss, Jeff D. Sheldrake, who, of course, wants a piece of the action. Now, Baxter can really give his career a boost; however, is there any room left for his blossoming love life?

Year: 1960
Rated: Approved
Released: 29 Jun 1960
Runtime: 125 min
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director: Billy Wilder
Writer: Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond
Actors: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston
Metascore: 94
IMDB: 8.3
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
Language: English

Rope

Brandon and Philip are two young men who share a New York City apartment. They consider themselves intellectually superior to their friend David Kentley, and as a consequence, decide to murder him.

Together they strangle David with a rope and placing the body in an old chest, they proceed to hold a small party. The guests include David’s father, his fiancée Janet, and their old schoolteacher Rupert, from whom they mistakenly took their ideas. As Brandon becomes increasingly more daring, Rupert begins to suspect.

Year: 1948
Rated: Approved
Released: 25 Sep 1948
Runtime: 80 min
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writer: Hume Cronyn, Patrick Hamilton, Arthur Laurents
Actors: James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger
Metascore: 73
IMDB: 8.0
Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
Language: English

The Shining

Haunted by a persistent writer’s block, the aspiring author and recovering alcoholic, Jack Torrance, drags his wife, Wendy, and his gifted son, Danny, up snow-capped Colorado’s secluded Overlook Hotel after taking up a job as an off-season caretaker.

As the cavernous hotel shuts down for the season, the manager gives Jack a grand tour, and the facility’s chef, the aging Mr. Hallorann, has a fascinating chat with Danny about a rare psychic gift called “The Shining”, making sure to warn him about the hotel’s abandoned rooms, and, in particular, the off-limits Room 237.

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However, instead of overcoming the dismal creative rut, little by little, Jack starts losing his mind, trapped in an unforgiving environment of seemingly endless snowstorms, and a gargantuan silent prison riddled with strange occurrences and eerie visions. Now, the incessant voices inside Jack’s head demand sacrifice. Is Jack capable of murder?

Year: 1980
Rated: R
Released: 13 Jun 1980
Runtime: 146 min
Genre: Drama, Horror
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Writer: Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick, Diane Johnson
Actors: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
Metascore: 66
IMDB: 8.4
Rotten Tomatoes: 84%
Language: English

Ben-Hur

Judah Ben-Hur lives as a rich Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 1st century. Together with the new governor his old friend Messala arrives as commanding officer of the Roman legions.

At first, they are happy to meet after a long time but their different political views separate them. During the welcome parade, a roof tile falls down from Judah’s house and injures the governor. Although Messala knows they are not guilty, he sends Judah to the galleys and throws his mother and sister into prison. But Judah swears to come back and take revenge.

Year: 1959
Rated: G
Released: 18 Nov 1959
Runtime: 212 min
Genre: Adventure, Drama, History
Director: William Wyler
Writer: Lew Wallace (A Tale of Christ), Karl Tunberg (screenplay by)
Actors: Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Stephen Boyd
Metascore: 90
IMDB: 8.1
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
Language: English

12 Angry Men

The defense and the prosecution have rested, and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young man is guilty or innocent of murdering his father.

What begins as an open-and-shut case of murder soon becomes a detective story that presents a succession of clues creating doubt, and a mini-drama of each of the jurors’ prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, AND each other. Based on the play, all of the action takes place on the stage of the jury room.

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Year: 1957
Rated: Approved
Released: 10 Apr 1957
Runtime: 96 min
Genre: Crime, Drama
Director: Sidney Lumet
Writer: Reginald Rose
Actors: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam
Metascore: 96
IMDB: 9.0
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
Language: English

Gone with the wind

Scarlett is a woman who can deal with a nation at war, Atlanta burning, the Union Army carrying off everything from her beloved Tara, the carpetbaggers who arrive after the war. Scarlett is beautiful. She has vitality. But Ashley, the man she has wanted for so long, is going to marry his placid cousin, Melanie.

Mammy warns Scarlett to behave herself at the party at Twelve Oaks. There is a new man there that day, the day the Civil War begins. Rhett Butler. Scarlett does not know he is in the room when she pleads with Ashley to choose her instead of Melanie.

Year: 1939
Rated: Passed
Released: 17 Jan 1940
Runtime: 238 min
Genre: Drama, History, Romance, War
Director: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood
Writer: Margaret Mitchell (story of the Old South \Gone with the Wind\), Sidney Howard (screenplay by)
Actors: Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O’Neil, Vivien Leigh, Evelyn Keyes
Metascore: 97
IMDB: 8.1
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Language: English

That’s all from us on “9 Movies That Every Cinephile Must Watch”. How many of these have you watched? Do let us know in the comments below.