Jonathan Rosenbaum’s 1000 Essential Films

In 2004 Jonathan Rosenbaum published a list of his 1000 essential films in his book Essential Cinema: One the Necessity of Film Canons (Johns Hopkins University Press). Since 2004 my website has hosted a version of this list, with Rosenbaum’s permission. 

As far as it relates to the other contents of this website, the list represents a period of peak cinephilia in my life which lasted throughout the 2000s, facilitated by information and discussions on film found on the internet and a degree of access to films via DVD and torrent networks that was unprecedented in its time. This combination of factors created an cinephilic environment in which I was completely absorbed. 

The decade since has led me to investigate this cinephilia within a larger context of historical, cultural and industrial factors informing its assembly into a historical phenomenon and its disassembly into current and future modes of media engagement. Regardless, this list stands, not just as a marker of a past era of cinephilia, but as a model for a politically and culturally informed act of spectatorship and curation that can serve well into the post-cinematic phase of audiovisual culture. It remains as informative as it was formative.


JONATHAN ROSENBAUM'S 1000 ESSENTIAL FILMS

Originally published in Essential Cinema, copyright 2004 Jonathan Rosenbaum

Preface: Personal Testimony (from 2004)

Questions for Jonathan Rosenbaum (and more importantly, answers)

Rosenbaum's Top 100

Silent era (1895-1929)

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000-2003