Napoléon (1927)
Director: Abel Gance
At its restored length, Gance's silent masterpiece runs to five-and-a-half hours. It was designed as a gigantic biopic in six 90-minute parts, but ended up this magnificent giant (about a shortarse) with groundbreaking visuals, literate captions and pulsating energy. Read Review

Sunshine (2007)
Director: Danny Boyle
Boyle followed his re-invention of zombie horror (in 28 Days Later) with this visually enthralling space shocker, gesturing heavily (and successfully) to 2001, Alien, even Event Horizon. The wacky ending, however, divides people. Read Review

Un Chien Andalou (1929)
Director: Luis Buñuel
No-one will ever out-weird Buñuel's team-up with 'tache-twiddling Surrealism supremo Salvador Dalí, resulting in this 17-minute phantasmagoria featuring severed hands, rotting donkeys, ants squeezing out of human skin and the infamous eye-slitting. Read Review

Bugsy Malone (1976)
Director: Alan Parker
It sounds ghastly - a gangster-themed musical populated entirely by kids - but care of Parker's natty visuals, decent songs, splurge guns, pedal-powered sedans and, most remarkably, a non-revolting gaggle of kids, it remains a favourite. Read Review

Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
Director: Preston Sturges
Sturges, it transpires, has fared well in this top 500. Justly so. He's on sparkling form again with this pacy mix of literate dialogue and bold slapstick, with Rex Harrison's troubled symphony conductor contemplating the murder of his possibly philandering wife, Linda Darnell. Read Review

Zulu (1964)
Director: Cy Endfield
In the face of much parody, it is easy to forget how stirring Zulu actually is. Glorious to gaze upon, the battle scenes have an almighty clamour, but never at the expense of the characters, which include a posh Michael Caine. Read Review

Planet Of The Apes (1968)
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
This trippy piece of new-Hollywood sci-fi mixes in issues of race, science, even politics, with its tetchy dystopian thrills and Charlton Heston's bronzed chest. The twist ending alone lands it on this list. Read Review

Arthur (1981)
Director: Steve Gordon
This daft odd-couple routine - boozy aristo Dudley Moore romances flighty Liza Minnelli, while John Gielgud's starchy butler makes acidic comments - proves surprisingly resilient. The answer could be in the delightful chemistry that all three very diverse actors cook up. Read Review

Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)
Director: Robert Bresson
It's proof of Bresson's power as a filmmaker that this, the tale of a donkey (albeit paralleled with that of a girl), says more about humanity - our vices, our trials, our self-examination - than a dozen Hollywood pictures. Read Review

All About Eve (1950)
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Sparkling dialogue and brilliant turns (All About Eve holds the record for the most female Academy Award nominations - four) mark out this indelible tale of a sly ingénue (Anne Baxter) who latches on to a successful theatre actress (Bette Davis). Read Review