Empire's 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time

472

Le Doulos (1962)
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
French director Melville did for gangsters exactly what the Italian Sergio Leone did for cowboys, creating a distinctively European take on a predominantly American form by focusing on details of props and costume in hyper-realist manner, spinning familiar B-plotlines into fable-like miniature epics of betrayal and revenge, and stressing brutally professional violence to an almost existential degree (albeit with a distancing Gallic shrug rather than Italianate close-up leering). In Le Doulos - slang for accuser, as in police informant, but also vengeance-seeker - Jean-Paul Belmondo is the underworld icon in fedora and collar-upturned trenchcoat, donning white editor's gloves whenever he shoots anyone and, in an astonishing sequence, tying a woman to a radiator to batter information out of her. His middleman, Silien, is presented as the rat who squealed on jewel thief Maurice (Serge Reggiani), but, of course, things are far from being that simple. Read Review

471

Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (2004)
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
The point at which the books started to take a darker turn - the arrival of the soul-sucking Dementors, a troubled werewolf, death sentences for hippogriffs. Cuarón's tenure as Hogwarts caretaker has yet to be outdone. Read Review

469

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (1998)
Director: Terry Gilliam
Johnny Depp channels Hunter S. Thompson and consumes inhuman amounts of drugs, while Gilliam shows that the straight, Nixon-voting world outside Thompson's head - represented by Vegas at its most hideous - is scarcely less insane. Read Review

470

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
Director: James Foley
David Mamet's pungent chronicle of real-estate hustling is a modern Death Of A Salesman and makes one of the great ensemble films. Pacino, Lemmon, Spacey, Baldwin, Harris, Arkin - 'nuff said. Read Review

468

The Crow (1994)
Director: Alex Proyas
Dripping with stormcloud-moody teen-Goth cool, Proyas' Hollywood debut brought glumster J. O'Barr's culty comic book to action-packed life. Infamous, of course, for the tragic death of star Brandon Lee. Read Review

This poll was conducted in November 2008. The list was compiled using votes from Empire readers, Hollywood actors, actress and key film critics.

In conjunction with the poll results, we produced 100 individual covers celebrating some of the key films in the list. View 100 Covers

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