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94 Films Stanley Kubrick Absolutely Loved

By Alex Edge · March 16, 2022

Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick couldn’t get enough of these movies.

Stanley Kubrick is one of the greatest filmmakers who has ever lived. In fact, chances are he’s your favorite filmmaker’s favorite filmmaker! Hollywood heavy-hitters from Scorsese to David Fincher have been inspired by the iconic auteur’s insane attention to detail and unique writing style that allowed his actors to collaborate and improvise scenes.

We know that his work, which includes films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut, Full Metal Jacket and Dr. Strangelove, has influenced countless filmmakers and screenwriters, but what films inspired Kubrick himself?

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Let’s take a look at 94 films that the director has highlighted throughout his career.

Read More: Kubrick In Britain: Explore the Greatest Stanley Kubrick Movies

Stanley Kubrick’s Top 10 Films

Before we jump into the full list, let’s take a second to highlight Kubrick’s top 10. This list was submitted by the genius himself to American magazine “Cinema” in 1963.

  1.  I Vitelloni (dir. Federico Fellini, 1953)
  2. Wild Strawberries (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
  3. Citizen Kane (dir. Orson Welles, 1941)
  4. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (dir. John Huston, 1948)
  5. City Lights (dir. Charlie Chaplin, 1931)
  6. Henry V (dir. Laurence Olivier, 1944)
  7. La notte (dir. Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961)
  8. The Bank Dick (dir. Edward F. Cline, 1940)
  9. Roxie Hart (William A. Wellman, 1942)
  10.  Hell’s Angels (dir. Howard Hughes, 1930)

Stanley Kubrick’s Top 94 Films

Sadly, Kubrick hasn’t been able to sit down and list out all of these films, however through a series of interviews and reliable sources, these classics have been included as works of art that Kubrick often praised and recommended.

Below is the list of 94 films that Stanley Kubrick loved, compiled by Colin Marshall at Open Culture

  1. Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)
  2. Husbands and Wives (Woody Allen, 1992)
  3. Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979)
  4. Radio Days (Woody Allen, 1987)
  5. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)
  6. If… (Lindsay Anderson, 1968)
  7. Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1998)
  8. La notte (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961)
  9. Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971)
  10. Pelle the Conqueror (Bille August, 1987)
  11. Babette’s Feast (Gabriel Axel, 1987)
  12. Casque d’Or (Jacques Becker, 1952)
  13. Édouard et Caroline (Jacques Becker, 1951)
  14. Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, 1972)
  15. Smiles of a Summer Night (Ingmar Bergman, 1955)
  16. Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1972)
  17. Deliverance (John Boorman, 1972)
  18. Henry V (Kenneth Branagh, 1989)
  19. Modern Romance (Albert Brooks, 1981)
  20. Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné, 1945)
  21. City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931)
  22. The Bank Dick (Edward Cline, 1940)
  23. Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)
  24. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
  25. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
  26. The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991)
  27. Alexander Nevsky (Sergei Eisenstein, 1938)
  28. The Spirit of the Beehive (Victor Erice, 1973)
  29. La strada (Federico Fellini, 1954)
  30. I vitelloni (Federico Fellini, 1953)
  31. La Kermesse Héroïque (Jacques Feyder, 1935)
  32. Tora! Tora! Tora! (Richard Fleischer, 1970)
  33. The Fireman’s Ball (Miloš Forman, 1967)
  34. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Milos Forman, 1975)
  35. Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972)
  36. The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973)
  37. Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 1971)
  38. The Terminal Man (Mike Hodges, 1974)
  39. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)
  40. Hell’s Angels (Howard Hughes, 1930)
  41. The Treasure of Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1947)
  42. Dekalog (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1990)
  43. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
  44. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
  45. Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 1957)
  46. Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
  47. An American Werewolf in London (John Landis, 1981)
  48. Abigail’s Party (Mike Leigh, 1977)
  49. La bonne année (Claude Lelouch, 1973)
  50. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
  51. Very Nice, Very Nice (Arthur Lipsett, 1961)
  52. American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973)
  53. Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975)
  54. Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1976)
  55. House of Games (David Mamet, 1987)
  56. The Red Squirrel (Julio Medem, 1993)
  57. Bob le flambeur (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1956)
  58. Closely Watched Trains (Jiří Menzel, 1966)
  59. Pacific 231 (Jean Mitry, 1949)
  60. Roger & Me (Michael Moore, 1989)
  61. Henry V (Laurence Olivier, 1944)
  62. The Earrings of Madame de… (Max Ophuls, 1953)
  63. Le plaisir (Max Ophuls, 1951)
  64. La ronde (Max Ophuls, 1950)
  65. Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
  66. The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)
  67. Heimat (Edgar Reitz, 1984)
  68. Blood Wedding (Carlos Saura, 1981)
  69. Cría Cuervos (Carlos Saura, 1975)
  70. Peppermint Frappé (Carlos Saura, 1967)
  71. Alien (Ridley Scott, 1977)
  72. The Anderson Platoon (Pierre Schoendoerffer, 1967)
  73. White Men Can’t Jump (Ron Shelton, 1992)
  74. Miss Julie (Alf Sjöberg, 1951)
  75. The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjöström, 1921)
  76. The Vanishing (George Sluizer, 1988)
  77. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977)
  78. E.T. the Extra-terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982)
  79. Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson, 1964)
  80. Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986)
  81. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
  82. The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986)
  83. Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
  84. The Emigrants (Jan Troell, 1970)
  85. The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930)
  86. Danton (Andrzej Wajda, 1984)
  87. Girl Friends (Claudia Weill, 1978)
  88. The Cars that Ate Paris (Peter Weir, 1974)
  89. Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975)
  90. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
  91. Roxie Hart (William Wellman, 1942)
  92. Ådalen 31 (Bo Widerberg, 1969)
  93. The Siege of Manchester (Herbert Wise, 1965)
  94. The Jerk (Carl Reiner, 1979)

Read more favorite films of iconic filmmakers!

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