Why these movies are among my favourites

Classic: Gloria Swanson and Cecil B DeMille in Sunset Boulevard

Donald Trump has a favourite film. He demands his entourage watch Sunset Boulevard repeatedly – seemingly blind to the similarities between the central character and himself. The 1950 movie parodies the cult of celebrity; director Billy Wilder focuses on a has-been movie star who is convinced she’s still the centre of the universe.

While admiring Sunset Boulevard too, my all-time favourite is Carol Reed’s The Third Man. Set in post-war Vienna, Graham Greene’s screenplay takes us from the heights of a giant Ferris wheel to the depths of the city’s sewers. Neither the cinematography by Australian Robert Krasker nor its zither theme by Anton Karas have been surpassed. Nor the central performance by Orson Welles. Nor its ending, the most haunting in cinema history.

What follows is no cinephile’s list of “best films” – only those I’ve most enjoyed. Kubrick’s Paths of Glory and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Described by the sainted Stanley as “the most beautiful movie ever made”, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Most of the Coen Brothers’ work. Woody Allen’s Annie Hall.

Donskoy’s Gorky trilogy – which, as Satyajit Ray told me, inspired his brilliant Apu trilogy. Other Soviet efforts? Battleship Potemkin, The Cranes are Flying, Andrei Rublev and Bondarchuk’s War and Peace.

Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia. Picture: Popperfoto / Getty Images

Visconti’s The Leopard and Death in Venice. David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (naughty Noel Coward said Peter O’Toole was so pretty it should have been retitled Florence of Arabia). An entire festival of Fellinis, including 8½ and La Dolca Vita. Chaplin’s Modern Times and City Lights. Keaton’s The General. The Red Shoes. The French Connection. Wake in Fright. Don’t Look Now. My highest-ranking horror film – James Whale’s 1931 version of Frankenstein. Spielberg’s Duel, his first and still his best.

Ugetsu. Rashamon. Singin’ in the Rain – with Kelly performing the title song among the most sublime sequences ever. Oliver!, directed by Carol ‘Third Man’ Reed. Four cheers for Ron Moody’s Fagin.

A Night to Remember, a 1958 black-and-white film on the Titanic – vastly superior to Cameron’s blockbuster. The Right Stuff. Shane. The Maltese Falcon. 12 Angry Men. I hated Elia Kazan’s ’s politics but oh!, his On the Waterfront, America America and East of Eden.

Moulin Rouge – John Huston’s, not Baz Luhrmann’s bloated effort. The Great Gatsby – Jack Clayton’s not Baz’s. Peter Weir’s materspiece The Truman Show. Schepisi’s Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. Phillip Noyce’s Rabbit-Proof Fence. Warwick Thornton’s Samson and Delilah and Sweet Country.

Grace Kelly and James Stewart in Rear Window

Favourite Hitchcocks? North by North West and Rear Window – which eerily I last saw sitting beside an ancient James Stewart. Another Wilder – Some Like it Hot – with the second best-ever film ending. The Long Good Friday – third best.

Citizen Kane? Compulsory. Casablanca ditto, despite its crappy back-lot sets – not so much for Bogart and Bergman but a few magical seconds of dialogue. Hoping for a new home in the US, two elderly refugees practise telling the time in English. “What watch?” “Ten watch.” “Such much?”

And it’s time to stop. While you think of your list.