[TheEscapist]

A Matter of Life & Death. David Niven is absolutely perfect in this. Not really a spiritual person but this is so well made and enjoyable you can't help but be sucked in. Can't recommend this enough.

[Paddy Samurai]

Some good ones already mentioned, I have a fair few, but some of my favourites would be Cool hand Luke ( Paul Newman and George Kennedy ) a classic. Bullitt and The Sand pebbles with Steve McQueen. If you search under these two actors, you should find a load of great films. Ice Cold in Alex is a great movie .
Not sure if your into them but there was a lot of great westerns made pre-70s
The Wild bunch, The Scalp Hunters , The Gunfighter(Gregory peck) are among my favourites. If you get a chance check out “The Train” with Burt Lancaster, it’s a brilliant movie. The Spy who came in from the Cold(Richard Burton) and The Ipcress file (Michael Caine) are both worth a watch. Also Seven Samurai and The Battle for Algiers are must sees. The original Cape Fear with Robert Mitchum is better than the remake IMO.

[phill106]

The original planet of the apes movie (1968)

[Nolanger]

Preston Sturges - famous '40s director
Jacques Tati - French comic
Alfred Hitchcock - suspense
Charles Chaplin - genius
Fred Astaire / Ginger Rogers - best dance pictures ever
Abbot & Costello - WW2 comedy
Marx Brothers - anarchic comedy
Ealing comedies - classy comedies
Roger Corman - B-movie master

[losthorizon]

Originally Posted by TheEscapist

A Matter of Life & Death. David Niven is absolutely perfect in this. Not really a spiritual person but this is so well made and enjoyable you can't help but be sucked in. Can't recommend this enough.

There was a thread recently about B&W and why would you use it. This film is a brilliant example of the use of Colour and B&W and not in the way you think. Its also a damn fine movie. Another great Powell & Pressuburger film and my fav is The Life and Death of Col. Blimp which displays all the pairs tricks and trademarks and again has great cinematography by Jack Cardiff.

[bnt]

I tend to mention older films in the TV thread. I have a particular fondness for screwball comedies such as Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, and The Philadelphia Story from the main period (1932-1944); as well as later examples such as Some Like It Hot. More recent comedies such as Raising Arizona and Miss Congeniality hark back to the screwball era, with Sandra Bullock clearly a fan of Katharine Hepburn. (A good thing, if you ask me.)

[grohlisagod]

Pretty much anything by Hitchcock, truly the master.

Couldn't agree more on Sunrise. A beautiful film. Up to now the only silent film I've seen but it was a joy to watch. It's worth watching a silent film if only to get experience an entirely different way of looking at cinema, away from the dialogue heavy scripts we get in modern cinema.

+1 on Persona also. Fascinating film. I really should watch more of Bergman's work.

[quickbeam]

I love older movies and would agree with a lot of the suggestions already made. Just a few points.

The Big Sleep was mentioned - this is certainly a stylish film noir but don't expect the story to make any sense (in fairness apparently the book on which it was based didn't either). Personally for a stylish Bogart/Bacall film I'd go with To Have And Have Not ... "You know you to whistle, don't you Steve ...."

You can't go far wrong with Hitchcock either, though some are better than others. My favourites would be Psycho, Dial M For Murder, Strangers On A Train, Rope, Lifeboat.

For comedy, the Marx Brothers are a hoot, espcially A Day At The Races, A Night At The Opera and Duck Soup.

Have a browse through the IMDB top 250 list too, you won't go far picking out the older films from there.

Finally, to those mentioning Sunrise, I'd never heard of it before but so many people mentioned it that I'm intrigued myself. I actually found it on YouTube in 9 parts - the first of which is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6t0DCtIOBA . I'll certainly be setting aside some time over the weekend to give this a go.

[irishh_bob]

Originally Posted by Hank_Jones

I've watched a lot of modern films lately, the majority of them being absolute shíte...

So, in my "wisdom" I have decided to watch older films and I am looking for recommendations from people.

Anything at all people, I'm open to any film suggestions at this stage.

Also, avoid Kevin Smith's Red State, it's the film that finally drove me to avoid newer films.

once upon a time in the west = 1968

[krudler]

Originally Posted by irishh_bob

once upon a time in the west = 1968

I was gonna suggest that lol, Henry Fonda as a badass, Charlie Fcuking Bronson, Claudia Cardinale looking amazing, one of the best opening sequences ever, great western.

for comedy, Marx Brothers win hands down, A Night at The Opera and Duck Soup are comedy classics.

still hilarious:

[Sir Digby Chicken Caesar]

anything starring david niven.. because he's david niven, obviously.

[Renn]

Bizarre and broad post but I'll suggest one director that deserves more love - Ernst Lubitsch. To Be or Not to Be, The Shop Around the Corner (you'll also get your Stewart fix here), Ninotchka, Trouble in Paradise...

Anyway, I've a load of suggestions but that'll do for the moment.

[foxyboxer]

Oh yeah forgot, Midnight Cowboy.

[e_e]

Seven Samurai - Because apart from being one of the most entertaining and thrilling movies ever, it set the template for epic action movies over the next few decades.

[e_e]

...and no mentions of 2001 A Space Odyssey? So far ahead of its time that most big budget CGI movies have worse special effects.