Classic films before 1960

Foundational names with grand ideas.

Rashomon

Credited with bringing Japanese cinema to worldwide audiences, Akira Kurosawa’s breakthrough tells the story of a murder in the woods from four differing perspectives.

Crime
Period drama
1950
88 mins
Akira Kurosawa

Available in 4K

The Seventh Seal

Ingmar Bergman’s best-known film is a brilliant allegorical drama starring Max von Sydow as a knight trying to elude his own death.

Fantasy
Period drama
1957
96 mins
Ingmar Bergman

The 400 Blows

François Truffaut’s French New Wave landmark is one of the greatest movies about adolescence.

Drama
1959
100 mins
François Truffaut

Black Orpheus

Academy Award and Palme d'Or-winning adaption of the Orpheus myth, incorporating the music, costume and dance of Brazil’s Rio Festival.

Romance
1959
107 mins
Marcel Camus

Citizen Kane

Given extraordinary freedom by Hollywood studio RKO for his debut film, boy wonder Orson Welles created this notoriously brilliant portrait of a media giant.

Drama
1941
119 mins
Orson Welles

Metropolis

Fritz Lang’s expressionist, dystopian vision is one of the first science fiction feature films, and is arguably the most influential.

Science Fiction
1927
150 mins
Fritz Lang

Within Our Gates

Oscar Micheaux’s startling silent classic – the earliest surviving feature from an African-American director.

Drama
1919
74 mins
Oscar Micheaux

Man With a Movie Camera

Dazzling document of Soviet life, by Dziga Vertov, showing a living city and the people and machines that propel it.

Documentary
1929
67 mins
Dziga Vertov

Nosferatu

This influential Dracula adaptation contains some of the most famous images of expressionist film, and remains shocking and stylish after 100 years.

Horror
1922
89 mins
F.W. Murnau

The Passion of Joan of Arc

An incontestable masterpiece of silent cinema, Carl Dreyer's moving biopic features one of the most powerful performances ever captured on film.

Biopic
Historical drama
1928
80 mins
Carl Th. Dreyer

Un Chien Andalou

A scabrous study of desire, the subconscious and anti-clericalism - Buñuel and Dalí’s provocative first film is a classic of Surrealist cinema.

Animation & Artists Moving Image
1928
21 mins
Luis Buñuel

BFI Restoration

The River

Jean Renoir's entrancing first colour film is a lyrical coming-of-age tale about a girl living with her English family on the banks of West Bengal.

Drama
1951
99 mins
Jean Renoir

M

Peter Lorre is unforgettable as the compulsive child murderer on the run from both police and criminals alike, in Fritz Lang’s seminal crime film.

Crime
Thriller
1931
111 mins
Fritz Lang

Mädchen in Uniform

Leontine Sagan’s pioneering and internationally acclaimed lesbian love story.

Drama
1931
89 mins
Leontine Sagan

Battleship Potemkin

A fixture in the critical canon almost since its premiere, Eisenstein’s film about a 1905 naval mutiny was revolutionary in both form and content.

Historical drama
1925
69 mins
Sergei M. Eisenstein

Distant Journey

Blending documentary and fiction, Alfréd Radok's remarkable film chronicling the Terezin ghetto was one of the first films to address the Holocaust.

Drama
1949
98 mins
Alfréd Radok

Available in 4K

La Règle du jeu

Renoir's depiction of an intransigent society teetering towards disaster was derided upon release and only later acclaimed as one of cinema’s most vital films.

Drama
1939
102 mins
Jean Renoir

BFI Restoration

The Epic of Everest

Premiere. A breathtaking and poignant account of the valiant 1924 British assault on the awe-inspiring peak, beautifully restored by the BFI.

Non-Fiction
1924
87 mins
J.B.L. Noel

Tokyo Story

A fixture in critics' polls, Yasujirō Ozu's most enduring masterpiece is a beautifully nuanced exploration of filial duty, expectation and regret.

Drama
1953
136 mins
Yasujirō Ozu

Pickpocket

Bresson’s hugely influential study of a petty thief in late 50s Paris is one of his most widely acclaimed films.

Drama
1959
76 mins
Robert Bresson

Available in 4K

The Wages of Fear

Henri-Georges Clouzot's classic, nail-biting suspense thriller won both The Golden Bear and the Palme d'Or in 1953.

Crime
Drama
1953
153 mins
Henri-Georges Clouzot

La Belle et la Bête

Jean Cocteau’s ravishingly restored 1946 film is a cinematic classic.

Fantasy
1946
95 mins
Jean Cocteau

Sunrise A Song of Two Humans

The Czech archive version of one of cinema's last and most luminous silent masterpieces, an enduring fable of love, loss and redemption.

Drama
1927
75 mins
F.W. Murnau

Rome, Open City

Roberto Rossellini’s landmark of Italian neorealism often cited as one of the greatest films ever made.

War
Drama
1945
103 mins
Roberto Rossellini

BFI Restoration

Together

Two deaf-mute dock workers eke out a humble existence in London's East End in Lorenza Mazzetti's striking example of Free Cinema.

Animation & Artists Moving Image
1956
51 mins
Lorenza Mazzetti

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Rashomon

The Seventh Seal

The 400 Blows

Black Orpheus

Citizen Kane

Metropolis

Within Our Gates

Man With a Movie Camera

Nosferatu

The Passion of Joan of Arc

Un Chien Andalou

The River

M

Mädchen in Uniform

Battleship Potemkin

Distant Journey

La Règle du jeu

The Epic of Everest

Tokyo Story

Pickpocket

The Wages of Fear

La Belle et la Bête

Sunrise A Song of Two Humans

Rome, Open City

Together