An understated, beautifully composed classic of domestic disillusionment from the most classical and contemplative of directors. In his formal concentration on everyday family life, Ozu discovers universal truths about the human condition. Here, an elderly couple face the painful fact that they are a burden to their children and grandchildren. But the most devastating comment comes at the end of the film, from their daughter: “Isn’t life disappointing.” But at least Ozu never disappoints.

2. La Règle du Jeu
France, 1939, Jean Renoir

It took more than 20 years for Renoir’s film to be recognised as his masterpiece. It was originally banned as demoralising, but remains triumphantly, morally bracing and richly comic. The subject matter of a thousand boulevard comedies — a shooting party at a country mansion, where everyone is preoccupied with love affairs — becomes a devastating portrait of the society of his time; snobbish, racist and mendacious, whose obsessive frivolity leads to death and destruction.

3. Lawrence of Arabia
GB, 1962, David Lean

The real hero is the director David Lean, in overcoming immense difficulties to create an overwhelming epic. O’Toole, a great actor at his charismatic best, achieves both Lawrence’s bravado and his disenchantment.

4. The Godfather Trilogy
US, 1972, 1974, 1990, Francis Ford Coppola

It is the first two parts of the trilogy that make it a classic. Nevertheless all three have all the fascination of a snake pit: a warm-hearted family saga except that the members are murderers.

5. The Seven Samurai
Japan, 1954, Akira Kurosawa

The greatest of all samurai films is a superbly strange medieval adventure. The film later served as the basis for the western The Magnificent Seven but they pale in comparison with this vivid and violent drama.

6. Citizen Kane
US, 1941, Orson Welles

Although the movie’s technical innovations might now seem run-of-the-mill, Orson Welles identified and exposed a type of megalomaniacal media mogul who is still with us today. Every line is utterly absorbing.

7. Raging Bull
US, 1980, Martin Scorsese

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