Is Falconetti's performance here the greatest in all of film history? (And is this the best biopic ever made?) Cocteau called it "an historical document from an era in which the cinema didn't exist," but Dreyer's robust humanity and clarity of vision gives this an unrivaled naturalistic intensity beyond reportage. You see it, and the experience remains yours forever.

Sly and hilarious Preston Sturges comedy about a movie director who resolves to make only serious, meaningful pictures. (He falls in love with Veronica Lake, who defines "sultry" even when she's dressed as a boy.) It’s something of a manifesto for Sturges, whose own specialty was smart, meaningful pictures, naturally -- the ones that make people laugh.

Working in the 1940s and 50s, Deren was the first giant of American experimental filmmaking. Her short films anticipated the work of Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, and other pioneers even as her life, tinged with mystery, sadness, and Voudoun ritual, became the stuff of legend among the artists she influenced. The movies are haunting, lyrical, and breathtaking fusions of human and cinematic movement.

After his death earlier this year, critics were still repeating the old lines about Ingmar Bergman being an old-fashioned, stage-bound director who rarely explored the expressive possibilities of cinema. But Bergman's greatest masterpiece tells a story that could never exist in any other medium.

Jonathan Demme unobtrusively captures the Talking Heads in full-on polyrhythmic mode. Demme also directed a great New Order video and a Spalding Gray monologue before he started making Oscar-winning prestige pictures. He'll never go hungry, but he may never direct another perfect film.