Every year the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film selects a category and asks its membership to submit their favorite top films.  The group’s previous year-end topics have included Best Musicals, Best Sequels and Remakes, and Best Foreign Language.  For 2015, members selected their top black & white films.

Members were given a general definition to frame the parameters of their list:  there was no further direction concerning when or how the films were made, which led to spirited arguments about whether or not films made when full color was not an option ought to be compared against newer films.

As a consequence, this year’s category inspired a great deal of conversation, research and debate.   The final 100 films selected come from 17 countries, with the US/non-US split almost even at 52 to 48%.   The decades most heavily represented are the 50’s, 60’s and 40’s, not surprisingly – however, there are 13 films from the 21st century, a significant upward trend from the late 1990’s. In fact one of the most recent films, THE ARTIST from 2011, cracked the top ten!

Thirteen filmmakers scored multiple films on the list, with the top two filmmakers represented with five films each. Billy Wilder was one of the filmmakers represented five times, with three films, THE APARTMENT, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, and SOME LIKE IT HOT all appearing in the Top 10, at #’s 5, 6, and 7 respectively. Famed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa also had five films featured on the list, with SEVEN SAMURAI coming it highest at #10. Other directors with multiple films include Alfred Hitchcock and Federico Fellini with four apiece, Orson Welles, Guy Maddin, Ingmar Bergman, and Howard Hawks were each represented three times, and with two apiece were Fritz Lang ( who also scored the top film on the list: METROPOLIS), David Lynch, Elia Kazan, F. W. Murnau, and Michelangelo Antonioni. Only two women were represented with black & white films, those being Agnes Varda, and Ana Lily Armipour, with the most recent film to appear, 2014’s A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT.

In this spirit of rediscovering  the cinematic artistry of black and white film, and in the hopes of encouraging others to consider (and argue about) what would be at the top of their own lists, the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film presents:

We hope you enjoy our list of the 100 best black & white Films.

01 Metropolis Fritz Lang 1927
02 All About Eve Joseph L. Makiewicz 1950
03 Citizen Kane Orson Welles 1941
04 Strangers on a Train Alfred Hitchcock 1951
05 The Apartment Billy Wilder 1960
06 Double Indemnity Billy Wilder 1944
07 Some Like It Hot Billy Wilder 1959
08 The Manchurian Candidate John Frankenheimer 1962
09 The Artist Michel Hazanavicius 2011
10 Seven Samurai Akira Kurosawa 1954
11 Sunset Boulevard Billy Wilder 1950
12 Casablanca Michel Curtiz 1942
13 Touch of Evil Orson Welles 1958
14 Dr. Strangelove Stanley Kubrick 1964
15 M Fritz Lang 1931
16 My Winnipeg Guy Maddin 2007
17 Rashomon Akira Kurosawa 1950
18 Eraserhead David Lynch 1977
19 On the Waterfront Elia Kazan 1954
20 Ikiru Akira Kurosawa 1952
21 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Mike Nichols 1966
22 Young Frankenstein Mel Brooks 1974
23 Frances Ha Noah Baumbach 2012
24 Bicycle Thieves Vittorio De Sica 1948
25 The Seventh Seal Ingmar Bergman 1957
26 The Battle of Algiers Gillo Pontecorvo 1966
27 Manhattan Woody Allen 1979
28 Bringing Up Baby Howard Hawks 1938
29 Ida Pawel Pawilkowski 2013
30 Yojimbo Akira Kurosawa 1961
31 Sunrise F. W. Murnau 1927
32 Tokyo Story Yasujirô Ozu 1953
33 The Passion of Joan of Arc Carl Theodor Dreyer 1928
34 Nights of Cabiria Federico Fellini 1957
35 Night of the Hunter Charles Laughton 1955
36 A Streetcar Named Desire Elia Kazan 1951
37 The White Ribbon Michael Haneke 2009
38 The Third Man Carol Reed 1949
39 Psycho Alfred Hitchcock 1950
40 The Saddest Music in the World Guy Maddin 2003
41 Night of the Living Dead George A. Romero 1968
42 The 400 Blows François Truffaut 1959
43 Breathless Jon-Luc Godard 1969
44 Beauty and the Beast Jean Cocteau 1946
45 His Girl Friday Howard Hawks 1940
46 Wild Strawberries Ingmar Bergman 1957
47 Diabolique H.G. Clouzot 1955
48 A Hard Day’s Night Richard Lester 1964
49 Battleship Potemkin S. M. Eisenstein 1925
50 Laura Otto Preminger 1944
51 The Last Picture Show Peter Bogdanovich 1971
52 Children of Paradise Marcel Carné 1945
53 8 1/2 Federico Fellini 1963
54 Gojira Ishirô Honda 1954
55 Blancanieves Pablo Berger 2012
56 The Lady from Shanghai Orson Welles 1947
57 Raging Bull Martin Scorsese 1980
58 L’Avventura Michelangelo Antonioni 1960
59 Man With a Movie Camera Dziga Vertov 1929
60 The Maltese Falcon John Huston 1941
61 Ordet Carl Theodor Dreyer 1955
62 Persona Ingmar Bergman 1966
63 Witness for the Prosecution Billy Wilder 1957
64 Good Night and Good Luck George Clooney 2005
65 The Elephant Man David Lynch 1980
66 Modern Times Charile Caplin 1936
67 12 Angry Men Sydney Lumet 1957
68 Brand Upon the Brain Guy Maddin 2006
69 Out of the Past Jacques Tourneur 1947
70 Nosferatu F. W. Murnau 1922
71 Duck Season Fernando Eimbcke 2004
72 Notorious Alfred Hitchcock 1947
73 Nebraska Alexander Payne 2013
74 Animal Crackers Victor Heerman 1930
75 Cleo from 5 to 7 Agnes Varda 1962
76 La Dolce Vita Federico Fellini 1960
77 A Coffee in Berlin Jan Ole Gerster 2012
78 Mildred Pierce Michael Curtiz 1945
79 Ugetsu Kenji Mizoguchi 1953
80 Throne of Blood Akira Kurosawa 1957
81 La Jetée Chris Marker 1962
82 L’Eclisse Michelangelo Antonioni 1962
83 The Big Sleep Howard Hawks 1946
84 The 39 Steps Alfred Hitchcock 1935
85 The Thin Man W. S. Van Dyke 1934
86 Stagecoach John Ford 1939
87 Last Year at Marienbad Alain Resnais 1961
88 Dark Victory Edmund Goulding 1939
89 It’s a Wonderful Life Frank Capra 1946
90 Eyes Without a Face Georges Franju 1960
91 The Burmese Harp Kon Ichikawa 1956
92 Mala Noche Gus Van Sant 1986
93 La Strada Federico Fellini 1954
94 The Day the Earth Stodd Still Robert Wise 1951
94 The House on Haunted Hill William Castle 1959
96 Judy Belin ric Mendelsohn 1999
97 Pi Darren Aronofsky 1998
98 Stranger than Paradise Jim Jarmusch 1984
99 To Kill a Mockingbird Richard Mulligan 1962
100 A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night Ana Lily Amirpour 2014