Stanley Kubrick's All Time Favorite Films

Here I have compiled a list in which only credible sources have designated these as some of Stanley Kubrick's all time favorite films.

Since Stanley is the most widely celebrated American director in history, I thought many others may appreciate a look at some of his favorites. This list itself is quite obviously in completely random order, and is not any sort of official list. However all selections do have credible voices behind them, many from Stanley himself.

In 1987 Stanley mentioned being starstruck by the films of Stroheim, D.W. Griffith and Eisenstein as a young man. "I was starstruck by these fantastic movies." Not in the sense of going to Hollywood and making a lot of money he stated, but purely because of these people's work he "Really was in love with movies."

Kubrick mentioned many times over his career a love for Max Ophüls films. Ophüls, Fellini and Bergman were commonly mentioned as Kubrick's favorite directors. He also loved Chaplin films, but not for the direction, rather for the stories themselves. He also mentioned Kazan on a few occasions as one of the best American directors, as well as publicly expressing his love of both Vittorio De Sica and Luis Buñuel more than a few times over the years. David Lean was another he mentioned in public more than once. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy".

I'll leave you with this quote from Kubrick himself, though it does date back to fairly early in his career, “There are very few directors about whom you’d say you automatically have to see everything they do. I’d put Fellini, Bergman and David Lean at the head of my first list, and Truffaut at the head of the next level.”