must-see movies

The other day someone at work made a reference to a movie and it dawned on me that if I were to watch a good chunk of the must-see French films I'd be better off understanding the culture.... anyway, in exchange for this list my colleagues have asked for a list of American must-see films. Many of the Hollywood box-office hits have already been dubbed and shown here, so they're asking us to avoid the action-adventure genre entirely... I started by asking if they'd seen:

E.T.
Star Wars
Ghost Busters
Silence of the Lambs
Jaws


yup, yup, yup, yup. No, Jaws, what's that? Oh, you mean geaawce! Yup, they've seen that one too--just hard to understand my pronunciation, with the American accent and all!



Hmmm. We'll have to dig deeper. What do you think they should watch, to better understand American culture?

The Princess Bride
I love you to death
African Queen
The Shawshank Redemption

(for kids)
The Wizard of Oz
The Goonies

I'll be watching some of these French films:

Leon
Nikita
La grande vadrouille
Les Choristes
Gazon maudit
Les Bronzés font du ski
Subway
Les visiteurs
La haine
Delicatessen
Le bonheur est dans le pré
Le tontons flingueurs
Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire
Buffet froid
Le père noel est une ordure
Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain
Tatie Daniele
Le salaire de la peur
La cité de la peur
Diner de cons
Astérix et Cléopatre
Les aventures de Rabby Jacob
L'auberge espagnole
La boum
Kirikou
Prof
Didier
La soupe aux choux
Le grand bleu
Jean de florette
Le roi et l'oiseau
Indigenes
La môme
Jeanne d'arc
Taxi