Paul Schrader's Film Canon : Film Illiterate

Published in Film Comment; the introduction is online. I found the list itself at Cinematical.

This list is ranked and is shown in descending order.

Rank	Title	Year
1	Rules of the Game, The aka Régle du jeu, La	1939
2	Tokyo Story aka Tokyo monogatari	1953
3	City Lights	1931
4	Pickpocket	1959
5	Metropolis	1927
6	Citizen Kane	1941
7	Orphée	1950
8	Masculine, Feminine aka Masculin, fÃ©minin: 15 faits prÃ©cis	1966
9	Persona	1966
10	Vertigo	1958
11	Sunrise aka Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans	1927
12	Searchers, The	1956
13	Lady Eve, The	1941
14	Conformist, The aka Conformista, Il	1970
15	8½ aka 8 1/2	1963
16	Godfather, The	1972
17	In the Mood for Love aka Fa yeung nin wa	2000
18	Third Man, The	1949
19	Performance	1970
20	Notte, La	1961
21	Mother and Son aka Mat i syn	1997
22	Leopard, The aka Gattopardo, Il	1963
23	Dead, The	1987
24	2001: A Space Odyssey	1968
25	Last Year in Marienbad aka Année dernière à Marienbad, L'	1961
26	Passion of Joan of Arc, The aka Passion de Jeanne d'Arc, La	1928
27	Jules et Jim	1962
28	Wild Bunch, The	1969
29	All That Jazz	1979
30	Life of Oharu, The aka Saikaku ichidai onna	1952
31	High and Low aka Tengoku to jigoku	1963
32	Sweet Smell of Success	1957
33	That Obscure Object of Desire aka Cet obscur objet du dÃ©sir	1977
34	An American in Paris	1951
35	Battle of Algiers, The aka Battaglia di Algeri, La	1965
36	Taxi Driver	1976
37	Fear Eats the Soul aka Angst essen Seele auf	1974
38	Blue Velvet	1986
39	Crimes and Misdemeanors	1989
40	Big Lebowski, The	1998
41	Red Shoes, The	1948
42	Singin' in the Rain	1952
43	Chinatown	1974
44	Crowd, The	1928
45	Sunset Boulevard	1950
46	Talk to Her aka Hable con ella	2002
47	Shanghai Express	1932
48	Letter from an Unknown Woman	1948
49	Once Upon a Time in the West aka C'era una volta il West	1968
50	Salvatore Giuliano	1962
51	Nostalghia	1983
52	Seven Men from Now	1956
53	Genou de Claire, Le aka Claire's Knee	1970
54	Zemlya aka Earth	1930
55	Gun Crazy aka Deadly Is the Female	1949
56	Out of the Past	1947
57	Enfants du paradis, Les aka Children of Paradise	1945
58	Naked Spur, The	1953
59	A Place in the Sun	1951
60	General, The	1927