5. Ugetsu Monogatari
When you think of the Japanese Golden Age of cinema, three names comes to mind; Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa and the person who is most often left out of the list, Kenji Mizoguchi. A master of cinema since the 1930's, he wasn't able to get as much acclaimed due to his death in 1956 on the cusp of when art house cinema in the United States were getting popular. His greatest film is the dreamlike, "Ugetsu Monogatari", adapted from Chinese ghost stories. Here, it is all about mood and atmosphere especially a famous sequence in which the main character drifts along the river filled with fog which could have inspired another film on this list. But, Mizoguchi's influence comes from his use of long takes. An idol of Ozu, he went by the principle that one scene should only have one cut. But, unlike Ozu, his camera flows and weaves contributing to the incredible dreamlike atmosphere of this film. This is probably one of the lesser talked about films on the list but one viewing of it will have it haunt and resonate in the mind forever.