A long-running Christchurch video store has come up with a list of the greatest movies of all time. (Video first published June 2018)

One of New Zealand's longest-running and last-remaining video stores has released its latest list of the Greatest Movies of All-Time.

Christchurch's Alice in Videoland (now known as Alice's) has been operating since 1985 and now boasts a collection of more than 25,000 DVDs, all of which are available to customers nationwide via a subscription service.

The best-of list is the brainchild of Alice's founder Paul Stewart, who has spent decades trying to collect all of the titles on it for the store.



It's a task he finally completed recently, which prompted him to update and expand an earlier, shorter list that was last compiled around eight or nine years ago.

Orson Welles' Citizen Kane tops Alice's list of the 300 Greatest Movies of All-TIME.

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He said he spent months researching, brainstorming and re-watching movies in order to put together what he says is a consensus he's curated from critics around the planet.

While there are a few of his own favourites on there, most of the list has been inspired by "me looking at people who know a lot more about film – people who live and breathe it".

Don Scott After decades of establishing a collection of more than 25,000 DVDs, Alice's founder Paul Stewart has come up with a list of the 300 Greatest Movies of All-Time.

"A lot of them are academics who will tear a film to pieces scene-by-scene and you've got to respect them for doing that."

These are movies that have stood the test of time, hence the first 21st century entry – 2011 Hungarian film The Turin Horse – only appears at No. 55. Only two New Zealand movie make the cut: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at #249 and The Piano at #285.

Stewart, who said he was delighted when he managed to source a copy of Greed to complete his 300-strong "presentation", doubts that there are "many collections like Alice's on the planet".



"Whenever I've heard about an amazing video store, be it in New York, Chicago or absolutely anywhere, I've always gone to have a look at it. And I was never ,ever overly impressed with any of them. I thought Alice's was ahead of them all because we didn't need to cater for the also-rans – never needed to cross that commercial line."



When asked which titles in his vast collection have been hired the most, Stewart revealed a surprising answer.



"If you're talking about sheer thrust, it was actually things like What the Bleep Do We Know? Or The Secret. I think we rented more copies of those as a commercial library than anything, because everyone wants to know the key [to life]."

Joseph Johnson/Stuff Now both a cinema and a DVD store, Alice's is run by Paul Stewart's sons Jeremy, pictured, and Julian.

Stewart also believed that physical formats like DVD and Blu-Ray still hold a place in many people's hearts, in particular because of the extra behind-the-scenes footage they can contain.



And he said while they may eventually get left in the dust, the recent introduction of Alice's subscription model has proved to be a roaring success.



"I'm so rapt that people from near and far have suddenly discovered this collection they didn't know existed."

Stuff asked Stewart to come up with his reasonings for the Top 5 titles in Alices' Greatest Films of All-Time.

5. SEVEN SAMURAI (1954)

The Seven Samurai has spawned countless imitations and rip-offs.

Akira Kurosawa's dramatic adventure about a group of unemployed samurai who are called upon by a village to help them fend off bandits.

"It is just a bloody benchmark. It started the ball rolling of the Fistful of Dollars movies. It is an indelible story that has been done many many times and in many, many shapes and forms, but I just think Kurosawa did a particularly good job on it."

4. THE RULES OF THE GAME (1939)

The Rules of the Game was a movie banned by the Nazis and thought lost for many years.

Set during the onset of World War II, Jean Renoir's dramedy follows the misadventures of the rich and their poor servants when they meet up at a French chateau.

"I was surprised to see it there. But the arguments for it being in that position was just the consensus of my peers and their rationale was very sensible. It's the entire composition, the texture, the package."

3. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey was "a breakthrough film", believes Paul Stewart.

Stanley Kubrick's mind-bending journey of man, based on the book by Arthur C Clarke.

"It was a breakthrough film. I lived through those years and none of us were prepared for that. It came out of left-field. The meticulous nature with which it has been, the deftness of touch. And look at the long leaves it has had ever since."

2. VERTIGO (1958)

Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak star in Vertigo.

Jimmy Stewart plays a San Francisco detective investigating the strange activities of an old friend's wife in Alfred Hitchcock's romantic-thriller.

"This keeps moving up the ranks. The Godfather used to be No. 2 on our list, it's No. 6 now. Critics have another look at these things and some have weathered better than others and some become more of a masterpiece than originally thought. With this, I think it's the vintageness of the whole thing and Hitchcock was a master."

1. CITIZEN KANE (1942)

Orson Welles was the director, co-writer and star of Citizen Kane.

Orson Welles' debut movie attempts to the solve the mystery surrounding fictional publishing magnate Charles Foster Kane's final words.

"You can't budge it. I looked at it again and it is such a masterly film. It is very seldom that studios give directors the freedom he had here. This wasn't created by a screening panel or a vote, they just let the guy go with it. And his vision is there – it's just No. 1."