ludditerobot has - in an effort of Stakhanovite proportions - transcribed the 1001 Movies to See Before you Die from the book of the same nameI might go through these by decade.
bold=seen (not many on this list)
I'm surprised 'The Wind' starring Lillian Gish isn't on this list. And I'm not always sure about the names of some Laurel and Hardy and Buster Keaton movies, but I think there are some good ones missing. This is just my excuse for not having seen hardly any.
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Les Vampires (1915)
Intolerance (1916)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)
Broken Blossoms (1919)
Way Down East (1920)
Within Our Gates (1920)
The Phantom Carriage (1921)
Orphans of the Storm (1921)
The Smiling Madame Beudet (1922)
Dr. Mabuse, Parts 1 and 2 (1922)
Nanook of the North (1922)
Nosferatu, A Symphony of Terror(1922)
Haxan (1923)
Foolish Wives (1922)
Our Hospitality (1923)
The Wheel (1923)
The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
Strike (1924)
Greed (1924)
Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
The Last Laugh (1924)
Seven Chances (1925)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
The Battleship Potemkin (1925)
The Gold Rush (1925)
The Big Parade (1925)
Metropolis (1927)
Sunrise (1927)
The General (1927)
The Unknown (1927)
October (1927)
The Jazz Singer (1927)
Napoleon (1927)
The Kid Brother (1927)
The Crowd (1928)
The Docks of New York (1928)
An Andalusian Dog (1928)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
Storm over Asia (1928)
Blackmail (1929)
The Man with the Movie Camera (1929)
Pandora's Box (1929)