Although it disappointed upon release, the film has been reappraised over the years and is now considered one of the director’s most distinctive works. Not only that, it’s Martin Scorsese’s favourite Kubrick movie.

2. Magnolia (1999)

The film dramatises an eventful day and night in the lives of a series of loosely connected residents of California’s San Fernando Valley and stars the cream of indie acting talent, from Julianne Moore to John C Reilly. Tom Cruise, as tortured pickup artist Frank TJ Mackey, tries twice as hard to keep up, and earned an Oscar nomination for his efforts.

If the film has a message, it’s how the connections between us can ultimately outweigh the damage. This is illustrated – spectacularly – when the entire cast start singing Aimee Mann’s Wise Up.

“I really feel that Magnolia is, for better or worse, the best movie I’ll ever make,” Anderson said. No kidding.

3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

The third and final part of Peter Jackson’s trilogy won big at the 2003 Oscars, where it became the first fantasy film ever to be named best picture, netting a record-equalling 11 awards.

The behind-the-scenes stats are suitably huge too. Clocking in at a bottom-numbing 201 minutes (252 minutes if you watch the extended cut), the film was shot all over New Zealand by 10 different units and features 1,488 special effects shots – three times more than The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and twice as many as The Two Towers (2002).

You know the plot already – it’s the final stages of Frodo (Elijah Wood) and friends’ quest to reach Mount Doom and destroy the One Ring – so the biggest surprise is Jackson’s seeming inability to finish the story soon enough. In reality, the editing process was so frantic that Jackson hadn’t seen the entire finished film put together until its premiere in New Zealand’s capital Wellington. His verdict? “Yup, it’s pretty good.”

4. An Elephant Sitting Still (2018)

This moving, multilayered Chinese drama from novelist-turned-director Hu Bo plays out like an even more punishing Magnolia. Over the course of 234 minutes, it follows three lost souls through a single fateful day.

Based on Hu’s own short story, the film’s title comes from the rumour that there is a circus elephant in the northern Chinese city of Manzhouli that simply sits and watches the world go by, ignoring the pain and suffering around it.

Against the frosty, unforgiving backdrop of northern China, troubled teenager Wei Bu (Peng Yuchang), his classmate Huang Ling (Wang Yuwen) and his elderly neighbour Wang Jin (Liu Congxi) join together to visit Manzhouli and escape the problems of their own lives.

If only its director had managed the same thing. Despite the film winning prizes in various territories (including the best picture honour at the Golden Horse Awards), and receiving praise from the likes of Wang Bing, Gus Van Sant and Ang Lee, Hu committed suicide at the age of 29 just after finishing it.

5. The Irishman (2019)

Judging by those figures it should be an ode to excess like his earlier mob films Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995), but instead it’s a much more reflective, mature work, focusing on the life and crimes of Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro).

As reported in Charles Brandt’s book I Heard You Paint Houses, Sheeran was a truck driver who became a hitman for Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci), a mobster with connections to union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino).

Scorsese has always made long movies that avoid tedium, and The Irishman, his first film for Netflix, is no exception. At first it can be distracting watching De Niro and co being digitally de-aged by several decades, but by the end you’ll feel like the opposite has happened to you.