Let me recommend a book I think every film-maker should read
http://www.amazon.com/Sculpting-Time-Tarkovsky-Filmaker-Discusses/dp/0292776241
In my 20s my girlfriend took me to her favorite film, The Sacrifice. I have never sat through a longer, more boring, 2 hours in my life! When I later read that they forgot to load film into the camera before shooting the burning house, and had to shoot another burning house, i was not in the last surprised. I made a mental note that Tarkovsky is the WORST filmmaker ever.
Then I read the book and watched some of his other films.
What I love about this site is that it talks about film-making technology in a serious way. People who think it's about one camera vs another are COMPLETELY missing the point. The questions trying to be answered is "what is the best technological approach, and trade-off, I should take for what I want to shoot."
Let me finish my rant with this. At the Dartmouth Film Society they showed "Black Narcissus". There are so few real film-theaters around I was very excited. I wished my oldest kids were around to take them. Anyway, I went by myself and watched it. It didn't look good at all. I thought, "I guess digital technology has advanced so far Technicolor now looks like crap." I had remembered seeing the film in NYC and being blown away with it's cinematography. Afterwards, I asked what they showed it on. The young woman (student) says, "DVD, we wanted to show it in film, but the projector was broken. And then our Bluray wasn't working. Fortunately, we had a DVD too." I was floored.
It wasn't that a film-society showed one of the greatest Technicolor masterpieces in DVD, it was that they did not tell the audience. People went away not having experienced the technology/story as it was meant to be shown.
That's the way I feel reading many of those off-posts. Many readers don't know the beauty of real film because it has been swamped by digital content. Eventually, everyone learns their mistakes, just like I did about Tarkovsky and the real goal of filmmaking. Many posters here that go off-topic will one day get it.
Now, to get back on this topic, what are the best films that use the most minimal of technology. I'd love to see a best 10 lists. I'll start with Fast Runner.