We're a nation of movie bluffs

One in ten of us claims to have watched a particular film to enhance our intellectual standing or trendiness among friends, a survey has found.

And one in seven admits 'filmdropping' - the equivalent of name-dropping - where a movie is deliberately mentioned to impress others.

More follows...

How we lie about the films we've seen (and the ones we haven't) just to impress friends

Men are the biggest fibbers about their film knowledge, being 17 per cent more likely than women to lie about what they have watched, according to the survey for a website dedicated to movies.

The study divided films into three categories. The first was films people haven't got round to watching but claim they have. Schindler's List came top, followed by The Da Vinci Code and The Godfather.

The second category, favourite films to drop into conversation, was topped by The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.

The last category was films we love but would never admit to seeing. Ghost and The Sound Of Music came first, followed by Dirty Dancing.

Sam Toy, a writer for film magazine Empire, said: 'I don't think anyone can honestly say Ghost is a great film but it is a favourite film. It's the same with Dirty Dancing. They are films which people love.

'And who knows how The Da Vinci Code made it into films we lie about seeing? It's a cultural phenomenon and I suppose people say they've seen it to keep up with conversation. But there are much better films you could claim to have seen, such as Seven Samurai or The Third Man.'

The survey found that 23 per cent of us judge others on what films they like, while two-fifths openly criticise people about their film tastes.

YouGov interviewed 2,489 people for the survey for myfilms.com. The website's founder, Tom Beaumont-Griffin, said: 'Films are so much a part of our everyday conversation that it's no great surprise that we tend to bluff about what films we've seen to keep up with our colleagues, friends and family.'