[You Recommend] Movies I should see because I obviously haven't seen any of the Classics.
Submitted by Hair on Fri, 06/24/2005 - 01:18
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- Alright so I'm a movie buff by no means, but reading all of these movie lists (and I've been lurking for quite some time now) has made me want to become a movie buff too. Really, my knowledge is very lacking for movies. I was hoping that anyone who reads this could reply with suggestions on what I should be watching.
- Really though, I want classics. Films that are mainstream but very good, films that are obscure masterpieces, forgotten underrated films, etc. I'll add the suggestions below along with three or four classics that I really should've seen by now, just so this is actually a list.
- The Gold Rush
- Casablanca
- Singin' in the Rain
- The Graduate
- Blade Runner
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- The Blue Angel
- City Lights
- M
- Bringing Up Baby
- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
- Stagecoach
- Citizen Kane
- Double Idemnity
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
- Strangers on a Train
- Rear Window
- Psycho
- 8 1/2
- Nashville
- Metropolis
- The Maltese Falcon
- Sunset Boulevard
- All About Eve
- 12 Angry Men
- Breathless
- Once Upon a Time in the West
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
- Notorious
- North by Northwest
- Raging Bull
- Taxi Driver
- Mulholland Dr.
- Blue Velvet
- Dog Day Afternoon
- Miller's Crossing
- Wild Strawberries
- Persona
- Le Samourai
- Bob le Flambeur
- Le Cercle Rouge
- Movies that I've seen prior to Recommendations:
- Shawshank Redemption
- The Wizard of Oz
- Jaws
- Pulp Fiction
- The Godfather Part II
- Lawrence of Arabia
- Bridge on the River Kwai
- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
- Goodfellas
- The Seventh Seal
- Movies that I've Seen after they were Recommended:
- The Seven Samurai
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- A Clockwork Orange
- Schindler's List
- Chinatown
- Dr. Strangelove
- Fargo
- Rashomon
Not always critically appreciated, but it's my favourite film of all-time: The Shawshank Redemption, if you haven't already seen it.
Shawshank is my father's favorite movie, and yes I have seen it. Unfortunately the first time I saw it was on TNT on one of the thousand times they show it every year (that and Dances With Wolves...), so I missed the feel for the movie that I would've had with the DVD or etc.
Assuming total lack of movie knowledge...
By decade and with the widest range of genres, these will allow you to fake your way through any discussion of "cinema".
The Gold Rush
The Wizard of Oz
Casablanca
Singin' in the Rain
The Graduate
Jaws
Blade Runner
Pulp Fiction
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
With any luck I'll resist the temptation to make further, more narrowly defined, recommendations... "Greatest B&W Films", "Best Comedies", "Finest Period Pieces made in the 80s", "All-Time Excellent Family-Friendly Movies of 1979"...
Here is a cheat sheet of twenty films. They are all pretty much considered classics, they will help you bluff your way through many film conversations, and if you don't try too hard, you might actually enjoy them! :)
The Gold Rush (Chaplin) - 1925
The Blue Angel (Sternberg) - 1930
City Lights (Chaplin) - 1931
M (Lang) - 1931
Bringing Up Baby (Hawks) - 1938
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Capra) - 1939
Stagecoach (Ford) - 1939
Citizen Kane (Welles) - 1941
Double Idemnity (Wilder) - 1944
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Huston) - 1948
Strangers on a Train (Hitchcock) - 1951
Rashomon (Kurosawa) - 1951
Rear Window (Hitchcock) - 1954
Psycho (Hitchcock) - 1960
8 1/2 (Fellini) - 1963
Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Kubrick) - 1964
Chinatown (Polanski) - 1974
The Godfather Part II (Coppola) - 1974
Nashville (Altman) - 1975
Schindler's List (Spielberg) - 1993
(Did I mention they are all on DVD? And, just in case you could use a little easing into subtitles, I kept the number of foreign films down to less than the number of fingers that are on one hand.)
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
(PS - I just re-read this post, and I fear that my attempts at goofy humor read more as annoying condescension than silliness. If you feel the same way, just believe me that the effect was not intended. I really should not try to be funny on days like these...)
0dysseus's picks are great. I've seen all of them except Jaws, and you should definitely check them out. Honestly, I think Blade Runner is a little overrated, but it should probably be seen anyway.
Here are a handful of films I think every movie buff should see, and they're fairly accessible too:
Metropolis (1927) (Had a huge influence on all science fiction to come.)
Bringing Up Baby (1938) (The quintessential screwball comedy.)
The Maltese Falcon (1941) (The quintessential film-noir.)
Citizen Kane (1941) (Try not to read anything about the film before you see it, so it doesn't get too hyped up for you already and so that you don't read about the ending.)
Sunset Boulevard (1950), All About Eve (1950), 12 Angry Men (1957) (Should give you a good idea why the 50s were so important for the movies. Oh, and you already have a Kurosawa film listed, but you should also see Rashomon (1950) at some point as well...)
Breathless (1960) (The French New Wave was a very important cinematic movement, and this should give you a good example of an acclaimed, artsy foreign film. It's less accessible than the others on this list, though - be warned.)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) OR Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) (I figure a David Lean epic should be here. The former is more famous and more acclaimed, but the latter I got more personal enjoyment out of, and is probably more accessible.)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) OR Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) (Not exactly quintessential Westerns, but two of the best. If you love one, watch the other too.)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) (Sums up counterculture 70's films pretty well.)
Well, I could go on, but it sounds like you already have a lot here. Oh, but you'll probably want to see a Hitchcock film too, so take your pick... Notorious (1946) , Rear Window (1954) , North by Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960) are all wonderful films.
EDIT: lbangs's list is great too. He put it together while I was working on this one. I've seen all of them except The Blue Angel and 8 1/2. So pick whatever sounds interesting off these three posts.
Wow, thanks a bunch guys, this is exactly what I was hoping for when I wrote this up. I've seen a couple scattered through out the three lists, maybe 5 or 6, and I'll be sure to eventually check out all these suggestions. Again thanks for taking your time here.
I think these are important directors with their most loved films.
Martin Scorsese
Raging Bull (1980)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Goodfellas (1990)
David Lynch
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Sidney Lumet
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Joel Coen
Fargo (1996)
Miller's Crossing (1990)
Woody Allen
Annie Hall (1977)
Manhatten (1979)
Also you should check out Jean-Pierre Melville. He's isn't as well known as Godard or Truffaut but i like his films alot more.
Le Samourai (1967)
Bob le Flambeur (1955)
Le Cercle Rouge (1970)
I tried not to, but I have to bring up Ingmar Bergman. His films are difficult and often polarizing, but in truth, movie buffery is just incomplete if you haven't seen one of his films. Since they are rather inaccessible, you may want to watch your Bergman a little later on. At that point, you'll probably want to pick one out of his big three: The Seventh Seal (1957), Wild Strawberries (1957), or Persona (1966). My favorite of these is Persona, but The Seventh Seal is a close second, and I think that might be your best bet (it is also probably his most acclaimed film). Oh, and there's also Fanny and Alexander (1982), but I haven't seen that film and know nothing about it, so someone else will have to tell you about that one.
Bergmann is the man that made me want to know more about movies. I caught The Seventh Seal one late night on TMC and absolutely loved it. It kept me motionless on the couch for its entire run time. I thought to myself that if a movie like this could be so powerful, then I was definitely missing out on something I would really like. I'll be sure to check out his others at a later date.
By the way russa, thanks for the suggestions, they look great and I'll add em up there shortly.
Alright so I decided to get an early start and picked up the Seven Samurai and 2001 at the local blockbuster. I know no one's recommended it but I thought I'd get those two out of the way. Not surprisingly, Blockbuster doesn't have much of a selection, just mindless action films and the like. I have a feeling this will require Netflix, Amazon, Half Price, or all...
Funny though, Double Indemnity is on TMC tomorrow morning at 7 AM, I'll get up early and catch that.
Again thanks all for the suggestions.
Wow, if you can watch The Seventh Seal and love it so much on a first viewing, you may be a born movie buff. I'm sure you'll have little problem getting into most of these movies.
By the way, I would have recommended 2001 and Seven Samurai if they weren't already up there. And yeah, Blockbuster kinda sucks if you're looking for classics. I'm not a Netflix subscriber, but there's a great video rental place called Video Americain fairly close to my house that rents obscure classics. Maybe you could look around for a better video rental place near you. If you don't find one, you could go for Netflix or just stick to TCM.
Fanny and Alexander is a longer but far more accessible masterpiece than Bergman's earlier triumphs. My favorite Bergman is The Seventh Seal.
Without peeking at the others' lists to see if I'm repeating their recommendations:
Many claim that the modern era of film began with Griffith's conroversial epic The Birth of a Nation. The late 1920s saw the apex of silent cinema on all fronts: editing (Battleship Potemkin), camerawork (Sunrise, Man With a Movie Camera), comedy (The General, The Gold Rush), acting (The Passion of Joan of Arc), and storytelling (Greed), but also its demise with the advent of sound.
The 30s saw countless filmed stageplays because scenes were constructed around bulky, immovable microphones. By the late 30s technology caught up to directors' visions, and films were exciting again: The Grand Illusion, The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach, etc.
In 1941, virgin filmmaker Orson Welles provided the most mature expression of direction, editing, lighting, and storytelling yet with Citizen Kane, because he didn't know what "couldn't" be done. Other 40s landmarks: Casablanca, It's a Wonderful Life, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Bicycle Thief.
The 50s were ruled by the Japapense (Seven Samurai, Tokyo Story, Rashomon, Ugetsu, Ikiru, Sansho the Bailiff), Hitchcock (Rear Window, Vertigo, North By Northwest, Psycho), and a few more excellent, varied productions: The Seventh Seal, Touch of Evil, Singin' in the Rain, Some Like It Hot, Rio Bravo.
Experimentation with forms and styles exploded in the 60s: 2001: A Space Odyssey, 8½, L'Aventura, Au Hasard, Balthazar, Dr. Strangelove, Andrei Rublev, Breathless, Persona, Last Year in Marienbad.
Movies took a darker turn in the 70s with The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now, Chinatown, A Clockwork Orange, and Aguirre: The Wrath of God.
The 80s sucked.
Film recovered in the 90s with Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, Toy Story and Toy Story 2, Schindler's List, Being John Malkovich, and American Beauty.
There. That isn't comprehensive or thematic, but it's a decent list of highly respectable titles I recommend (the only one I haven't seen yet is Au Hasard, Balthazar).
Much appreciated lukeprog, I'll put those up there.
For anyone whos actually been keeping up with what I've been watching, I got around to the Seven Samurai and 2001: A Space Odyssey over the weekend:
2001: A Space Odyssey: A beautiful movie, simply put. The imagery and the sound are masterfully blended. Half the time I couldn't understand what the people were saying, but the beauty of this film as that it doesn't really matter. The last 15 minutes of this film are so impossible to explain, that I can't even find a way to put it into words. For those of you that have seen it, does anyone get it? I have the feeling that Kubrick wants us to make up our own explanation, which is why this film is so great. I couldn't imagine what the screenplay would look like...
The Seven Samurai: My new favorite movie ever. I saw this movie once, non-stop, for all three and a half hours. I have the feeling that I'll be watching this movie over and over again, and its greatness will only build. Great acting, even on Mifune's part. The ambiance behind the film is so well done that, for once, I actually felt like I was there, witnessing it (especially on the third day, I was convinced that it was raining). Terrific acting and great storytelling, I don't see how this movie would work if it were in Color and in English.
I have Chinatown and M with me, I'll get around to those in this following week.
Don't listen to lukeprog about the 80s sucking, if i had to choose between the 80s and everything pre 1950 i'd go with 'the decade that taste forgot'. I've never seen a film from before the 50s better than any of these great films.
The Shining (1980)
Withnail & I (1987)
Brazil (1985)
Roger & Me (1989)
The Thing (1982)
Jean de Florette (1986) & Manon des Sources (1986)
I, too, am studying to be a film buff, a journey which I began just one year ago. Before you go too far into the arty-farty corners of the film universe, I recommend a list like Leonard Maltin's top 100 or these 100 Films.
Thanks for the links Rosie, I checked em both out.
I find this pretty hard to continue. I can't say I have an easy way of getting these movies, so this has become much less of a summer project and more of a life project...
Again I'll keep the list updated.
The last couple of days have been hectic but I've seen a couple of the films up there, and I added 'em.
I recommend Netflix, of course!
Ah, if it were only that easy. I'll work around, see what I can do.
Here some more:
Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein, 1925) (anyone?)
All Quiet on the Western Front (Milestone, 1930)
East of Eden (Kazan, 1955)
The Night of the Hunter (Laughton, 1955)
Rebel without a Cause (Ray, 1955)
Mon oncle (Tati, 1958) (just seen it!)
Who's That Knocking at my Door? (Scorsese, 1968) (the forgotten Scorsese-masterpiece)
Don't Look Now (Roeg, 1973) (truly underrated)
Marathon Man (Schlesinger, 1976)
Halloween (Carpenter, 1978)
Alien (Scott, 1979) (just surprised it doesn't appear here, but I'm sure you have seen it)
Once Upon a Time in America (Leone, 1984)
After Hours (Scorsese, 1985)
Pale Rider (Eastwood, 1985)
A Fish Called Wanda (Crichton, 1988) (surely you have seen it)
Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Tornatore, 1989) (perfect!)
Dead Poets Society (Weir, 1989)
Casino (Scorsese, 1995)
Requiem for a Dream (Aronofsky, 2000)
Bowling for Columbine (Moore, 2002) (seen yet?)
Million Dollar Baby (Eastwood, 2004)
1922, no offense, but while a lot of these are great movies, do you really think they're necessary for film-buffdom? I will even grant you Don't Look Now because a lot of people seem to like that movie for some reason, but do you really think films like A Fish Called Wanda, Dead Poets Society, Bowling for Columbine, or Million Dollar Baby are really essential? Sure, 3 of the 4 are really great movies (Dead Poets Society sucks IMO), but I'm not sure they're exactly what kgang is looking for.
Battleship Potemkin, Night of the Hunter, Alien, Cinema Paradiso, and Requiem for a Dream are really great calls though. And Once Upon a Time in America is probably a great call, but I haven't seen it.
Oh well, I guess I should have read kgang's notes more precisely.
So, kgang: select the movies that appear the most important to you.
"Bye"?
Shit, 1922, hope you're alright! You've got me worried!
Heres a couple:
Ben Hur
The Third Man
Being There (forgotten classic)
Rules of the Game
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
To Kill a Mockingbird
To Have and Have Not
Manchurian Candidate
12 Angry Men
Cool Hand Luke
In the Heat of the Night
From Here to Eternity