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What films can you recommend a film student? (1 Viewer)

Lew Crippen

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George put together a good, diverse list, but I think that you should save your money for items more important for most students (unless you have quite a bit extra). Most film schools have very large libraries—you don’t even need Netflix.

A very good mention by Robert Harris—David Lean’s early, smaller films are extraordinary.
 

Simon Howson

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I just realised how funny it is to recommend films in this way. Ultimately the films that get recommended are a canon of films that cover auteurs, or styles, or industrial contexts. I feel that any film is of worth to a film student, and that it is simply important to watch as much as possible.
 

Josh Steinberg

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Oops.. I left "Brief Encounter" off my list by accident.. I love that movie.
 

Andrew Bunk

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Hasn't been mentioned yet: Terry Gilliam's Brazil. Just watched it again this weekend. Gets better every time. And the new transfer looks great.
 

Mike Frezon

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I actually had a young film student intern in my office the past few summers. We engaged in many discussions about various films.

This summer we gave each other a title and said we'd watch it and discuss before he left to go to school. His title for me: Dolores Claiborne. My title for him: David Lynch's Eraserhead.

I was surprised he held Dolores Claiborne in such high regard. What an excellent discussion it led to, however.

Then, after Eraserhead finally arrived in his Netflix queue, what a time we had! He watched it with a friend and returned to the office the next day proclaiming that he "hated it". After a loooooong discussion about the photography, imagery and what particular moments might have represented, etc, I asked him if, in two years, he thought he'd remember more about Eraserhead or another movie he had just been taken to see in the theater: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby-- Talladega Nights. It didn't take long before he realized that he had seen a work of art which left quite an impression on him.

I feel like I had accomplished something important. :D
 

Bradley-E

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Martin Scorsese:

Mean Streets
GoodFellas
Taxi Driver
The King of Comedy
__________________________________________________ __________
Preston Sturges:

Miracle of Morgan's Creek
Sullivan's Travels
The Lady Eve
Unfaithfully Yours
__________________________________________________ ___________
Martin Ritt: VERY UNDERRATED DIRECTOR

Hud
Norma Rae
The Molly Maguires
__________________________________________________ _____________
SIDNEY LUMET:

Network
Dog Day Afternoon
Serpico
The Verdict
12 Angry Men
__________________________________________________ _____________

ANYTHING ALFRED HITCHCOCK:

But would recommend some not obvious choices

Topaz (DVD Is a longer cut, very underrated film)
Strangers on a Train (DVD also has alternate cut)
Frenzy
Marnie
__________________________________________________ _______________

ROMAN POLANSKI:

Rosemary's Baby

__________________________________________________ ______________
ROBERT ALTMAN:

Nashville
The Long Goodbye
M*A*S*H
 

Leo Kerr

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It depends on what part of film-making you're looking at?

If you're into cinematography, specifically with LIGHT, look at BLADE RUNNER.

If you're looking into "beautiful" cinematography in general, look at a Korean film; it's a version of DANGEROUS LIASONS called UNTOLD SCANDAL.

Leo
 

Richard Kim

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In addition to the above recommendations, I'd also add the John Cassavetes - Five Films boxset from Criterion.
 

Adam_S

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I agree that's why I'm hoping this film student replies with some of her tastes and current knowledge level. Yeah everyone should watch x, y, z but you can get really carried away when you start listing essential films of essential directors or essential films of essential studios or essential films of essential eras or essential films of essential countries. In my opinion the best films for a film student to own are the ones that speak to that individual, not mere bragging rights ownership of the "I'm a proper cineaste because I own Citizen Kane, 2001, Vertigo AND the three disc Seven Samurai, clearly I'm well versed in cinema" titles.

What films make you truly passionate?

Three of the above films I admire greatly but they've never inspired me (and two put me to sleep the first two times I tried to watch them). I now think they're superb films and I love them all a lot but I've been burned before with recommendations to friends and familes; now I rarely start recommending films until I had an idea of what that person values about art, because art is not universal and each person has a different idea about what art is and means.

If you're willing to forge your own education you'll need to see everything you can so you aren't just reinventing the wheel, but you also need to balance that with filmmaking skills (if you're not going into criticism or teaching) so you don't become unbalanced, all bluster with nothing to back it up. You have to match your dreams with actions. There are a lot of lists out there that can act as your gateway into the vast realms of films, and you'll find your own way, but by no means consider literacy of great films lists to be the end all and be all.
 

Dharmesh C

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If you're into cinematography watch Superman The Movie and then Superman Returns - Epic vs Television movie.

Watch Lean's Lawrence of Arabia and then his Passage to India.
 

Dave Mack

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When I was in NYU film school, we had a class where we watched a film one week, then the next week we went through it shot by shot. Learning about editing styles etc.....
We saw among others,
Red River
Badlands
Citizen Kane
Psycho

I'll try to remeber more, was 20 years ago...
:)
 

Ethan Riley

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Why only GOOD movies, guys? You can probably learn more from other people's mistakes, then from their successes! In that vein, I give you:

The Wiz (1978): This movie teaches you what happens when a film has no cinematographer and no editing (apparently). Half the movie looks like they just used the establishing shots and stitched them together. It's a "movie" that could just as well be a series of stills. The creators constantly deny you the necessary close ups, reaction shots and cut-aways that give a movie dramatic worth, depth, and sympathy for its characters. I generally refer to the look of this film as "visual despair." What doomed this $30 million fiasco is the fact that nobody can see what the hell's going on.

1941: (1979) This is another huge fiasco: it teaches you what happens when you shoot a film with no script, and completely ignore the rules of character economy. There are about 40 principal characters to wade through, not one of them gets any character development whatsoever, and they're all just sort of these still-life types and archetypes. In other words, 40 players on the team, and no one to root for. You see all these familiar faces on the screen: but are you supposed to attach yourself to the cast of Saturday Night Live, or to the cast of Laverne & Shirley? They're all there, and none of them do a thing, except run, run, run and shoot off guns at nothing. Add to that 2+ hours of chaos and boom, and you've got yourself one hell of a big ol' bomb!

Those are two of my favorite bombs. There's so many! I think film students should be forced to watch these, and even worse films, just to find out what can go wrong!
 

george kaplan

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I disagree somewhat about 1941. It's not really a total failure at all. There's enough good basic comedy material there, that the film is still enjoyable. Nevertheless, it's clearly nowhere near what it could and should have been. What I think this would really make, would be a good test question - how would you fix the film? Would you re-edit and how? and questions in that vein. But to me, this is more of a film to be studied in that regard, for advanced film students, cause I don't think a new student would really be able to answer those questions, and really garner anything much about how to make a film from just watching it prior to going to film school.
 

JonZ

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I dont agree with 1941 either. Ive never understood the dislike for that film.

Everything Kurosawa, Kubrick and Hitchcock

Some other more "recent" films

Apocalypse Now
Hearts Of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse
Blade Runner
The Godfather 1 & 2
The New World
Schindlers List
Raging Bull
Requiem For A Dream
Once Upon A Time In America (along with Leones other films)
Jaws
Amadeus
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
Patton
The Road Warrior
Halloween
Ed Wood
Black Hawk Down

Far From Heaven - Special mention for this film for its visuals. It always amazes me. This is one of the most beautifully shot films Ive ever seen. The Fall season, the interior blue hues. A quick example is the scene of Dennis Squad talking to the psychologist with Quad in a dark hue while the rest of the room is vibrant reds. Beautiful beautiful beautiful film.
 

Dave Mack

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Map of The Human Heart

brought me to tears, still can't get the gf to watch it with me though!

A Midnight Clear

Both WW2 era films but not the way you'd expect.

:)
 

Ethan Riley

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I already said why I dislike 1941; but another reason is that it's a comedy that's not very funny, and that's shameful considering the huge number of comedians in it. It suffers the same problem as "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World..." it's not that funny. Does anybody walk away from either of those two films and quote funny lines? No. Because there aren't any. But my point is that film students must watch the bad with the good in order to study what can go wrong. And I do know of a cinematography instructor who shows his students "The Wiz," and they groan throughout the movie because it does things they were told not to do in their first year LOL
 

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