Help me build a kick ass film collection

Cafe Society
1

I’m a librarian at a small liberal arts college. I’ve managed to convince a very sweet (and very rich) alumni to give us a one-time gift of $10,000 to build a really great collection of films.

My general rules of thumb:

1- I don’t want to buy anything that can be found at BLOCKBUSTER (the exceptions being movies that are sooo popular [LOTR, Matrix] or soooo classic (GWTW, Casablanca) that not to include them would be too much of an omission).
2- whenever possible, the film should be on DVD
3- half of the films I’m buying will be documentaries, for which I already have a list.

For the cinematic half, what I really want to concentrate on are really good or important works in the following:

-foreign cinema
-avante garde & or indie
-theatrical productions
-literary adaptations
-gay/lesbian
-african american

Please recommend any titles that you think should belong in any really good film collection but which you’re not likely to find at a chain video rental store. Also, if there’s a documentary you can think of that’s not well known but you thought was well done, please let me know.

Thanks-

PS- Spending $5,000 on movies is probably the most fun challenge I’ve had in this job. The main problem is that I could easily spend several times that just on stuff in print.

2

OhmygodIwishIwereyou.

(Though come to think of it, I don’t envy the job of sifting through the AVALANCHE of personal favorites you’re about to experience.)

I’ve been chipping away at this list for a couple years now–seventeen to go–and I’ve given myself an AMAZING film education in the process. You should think about having a complete collection of the 100 films on this list.

3

Here are a few suggestions from my own DVD collection to get you started

Foreign / Avante Garde
**
VisitorQ
Ichi The Killer
Tetsuo
**
These are all Japanese and will most likely be quite unlike anything you have ever seen. Be warned however that both Ichi The Killer (especially the 128 minute version) and VisitorQ require a strong stomach to view. Both however are immensely challenging and interesting viewing. VisitorQ is a very, very dark comedy/satire based on reality TV and Ichi The Killer is, in part, a study of the violence involved in Sadism and Masochism.
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and her Lover

Stunning arthouse movie from Peter Greenaway. Truly beautiful but also quite disturbing.

**
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Magnificent Seven
Network
One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
Bonnie and Clyde
Apocolypse Now
E.T.
**

All classics. All on DVD.

4

More specifically:

Avant garde: [ul][li]Stan Brakhage[/li][li]Kenneth Anger (also good for your LGBT list)[]Nina Menkes (one of my personal favorites)[]Chantal AkermanGuy Maddin[/ul][/li]
Oh man, too many. I’ll check in here more than once I’m sure . . .

5

I’ll agree with Casablanca. I also think a bunch of Kurosawa films (including Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, at the very least) would help the foreign section. I hear that Ozu’s Floating Weeds is excellent, although I’ve never seen it.

Don’t forget Bergman, either. Or Jaques Tati. And Luis Bunuel films are both avant-garde and foreign.

6

You probably know about it already but here is a list of the DVD’s produced by Criterion which are the kind of films you seem to be looking for. Many of them come with excellent extra features.
http://www.criterionco.com/asp/browse.asp
Some personal recommendations:
Classic Brit films of the 40’s and 50’s: Kind Hearts and Coronets, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Third Man
The latter three are available from Criterion.

Animated films by Japan’s Studio Ghibli: Especially Grave of the Fireflies which was released on a two-disc special edition recently and Princess Mononoke

7

Some suggestions:

Foregin cinema

  • Delicatessen
  • Funny Games
  • Irreversible
  • La Haine AKA Hate
  • Insomnia
  • Sonatine
  • Hana-Bi

Indie

  • Down By Law (Everything by Jim Jarmusch)
  • Eraserhead

Gay/Lesbian

*Fucking Åmål AKA Show Me Love

African American

  • Hoop Dreams (Documentary)

Good luck!

8

:eek: uhhh ninja turtles movie
:confused: ninja kids kick back
uhmm dude wheres my car?

9

Long as we’re talking British 50s films, The Ladykillers , 1955, with Alec Guiness Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, and Katie Johnson.

A gang of thieves rents a room in an old lady’s house as part of a big heist scheme. The job goes perfectly, but as they hole up in the house over the weekend while the heat dies down, some of the gang suspects that she suspects what they’re up to. Pandemonium ensues as one by one, the gang disposes of itself.

DD

10

My favorite foreign film yet: “El Norte” (the north, in Spanish)

11

The Thin Red Line

12

Someone mentioned Ozu; his Tokyo Story is a lifetime top tenner for me.

Absolutely essential African American: everything by Charles Burnett, especially Killer of Sheep.

Husker Dude–Irrefuckingversible ?!?!? Lord, I hope not.

13

Satyajit Ray’s “Apu” trilogy:
Pather Panchali (India, 1955)*
Aparajito (India, 1957)*
The World of Apu (India, 1959)*

Black themed:
Within Our Gates (US, 1920)
Emperor Jones (US, 1933)*
Stormy Weather (US, 1943)*
Carmen Jones (US, 1954)
Shadows (US, 1959)
Nothing But a Man (US, 1964)*
In the Heat of the Night (US, 1967)
The Learning Tree (US, 1969)*
Shaft (US, 1971)
Do the Right Thing (US, 1989)
Boyz N the Hood (US, 1991)
The latter three titles and In the Heat of the Night may be available at Blockbuster, though.

Independent films:
Vampyr (France-Germany, 1932)
Tevya (US, 1939)*
Salt of the Earth (US, 1954)
Dog Star Man (US, 1964) (on DVD anthology By Brakhage)
David Holzman’s Diary (US, 1967)*
A Woman Under the Influence (US, 1974)
Stranger Than Paradise (US, 1983)
The latter two titles may be available at Blockbuster.

Silent films:
Méliés the Magician (1997)
D.W. Griffith: Years of Discovery 1909-1913 (2002)
Winsor McCay: Animation Legend (1999)
The Birth of a Nation (US, 1915)
Les Vampires (France, 1915)
Intolerance (US, 1916)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Germany, 1919)
The Last Laugh (Germany, 1924)
Sherlock, Jr. (US, 1924)
The Gold Rush (US, 1925)
The Battleship Potemkin (USSR, 1925)
The Black Pirate (US, 1926)
Metropolis (Germany, 1927)
Sunrise (US, 1927)
The Fall of the House of Usher (France-US, 1928)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (France, 1928)
Un chien andalou (France, 1929)*
Man With the Movie Camera (USSR, 1929)
Earth (USSR, 1930)

There are many other fine films I would add to this list, but they are not available in VHS or DVD.

  • Available only on VHS at this time.
14

a few classics, fwiw:

The Godfather
Citizen Kane
Casablanca
Psycho
Lawrence Of Arabia
Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love the Bomb…
Schindler’s List
Singin’ In The Rain
Chinatown
Raging Bull
The Wizard Of Oz
Some Like It Hot
The Maltese Falcon
It’s A Wonderful Life
All About Eve
2001: A Space Odyssey
Bridge On The River Kwai, The
North By Northwest
On The Waterfront
Sunset Boulevard
Vertigo
Taxi Driver
Gone With The Wind
The Seven Samurai
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
Pulp Fiction
The Graduate
To Kill A Mockingbird
Double Indemnity
The Grapes Of Wrath
The Third Man
Apocalypse Now
Annie Hall
Jaws
Raiders Of The Lost Ark
The Silence Of The Lambs
The Philadelphia Story
The African Queen
The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre
The Manchurian Candidate
Duck Soup
The Bicycle Thief
Aliens
Gold Rush, The
Searchers, The
M
Bringing Up Baby
Touch Of Evil
E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial
The Best Years Of Our Lives
It Happened One Night
The Seventh Seal
Snow White And The 7 Dwarfs
The Wild Bunch
Notorious
A Streetcar Named Desire
Bonnie & Clyde
Once Upon A Time In The West
King Kong
Henry V
The Night Of The Hunter
8 1/2
Battleship Potemkin
Beauty And The Beast
La Dolce Vita
The Adventures Of Robin Hood
Children Of Paradise
Nosferatu, Symphony Of Terror
West Side Story
Rebel Without A Cause
Intolerance
Jules & Jim
Sherlock Jr.
Tootsie
Blue Velvet
Nashville
Swing Time
Sweet Smell Of Success
This Is Spinal Tap
From Here To Eternity
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
Rules Of The Game
Lady Eve, The
Breathless
Mean Streets
Airplane!
Bride Of Frankenstein
The Conformist
To Be Or Not To Be
Great Expectations
Funny Face
American Graffiti
White Heat
It’s A Gift
Do The Right Thing
Diabolique, Les
Blow-Up
The Golden Age
Producers, The
Wings Of Desire
Pickup On South Street
Mildred Pierce
Sunrise
Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior)
Shop Around The Corner
Tokyo Story
Last Of The Mohicans
The Piano
Swept Away
Celine & Jolie Go Boating
Breakfast At Tiffany’s
Bull Durham
Five Easy Pieces
Hard Day’s Night
Last Picture Show
Saturday Night Fever
A Star Is Born
Sullivan’s Travels
The Verdict
Woman Of The Year
Written On The Wind

15

Personally, I would get all of these!

:wink:

16

Dont forget a few Anime titles like
**
Ninja Scrolls
Akira
Princess Mononoke
**
Any work by Akira Kurosawa is an emminent choice. A few have already been nominated here like
**
Seven Samurai **and **
Yojimbo ** but dont forget **

RAN and
Kagemusha
**
I know Blockbuster has this but I love
**
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
**
I am also a big fan of John Wayne and Director John Ford so
**
Stagecoach
Fort Apache
Rio Grande
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
The Searchers **and **
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
**
I love the old War movies like
**
The Longest Day
Tora Tora Tora
Midway
Patton
MacArthur
**

:slight_smile: Thanks for allowing us to suggest our favorites!

17

I hope the DVDs American Cinema and A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies are among your documentaries. If so get them first and do some fun research. I saw both on TV years ago. Scorsese in particular picks out fascinating reasons for the films he chooses to discuss.

18

Foreign

Rome Open City
The Bicycle Thief
Moscow Does not Believe in Tears
Siberiade
Chapayev (this is a must)
Come and See
I am Cuba (my personal favorite movie ever)
Commissar
Chungking Express
Bye Bye Brazil
Daisies
Battle of Algiers

Not foreign
Imitation of Life (Sirk’s version)
something by Oscar Micheux
Kiss me Deadly

19

One DVD you should definitely have is Landmarks of Early Film. It’s a collection of very early silent shorts (going back to Edison and the Lumiere brothers).

20

Foreign:

Eat Drink Man Woman
Like Water for Chocolate
Il Postino
Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum)
Run, Lola, Run