Movies Required to be a film buff

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

I second Arnold Winkelreid’s recommendation to see a variety of foreign films if you want to be well versed on the topic. Some of my favorites off the top of my head:

French
Les 400 coups
A bout de souffle
Tirez sur le pianiste
Les enfants du paradis
Trois Couleurs

Italian
8-1/2
La Dolce Vita
Swept Away, Sotto Sotto, and others by Lina Vertmuller
Two Women
Rome: Open City
Night of the Shooting Stars

German
Wings of Desire
The Nasty Girl

Indian
The Apu trilogy

I could go on and on but must … do … some … work …

22

My film professor mentioned an Indian film that sounded like “panther something-with-a-P.” Ring any bells, anyone?

23

Wendell’s and Eve’s lists are fantastic - but I cant believe that nobody’s mentioned Harvey!

And a few other foreign films to look out for…
From France, Bleu-Blanc-Rouge
from Belgium, Ma Vie En Rose

Hey, sweetie! You want a Danish with that coffee? – another custom design by the mind of Wally

24

SR:

Pather Panchali, by the great Indian director Satyajit Ray. The first in the Apu trilogy mentioned by missbunny.

25

excellent picks Lexi!

And I wanted to add to my list: the Spanish film Like Water For Chocolate, and all the Almodover(sp) films.

Sesquipedalophobia --fear of long words

26

Nope, you need to stay in that math class :wink:

Your total would be:
51 + (50-20)/2
51 + 30/2
51 + 15 = 66.

First parenthesis, then multiplication/division, then addition/subtraction.

27

Did the numbers…

97 films, 34 y.o., so that rates me a Mrblue score of 105. Not bad, but I’m shocked at the enourmous number of certified classics listed that I’ve never seen. Know all about them, yes. Actually seen them, no.

sigh

So much celluloid, so little time.

28

So you see, SwimmingRiddles, what you have to do is see every movie ever made. That should bring you up to speed.

Oh, you can probably skip anything from American International or Golan/Gloubus.

29

Ditto on the Indian film recommendations, specifically the work of Satyajit Ray. Many interesting things are coming out of Iran as well (I believe an Iranian film won the grand prize at Cannes last year). Don’t neglect Ozu of Japan.

“My hovercraft is full of eels.”

30

Skip Golan/Globus? But where can a person find quality Ninja movies without them? :slight_smile:

On a more serious side, even though just about every movie ever made has been listed, nobody has mentioned Potemkin. Yes, it may be commie propaganda, but it is a movie that has its influence felt even today.

Gee, I don’t think any of us expected him to say that.

31

um ok, i’m too lazy to go through the lists of movies everyone has already posted, so forgive if i’m repeating some.

a clockwork orange
clerks
mallrats
chasing amy
dogma
doom generation
heat
goodfellas
true romance
run lola run
navy seals
breakfast club
full metal jacket
casino
fast times at ridgemont high
reality bites
first blood
braveheart
kids
psycho (hitchcock)
platoon

now i know some of these movies aren’t exactly oscar matarial… but just based on character development and analytical value, they are fun to watch.

32

Whatever happened to Baby Jane?

33

Yikes.
Only a 62.
Much renting must I do.

  • I think I’ll start with “Touch of Evil”
34

Lawrence of Arabia
The Godfather I & II (forget about III)
Pulp Fiction
Dr. Strangelove
Animal House

Oh, and don’t waste your time on Manchurian Candidate or El Mariachi.

35

I am appalled at the way I spelled Lina Wertmüller’s name - I must correct it or I won’t be able to sleep. Thank you.

36

Brazil…gotta see Brazil.

“Clatu, Verrata…nector?..neck-tie?”

37

Jumping into this thread late, but here are some other essential silent era films UkeIke (no doubt accidentally) overlooked:

*The Italian Straw Hat
Pandora’s Box
The Wind
I Was Born, but…
He Who Gets Slapped
The Lighthouse Keepers
The Freshman
Seven Chances
Nosferatu
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Variety
Napoleon
Our Hospitality
Les Vampires
*

and he inexplicably left out the Russians, so…Potemkin, The Man with a Movie Camera, and Earth for starters.

Too late and too many other titles…

As for who needs to get a life, I count only 12 specific titles listed I haven’t seen (and I am frankly losing no sleep over missing Navy Seals or Highlander)

38

as another late addition, my personal picks to the list would be Vanishing Point and La Haine.

39

…'cause I hate Eisenstein. (Well, I kinda like Aleksandr Nevsky.)

But you’re right, you really do have to see The Battleship Potemkin. It’s really, really famous, and you are forbidden to use the word “montage” until you’ve watched it.

And it yields a damn fine sig line, which can be interpreted in a myriad of ways:

"The rotten meat is in the soup!" – a Russian sailor

40

When I posted the list above, I was still working on it. There were supposed to be 200 films on the list, but I miscounted, so there were only 196. I’ve now added the extra four movies. For the full and official list, go to

http://www.dcfilmsociety.org

Click on Reviews and then on 200 Great Films. As I say in the introduction to the list, I’ve probably seen about 160 of those films. That wasn’t intended as list of personal favorites but of general critical and popular favorites. You can find my 100 favorite films listed on that site under Wendell Wagner’s Revised Thoughts on the AFI 100.