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FIL 2001 FILM ESSAY SELECTION

This is a list of film recommendations that exemplify the best of each era or genre of cinema.

Please select ONE of these films to write about for the film essay, which is due in Unit 5 and is worth 300 points.

Unit 1: Silent Film Era (1895-1930’s)

Silent Film: The General (1926) Dirs. Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton, Modern Times (1936) Dir. Charles Chaplin

Movies About Silent Film: Singin’ in the Rain (1952) Dirs. Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen, Hugo (2011) Dir. Martin Scorsese, The Artist (2011) Dir. Michael Hazanavicius

Unit 2: Film Terms / (Spotlight on Director Orson Welles)

Orson Welles: The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) The Stranger (1946), Touch of Evil (1958) Dir. Orson Welles

The Third Man (1949) Dir. Carol Reed

Unit 3: World War II and Film Noir: (1940’s and 1950’s)

World War II Era: Stalag 17 (1953) Dir. Billy Wilder, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Dir. Stanley Kubrick, Sophie’s Choice (1982) Dir. Alan Pakula, Schindler’s List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998) Dir. Steven Spielberg

Film Noir: Scarface (1932) Dir. Howard Hawks and Richard Rossen, The Maltese Falcon (1941) Dir. John Huston, The Night of the Hunter (1955) Dir. Charles Laughton, Blood Simple (1984) Dirs. Joel and Ethan Coen, Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) Dir. Carl Franklin, Chinatown (1974) Dir. Roman Polanski, The Usual Suspects (1995) Dir. Bryan Singer, L.A. Confidential (1997) Dir. Curtis Hanson

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Unit 4: 1960’s Era: (Spotlight on Directors Alfred Hitchcock and Arthur Penn)

Alfred Hitchcock: Lifeboat (1944), Notorious (1946), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North By Northwest (1959), The Birds (1963)

Crime Stories: Bonnie and Clyde (1967) Dir. Arthur Penn, The Godfather (1972) Dir. Francis Ford Coppola, Goodfellas (1991), The Departed (2006) Dir. Martin Scorsese, The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Dir. Jonathan Demme, Seven (1995) Dir. David Fincher, Fargo (1996) Joel and Ethan Coen

Political Satire: The Manchurian Candidate (1962) Dir. John Frankenheimer

The 1960’s & 70’s: Counter Culture and Viet Nam: Some Like it Hot (1959) Dir. Billy Wilder, The Graduate (1967) Dir. Mike Nichols, Cool Hand Luke (1967) Dir. Stuart Rosenberg, Midnight Cowboy (1969), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Dir. George Roy Hill, Dir. John Schlesinger, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) Dir. Milos Forman, Apocalypse Now (1979), Dir. Francis Ford Coppola, Full Metal Jacket (1987) Dir. Stanley Kubrick

Unit 5: Genre Films: Sci-Fi, Horror, Western, Musicals (Spotlight on Steven Spielberg and James Cameron) (1970’s-1990’s)

Sci-Fi: Blade Runner (1982) Dir. Ridley Scott, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Dir. Stanley Kubrick, Jurassic Park (1993) Dir. Steven Spielberg, Star Wars (1977) Dir. George Lucas, Gattaca (1997) Dir. Andrew Niccol, Snowpiercer (2013) Dir. Bong Joon Ho, Edge of Tomorrow (2014) Doug Liman, Annihilation (2018) Dir. Alex Garland,

Horror: Jaws (1975) Dir. Steven Spielberg, Carrie (1976) Dir. Brian De Palma, Halloween (1978), The Thing (1982) Dir. John Carpenter, Alien (1979) Dir. Ridley Scott, The Shining (1980) Dir. Stanley Kubrick, Aliens (1986) James Cameron

Comic, Meta or Social Horror: Young Frankenstein (1974) Dir. Mel Brooks, Scream (1996) Dir. Wes Craven, Cabin in the Woods (2011) Dir. 3

Drew Goddard, Get Out (2017), Us (2019) Dir. Jordan Peele, What We Do in the Shadows (2014) Dir. Taika Waititi

Western: Stagecoach (1939) Dir. John Ford, High Noon (1952) Dir. Fred Zinnemann, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) Dir. Sergio Leone, The Wild Bunch (1969) Dir. Sam Peckinpah, Little Big Man (1970) Dir. Arthur Penn, Blazing Saddles (1974) Dir. Mel Brooks, Unforgiven (1992) Dir. Clint Eastwood, 3:10 to Yuma (2007) Dir. James Mangold, Hostiles (2017) Dir. Scott Cooper, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) Dirs. Joel and Ethan Coen,

Native American Perspectives: The Last of the Mohicans (1992) Dir. Michael Mann, Smoke Signals (1998) Dir. Chris Eyre, Wind River (2017) Dir. Taylor Sheridan

Musicals: Top Hat (1935) Dir. Mark Sandrich, The Wizard of Oz (1939) Dir. Victor Fleming, Singin’ in the Rain (1952) Dirs. Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen, Guys and Dolls (1955) Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, South Pacific (1958) Dir. Joshua Logan, West Side Story (1961) Dirs. Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise, The Sound of Music (1965) Dir. Robert Wise, Cabaret (1972) Bob Fosse, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) Dir. Jim Sharman, Hair (1979) Dir. Milos Forman, Evita (1996) Dir. Alan Parker, Chicago (2002) Dir Rob Marshall, Les Misérables (2012) Dir. Tom Hooper, Frozen (2013) Dir. Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, La La Land (2016) Damien Chazelle, A Star is Born (2018) Dir. Bradley Cooper

Unit 6: Evolving Perspectives in Cinema: (1990’s-2000’s)

African American Perspectives: Do The Right Thing, (1989), Malcolm X (1992), Bamboozled (2000), Blackkklansman (2018) Dir. Spike Lee, Menace II Society (1993), The Hughes Brothers, Boyz n the Hood (1991), Higher Learning (1995) John Singleton, Eve’s Bayou (1997) Dir. Kasi Lemmons, 12 Years a Slave (2013) Dir. Steve McQueen, Selma (2014) Dir. Ava DuVernay, Moonlight (2016), If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) Dir. Barry Jenkins, Fences (2016) Dir. Denzel Washington, Creed (2015) Black Panther (2018) Dir. Ryan Coogler, The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) Dir. Joe Talbot, Ma Rainy’s Black Bottom (2020) Dir. George C. Wolfe

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Women in Cinema: Thelma and Louise (1991) Dir. Ridley Scott, The Piano (1993) Jane Campion, Set it Off (1996) Dir. F. Gary Gray, Titus (2000), Frida (2002) Across the Universe (2007) Dir. Julie Taymor, Lost in Translation (2003) Dir. Sophia Coppola, The Brave One (2007) Dir. Neil Jordan, The Hurt Locker (2008) Dir. Kathryn Bigelow, Winter’s Bone (2010), Leave No Trace (2018) Dir. Debra Granik, Monster (2003), Wonder Woman (2017) Patty Jenkins, Booksmart (2019) Dir. Olivia Wilde, Lady Bird (2018), Little Women (2019) Dir. Greta Gerwig, The Farewell (2019) Dir. Lulu Wang, First Cow (2019) Dir. Kelly Reichard, Love & Basketball (2000), The Old Guard (2020) Dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood, Emma. (2020) Dir. Autumn De Wilde, Promising Young Woman (2020) Dir. Emerald Fennell, The Rider (2017), Nomadland (2020) Dir. Chloe´ Zhao

Latin / Hispanic American Voices: Pan’s Labryrinth (2006), Crimson Peak (2015) The Shape of Water (2017) Dir. Guillermo del Toro, Y Tu Mamá También (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Children of Men (2006), Gravity (2013), Roma (2018) Dir. Alfonso Cuaròn, Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), The Revenant (2015) Dir. Alejandro Iñàrritu, Blindspotting (2018) Dir. Carlos López Estrada

Unit 7: Major Directors (Spotlight on Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino)

Innovation in Cinema (Scorsese): Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1991), Casino (1995), Gangs of New York (2002), The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2010), The Irishman (2019) Dir. Martin Scorsese

Innovation in Cinema (Tarantino): Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 (2003-4), Inglorious Basterds (2009) Django Unchained (2012), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) Dir. Quentin Tarantino

Also Strongly Recommended:

Innovation in Cinema (Christopher Nolan): Memento (2000), The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight (2008) Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017)

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Innovation in Cinema (Alfonso Cuaròn): Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Children of Men (2006), Gravity (2013), Roma (2018)

Unit 8: Modern Film (Mid 90’s-Present)

Modern Film (1990-2009): The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Dir. Frank Darabont, Groundhog Day (1993) Dir. Harold Ramis, Heat (1995), Collateral (2004) Dir. Michael Mann, Gladiator (2000) Dir. Ridley Scott, American Beauty (1999), Road to Perdition (2002) Dir. Sam Mendes, Before Night Falls (2000), At Eternity’s Gate (2018) Dir. Julian Shnabel, The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) Dir. Peter Jackson, Children of Men (2006) Dir. Alfonso Cuaròn, Brokeback Mountain (2005), Life of Pi (2012) Dir. Ang Lee, No Country For Old Men (2007) Dirs. Joel and Ethan Coen, The Dark Knight (2008) Dir. Christopher Nolan, Titanic (1997) Avatar (2009) Dir. James Cameron, Up (2009) Dir. Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, Up in the Air (2009) Dir. Jason Reitman

2010-2019: Black Swan (2010) Dir. Darren Aronofsky, Contagion (2011) Dir. Steven Soderbergh, The Descendants (2011) Dir. Alexander Payne, Cloud Atlas (2012) Dir. Tom Tykwer, Andy & Lana Wachowski, Lincoln (2012) Dir. Steven Spielberg, Silver Linings Playbook (2012) Dir. David O. Russell, Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) Dir. Benh Zeitlin, Gravity (2013), Roma (2018) Dir. Alfonso Cuaròn, 12 Years a Slave (2013) Dir. Steve McQueen, Edge of Tomorrow (2014) Dir. Doug Liman, Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) The Revenant (2015) Dir. Alejandro Iñàrritu, Brooklyn (2015) Dir. John Crowley, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Dir. George Miller, Inside Out (2015) Dir. Pete Doctor and Ronaldo Del Carmen, Hostiles (2017) Dir. Scott Cooper, First Reformed (2017) Dir. Paul Schrader, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) Dirs. Joel and Ethan Coen, Moonlight (2016), If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) Dir. Barry Jenkins, Creed (2015) Black Panther (2018) Dir. Ryan Coogler, Annihilation (2018) Dir. Alex Garland, Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse (2018) Dirs. Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman, Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) Dirs. The Russo Brothers, Lady Bird (2018), Little Women (2019) Dir. Greta Gerwig, The Farewell (2019) Dir. Lulu Wang, Skyfall (2012), 1917 (2019) Dir. Sam Mendes, The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) Dir. Joe Talbot, Jojo Rabbit (2019) Dir. Taika Waititi, Parasite (2019) Dir. Bong Joon Ho, A Hidden Life (2019) Dir. Terrence Malick, First Cow (2019) Dir. Kelly Reichard 6

2020-Present:

Emma. (2020) Dir. Autumn De Wilde, Love & Basketball (2000), The Old Guard (2020) Dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood, Promising Young Woman (2020) Dir. Emerald Fennell, The Rider (2017), Nomadland (2020) Dir. Chloe´ Zhao, Ma Rainy’s Black Bottom (2020) Dir. George C. Wolfe, Minari (2020) Dir. Lee Isaac Chung