Watch unlimited films online for $6.99.
Try MUBI for FREE.
 
All Topics  »

If you had ten days to teach a basic film appreciation course what films would you teach/show?

Banana Nut

about 2 years ago

Day 1- Citizen Kane
Day 2- The Godfather
Day 3- Rear Window
Day 4- The 400 Blows
Day 5- The Gold Rush
Day 6- 2001: A Space Odyssey
Day 7- Seven Samurai
Day 8- My Darling Clementine
Day 9- The Night of the Hunter
Day 10- The Last Picture Show

Dennis Brian

about 2 years ago

The Wild One
A Dry White Season
Battleship Potemkin
Alexander Nevsky
And God Created Woman
Barbarella
Letter to Jane
Barefoot in the Park
Downhill Racer
The Clearing

Salem Kapsask​i

about 2 years ago

I would sign up to that course, Den.

Dennis Brian

about 2 years ago

Thanks Salem

its a fusion of actor centered films and director centered films

Banana Nut

about 2 years ago

I like that Den.

Dennis Brian

about 2 years ago

like yrs too

anything with Night of the Hunter gets my vote

scorpio​rising

about 2 years ago

Hausu
A Moment of Innocence
Pyaasa
Design for Living
Je T’aime Je T’aime
Insiang
I Am Cuba
Yearning
Pas de Deux
The Cameraman

I think this has almost everything. Experimental-Asian-silent-PreCode-Hollywood-auteurist-surreal-Japanese-Bollywood-Buster Keaton-Iranian cinema-propaganda-nonWestern films-world cinema-short film-3rd world.

And what’s a better way than to start with Hausu?

Uli³Cai​n

about 2 years ago

Day 1: Cabinet of Dr. Caliguri
Day 2: West Side Story
Day 3: Breathless
Day 4: Medium Cool
Day 5: Twelve Angry Men
Day 6: Freaks
Day 7: Blade Runner
Day 8: Miller’s Crossing
Day 9: Once Upon A Time in the West
Day 10: Hustler/Color of Money

dope fiend willy

about 2 years ago

day 1 Notre Musique
day 2 Je Vous Salue Sarajevo
day 3 Weekend
day 4 breathless
day 5 historie (s) du cinema
day 6 Film socialisme
day 7 chinoise
day 8 pierrot le fou
day 9 le mepris
day 10 children of paradise

Dennis Brian

about 2 years ago

I would take Jasons class

M I

about 2 years ago

Day 1: The Third Man
Day 2: A Woman Under The Influence
Day 3: 400 Blows
Day 4: Network
Day 5: M
Day 6: Vertigo
Day 7: Pierrot Le Fou
Day 8: In The Mood For Love
Day 9: Ran
Day 10: Amarcord

Joseph

about 2 years ago

Citizen Kane
The Rules of the Game
Children of Paradise
La Dolce Vita
L’Avventura
The Bicycle Thief
Seven Samurai
Tokyo Story
Stalker
The General

I love all these movies, although not all are personal favorites. But I think it would be a good basic foundation which seems to be what you were looking for. Although if I had complete control over the class I would probably instead choose to focus it on one country, because it’s much too hard to do a ten film overview of world cinema and get anyhere.

Zackp24

about 2 years ago

Day 1- Modern Times
Day 2- Night of the Hunter
Day 3- Seven Samurai
Day 4- Bicycle Thieves
Day 5- Breathless
Day 6- The Third Man
Day 7- L’Avventura
Day 8- Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Day 9- 8 1/2
Day 10- Stalker

Trying to cover the basics while hitting on some personal favorites.

elyzabe​th

about 2 years ago

Wow, these are all great movies…. I can’t find any cinema classes because of the budget cuts so this helps ALOT :D

Brad S.

about 2 years ago

Day 1- Birth of a Nation
Day 2- The General
Day 3- Metropolis
Day 4- Citizen Kane
Day 5- The Bicycle Thief
Day 6- Seven Samurai
Day 7- Breathless
Day 8- Psycho
Day 9- 2001: A Space Odyssey
Day 10- Nashville

apursan​sar

about 2 years ago

Day 1: The Passion of Joan of Arc
Day 2: Man With a Movie Camera
Day 3: L’Atalante
Day 4: Bicycle Thieves
Day 5: Pather Panchali
Day 6: Vertigo
Day 7: 8 1/2
Day 8: Andrei Rublev
Day 9: The Spirit of the Beehive
Day 10: Syndromes and a Century

Django

about 2 years ago

This is much harder to do than I thought so be advised there will be no tuition refunds.

1) The Last Laugh- visual vocabulary of film
2) Seven Samurai- story
3) The Conversation- film and sound editing
4) Sunset Blvd- performance
5) Alien and Aliens- genre
6) Chinatown- character and plotting
7) Crumb- documentaries
8) Un Chien Andalou and La Jetee- experimental films
9) Cube- What you can do without any money
10) Boondock Saints- never give a monkey a razor blade

John Chiafos

about 2 years ago

1) Napoleon (1927)
2) The Great Dictator
3) Citizen Kane
4) 12 Angry Men
5) Rear Window
6) 8 1/2
7) Nashville
8) Hoop Dreams
9) Raiders Of The Lost Ark
10) Toy Story

John Chiafos

about 2 years ago

1) Napoleon (1927)
2) The Great Dictator
3) Citizen Kane
4) 12 Angry Men
5) Rear Window
6) 8 1/2
7) Nashville
8) Hoop Dreams
9) Raiders Of The Lost Ark
10) Toy Story

Uli³Cai​n

about 2 years ago

John, i was considering Hoop Dreams as well

ralch

about 2 years ago

I’d gear it to students who want to make personal films without a lot of money. Also, my premise is I’d give the course where I live.

Day 1: A mix of shorts by Lumiere, Melies, Porter and Chaplin, as well as Un Chien Andalou and Menilmontant
Day 2: Battleship Potemkin – Eisenstein
Day 3: Osaka Elegy – Mizoguchi
Day 4: Rome, Open City – Rossellini
Day 5: Breathless – Godard
Day 6: Black God, White Devil – Rocha
Day 7: Invasión – Santiago
Day 8: The Night of the Living Dead – Romero
Day 9: The Red and the White – Jancso
Day 10: La Jetee – Marker, and La Soufriere – Herzog
Day 11: Law of Desire – Almodóvar
Day 12: – Fellini

…or something

Evan

about 2 years ago

1) the Red Riding Trilogy – What can be done with recent/standard film aesthetics/techniques
2) Naked – Realistic/Unrealistic performance
3) Mon Oncle – Techniques in comedy
4) the Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie – Politics and film
5) Alphaville – Possibilities within a genre/Film poetry
6) Dogville – Film and other mediums (film and theater/literature)
7) Close-Up – Interplay with documentary and film
8) La Jetee/the Passion of Joan of Arc – Film and the photographic image
9) Meshes in the Afternoon/At Land – Psychological realms on film
10) Nostalghia – Making a specific location seem otherwordly/or/ Film and Spirituality

lachim

about 2 years ago

1) Modern Times
2) A Man with A Movie Camera
3) Un chien andalou + The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (it fits so perfectly together)
4) 8 1/2
5) The Mirror
6) A Woman Under the Influence
7) Fitzcarraldo + bonus – first ten minutes of The Thin Red Line
8) La belle noiseuse
9) Werckmeister Harmonies
10) 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days / Silent Light

This is probably how the initial outline would look like. It’s pretty much possible though, that I would insist on doing multiple screenings during one day, just to catch up a bit…

Robert W Peabody III

about 2 years ago

Claire Denis in chronological order…

The course would be about appreciation, not a history survey.
The in depth look at a single auteur would help one develop the skills to analyze other films and oeuvres.

Robert W Peabody III

about 2 years ago

dp

Charlesdegaulle

about 2 years ago

Contempt, Raging Bull, L’Eclisse, Citizen Kane, 8 1/2, Sunset Blvd. Lawrence of Arabia, Vertigo, and a few others…

greg x

about 2 years ago

I actually like Robert’s idea, in that the skills one could develop from that sort of close study of a single director would be more likely to be able to be applied on a wider basis than would the usual “they did this and then this and then they went over here and did another thing” type of analysis. I have no opinion on whether Claire Denis would be the ideal candidate for that type of endeavor though.

If that doesn’t appeal, then I would suggest sticking to ten films within the same sort of genre as it develops over time or in different areas of the world depending on what themes you would want to emphasize. Narrowing the scope of study can remove some extraneous considerations that could cloud the focus.

Harry Long

about 2 years ago

>>9) Cube- What you can do without any money<<
Indeed. CUBE should be required – nay, enforced – viewing for all directors who make excuses based on not having any money.
(I’d add SOCKET as the second feature.)

T.J. Royal

about 2 years ago

Day 1: M
Day 2: Paths of Glory
Day 3: The Gold Rush
Day 4: Rebecca
Day 5: City of God
Day 6: Ugetsu
Day 7: Seven Samurai
Day 8: Once Upon A Time In The West
Day 9: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Day 10: The Wizard of Oz

I came up with this list on the assumption that someone is signing up for a film class in order to learn more about what makes a successful film, not someone who is a certified film-lover.

My goal would be to create an emotional experience for the class, to show that when a movie is done right, that is how people within the movie business continue to get films made. They elicit various emotions from their audience.

My other goal would be to show unequivocally that just because a movie is outside of someone’s “normal” viewing experience, whether it be in subtitles or black-and-what, that it doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to be boring.

I am only using as examples films that I have actually seen. I could come up with an entirely different list tomorrow, but for now I’m fairly satisfied with this one. I had actually been thinking about this VERY SAME THING only a few weeks ago, what movies I would show if I were to exhibit a film class.

James Montene​gro

about 2 years ago

Day 1: Permanent Vacation
Day 2: Stranger Than Paradise
Day 3: Down By Law
Day 4: Mystery Train
Day 5: Night On Earth
Day 6: Dead Man
Day 7: Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai
Day 8: Coffee And Cigarettes
Day 9: Broken Flowers
Day 10: The Limits Of Control