Core Film List for Film and Media Studies Major
As a historian I think this is a good thing to do; not to indicate what the timeless masterpieces are, but to give a sense of history for our evaluations. Values are mutable, but that's the point. They change and have power to change.
- Tom Gunning, film historian
Before graduating from St. Mary's College of Maryland, TFMS film and media studies majors should watch the following 100 films, which exemplify a historical, cultural, and aesthetic range in filmmaking. This list will provide a basis for further viewing in these periods and cultures. Films marked with an asterisk (*) are currently unavailable in the College library and are admittedly difficult to locate for screening or purchase.
The 400 Blows (1959) or Jules and Jim (1962) (dir. Francois Truffaut, France)
Adaptation (2002, dir. Spike Jonze, United States)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972, dir. Werner Herzog, West Germany/Peru)
*A Movie (1958, dir. Bruce Conner, United States)
Andrey Rublyov (1969, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union)
Apocalypse Now (1979, dir. Francis Ford Coppola, United States)
The Apu Trilogy (Song of the Road, 1955; The Undefeated, 1956; The World of Apu, 1960; dir. Satyajit Ray, India)
A Question of Silence (1982, dir. Marleen Gorris, Netherlands)
Ashes and Diamonds (1958, dir. Andrzej Wajda, Poland)
Babe (1995, dir. Chris Noonan, Australia)
The Battle of Algiers (1965, dir. Gillo Pontocorvo, Algeria/Italy)
Battleship Potemkin (1925) or Strike (1925) (dir. Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet Union)
The Bicycle Thief (1948, dir. Vittorio De Sica, Italy)
The Birth of a Nation (1915, dir. D.W. Griffith, United States)
Black Girl (a.ka.Noire de . . .) (1966) or Ceddo (1977) (dir. Ousmane Sembene, Senegal)
Black God, White Devil (1964, dir. Glauba Rocha, Brazil)
*Blood of the Condor (1969, dir. Jorge Sanjines, Bolivia)
Blood Simple (1984, dir. Joel and Ethan Coen, United States)
Blow-Up (1966, dir. Michaelangelo Antonioni, Italy)
The Blue Angel (1930, dir. Josef von Sternberg, Germany)
*Boat People (1982, dir. Ann Hui, Hong Kong)
Body and Soul (1925, dir. Oscar Micheaux, United States)
The Body Beautiful (1991, dir. Ngozi Onwurah, Britain)
Breathless (1960, dir. Jean-Luc Godard, France)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, dir. Robert Wiene, Germany)
Casablanca (1942, dir. Michael Curtiz, United States)
Un Chien andalou (1930, dir. Luis Bunuel, France)
Chungking Express (1994, dir. Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong)
Citizen Kane (1941, dir. Orson Welles, United States)
City Lights (1931) or Modern Times (1936) (dir. Charlie Chaplin, United States)
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962, dir. Agnès Varda, France)
Closely Watched Trains (1966, dir. Jiri Menzel, Czechoslovakia)
*Dance, Girl, Dance (1940, dir. Dorothy Arzner, United States)
Daughters of the Dust (1991, dir. Julie Dash, United States)
Dead Ringers (1988, dir. David Cronenberg, Canada/United States)
*The Dirty Negroes, Your Neighbors (1974, dir. Med Hondo, Mauritania)
Do the Right Thing (1989) or Girl 6 (1996) (dir. Spike Lee, United States)
Double Indemnity (1944, dir. Billy Wilder, United States)
The Draughtsman's Contract (1982) or The Pillow Book (1996) (dir. Peter Greenaway, Britain)
Dr. Strangelove; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) or 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) (dir. Stanley, Kubrick, United States)
Duck Amuck (1953, dir. Chuck Jones, United States)
Eraserhead (1977, dir. David Lynch, United States)
Fantasia (1940, dir. Walt Disney, United States)
Farewell My Concubine (1993, dir. Kaige Chen, China/Hong Kong)
Fire (1996) or Earth (1998) (dir. Deepa Mehta, India)
Fireworks (1997, dir. Takeshi Kitano, Japan)
Gap-Toothed Women (1987, dir. Les Blank, United States)
*Girl friends (1978, dir. Claudia Weill, United States)
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933, dir. Mervyn LeRoy, United States)
The Grand Illusion (1937) or The Rules of the Game (1939) (dir. Jean Renoir, France)
Harlan County, USA (1976, dir. Barbara Kopple, United States)
Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (a.k.a. Jeanne Dielman) (1975, dir. Chantal Ackerman, Belgium)
Julien donkey-boy (1999, dir. Harmony Korine, United States; see also: Dogme 95 Web site @ http://www.dogme95.dk)
Knife in the Water (1962, dir. Roman Polanski, Poland)
The Last Laugh (1924) or Sunrise (1927) (dir. F.W. Murnau, Germany)
The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (1980, dir. Connie Field, United States)
The Life of Oharu (1952) or Ugetsu (1953) (dir. Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)
Looking for Langston (1988, dir. Isaac Julien, Britain)
The Lumière Brothers' First Films (selections, i.e. Workers Leaving a Factory, 1895; Baby's Meal, 1895; The Arrival ofa Train at La Ciotat, 1897; dir. Antoine and Auguste Lumière, France)
The Man Who Envied Women (1985) or Privilege (1990) (dir. Yvonne Rainer, United States)
The Man with a Movie Camera (1929, dir. Dziga Vertov, Soviet Union)
Marvelous Méliès and More Méliès (selections, i.e. A Trip to the Moon, 1902; dir. Georges Méliès, France)
Matewan (1987, dir. John Sayles, United States)
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944, dir. Vincent Minnelli, United States)
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, dir. Maya Deren, United States)
Midnight Cowboy (1969, dir. John Schlesinger, United States)
Nanook of the North (1922, dir. Robert J. Flaherty, United States/France)
Nema-ye Nazdik (Close-Up, 1990) or T'am e guilass (A Taste of Cherry, 1997) (dir. Abbas Kiarostami, Iran)
Nothing but a Man (1964, dir. Michael Roemer, United States)
Our Hospitality (1923, dir. John G. Blystone and Buster Keaton, United States)
Paris Is Burning (1990, dir. Jenny Livingston, United States)
The Piano (1993, dir. Jane Campion, Australia)
Pulp Fiction (1994, dir. Quentin Tarantino, United States)
Raging Bull (1980, dir. Martin Scorsese, United States)
Rear Window (1954, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, United States)
Reassemblage (1982) or Surname Viet, Given Name Nam (1989) (dir. T. Minh-ha Trin, United States)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955, dir. Nicholas Ray, United States)
Roger and Me (1989) or Bowling for Columbine (2002) or Fahrenheit 911 (2004) (dir. Michael Moore, United States)
Rome, Open City (1945, dir. Roberto Rossellini, Italy)
The Searchers (1956, dir. John Ford, United States)
The Seventh Seal (1957, Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
Some Like It Hot (1959, dir. Billy Wilder, United States)
Spirited Away (2001, dir. Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)
La Strada (1954) or 8 ½ (1963) (dir. Federico Fellini, Italy)
Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song (1971, dir. Melvin van Peebles, United States)
Swept Away (1974, dir. Lina Wertmuller, Italy)
Tales from the Gimli Hospital (1988, dir. Guy Maddin, Canada)
The Thin Blue Line (1988, dir. Erroll Morris, United States)
The Third Man (1949, dir. Carol Reed, Britain)
Tokyo Story (1953, dir. Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)
*Tongues Untied (1990, dir. Marlon Riggs, United States)
Triumph of the Will (1935) or The Olympiad (1938) (dir. Leni Riefenstahl, Germany)
The Way Home (2002, dir. Jeong-hyang Lee, South Korea)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988, dir. Robert Zemeckis, United States)
Window Water Baby Moving (1962, dir. Stan Brakhage, United States)
Written on the Wind (1957, dir. Douglas Sirk, United States)
Xica da Silva (a.k.a. Xica) (1976, dir. Carlos Diegues, Brazil)
Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998, dir. Joan Chen, Hong Kong/United States)
Any two of the following: Rashomon (1950), Ikiru (1952), The Seven Samurai (1956), Throne of Blood (1957), Dodes'ka-den (1970), Ran (1985), Dreams (1990) (dir. Akira Kurosawa, Japan)
Compiled by the TFMS department, 5/05
