Film Art and Cinematography : Movies You Saw in Film Class?

College, high school, whatever. But an actual film class.

I'm interested in comparing (what else is new?) between all the different film schools. If you can give an approximation of the location without giving up your identity, that would be cool.

I remember the teacher very well. Old guy, white hair, still remember his face, but oddly, not his name, despite having a great memory. On Tuesday, we would watch the movie, and then as we left, he'd give us reading assignments, which I always avoided, but we'd have a discussion on Thursday. I kinda wish I could do it all over again since I wasn't very experienced at 18. There are a few of those movies I wanted to re-watch, but they were pretty straight-forward.

-The Searchers
-Double Indemnity
-Taxi Driver
-Blade Runner (I actually fell asleep, and woke up at near the end)
-The Crying Game

We might have also seen "The Maltese Falcon", but I'm not sure. I don't remember any foreign movies, which is too bad. We also had a non-required "new" movie, "The Matrix", which I had already seen, so I didn't go. It was an ok movie. CGI does nothing for me; I was more interested in the psychological stuff.

I know there were more, but I just can't think of them right now. Maybe someone here will name them.

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https://www.scribd.com/document/382737647/MortSahlFan-Song-List

No unfortunately not. Your experience sounds like a life changing event.

Blow Up

I went to college in New England in the 1990s and I did take a film class.
We watched:
Rear Window
The Americanization of Emily
La Strada
Cinema Paradiso
The Last Picture Show
Citizen Kane

and I don’t remember what else. The only thing I remember about any of the professor’s comments is that he said Rear Window was Freudian.

Nice, and thanks for the details.

"La Strada" is my 2nd favorite movie ever :)

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https://www.scribd.com/document/382737647/MortSahlFan-Song-List

Do you think this newfound interest in psychological horror is good for movie goers in general or should filmmakers rely on vapid romantic comedies and highly stylized action movies or sappy dramas?

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https://youtu.be/iPUwtyZglQI

https://youtu.be/QRTNm6GLJYI

I took basket weaving and sheep shearing courses in high school.

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Gone

This is from two different classes and I know I am not correctly remembering all of them:

The Grand Illusion
Diabolique
The General
The Birth of a Nation (as an illustration of Griffith’s innovation in editing film)
Citizen Kane
Johnny Guitar
Saturday Night Fever
Nighthawks

If you’re scratching your head on the last two, the professor who taught that class presented them as examples of competent but nonetheless bad movies. Not sure why you’d waste an entire quarter taking up that much time with stuff you thought was bad, but he wasn’t a very good teacher overall and a horrible, boring lecturer.

Yeah, that is odd. Maybe he's just a big fan, and trying to rationalize?

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https://www.scribd.com/document/382737647/MortSahlFan-Song-List

Children of Men
Winter's Bone
Limitless

The professor also presented Limitless, as a compentent but overall bad movie to learn from.

Does Talented Theater in high school count?

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annalise-paisleigh.tumblr.com

The Bicycle Thief
Open City
Paris Texas
Last Tango in Paris

The Maltese Falcon
Touch of Evil
Chinatown

The Public Enemy
White Heat

Stagecoach
High Noon
The Wild Bunch
Once upon a time in the West

Cabinet of Dr Caligari
Nosferatu
Bride of Frankenstein
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Hammer’s Dracula
Night of the Living Dead
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Evil Dead

Some great movies. "Bicycle Thieves" is a great one, but I highly recommend other Vittorio De Sica (my favorite director) movies.. Maybe you've seen:

-Shoeshine (great movie about two young delinquents who go to jail)
-Umberto D (old man with nothing but his dog)
-Sunflower (best love story; Sophia Loren and Mastroianni have amazing chemistry)
-The Roof (great neo-realist movie about a struggling family)
-A Brief Vacation
-Two Women

I liked "Paris, Texas" very much, probably almost as much as Wenders' first road movie, "Alice in the Streets". I noticed my DVR just recorded this yesterday, so if anyone is interested in watching it, it's still on-demand

"Last Tango In Paris" is a movie I've seen 5-10 times in the last 20 years.

I also saw "Chinatown" in school, fine movie, Robert Towne is probably the best script writer in the last 50 years.

In "Film and Literature", we also saw "The Maltese Falcon" (I prefer Huston's other movies - "Ace in the Hole", "Sunset Boulevard", "The Lost Weekend"). We also saw "The Wild Bunch", but my favorite Peckinpah's are "The Getaway", "Straw Dogs", and "Wine Noon" a movie Peckinpah called his favorite around 1970.

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https://www.scribd.com/document/382737647/MortSahlFan-Song-List

Ace in the Hole", "Sunset Boulevard", "The Lost Weekend,
are directed by Billy Wilder. I agree they are all great. Ace in the Hole is probably my favorite, followed by Sunset Boulevard.
If you’re interested in more John Huston I’d recommend Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, and Asphalt Jungle.

Umberto D is heartbreaking. At least the ending is ambiguously optimistic.

"Film Appreciation":

-Run Lola Run
-Paris je t'aime
-The Killing Fields
-Joan of Arc (French & Silent)

"Themes in Academy Award Nominated Films":

-Roman Holiday
-The Godfather
-Minority Report
-Do the Right Thing!
-The Crying Game

"The History of Film":

-The Gold Rush
-The Great Train Robbery
-The General (Buster Keaton)
-A Trip to the Moon
-The Great Train Robbery (1903)
-Nosferatu
-Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

"Documentary Journalism":

-Kurt & Courtney
-Roger & Me
-Hoop Dreams
-Brandon Teena

"Pharmacology":

-Requiem for a Dream
-Trainspotting

"Russian History Represented":

-Battleship Potempkin
-Ivan's Childhood
-Stalker
-Andre Rublov
-Cranes are Flying
-Brother

"Africology: Afrocentric Survival, Elevation, and Liberation":

-Logan's Run
-Predator
-Alien
-The Watermelon Woman
-X-Men

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Monster, how should I feel? Creatures lie here, looking through the window.

never took film class, but in several classes in high school (world history, literature, art, English) we've watched the following, as far as i can actually remember:

history class:
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Elizabeth (1998)
Agora (2009)

literature:
Romeo + Juliet (1996)
The Wave (2008)

art class:
Frida (2002)
Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)

English:
Kids (1995)
The Queen (2006)


i went to high school in Germany. we've definitely watched a couple of more movies but i forgot which ones.

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suck it.

Don't you watch any German movies in the German education system?

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R. I. P. FFS (1975-2021)
Murdered by a Teutonic catfish

The Wave is a German film called "Die Welle".

and we watched the dubbed versions of All Quiet on the Western Front, Elizabeth, Agora, Frida & Exit Through the Gift Shop.

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suck it.

I haven't heard of that. Is it any good?

I'm trying to think of some German language movies I've watched, but only Stalingrad comes to mind, which I doubt you've seen. I've also watched the short TV series Generation War (Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter), which was excellent. I'm not sure why the German film industry isn't bigger. You have not only your own domestic audience, but the Austrians and all the world's white supremacists to cater to.

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R. I. P. FFS (1975-2021)
Murdered by a Teutonic catfish

The Wave is alright, i guess. it was certainly hot topic back when we watched it in class, since it tells about a high school class in a "what if a social experiment goes terribly wrong" scenario but i don't know if it would hold up now. probably not lol bc the usual fare of German films is really not very exciting, and this movie did never stand the test of time, i feel like.

yeah i've seen Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter which was a really great and well-made production, but it stands out. there's also Der Untergang (Downfall) which was a big success internationally, and The Lives of Others, a historical film about the GDR and specifically about the police and surveillance state. or Goodbye, Lenin also about the GDR but in a more comedic-nostalgic way. other than that, there's not much else worth talking about that goes beyond niches and/or arthouse. from the German filmmakers currently working, Christian Petzold is definitely my favourite. other than that, big meh when it comes to German contemporary cinema.

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suck it.

How the fuck could I forget Downfall and The Lives of Others!? I must have the memory of an 89 year old geriatric, which is seriously worrying because I'm only 81.

Social experiment gone wrong, eh? Sounds relevant. Might check it out.

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R. I. P. FFS (1975-2021)
Murdered by a Teutonic catfish

lol it happens especially when it comes to German cinema haha

and sure, go for it! The Wave may be still an interesting film for foreigners.

i just quickly compiled a list of favourite German movies made in the past two decades bc i was curious myself with what i could actually come up with and here it is:

The Free Will (Der freie Wille, 2006)
Victoria (2015)
The Lives of Others
Undine (2020)
Yella (2007)
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage, 2006)
The White Ribbon (Das weiße Band, 2009)
Head-On (Gegen die Wand, 2004)
Barbara (2012)
As We Were Dreaming (Als wir träumten, 2015)

as for TV-mini-series or series, Charité, Deutschland 83/86/89, Weissensee, Ku'damm 56/59 and Babylon Berlin were worth watching, but Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter still stands out.

there is also the new German show Sløborn which was interesting enough bc of its actuality and currentness being about a remote island community that is being hit by a deadly virus, oops.

then there is Dark which has a great reputation and is quite acclaimed internationally but i haven't actually watched that show yet.

and that's kind of it. it's really not much, bc in filmmaking and producing we just still kind of suck compared to international standards. oh well.

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suck it.

The White Ribbon! Another gem I'd forgotten.

I wouldn't worry about your movie industry. Germany has given us Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Kant, Hegel, Zimmer, Wagner, Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Einstein, Kepler, von Goethe, Brothers Grimm, and countless more, who have all contributed far more to the modern film industry than they're ever given credit for.

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R. I. P. FFS (1975-2021)
Murdered by a Teutonic catfish

okay thanks for making me feel a bit better about our cultural heritage 😂

let me just add some notable women to this, such as Hildegard von Bingen, Rosa Luxemburg, Leni Riefenstahl, Hannah Arendt, Marlene Dietrich and i'm happy.

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suck it.

I saw that movie.. I'm guessing the trailer was better.

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https://www.scribd.com/document/382737647/MortSahlFan-Song-List

That's a fun question.

It's been so long I can't remember all the films I saw.

I think the feminist professor made us watch "The Piano", which I hated. And we watched "Robo Cop" (different class), which I liked. I'm sure we saw something film noir, but I can't remember what it was to save the life of me.

I am thinking we may have watched "Strangers on a Train" (excellent) and, yes, I remember now, we also watched Eric Rohmer's "The Marquis of O" (slow and low-key) and we watched something out of the Von Sternberg/Dietrich output. I think maybe "Blonde Venus", and that would have been fun.

I do remember, however, that for the small class I took in Film History (same unfriendly, super dry female professor), each of us students had to take on some historical movement that showed up in the course of film, do a thesis on your chosen topic and then center your thesis on one specific film.

We had to get the film approved first. So, I went to my professor with "Jules and Jim" (which was my very favorite film at that time) and she said "no, that film's been studied too many times." Then, I asked if I could do "The Last Picture Show", which she also declined for the same reason.

So, the next day I asked her if I could do a paper on the underground Andy Warhol "Heat" (1972) and the subject of my paper would be on the diversification of masculinity in Post WW2 American cinema. I don't think she'd even heard of the movie and she said yes. Ultimately, I focused on the male as being sexually objectified and the hero of my paper was Joe D'allesandro, star of "Heat". Then came the fun part which was to show the film to the entire class and the teacher. It's one of my favorite comedies and I laughed all the way through. There were only like 7 or 8 of us and maybe some of the other students would occasionally laugh at something, but for at least half of the movie Joe goes around naked, while all these crazy females are panting over him.
(Hence, the movie's title.)

Well, our feminist. uptight lady professor was not the least bit pleased with my choice of movie. And after the movie was over she said something to the effect of "I really didn't need to see Joe D'allesandro naked!" She was not pleased! Well, I thought to myself, serves the witch right, since she was such a snob in not letting me do either of those other two classic films I had picked first. Plus, I think she was embarrassed. I say good!

The only other two films I remember the other students choosing were "Irma Vep" and "The Gods Must Be Crazy". I found Irma to be pretentious and dull and hard to follow. But Gods was a fun movie.

This is from "Flesh". Joe certainly was a beautiful young man. I am pretty sure the little girl is his daughter in the film.

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"My life is over. I might as well dance with Johnny Slash!"

Schindler's List

Star Trek: Generations

The Patriot

Remember The Titans

Vertical Limit

Congo

Jurassic Park

The Sixth Sense

U-571

Cruel Intentions