Chapter 18
Ten Must-Watch Movies
In This Chapter
Suggesting starting points for your study of film
Re-watching favourite films for new insights
Considering what qualities make for essential viewing
Boy, this was tough. Having to choose just ten essential films from the entire history of world cinema is incredibly difficult. I try to maintain a balance across genres, historical periods and national cinemas, but inevitably I leave many areas uncovered here.
In the end, I put self-torture aside and simply go with the films that mean the most to me, as a film student and now as a (very lucky) film academic. I’m not saying the following ten are the greatest films of all time, just that they’re great places to start studying film.
Don’t feel like you have to start at the beginning of this list and work through it to the end. Jump around to what interests you most and start from there. Hopefully this list will make you want to watch (or re-watch) many of these films, and, luckily, all of them are easily available to rent, download or stream.
Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
If you’re new to film studies, ...
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