While every film made up to this point and for many years after would feature a camera on a tripod, experimental artist Dziga Vertov dared to haul his camera with him through a cityscape. How To With John Wilson wouldn’t exist without Vertov’s experimentation. To avoid the film being destroyed by the government, a lengthy explanation is included at the beginning to state the film was created to expand film techniques. Which this film does at every turn. It is noted for introducing double exposure, fast motion, slow motion, freeze frames, jump cuts, split screens, Dutch angles, extreme close-ups, tracking shots, backward footage, and stop motion animation. A true marvel of its time. [YouTube]

Alternatives Silent Cinema: Honestly, any silent film will do, but why not go with this one?

We all know that, “We’ll always have Paris.” We all know that Sam, indeed, does play it again and "Here's looking at you kid." Casablanca remains one of the most famous films ever made. It sits up there with Citizen Kane, but for those of us who have yet to see it, this is our time. We’re including this within our Noir and Classic Cinema category; however, it doesn’t fit the mold of a noir film. Sure, there will be shadows and billowing smoke but the love triangle of Rick, Ilsa, and Victor holds no femme fatales or double crosses. But if you come to the film for Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, you’ll stay for Conrad Veidt (The Man Who Laughs), Peter Lorre (M), and Claude Rains (The Invisible Man). [HBOMax]

Alternatives Noir / American Classics: Maltese Falcon [HBOMax] (Noir), Citizen Kane [HBOMax] (Classic)

Last year we screened Howard Hawk’s Bringing Up Baby and George Cukor’s The Philadelphia Story as our attempt at fulfilling the Screwball Comedy requirement. We were going to include what is widely considered cinema’s first screwball comedy, Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night, but we weren’t feeling up to the task of putting up with Clark Gable. As fans of It’s A Wonderful Life, we also wanted to include another Capra film, that’s when we decided on Arsenic & Old Lace. We’re excited to swing a little further to black comedy instead of screwball. We get Cary Grant who hates the idea of marriage but is finally getting married. When he meets his bride’s aunts, he finds out they have a habit of poisoning people they can’t endure. The aunts cannot understand why Cary Grant gets so offended by it. Sounds like fun. I also see that Peter Lorre and James Gleason are wandering around the film somewhere too. [Criterion]

Alternatives Screwball Comedies: His Girl Friday [Prime], Bringing Up Baby [HBOMax], Philadelphia Story [HBOMax].

Not a first choice Bergman film, but we’ve already plowed through Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, The Virgin Spring, Persona, and Scenes From A Marriage. If you haven’t seen a lot of Bergman, you should begin with Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, or if you love Wes Craven’s Last House On The Left you can always start with The Virgin Spring. There really is no wrong choice. Bergman’s films all deal with the fear there is no God. There’s an existential questioning throughout his work as the director himself was fearful of the possibility of answers to the questions of the universe. We’re going with The Magician which features Max Von Sydow as a traveling magician who is persecuted by the authorities in Sweden during the 19th century. [Criterion]

Alternatives Bergman: Persona [HBOMax / Criterion], Scenes From A Marriage [HBOMax / Criterion], Hour of the Wolf [Criterion], Seventh Seal [HBOMax / Criterion / Kanopy], Wild Strawberries [HBOMax / Criterion], The Virgin Spring [Criterion / Kanopy].

A film noir credit that also gives you another taste of Welles. While the filmmaker struggled the rest of his career to garner the love he felt with his first outing, Citizen Kane, he had a few more masterpieces up his sleeve. The only issue is that these films, like Kane were ahead of their time. Touch Of Evil begins with one of the most legendary one-take sequences of any time. Many films have copied the intensity that comes with a single-take. And the opening of John Carpenter’s Halloween, would be inert without looking through the eyes of little Michael. Touch of Evil stars Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh, and Dennis Weaver in a noir story about murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in a Mexican border town. When Heston was approached to star in the film for Universal Pictures, he requested Orson Welles take on the project as director. Welles re-wrote the script, added technical flourishes, and created a work of darkness. Like all Welles projects post-Kane, he had issues with studio heads and he was kicked off the film. Universal re-edited and included studio overseen re-shoots for the film to ‘feel more conventional.’ Aghast, at the butchery the studio made of his film, Welles wrote – a now infamous – 58-page memo detailing his full creative vision for the film. Luckily, for us cinephiles, one of the most accomplished editors of all time took Welle’s memo and re-edited the film in 1998. The version we see now is what Orson intended. [Rent]

Alternatives Noir / Welles: Maltese Falcon [HBOMax], Citizen Kane [HBOMax]

The top three Fellini films in my book are La Strada, 8 ½, and La Dolce Vita. Each fits whatever mood you may find yourself in. La Strada was made during the era of Italian Neo-Realism which meant a lot of the footage was filmed outdoors with no additional lighting and made with rolls of black-market film. La Strada is pure grief porn. As we follow an innocent clown who is exploited until her ruin. 8 ½ is the film that a master of their craft makes when they have writers block. It is an existential celebration of life itself and showcases Fellini’s circus visuals in an incredible way. It is the ultimate movie about making movies and the creative process as a whole but allow the absurdity of situations to unfold without attaching too much weight. This leaves La Dolce Vita or The Sweet Life. We follow a journalist through his episodes with the rich and affluent. He begins to lose himself within the party of the upper class. We watch again as absurdity follows these thoughtless debutantes and heirs. As they live a carefree existence, we see how it creates children out of these adults of influence. We’re choosing La Dolce Vita, but you may select the Fellini film you need. [Rent]

Alternatives Fellini: 8 1/2 [HBOMax / Criterion], La Strada [HBOMax / Criterion]

We struggled with another screwball comedy for this semester, but instead of Wilder’s Some Like It Hot, we went the more unconventional route. Starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray The Apartment tells the story of an low-level clerk looking to advance his career. He ends up allowing executives at his company use his apartment for their various trysts. But, of course, complications arise. The screwball comedy began in 1934 and ran its course in the 1950s so when The Apartment was released audiences believed they knew the themes and the humor already. What they didn’t expect was new ground being broken in the world of Old Hollywood comedies. The film is a surface level Rom-Com by today's standards, but the writing was sharp and focused on the severity of the human condition. These characters are all lonely, depressed, and a little scumbag-y, but Wilder finds a way to make them funny and evoke an emotional pathos. [Roku / Kanopy / TubiTv / Pluto]

Alternatives Screwball Comedy: His Girl Friday [Prime], Bringing Up Baby [HBOMax], Some Like It Hot [Kanopy]

If you haven't seen The 400 Blows - your intro to the adorable character Antoine Doinel - or Jules and Jim, I wouldn't go for Shoot the Piano Player as my first Truffaut film. Don’t get me wrong, it is still high on the list but for a different reason. Shoot is Truffaut’s Breathless. I know blasphemy since they were both filmed at similar times. Godard’s Breathless takes the criminal-on-the-run or the American Noir film and mixes it with silly American Romance, then destroys the rules of both fictional molds. Truffaut, like Godard was a founding member of the French New Wave. Truffaut loved two American art forms the most, one B-movies and two Jazz. He injects both elements into Shoot. A character that cares only about raising his little brother, has pissed his talent away and now has to deal with the mob while cleaning up his older brother’s mess. Will he drunkenly stagger his way out of this mess? The title comes from the old barroom idiom, “Don’t shoot the piano player; he’s doing the best he can.” [HBOMax]

Alternatives Truffaut: 400 Blows [HBOMax / Criterion / Kanopy], Jules & Jim [HBOMax / Criterion / Kanopy]

This film is bleak. I’ll state that right up front. But, I’m letting everyone off easy. The two films this semester that are being screened for your Italian Neo-Realism requirement only lightly touch the movement. Last year we witnessed Rome, Open City and that was filmed within the rubble of WWII merely months after the war ended. Talk about bleak. Or, you could go the route of The Bicycle Thieves which was filmed with all the tenants of film movement. It was filmed outside, used only non-actors, the actual film was created on film ends from celluloid scraps found on the black market, and dealt with the inner turmoil of attempting to live in a post-war country on the edge of collapse. But, I digress. Il Posto is photographed with gorgeous detail. The story is about a teen whose bursting with big dreams. He heads off to Milan to begin his life. He starts off in a corporate office and while there his light is methodically snuffed out. Hello metaphor, how are you? [Criterion]

Alternatives Italian Neo-Realism: Bicycle Thieves [HBOMax / Criterion], Rome Open City [HBOMax / Criterion]

My favorite Godard film has always been Weekend. Of course I love Breathless, Contempt, and Tout Va Bien nearly as much. But Weekend taught me the elasticity of film itself. There are no rules. This is one of the major takeaways from the French New Wave movement. These film brats from a film criticism magazine decided they could take what they’ve learned from American cinema and cinema at large and defy sixty years of cinema. These film punks did just that. Vivre Sai Vie features Godard’s one-day wife Anna Karina as a woman who slowly becomes a prostitute over the course of 12 vignettes / episodes. [Criterion / HBOMax]

Alternatives Godard: Breathless [HBOMax / Criterion], Weekend [HBOMax / Criterion]

Like Godard and Truffaut, Eric Rohmer came out of the critic’s stable at the Cahiers du Cinema. While other members of the French New Wave set out to break the rules common with American films, Rohmer set out to create his own hyper-articulate cinema examining morals. Rohmer’s Six Contes Moraux or The Six Moral Tales include two short films: The Bakery Girl Of Monceau and Suzanne’s Career as well as four features including: La Collectionneuse, My Night At Maud’s, Clair’s Knee, and Love In The Afternoon. These films all feature relationships that are tempted by vice and the philosophical conclusions the characters choose. If you’re new to Rohmer, might I suggest My Night At Maud’s. I believe it is the best of the moral films, but if you want to witness an entire film dedicated to a will he or won’t he caress a woman’s knee then Claire’s Knee is also a great choice. [Criterion]

Alternatives Rohmer: My Night At Maud's [HBOMax / Criterion], Claire's Knee [Criterion], Love In The Afternoon [HBOMax / Criterion]

After a bad gambling bet, a schoolteacher is marooned in a town full of crazy, drunk, violent men who threaten to make him just as crazy, drunk, and violent. Ted Kotcheff would go on to direct the anti-American Rambo First Blood and then at some point find time to make Weekend At Bernies. Let me tell you, Wake In Fright is dirty. You feel the heat and the booze seeping out of everyone’s pores. The smell must be atrocious. The bravado of each of these bastards smears the screen. While we want our teacher to make it out of this masculine purgatory with his soul intact, we also want him to learn their asses a thing or two. If this doesn’t sound like an adventure you wish to take, you can always earn your Australian New Wave credit by watching a Peter Weir film or even Mad Max. If you go for Weir, I’d suggest Picnic At Hanging Rock or The Last Wave. [Shudder / TubiTv]

Alternatives Australian New Wave: Picnic At Hanging Rock [HBOMax / Criterion], The Last Wave [HBOMax / Criterion], Walkabout [Criterion], The Cars That Ate Paris [Roku], Long Weekend [Kanopy].

There were three westerns and Blazing Saddles on our list this year: High Noon, Rio Bravo, and Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid. We chose Peckinpah with his story of friendship and betrayal. Pat and Billy were the best pals when they robbed trains, but that was years ago. Pat’s been deputized and offered great wealth, all he has to do is kill Billy The Kid. While western tropes are flourished throughout the running time, this film falls within the anti-heroes of early 1970’s cinema. Peckinpah paved a road of blood through his films following The Wild Bunch, but instead of a revolving door of gunshot victims, we get a more meditative approach to old west themes. James Coburn is Pat Garrett, Kris Kristofferson is Billy The Kid, and the noted cast is rounded out by Jason Robards and Bob Dylan. Dylan also provides the soundtrack to the film. It has been noted that Sam Peckinpah's alcoholism was griping him firmly while creating this masterpiece. He started each morning with vodka and by the afternoon moved on to grenadine. Eventually, he was too drunk to work, and the set would shut down for the day. Actors recalled that Peckinpah was coherent for around four hours a day. Even in the depths of his addiction and locked inside debilitating mental health issues, Peckinpah proved his genius again and again. With only four hours a day, he painted an existential old west masterpiece. These anti-heroes are found everywhere in 70’s American Rebel Cinema. [Rent]

Alternatives American Rebel Cinema of the 1970’s: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid [Roku Channel / Criterion], Dog Day Afternoon [HBOMax], Bonnie and Clyde [HBOMax], or Taxi Driver [Netflix].

You are about to earn your Andrei Tarkovsky credit. If you haven’t seen his work, I implore you to begin with Stalker. With Stalker, you are immediately immersed into the director’s style. Long, meditative camera takes that allow you to soak in a bath of details. Tarkovsky is known for this moving painting style. It’s nothing crazy like Andy Warhol’s 8 hour film Sleep, where we watch someone sleep the night through. No, Tarkovsky wants you to question the act of perception itself, while also providing enough eye candy to see you through to the next plot point. I have fallen in love with each of his works that I’ve seen. In film school we studied The Sacrifice, Tarkovsky’s last film. It was a difficult viewing, almost as though my brain hadn’t been wired yet to accept images on screen that can evolve the longer you view them. But I was haunted by the film. And still, to this day, that classroom screening of The Sacrifice is one I remember the most. That is the best way to describe his work, haunting. Normally, this label is tossed around as a literal concept for works in the horror genre. Here, with Tarkovsky, since the images are frozen on your screen for such a length of time you have no choice but to remember them. In that sense, as the scene has burned onto your retina, you will very much be haunted by this art. The Mirror is an artist trying to make sense of his own life. The ‘story’ revolves around a dying man in his forties as he remembers his past. His childhood, his mother, the war, personal moments and things that tell of the recent history of all the Russian nation. Never walk into a Tarkovsky film and expect everything to be laid out neatly. Memory is a messy bastard. [Criterion / IMDBtv]

Alternatives Tarkovsky: Stalker [HBOMax / Criterion], Solaris [HBOMax / Criterion], Andrei Rublev [Criterion / IMDBtv], The Sacrifice [Kanopy].

"Our women have been stampeded and our cattle raped."

In order to ruin a western town, a corrupt politician appoints a black Sheriff, who promptly becomes his most formidable adversary. Starring Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, and Mel Brooks this is the ultimate Western spoof. Mel Brooks’ comedy stems from his ability to embrace excess at every turn. In 1975 the director completed two of the best comedies of all time: Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles. Both films are parodies of specific genres and none of the jokes overlap, which is a feat of its own. Blazing Saddles uses the concepts prevalent in the 1960’s westerns and inserts a commentary about the civil rights movement occurring during the same decade. This elevates Brooks’ comedy to a new level of satire. And even makes racists who see the film laugh at the ridiculousness of their own racism. They came for the baked beans farting scene but stayed and realized society doesn’t crumble when you put a black man in charge. [HBOMax] I have no other recommendations as you should just rewatch Blazing Saddles, because, why not?

Fassbinder is one of my favorite directors. He, along with Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders were part of the New German Cinema. Fassbinder was pure punk. An out-of-the closet bisexual artist never afraid to insert his queer identity into his work. Fassbinder died at the age of 37 from a cocktail of cocaine and barbiturates. Before his death, the prolific filmmaker completed 40+ feature films, 2 TV series, multiple short films, several video productions, and 24 plays. Of Fox & His Friends, the filmmaker said: "It is certainly the first film in which the characters are homosexuals, without homosexuality being made into a problem. In films, plays or novels, if homosexuals appear, the homosexuality was the problem, or it was a comic turn. But here homosexuality is shown as completely normal, and the problem is something quite different, it's a love story, where one person exploits the love of the other person, and that's the story I always tell.” If you haven’t seen Fassbinder’s work, Fox & His Friends is a great starting point. [Criterion / HBOMax]

Alternatives Fassbinder / New German Cinema: Ali Fear Eats The Soul [HBOMax / Criterion], Querelle [HBOMax / Criterion], Beware of a Holy Whore [Criterion], Alice In The Cities [Criterion]

I’ve been a fan of Hal Ashby ever since the first time I rented Harold & Maude and watched it with my college family. Harold & Maude is that amazing 1970’s film that we wish all films could be. A curated soundtrack by Donovan, Bud Cort’s adorable nihilism, and the eternal optimism of Ruth Gordon – whose character had not-so-long ago made her way through hell. This led to the rich satire of Being There. Peter Sellers, when not in a Pink Panther film, is absolute gold. The Last Detail is a great Nicholson and Randy Quaid film, David Carradine as Woody Guthrie in Bound For Glory is perfection, and Coming Home is a great anti-war love story. Having seen and loved 5 of 13 of Ashby’s feature films, should make anyone want to seek out the rest of the artist’s work. And that is what we’re doing with Shampoo. The cover image of Warren Beatty with a comb and stupid smile has always turned me off. I think the film with be Ashby’s screwball comedy. Though I know there will be some meat to it, I’ll admit this one will be difficult to put on. I also know that I’ll be pleasantly surprised, so there’s that. [Rent]

Alternative Ashby: Harold & Maude [PlutoTv], 8 Million Ways To Die [PlutoTv / Tubi]

Last semester we chose Fitzcarraldo for our Herzog credit and we were going to choose Aguirre, the Wrath of God until my friend / Herzog connoisseur stopped me. She said Stroszek and Even Dwarfs Started Small were her absolute favorite Herzog films. Then she texted me a little later to tell me, hands down, Stroszek was her favorite Herzog. Our choice was solidified. The simplified plot summary states: In Berlin, an alcoholic man, recently released from prison, joins his elderly friend and a prostitute in a determined dream to leave Germany and seek a better life in Wisconsin. I’m not going to do any more research than that. I’m going to go in cold and fall in love. If you don’t want to see my friend’s pick, well that’s your loss. [TubiTv] I’m kidding, you can pick any Herzog film to fulfill your credit.

Alternatives early Herzog: Even Dwarfs... [Tubi / PlutoTv / ShoutTv], Signs of Life [Prime / Tubi], Aguirre, the Wrath of God [Tubi / PlutoTv / ShoutTv], The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser [Tubi / Kanopy], Heart of Glass [Tubi / Kanopy / ShoutTv], Nosferatu the Vampyre [Peacock / Tubi / Kanopy / Shudder / PlutoTv], Woyzeck [Tubi / Kanopy], Fitzcarraldo [Tubi / Kanopy / ShoutTv / IMDBtv]

Michael Cimino’s Deer Hunter was box office gold. The studio’s gave him carte-blance for a follow up film. That film was Heaven’s Gate, a nearly 4 hour overpriced box office bomb. It has become a cult classic now, but it ruined his reputation when it came out in 1980. It’s a shame too, because Cimino’s eye for detail along with his relationship with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond created a duology of films that feel alive. There’s a texture to them that goes beyond just images projected on a screen. We chose Deer Hunter this semester, not as a Michael Cimino credit, but as the Anti-War / Vietnam film. Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, and Meryl Streep star in Camino's essay on how the Vietnam war impacts the lives of friends in an American steel mill town. [Rent]

Alternatives Anti-Vietnam War Films: Platoon [Roku / Kanopy], Full Metal Jacket [HBOMax]

This is that painful autobiography about Bob Fosse that you never thought you needed. Roy Scheider plays a theatre director prepping for a new musical. He is known for hyper-fast pacing in his shows, and he takes the amphetamines to help him get there. Stanley Kubrick, after seeing the film, stated it was one of the best films he’d ever seen. This is Bob Fosse creating a masterwork detailing the creative process. Francois Truffaut did it in Day For Night as Frederico Fellini perfected it in 8 ½. This requirement is a bit more difficult to nail down. You earn you credit her for pulling back the curtain of showbiz. [Roku Channel]

Alternatives to earn your self-reflexive stage credit: Cabaret [HBOMax], Black Swan [Hulu], Day For Night [Criterion], Fame [Rent], Gypsy [PlutoTv]

Penelope Spheeris, the rock n' roll anthropologist, born in New Orleans, and addicted to finding new sounds was once offered the opportunity to direct This Is Spinal Tap. She declined as she couldn't see a world in which she would want to make fun of metal. The Decline Of Western Civilization documents the inner workings of Punk. In her first film, Spheeris follows bands like Black Flag, Circle Jerks, X, and The Germs to name a few. She attempts to objectively show their world and it does. Her series followed with part 2 the metal years and part 3 on gutter-punks and nomads. She also created the punk-centric films Suburbia and Dudes. In 1992, her life changed forever. She accepted the directing duties on Wayne's World, a passion project. After that the studios offered her old TV properties to turn into feature films: The Little Rascals, The Beverly Hillbillies, and others. While this was not the world Spheeris wanted to include herself, she said, "When someone offers you $2.5 million to direct a film, you just fucking take it." While it would appear that a punk sold out; however, Spheeris was a product of the sexist Hollywood studios that pigeonholed her. She was a female filmmaker. Instead of giving her funds for her own projects, as she was a proven creative, they handed her IPs they thought couldn't fail. Ultimately, Spheeris quit the Hollywood studio system and went on to documentaries again. While most will remember her for Wayne's World, her Decline of Western Civilization series and Suburbia will always stand out as massively underrated works of brilliance. [Roku / Tubi / Crackle / Pluto / IMDBtv]

This was our selection for influential documentaries. You could also select any of the great documentaries created before the Doc-boom of the 2000s:

Hoop Dreams [HBOMax / Criterion / ShoutTv]

The Times Of Harvey Milk [HBOMax / Criterion]

Gimme Shelter [HBOMax / Criterion]

Burden of Dreams [Criterion]

Titicut Follies [Kanopy]

Gates Of Heaven [Criterion]

Harlan County USA [HBOMax / Criterion]

The Thin Blue Line [Criterion]

Having a Woody Allen film on this list is problematic. You can skip this requirement all-together. Everyone understands. Having prefaced that, when it comes to the cinema Woody Allen has created over the decades, there are a few masterpieces. Annie Hall is a nearly perfect comedy, Manhattan is a nearly perfect love letter to New York, Zelig is a fantastic mock-documentary, and many of his films in-between bare the mark of a creative heavyweight. Hanna and Her Sisters saw the director beginning to merge comedy and drama. This was the first Allen film I had to study in college. I return to it because of the acting powerhouses peppered throughout: Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Michael Caine, Barbara Hershey, Carrie Fisher, Max Von Sydow, Lewis Black, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, J.T. Walsh, and Tohn Turturro. [Rent / Starz]

Alternatives Woody Allen: Interiors [Prime / Tubi], Bananas [Tubi], Purple Rose Of Cairo [HBOMax], A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy [Tubi], Love & Death [HBOMax], Stardust Memories [HBOMax], What's New Pussycat? [Tubi], Alice [Tubi].

The style of Almodovar isn't easily stated. His films are drenched in melodrama, dark humor, bold colors, glistening wet décor, quotes from popular culture, and complex narratives that sway toward taboo. His first full length film was Fuck Me, Fuck Me, Fuck Me, Tim (1978) shot on Super-8 without sound. He showcased this film and his 16mm short Salome at bars, clubs, and galleries. From his showmanship, Almodovar was able to raise a minimal budget for his first feature film proper, Pepi, Luci, Bom (1980). By mixing elements of melodrama, camp, and explicit sexuality Almodovar was finding his voice. Of his early work, I've always been drawn to the nunsploitation of Dark Habits in 1983. Nuns on acid and exploring sin itself. In 1988 the director celebrated his first caress of international recognition for Women On The Verge... It was even nominated for best foreign language film at the Oscars. Almodovar has continued to, over the course of decades, build a filmmography that incorporates a progressive ideology of queer representation in cinema. While Almodovar, dislikes the moniker of gay filmmaker, his films have never included trite depictions of queerness. Even with the saturation of melodrama, his stories never center on a boy coming out of the closet. Instead, it appears that all of Almodovar's characters are already liberated. As Fassbinder's films never put a character's sexuality under a microscope, Almodovar sticks to the same method. As Fassbinder's Fox and His Friends shows, the plot doesn't care that two men are in a relationship. The plot cares about the corruption of innocence through greed. To earn your Almodovar credit, we recommend Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown. [Rent]

Alternative Almodovar: Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! [HBOMax / Criterion] or Matador [Criterion]

This was my first Kurosawa film. Wait, no, technically my first Kurosawa film was Rashomon. But they showed it during the first week of an Introduction To Cinema class and I fell right to sleep. All I could remember was that it was known for multiple perspective storytelling. We repaired the memory last year as we included Rashomon along with Seven Samurai. I have to say, if you’re new to Kurosawa, don’t start with Dreams. While Dreams is a great film and showcases a maestro’s immense talent, it is a disservice not to see Seven Samurai as your first Kurosawa. Yes, it’s long. But you don’t have to finish it in one sitting. And I assure you, that you’ve binged less worthy shows for a longer stretch. Seven Samurai not only directly influenced the American remake The Magnificent Seven, but influenced every film after that involves getting a rag-tag group of individuals together to fight for something they believe is right, or rob a bank, or steal 50 cars in one night. Once you’ve seen Seven Samurai, you can move on. While it’s not in this syllabus, we’ll be seeing Yojimbo as well as Ran to fit in more Kurosawa this semester [Hoopla].

Alternatives Kurosawa: Seven Samurai [HBOMax / Criterion], Rashomon [HBOMax / Criterion / Kanopy], Throne of Blood [HBOMax / Criterion], Yojimbo [HBOMax / Criterion], Ikiru [HBOMax / Criterion / Kanopy], High and Low [HBOMax / Criterion], The Hidden Fortress [HBOMax / Criterion].

Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron, and Alejandro G. Inarritu make up the "Three Amigos", the main Mexican film directors of Nuevo Cine Mexicano (New Mexican Cinema). Each of the three helped put Mexican cinema on the international map. Guillermo del Toro's Cronos was little seen when it debuted in 1993, but with The Devil's Backbone in 2001 Del Toro found acclaim. Alfonso Cuaron's Y tu mamá también found international prestige in 2001. And Alejandro G. Inarritu's first film Amores Perros was an instant hit. These directors have now found international acclaim, not to mention multiple Oscar wins and nominations under their belt. While working internationally, these three figures of the movement continue to represent Mexican cinema within their films. This semester, we've chosen Amores Perros because this is a gap in our cinematic education. We are rectifying a mis-step on our part. Why the hell have we never seen this? I'm sure all of you have so you can skip to the alternative titles for your New Mexican Cinema credit. If you're like us and haven't seen Amorres Perros, then get ready for an insanely paced, edge-of-your-seat thrill. [Criterion / Hoopla / TubiTv / Pluto].

Alternatives New Mexican Cinema: Biutiful [Hoopla / Kanopy / Plex], Y Tu Mamá También [AMC+], Roma [Netflix], Cronos [HBOMax / Criterion], Battle In Heaven [Kanopy], Japon [Criterion].

This is your freebie category. Think of a critically acclaimed film that you’ve overlooked, seek it out, and fill the gap. There’s just one catch, it has to be the filmmaker’s first film. Maybe you’ve never seen Gus Van Sant's Mala Noche, Lars Von Trier's The Element Of Crime, Todd Haynes' Poison, Tarantino's Resevoir Dogs, Cronenberg's Shivers, Carpenter's Dark Star, Tim Burton's Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Arnofsky’s Pi, or Coen Brothers’ Blood Simple. Now, you can play around with the term first film a little like Martin Scorsese's Who's That Knocking At My Door or Boxcar Bertha, you can skip to Mean Streets. It was the film, Scorsese wanted to do. Just have fun and fill that gap. For us, we’ve overlooked Green’s debut film. All we know is what the paper thin synopsis says: A group of children, in a depressed small town, band together to cover up a tragic mistake one summer. We’re excited to check this one off the list. [Criterion]

Alternatives: We use JustWatch to find where films are available for streaming. Hope this helps.