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Five College Film Studies Major
FILMS TO KNOW
The faculty members of the Five College Film Studies major have assembled a list of film directors/titles with which you should be familiar as a Film Studies major. We have tried to select the most important and/or influential titles by each of the directors (which is sometimes a nearly impossible task). We trust that these names will lead you to the many artists and films not named here. The names are listed alphabetically so that we do not privilege either directors or national cinemas, and we have translated titles into English unless they are known only in their original titles. This list of touchstones is a basic and ever-evolving starting point for your study of film—enjoy the journey.
Akerman, Chantal (Belgium: Jeanne Dielman [1976])
Allen, Woody (US: Annie Hall [1977])
Almodovar, Pedro (Spain: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown [1988], All
About My Mother [1999])
Altman, Robert (US: MASH [1970], Nashville [1975], The Player [1992)
Alvarez, Santiago [Cuba: He Who Hits First Hits Twice (Dvd collection) (1965-1973)]
Amaral, Suzana (Brazil: Hour of the Star [1985])
Anderson, Lindsay (England: If [1969])
Angelopoulos, Theodoros (Greece: Eternity and a Day [1999] , The Traveling Players
[1975])
Anger, Kenneth (US: Scorpio Rising [1964])
Antonioni, Michelangelo (Italy: L'Avventura [1961], L'Eclisse [1962], The Red Desert
[1964], The Passenger [1975])
Arzner, Dorothy (US: Dance Girl Dance [1940])
Baillie, Bruce [US: Mass For The Dakota Sioux (1964) , Valentine de Las Sierras
(1971)]
Bergman, Ingmar (Sweden: The Seventh Seal [1957], Wild Strawberries [1957],
Persona [1966], Cries and Whispers [1972], Fanny and Alexander [1982])

Berliner, Alan [US: Family Album (1986)]
Bertolucci, Bernardo (Italy: The Spider's Stratagem [1970], The Conformist [1970],
1900 [1976])
Braderman , Joan [US: Joan Does Dynasty (1986)]
Brakhage, Stan (US: Dog Star Man [1962], Scenes from Under Childhood
[1967])
Bresson, Robert (France: Diary of a Country Priest [1951], Pickpocket [1959], Au
Hasard Balthazar [1966])
Buba, Tony [US: Lightning Over Braddock (1988)]
Buñuel, Luis (Spain/France/Mexico: Un Chien Andalou [1929], Los Olvidados [1950],
Viridiana [1961], Belle de Jour [1967], The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
[1972])
Burnett, Charles (US: Killer of Sheep [1977])
Campion, Jane (Australia: Angel at My Table [1990], The Piano [1993])
Capra, Frank (US: It Happened One Night [1934], It's a Wonderful Life [1946])
Carne, Marcel (France: Daybreak [1939])
Cassavettes, John (US: Shadows [1959], A Woman Under the Influence [1974])
Chahine, Youssef (Egypt: Cairo Station [1958])
Chaplin, Charles (England/US: Mutual shorts [1916], The Gold Rush [1925], City
Lights [1931], Modern Times [1936])
Child , Abigail [US: Mayhem (1987)]
Chytilova, Vera (Czechoslovakia: Daisies [1966])
Cisse, Souleymane (Mali: Yaleen [1987])
Cocteau, Jean (France: The Blood of a Poet [1930], Beauty and the Beast [1964])
Conner, Bruce (US: A Movie [1958])
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Coppola, Francis (US: Apocalypse Now [1979], The Godfather I & II [1972, 1974], The
Conversation [1974])
Cornell, Joseph (US: Rose Hobart [1936])
Cukor, George (US: The Philadelphia Story [1940])
Curtiz, Michael (Hungary/US: Casablanca [1942])
DeMille, Cecil (US: The Ten Commandments [1956])
Demy, Jacques (France: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg [1964])
De Oliveira, Manuel (Portugal: Francisca [1981])
De Palma, Brian (US: Carrie [1976])
Deren, Maya (US: Meshes of the Afternoon [1943])
De Antonio, Emile [US: Point Of Order (1964)]
De Sica, Vittorio (Italy: Umberto D [1952], The Bicycle Thieves [1948])
Diop Mambety, Djibril (Senegal: Touki Bouki [1973])
Dos Santos, Nelson Pereira (Brazil: Vidas Secas [1963])
Dovzhenko, Aleksandr (USSR: Earth [1930], Arsenal [1928])
Dreyer, Carl Theodor (Denmark: The Passion of Joan of Arc [1928], Day of Wrath
[1943])
Duras, Marguerite (France: India Song [1975])
Egoyan, Atom (Canada: Family Viewing [1987])
Eisenstein, Sergei (USSR: Battleship Potemkin [1925], Strike [1925], Ivan the Terrible
[1944])
Erice, Victor (Spain: The Spirit of the Beehive [1973])
Farocki, Harun [Algeria: Images of the World and the Inscription Of War (1989)]
Fassbinder, Rainer Werner (Germany: The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant [1972], The

Marriage of Maria Braun [1979])
Fellini, Federico (Italy: La Strada [1954],
8 ½
[1963], La Dolce Vita [1960])
Feuillade, Louis (France: Judex [1916], Les Vampires [1915])
Flaherty, Robert (US: Nanook of the North [1922])
Fleming, Victor (US: Gone with the Wind [1939], The Wizard of Oz [1939]
Ford, John (US: Stagecoach [1939], Young Mr. Lincoln [1939], The Searchers [1956])
Forgacs, Peter [Hungary: The Maelstrom (1997)]
Forman, Milos (Poland: Fireman's Ball [1967])
Frampton, Hollis (US: [nostalgia] [1971])
Frears, Stephen (U.K.: My Beautiful Laundrette (1985))
Friedrich, Su (US: Sink or Swim [1990])
Gance, Abel (France: J'Accuse [1938], Napoleon [1927])
Gehr, Ernie (US: Serene Velocity [1970])
Geiser, Janie [US: Immer Zu (1997)]
Gilliam, Terry (US: Brazil [1985])
Gitai, Amos (Israel: Kadosh [1999])
Godard, Jean-Luc (France: Breathless [1960], Vivre sa vie [1962], Contempt [1963],
Two or Three Things I Know About Her [1967], Weekend [1967])
Gorris, Marleen (Netherlands: A Question of Silence [1983])
Greenaway, Peter (England: The Draughtsman's Contract [1982])
Grierson, John (U.K.: The Drifters, 1929 )
Griffith, D.W.
(US: Biograph shorts [1911], Birth of a Nation [1915], Intolerance
[1916], Broken Blossoms [1919])
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Gutierrez Alea, Tomas (Cuba: Memories of Underdevelopment [1968])
Guzmán, Patricio
(Chile: The Battle of Chile (1975-9))
Hawks, Howard (US: The Big Sleep [1946], His Girl Friday [1940], Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes [1953])
Herzog, Werner (Germany: Land of Silence and Darkness [1971], Aguirre, Wrath of
God [1972]; Fitzcarraldo [1982])
Hitchcock, Alfred (England/US: Strangers on a Train [1951], Psycho [1960], Rear
Window [1954], Marnie [1964], The Birds [1963], North by Northwest [1959],
Vertigo [1958])
Hou, Hsiao-hsien (China: Flowers of Shanghai [1998])
Huston, John (US: The Maltese Falcon [1941], The African Queen [1951])
Hutton, Peter [US: New York Portrait, Part III (1990)]
Ivens, Joris (Netherlands: The Bridge [1928], Rain [1929], The Spanish Earth [1937])
Jarman, Derek (England: Blue [1993])
Jarmusch, Jim (US: Stranger than Paradise [1984])
Jennings, Humphrey (England: Fires Were Started [1943])
Kalatozov, Mikhail (USSR: I am Cuba [1964])
Kaurismaki, Aki (Finland: Drifting Clouds [1996])
Kazan, Elia (US: On the Waterfront (1954), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951),
Pinky(1949) )
Keaton, Buster (US: Sherlock Jr [1924], The General [1927])
Kelly, Gene/Donen, Stanley (US: Singin' in the Rain [1952])
Khan, Mehboob (India: Mother India [1957])
Khleifi, Michel (Israel: Wedding in Galilee [1987])
Klahr , Lewis [US: Altair (1994)]
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Kiarostami, Abbas (Iran: And Life Goes On [1991], A Taste of Cherry [1997])
Kieslowski, Krzysztof (Poland: The Decalogue [1989], The Three Colors Trilogy
[1994])
Kitano, Takeshi (Japan: Brother [2000])
Kopple, Barbara (US: Harlan County U.S.A
[1976])
Kubelka, Peter (Austria: Arnulf Rainer [1960], Unsere Afrikareise [1966])
Kubrick, Stanley (US: Paths of Glory [1957], A Clockwork Orange [1971], Dr.
Strangelove [1964], 2001 A Space Odyssey [1969])
Kunuk, Zacharias (Innuit: Atanarjuat The Fast Runner [2001])
Kurosawa, Akira (Japan: Seven Samurai [1954], Rashomon [1950], High and Low
[1963], Derzu Uzala [1975], Ran [1985])
Kusterica, Emir (Bosnia: Time of the Gypsies [1988])
Lang, Fritz (Germany/US: Metropolis [1927], M [1931], The Big Heat [1953])
Lanzmann, Claude (France: Shoah [1985])
Lean, David (England: Bridge Over the River Kwai [2003], Lawrence of Arabia [1962])
Lee, Spike (US: Do the Right Thing [1989])
Leroy, Mervyn (US: Gold Diggers of 1933 [1933])
Litmann, Lynn and Barbara Myerhoff [US: In Her Own Time (1985)]
Lubitsch, Ernst (Germany: Trouble in Paradise [1932])
Lucas, George (US: American Graffiti [1973], Star Wars [1977])
Lye, Len [US: Rhythm (1957)]
Lynch, David (US: Eraserhead [1977], Blue Velvet [1986], Mulholland Drive [2001])
MacDougall, David and Judith [Australia: A Wife Among Wives (1982)]
Makhmalbaf, Mohsen (Iran: The Apple [1998])
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Malle, Louis (France: Au Revoir, Les Enfants (1987))
Malick, Terrence (US: Days of Heaven [1978], The Thin Red Line [1998])
Mamoulian, Rouben (US: Love Me Tonight [1932])
Mankiewicz, Joseph US: All About Eve [1950])
Marker, Chris (France: La Jetée [1962], Sans Soleil [1983])
McBride, Jim [US: David Holzman's Diary (1967)]
McElwee, Ross (US: Sherman's March [1986])
Mead, Margaret [US: Bathing Babies in Three Cultures (1954)]
Mekas, Jonas (Lithuania/US: Lost, Lost, Lost [1976]; Walden [1969])
Menken, Marie (US: Notebooks [1963])
Menzel, Jiri (Czechoslovakia: Closely Watched Trains [1966])
Micheaux, Oscar (US: The Girl from Chicago [1932])
Milestone, Lewis (US: All Quiet on the Western Front [1930])
Mizoguchi, Kenzo (Japan: The Story of Late Chrysanthemums [1939], Ugetsu
Monogatari [1953])
Meliès, Georges (France: Voyage to the Moon [1902])
Minnelli, Vincente (US: Meet Me in St. Louis [1944], An American in Paris [1951])
Moffatt, Tracey (Australia: Night Cries [1989])
Morris, Errol (US: The Thin Blue Line [1988])
Murnau, F.W.
(Germany/US: Nosferatu [1922], The Last Laugh [1924], Sunrise [1927])
Naruse, Mikio (Japan: Sounds from the Mountains [1954])
Nichols, Mike (US: The Graduate (1967))
O'Neill, Pat [US: Water And Power (1989)]

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Ophuls, Max (Germany/France/US: La Ronde [1950], Letter from an Unknown Woman
[1948])
Oshima, Nagisa (Japan: In the Realm of the Senses [1976])
Ozu, Yasujiro (Japan: An Autumn Afternoon [1962], I Was Born , But [1932], Late
Spring [1949], Tokyo Story [1953])
Pabst, G.W.
(Germany: Joyless Street [1925], Pandora's Box [1929])
Paradjanov, Sergei (USSR: Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors [1964])
Pasolini, Pier Paolo (Italy: Accatone [1961], Gospel According to Matthew [1964])
Peckinpah, Sam (US: The Wild Bunch [1969])
Penn, Arthur (US: Bonnie and Clyde [1967])
Pennebaker, D.A.
(US: Don't Look Back [1967])
Polanski, Roman (Poland/US: The Tenant [1976], Rosemary's Baby [1968], Chinatown
[1974])
Pontecorvo, Gillo (Italy: The Battle of Algiers [1966])
Porter, Edwin S. (US : The Great Train Robbery (1903), Life of an American Fireman
(1903))
Potter, Sally (England: Thriller [1979], Orlando [1992])
Powell, Michael [and Emeric Pressburger ] (England: Black Narcissus [1947], The Red
Shoes [1948])
Rainer, Yvonne (US: Lives of Performers [1972], Journeys from Berlin [1980])
Ray, Nicholas (US: They Live By Night [1948], Johnny Guitar [1954])
Ray, Satyajit (India: The Apu Trilogy [1959])
Reed, Carol (England: The Third Man [1949])
Reisz, Karel (England: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning [1960])

Renoir, Jean (France: Rules of the Game [1939], Grand Illusion [1937])
Resnais, Alain (France: Night and Fog [1955], Last Year at Marienbad [1961],
Hiroshima Mon Amour [1959])
Riefenstahl, Leni (Germany: Triumph of the Will [1935], The Olympiad [1938])
Riggs , Marlon [US: Tongues Untied (1990)]
Rivette, Jacques (France: Celine and Julie Go Boating [1974])
Rocha, Glauber (Brazil: Barravento [1962], Black God, White Devil [1964])
Rohmer, Eric (France: Claire's Knee [1970])
Rossellini, Roberto (Italy: Paisan [1946], Rome Open City [1945], Voyage to Italy
[1954])
Rouch, Jean [France: Les Maitres Fous (1955)].
Rouch, Jean/ Edgar Morin [France: Chronicle Of A Summer's Day (1960)]
Rubbo, Michael [Canada: Waiting For Fidel (1974)]
Ruttmann, Walter (Germany: Berlin: Symphony of a Great City [1927])
Sagan, Leontine (Germany: Madchen in Uniforme [1931])
Salles, Walter (Brazil: Central Station [1998])
Sayles, John (US: Lone Star [1996])
Schneemann, Carolee (US: Fuses [1967])
Scorsese, Martin (US: Taxi Driver [1976], Raging Bull [1980], Goodfellas [1990])
Scott, Ridley (England/US: Blade Runner [1982])
Sembene, Ousmane (Senegal: Black Girl [1966], Xala [1975], Ceddo [1977])
Shinoda, Masahiro [Japan: Double Suicide (1969)]
Sippy, Ramesh (India: Sholay [1975])
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Sirk, Douglas (Germany/US: All that Heaven Allows [1955], Imitation of Life [1959])
Sjostrom, Victor (Sweden: The Phantom Chariot [1921], The Wind [1928])
Smith, Harry (US: Heaven and Earth Magic [1962])
Smith, Jack (US: Flaming Creatures [1963])
Snow, Michael (Canada: Wavelength [1967])
Sokurov, Aleksandr (USSR: Days of Eclipse [1988])
Solanas, Fernando [and Octavio Getino] (Argentina: Hour of the Furnaces [1968])
Solas, Humberto (Cuba: Lucia [1968])
Solomon, Phil [US: The Exquisite Hour (1989)]
Spielberg, Steven (US: Jaws [1975], Close Encounters of the Third Kind [1977])
Sturges, Preston (US: The Lady Eve [1941])
Tarkovsky, Andrei (USSR: Andrei Roublev [1969], Solaris [1972])
Tati, Jacques (France: Jour de fete [1949], Playtime [1967])
Teinosuke, Kinugasa [Japan: A Page Of Madness (1926)]
Tourneur, Jacques (France/US: Cat People [1942])
Trinh, T. Minh-ha (Vietnam: Surname Viet Given Name Nam [1989])
Truffaut, Francois (France: The 400 Blows [1959], Jules and Jim [1962])
Varda, Agnes (France: Cleo from 5 to 7 [1961])
Vertov, Dziga (USSR: Man With a Movie Camera [1929])
Vidor, King (US: Our Daily Bread [1934])
Vigo, Jean (France: Zero for Conduct [1933], L'Atalante [1934])
Viola, Bill [US: Hatsu Yume(First Dream ) (1981)]
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Visconti, Luchino (Italy: Ossessione [1943], Senso [1954], The Leopard [1963])
Von Sternberg, Joseph (Germany: The Scarlet Empress [1934], The Blue Angel [1930])
Von Stroheim, Erich (Germany: Greed [1924])
Wajda, Andrzej (Poland: Ashes and Diamonds [1958])
Walsh, Raoul (US: White Heat [1949])
Warhol, Andy (US: The Chelsea Girls [1966], Screentests [1965-1966])
Watkins, Peter (England: The War Game [1965])
Wenders, Wim (Germany: Alice in the Cities [1974], Paris Texas [1984], Wings of
Desire [1987])
Whale, James (England: Frankenstein [1931])
Wieland, Joyce (Canada: Sailboat , Water Sark [1965])
Wilder, Billy (Germany/US: The Apartment [1960], Sunset Blvd [1950], Some Like It
Hot [1959])
Wiene, Robert (Germany: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari [1920])
Wiseman, Frederick (US: Titicut Follies [1967], High School [1968])
Welles, Orson (US: Citizen Kane [1941], Touch of Evil [1958])
Wong, Kar Wai (Hong Kong: Happy Together [1997], Chungking Express [1994])
Woo, John (Hong Kong: A Better Tomorrow [1986])
Wyler, William (Germany/US: The Best Years of Our Lives [1946])
Yang, Edward (Taiwan: A Brighter Summer Day [1991])
Zhang, Yimou (China: Ju Dou [1990], Red Sorghum [1987])
Zinneman, Fred (US: High Noon [1952])