So I'm going to be attending university in the fall, majoring in Film Production. The head of the department is Jack Sholder, director of such cinematic fare as The Hidden (starring a young thespian named Kyle MacLachlan) and Nightmare on Elm Street 2.

Mr. Sholder recently emailed those participating in the program with his Essential Viewing List, with the suggestion that we check out a few over the summer. Below is the list in full (in bold are the ones I've already seen). Any personal opinions on films I should look for this summer?

1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)

2. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)

3. North by Northwest (Hitchcock)

4. The 39 Steps (Hitchcock)

5. Psycho (Hitchcock)

6. The Godfather (Francis Coppola)

7. Sunrise (F.W. Murnau)

8. 8 ½ (Federico Fellini)

9. Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)

10. Breathless (Jean Luc Godard)

11. Day for Night (François Truffaut)

12. Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné)

13. The Third Man (Carol Reed)

14. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)

15. Fanny & Alexander (Ingemar Bergman)

16. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa)

17. Ugestsu Monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi)

18. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman)

19. A Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)

20. The Searchers (John Ford)

21. Red River (Howard Hawks)

22. Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston)

23. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston)

24. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder)

25. Chinatown (Roman Polanski)

26. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorcese)

27. Raging Bull (Martin Scorcese)

28. Ashes and Diamonds (Andrez Wadja)

29. Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky)

30. Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir)

31. La Strada (Federico Fellini)

32. The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica)

33. L’Avventura (Michaelangelo Antonioni)

34. All the President’s Men (Aalan Pakula)

35. Network (Sidney Lumet)

36. Jaws (Steven Spielberg)

37. The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino)

38. Apocalype Now (Francis Coppola)

39. The Killer (John Woo)

40. The Killing Fields (Roland Joffé)

41. The Sorrow and the Pity (Marcel Ophuls)

42. The French Connection (William Friedkin)

43. Top Hat (with Fred Astaire)

44. Singin’ In The Rain (Staanley Donen)

45. Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks)

46. Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges)

47. A Night at the Opera (with the Marx Brothers)

48. The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin)

49. The General (Buster Keaton)

50. Safety Last (Harold Lloyd)

Logic Hat Online- logichat.org

Is the Buster Keaton film a short or a feature?

I'm wondering if I will actually like The Bicycle Thief? It's always referenced as the very model of thinking man's cinema, sometimes kind of ironically, like in The Player.

"We should remake it someday!"
"Yeah, you'll probably give it a happy ending."

Logic Hat Online- logichat.org

1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)

2. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)

3. North by Northwest (Hitchcock)

4.The 39 Steps (Hitchcock)

5. Psycho (Hitchcock)

6. The Godfather (Francis Coppola)

7. Sunrise (F.W. Murnau)

8. 8 ½ (Federico Fellini)

9. Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)

10. Breathless (Jean Luc Godard)

11. Day for Night (François Truffaut)

12. Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné)

13. The Third Man (Carol Reed)

14. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)

15. Fanny & Alexander (Ingemar Bergman)

16. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa)

17. Ugestsu Monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi)

18. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman)

19. A Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)

20. The Searchers (John Ford)

21. Red River (Howard Hawks)

22. Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston)

23. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston)

24. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder)

25. Chinatown (Roman Polanski)

26. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorcese)

27. Raging Bull (Martin Scorcese)

28. Ashes and Diamonds (Andrez Wadja)

29. Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky)

30. Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir)

31. La Strada (Federico Fellini)

32. The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica)

33. L’Avventura (Michaelangelo Antonioni)

34. All the President’s Men (Aalan Pakula)

35. Network (Sidney Lumet)

36. Jaws (Steven Spielberg)

37. The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino)

38. Apocalype Now (Francis Coppola)

39. The Killer (John Woo)

40. The Killing Fields (Roland Joffé)

41. The Sorrow and the Pity (Marcel Ophuls)

42. The French Connection (William Friedkin)

43. Top Hat (with Fred Astaire)

44. Singin’ In The Rain (Staanley Donen)

45. Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks)

46. Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges)

47. A Night at the Opera (with the Marx Brothers)

48. The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin)

49. The General (Buster Keaton)

50. Safety Last (Harold Lloyd)

The ones in bold I have seen, and possibly The Third Man...im not 100% sure!

"Ive got good news....that gum you like is going to come back in style!"

"I'm a WHOLE DAMN TOWN!"

Logic Hat Online- logichat.org

1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles) - check

Yes, Yes, and Yes

I also highly recommend you checking out Breathless (Godard is wonderful IMO. And he pretty much invented the Jump-Cut)
Fanny&Alexander (maybe my 2nd favorite Bergman film)

and Network... though, while this is a good movie, it is less vital to "important film history" than the other two, and the ones you mentioned above

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

I lose this game. The only one of those in my personal collection is Apocalypse Now. My mother, however, owns The Godfather and North by Northwest.

Hollywood Video didn't have The Bicycle Thief when I was there, and I didn't look for Seventh Seal, but they did have Breathless. 

Logic Hat Online- logichat.org

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a must for me.

Also, Godfather 2 > Godfather

The only ones on that list that I haven't seen are Ungestsu Monogatari, L'avventura, The Sorrow and The Pity, Sullivan's Travels, The General, and Safety Last. Ones in bold are in my collection.

Since this is a TP site, the one I recommend you see IMMEDIATELY is 8½  - it is a Lynch favorite, as is La Strada.

Bicycle Thief is pretty essential viewing if you want to know about realism. It is also an intensely beautiful movie, and a personal favorite.

1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)

I don't think I like this list... why has it got 5 Hitchckock films and only one Kurosawa or two Fellinis for example? Where is Luchino Visconti? Well nevermind, that's not the point.

As a Polish guy, I definitely do recommend watching Diamonds and Ashes by Wajda, in my opinion it's the best Polish film and a real masterpiece...

I also recommend Andrei Rublov, this film is immensily beautiful, although I must admit, I don't feel I understood it... it's like lots of middle-age art, which I get fascinated by but am too ignorant to really understand :-(

I do NOT recommend watching Antonioni's L'aventura (Adventure) unless you've seen many other of his films. It is a classic and probably has the biggest historical meaning but at least I found it one of his least interesting films. I liked The Night much more, and of course Blow-up.

Bobi 1 Kenobi

B. Beware
O. Of
B. BOB 

hehe

hmm...

the closest you can get is... perhaps

Z-JEE-SUAF ["jee-" nad "gee-" doesn't make any difference, does it?]

hmm...

perhaps Z-JEE-SWAF would work, too ;-)

P.S. but you have to pronounce the 'a' in 'suaf' as in 'ant', NOT like in 'and'.

P.P.S. the "z-jee" could also be described as what you say in the middle of "my favourite fabric is jeans", you know, the "..s jea.." part.

Bobi 1 Kenobi

B. Beware
O. Of
B. BOB 

"Open Water"

~~~~~~

Myowl

Myowl