Movie Club
Thinking about what I would have as a curriculum for a movie club. Initial sketch:
Note: The Fall is in every list, but that’s the only repetition.
Core for Movie Club: The “trickstery filmmaking” collection:
The Fall, 2006, Tarsem Singh
The Cow, 1968, Dariush Mehrjui
The Cell, 2000, Tarsem Singh
Rashomon, 1950, Akira Kurosawa
Santa Sangre, 1989, Alejandro Jodorowsky
The Cyclist, 1987, Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Mulholland Drive, 2001, David Lynch
Videodrome, 1983, David Cronenberg
The point of this would be to have a diversity of filmmakers, showcasing what can be done with the craft of filmmaking both as filmmaking and as storytelling via filmmaking.
The Cow is a very famous Iranian film, from the golden age of modern Iranian cinema. So is The Cyclist. The Fall is basically a complete favorite for some people, and is known as Tarsem’s masterpiece. The Cell is a more “hollywood” film, but I really really like it for very specific reasons that I won’t say as that would spoil the movie a bit. Roshomon is a classic, and then Santa Sangre is a classic in certain circles, but most people have not seen it and is a movie I think everyone should see, but if you really hate horror it does count as horror and I have seen some people be disturbed by it, and one couple have a fight about it after one party found it disturbing, and one party found it deeply beautiful.
We could have a film club just watching the ten David Lynch feature films, but absent that, I think Mulholland Drive should be on this list.
And then Videodrome is fun and on theme and is also a cult classic.
I would say if I were suggesting movies for a film club for my first run, I would use this list. A lot of these do something about the question “what is a film” or “what can be done with filmmaking” that I consider cool.
I haven’t seen it yet, but I am interested in checking out Three Stories (1997), directed by Kira Muratova.
Additional: The “beautiful movies” collection:
The Fountain, 2006, Darren Aronofsky
Solaris, 1972, Andrei Tarkovsky
The Holy Mountain, 1973, Alejandro Jodorowsky
The Fall, 2006, Tarsem Singh
These are just stunningly beautiful. I would say these should be watched on the best setup you can get. These are just terrific big, grand, operatic movies. Solaris is very very famous. The Fountain a bit less so. Having a mix of “classic important movies” and other stuff seems important for a film club! The Fountain is the movie by Aronofsky one might consider the director of Requiem for a Dream to be capable of making, given the beauty of that film, and Aronofsky really delivers here. If one liked Requiem for a Dream, went to see Pi, and then was disappointed because it was “smaller” then expected, The Fountain is the really really big masterpiece.
Holy Mountain is something you might have seen if you’re into Jodorowsky, but then otherwise might not have heard of, and it’s excellent.
There will be many more beautiful movies on this list. I like beautiful movies. But these ones you can tell that the beauty was in large part “the point.”
Additional: The “children are people too” collection:
The Fall, 2006, Tarsem Singh
Where Is the Friend's House?, 1987, Abbas Kiarostami
The Lure, 2015, Agnieszka Smoczyńska
Let the Right One In, 2008, Tomas Alfredson
Dogtooth, 2009 Greek, Yorgos Lanthimos
I have a soft spot for movies that feature children as complicated and interesting, with depth of emotion and as central characters. You would notice that three of these are not in English! I find that foreign films capture children better.