You're teaching a film class - Pick 3
 

So, you're teaching a film class but can only pick THREE films to show your students pertaining to the genres listed below. What three do you choose and, you know, if you have the time, why did you choose them?

COMDEY
1. Bringing Up Baby
2. City Lights
3. The Big Labowski

DRAMA
1. The Godfather
2. Casablanca
3. Citizen Kane

MYSTERY
1. Notorious
2. Chinatown
3. Charade

FILM NOIR
1. Night of the Hunter
2. Laura
3. Double Indemity

HORROR
1. Halloween
2. Alien
3. Psycho

ACTION
1. Die Hard
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. The Great Escape

MUSICAL
1. Singing in the Rain
2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
3. West Side Story

WESTERN
1. Once Upon a Time in the West
2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
3. High Noon

SCI-FI
1. Star Wars
2. Bladerunner
3. A Clockwork Orange

CRIME/GANGSTER
1. Pulp Fiction
2. White Heat
3. The Killing

ANIMATION
1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
2. Toy Story
3. Fantasia

Sounds like a lot more fun than the film class I had. ;)

BINGO!

(I had some rather mundane film classes myself and I wanted to break up the classic staples with some modern works that I think are just as important)

What age group?


Operating on the basis that there are some movies on that list that the kids would be more than happy to go watch on their own (or have most likely already seen) - I'd show:

Citizen Kane
Singing in the Rain
???

My theme would be to discuss the techniques used in the three classic films (ck- camera tricks, style; sitr - layered realities; ???-???) and the have the class compare and contrast that usage with more recent pop films via papers or a journal.

The main goal of this thread, really, is to see what three films most people would want to share with others/students in a particular genre but your film class would be an interesting one because ??? is such a great film!

:p

I would think anyone who is interested in film has already viewed these films on their own time. If I paid money to attend a film course, I wouldn't want to watch something I'm familiar with.

Umm, then by all means PROVIDE YOUR OWN! That is the point of the thread, oui?

I got lazy since I had the sense that you probably wouldn't be interested in the direction I would opt to take. It appears my gamble paid off.

Also, I now better understand your original intent. My original interpretation was that you wanted 3 movies, period, picked from the library you had listed. Oops

COMDEY
1. Duck Soup
2. Clerks
3. A Shot in the Dark

DRAMA
1. Citizen Kane
2. Casablanca
3. Schindler's List

MYSTERY
1. NXNW
2. L.A. Confidential
3. The Usual Suspects

FILM NOIR
1. Touch of Evil
2. Gun Crazy
3. Raw Deal

HORROR
1. Texas Chainsaw Massacre
2. The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
3. Bride of Frankenstein

ACTION
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Bullitt
3. Targets

MUSICAL
1. The Wizard of Oz
2. The Producers
3. New York New York

WESTERN
1. The Good The Bad And The Ungly
2. The Searchers
3. Stagecoach

SCI-FI
1. Star Wars
2. Metropolis
3. The Day the Earth Sttod Still

CRIME/GANGSTER
1. Pulp Fiction
2. The Public Enemy
3. Goodfellas

ANIMATION
1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
2. Akira
3. Selection of Tex Avery Looney TUnes

I agree the OP's pics sounded more fun than most of the classes I took.

here's what I'd show...

COMDEY
Pee Wee's Big Adventure

DRAMA
Not a big classic drama fan but I guess I'd take your godfather pick

MYSTERY
never saw any of yours ...

FILM NOIR
see above

HORROR
Maybe Alien, but the overall alien theme or whatever has been done and redone so many times now that people that never saw it before would prolly not think highly enough of it. I think I'd go with the original Exorcist.

ACTION
Prolly Raiders

MUSICAL
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, because I just can't take musicals seriously. I like stuff to be semi realistic in a way and I just don't know anyone that for no reason at all would just burst into song. so for me this and Team America are the only ones I can stomach because they poke fun at the genre and are also just hella funny.

WESTERN
Deadwood, even though it's a series.. but if it has to be a movie, Tombstone!

SCI-FI
Star Wars

CRIME/GANGSTER
There's so many done & redone gangster films so I'd prolly go with Pulp Fiction just because of how different it is.

ANIMATION
I would go with Toy Story. Earlier classics might be classics but for me I just can't get into em. I got the Snow White DVD when it first came out, and it put me to sleep.

So there!

COMEDY
1. Blazing Saddles
2. The General
3. This Is Spinal Tap

DRAMA
1. 12 Angry Men
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

MYSTERY
1. Memento
2. Rashomon
3. Se7en

FILM NOIR
1. M
2. The Maltese Falcon
3. The Third Man

HORROR
1. Dawn of the Dead
2. Night of the Living Dead
3. Suspiria

ACTION
1. Battle Royale
2. Kill Bill: Volume 1 and 2
3. Seven Samurai

MUSICAL
1. Hair
2. Little Shop of Horrors
3. The Rocky Horror Picture Show

WESTERN
1. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
2. Tombstone
3. The Wild Bunch

SCI-FI
1. Brazil
2. Dark City
3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers

CRIME/GANGSTER
1. Fight Club
2. Goodfellas
3. Out of Sight

ANIMATION
1. The Incredibles
2. The Iron Giant
3. South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut

I won't do them all but a few will not overdo it.

COMEDY
1. Sherlock Jr.
2. Down by Law
3. Rushmore

FILM NOIR (Doing 5, just because)
1. Kiss Me Deadly
2. Touch of Evil
3. Double Indemnity
4. The Night of the Hunter (we will say it is film noir for this)
5. They Live by Night

WESTERN (4, just because also)
1. The Wild Bunch
2. Once Upon a Time in the West
3. Dead Man
4. McCabe and Mrs. Miller

DRAMA
1. Faces
2. A Woman Under the Influence
3. The Last Picture Show

3 Films per Genre? Holy crap! We watched 3 films all year in film class. I highly recommend staying away from any films that the students might have seen. This doesn't mean take away modern films just try and showcase lesser known films. No Star Wars, Matrix, Indiana Jones, etc. Try little films with big stars like Dead Man with Johnny Depp. More Kurosawa, Bergman, Lean, and Hitchcock and less Spielberg. Remember this is the only time in most of these kids' lives when they'll actually watch films from those directors.

Wow. In the History of Film, we usually watched one film a week (if not more). I'm currently enrolled in the Language of Film and we watch a film every Thursday and analyze it the Tuesday after.

I'm sorry, but I hate putting films into genres. I also consider Animation a medium, not a genre.

COMDEY
1) Blazing Saddles
2) Being John Malkovich
3) Monty Python And The Holy Grail

DRAMA
1) Amadeus
2) Citizen Kane
3) Schindler's List

MYSTERY
1) The Vanishing (Original)
2) Charade
3) The Usual Suspects

FILM NOIR
1) The Third Man
2) Notorious
3) Raw Deal

HORROR
1) Halloween
2) Evil Dead II
3) Dawn Of The Dead (Original)

ACTION
1) Die Hard
2) Hard Boiled
3) Heat

MUSICAL
1) The Producers
2) The Wizard Of Oz
3) Tommy

WESTERN
1) The Good The Bad And The Ungly
2) Once Upon A Time In The West
3) High Noon

SCI-FI
1) Terminator 2
2) Alien
3) Robocop

CRIME/GANGSTER
1) Pulp Fiction
2) The Godfather
3) Goodfellas

ANIMATION
1) Snow White
2) Bambi
3) Emperor's New Groove

COMDEY
1. Buffalo '66
2. My Sassy Girl
3. King of Comedy (Stephen Chow)

DRAMA
1. Fly Me To Polaris
2. Il Mare
3. Magnolia

MYSTERY
1. No Way Out - best suspense mind-fuck ever.
2. Chinatown - good choice
3. Old Boy

HORROR
1. Evil Dead 2
2. Ring
3. Tale of Two Sisters

ACTION
1. Predator
2. Fist of Legend
3. Tae Guk Gi

WESTERN
1. Once Upon a Time in China
2. Ashes of Time
3. Dragon Inn

SCI-FI
1. Starship Troopers
2. Fifth Element
3. 12 Monkeys

CRIME/GANGSTER
1. Infernal Affairs
2. Swimming With Sharks
3. Time and Tide

No foreign category? Tsk tsk . . .

Too tired for a complete rundown, but you have to look at what you are using each film for. For example, the original Dawn of the Dead isn't that great of a horror film, but it is a great (although dated) social commentary. PLanet of the Apes (original!) is an excellent sci-fi film, but it serves on a much higher plane as social commentary.

Starship Troopers is a fun (but mediocre, and I still love it!) sci fi/actioner. However, it really is a film that parallels facist tones and mirrors Nazi war propoganda films. "V" (although a TV series) is another great reflection upon 1930s Germany . . .

I guess it would depend on the point of the class though . . .

I'm not a big fan of the genre division in teaching film - I go to film school and a lot of people are never able to think beyond such distinctions. Think of Donald Kaufman in Adaptation - "My genre's thriller, what's yours?" So if I were teaching an essentials of film class, I'd break it down into a study of the most important aspects of filmmaking, then assign a few movies for each one. Something like this:

WRITING
Casablanca
Chinatown
Pulp Fiction

ACTING
On the Waterfront
Raging Bull
Cries and Whispers

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Vertigo
The Godfather
The Thin Red Line

EDITING
Breathless
Don't Look Now
Raiders of the Lost Ark

DESIGN
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
2001
Alien

COMDEY
1. Young Frankenstein
2. Raising Arizona
3. Fandango

DRAMA
1. Barfly
2. Raging Bull
3. Savage Innocents

HORROR
1. Evil Dead/Evil Dead II
2. Day of The Dead
3. Dawn of The Dead (Original)

ACTION
1. Bridge On The River Kwai
2. Thin Red Line
3. Road Warrior

WESTERN
1. Wild Bunch
2. Seven Samurai
3. TG,TB & TU

SCI-FI
1. Close Encounters of The Third Kind
2. Bladerunner
3. The Fly (Remake)

CRIME/GANGSTER
1. Miller's Crossing
2. Onion Field
3. Reservoir Dogs

ANIMATION
1. Akira
2. Wizards
3. Iron Giant

COMDEY
1. Arsenic & Old Lace
2. Heathers
3. The Holy Grail

DRAMA
1. Glengarry Glen Ross
2. Casablanca
3. Do the Right Thing

MYSTERY
1. Notorious
2. The Usual Suspects
3. Charade

FILM NOIR
1. Devil in a Blue Dress
2. Laura
3. Double Indemity

HORROR (I'm not a fan of the genre)
1. Nightmare on Elm Street
2. Alien
3. Psycho

ACTION
1. Aliens
2. Hard Boiled
3. Heat

MUSICAL
1. Singing in the Rain
2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
3. West Side Story or The Blues Brothers

WESTERN (not a fan of the genre)
1. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
2. Blazing Saddles

SCI-FI
1. Star Wars
2. Bladerunner
3. Star Trek II

CRIME/GANGSTER
1. Dark Blue
2. White Heat
3. The Godfather

ANIMATION
1. Akira
2. Bambi
3. Toy Story

COMEDY
1. Duck Soup
2. A Shot in the Dark
3. Playtime

DRAMA
1. Fanny and Alexander
2. Russian Ark
3. Ikiru

MYSTERY
1. Picnic at Hanging Rock
2. Rashomon
3. Blood Simple

FILM NOIR
1. The Third Man

HORROR
1. The Hour of the Wolf
2. Re-Animator
3. Night of the Living Dead

ACTION
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Hardboiled
3. La Femme Nikita

MUSICAL
1. Fiddler on the Roof
2. The Boyfriend (Ken Russell)
3. West Side Story

WESTERN
1. Once Upon a Time in the West
2. The Wild Bunch
3. El Topo

SCI-FI
1. Stalker
2. Brazil
3. A Clockwork Orange

CRIME/GANGSTER
1. Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
2. Infernal Affairs
3. The Killing

ANIMATION
1. Nauciaa and the Valley of Wind
2. Pinocchio
3. Watership Down

let me add a catagory:

DOCUMENTARY
1. Hoop Dreams
2. Bus 174
3. Microcosmos

~

WRITING
"Short Cuts"

ACTING
"The Godfather"

CINEMATOGRAPHY
"Prospero's Books"

EDITING
"Lawrence of Arabia"

DESIGN
"Metropolis"

I wouldn't mind seeing something I've already seen. Especially during a film course. When the discussion and analysis comes up, things might be talked about that I hadn't occured to me. That's the beauty of seeing them with a group of people that are actually there to discuss the film, and not just to say "oh that sucked", or "ooh that was soo cool!".

I sorta do this right now, but I am limited by what I can show. I work in a high school and I moderate the Film Club. With this group of teens, I do tend to show things that they would never go see, only because they need exposure to something other than hollywood stuff.

Some things I have shown:
Run Lola Run, It Happened One Night, Sullivan's Travels, M, Adaptation, Being John Malkovich, Barton Fink, Requiem for a Dream, Elizabeth, Apocolypse Now, Notorious, Psycho (which most had never seen), Moulin Rouge!, Ed Wood, Nightmare Before Christmas, Lord of the Flies, Punch Drunk Love, Jean De Florette, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Gimme Shelter....and many others. Been doing this for four years.