American Film is now entering its second century -- a time to reflect on (and to preserve) the great cinematic achievements of the past, in order to help develop the art form of the future.
I will soon be writing about film for the soon to be up and running website World Cinema Review. We're still working out what I'll write about first, but once my articles are online I'll post links to them both here and on my Articles Page.
Silent Films
You can't understand film, or consider yourself cinematically literate, unless you have a thorough grounding in silent films. Unfortunately, most young people don't want to see anything that's in black and white, much less a film without dialogue.
But if you're not familiar with the works of D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Sergei Eisenstein, F.W. Murnau and Buster Keaton -- well, you need to be.
Here is a link to my Silent Movies Page:
Silent Movies Page
And if you want to buy films on video, here's a place to find almost anything:
Facets
And here is a link to what I consider one of the most valuable pages on my website. It's a list, scrupulously updated, of all the silent films playing in major venues in New York City. If you ever want to know if a silent film is going to be screened in Manhattan, check here first:
Silent Film Screenings
Essential American Films Lists
In order to further this aim, I have created a series of essential film lists for the benefit of those people, primarily in their teens and early twenties, who are interested in film but who have little guidance as to which films from the past they should see as an essential part of their cinematic education.
Here are those lists:
Essential Silent Films
Essential Films of the 1930s
Essential Films of the 1940s
Essential Films of the 1950s
Essential Films of the 1970s
Don't ask me where the essential films of the 60s are. There weren't any. It was a shitty decade for American filmmaking -- 99% of the great films of that decade were being made abroad by directors like Fellini, Truffaut, Godard and Bergman.
Eventually I may try to put together an Essential Foreign Films List. But it'll be a while.
The AFIs 100 Best American Films List
Last Spring, the American Film Institute announced the results of their poll to determine the 100 Best American Films of the past century. Their list was harshly criticized at the time, and with good reason -- it sucked.
I have several pages on the controversy:
AFI's 100 Best Films
My Critique of the AFI's List
My Best 100 List
AFI's Dumb Choices
The Diversity Controversy
Here's a way to get back home:
Tom Moran (Feuillade) Website
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