USC movie list
| As some of you know, my wife's about to go to grad school at USC for Film/TV. Last night she received a list of the movies they expect incoming students to have seen. I have a mania for such stuff--my dream is to create a library containing only the BEST books/comic books/movies. In case you shared this love/sickness, I thought I'd post their list. Anybody out there who's seen them all? MOVIES: A Hard Day's Night African Queen Alice in the Cities Alien All About Eve Amadeus American Friend, The American Grafitti Annie Hall Apartment, The Apocalype Now Apu Trilogy, The Band of Outsiders Band Wagon, The Barton Fink Battle of Algiers Being John Malkovich Bicycle Thief, The Big Lebowski, The Black Orpheus Blade Runner Blow-Up Blue Blue Velvet Bob le Flambeur Bonnie and Clyde Boyz 'n the Hood Breathless Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Carrie Casablanca Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis) Chinatown Cinema Paradiso Citizen Kane Clueless Coal Miner's Daughter Contempt Conversation, The Cool Hand Luke Crimes And Misdemeanors Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Deep End, The Dekalog Dersu Uzala Diner Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The D.O.A. (1950) Do The Right Thing Dog Day Afternoon Donnie Darko Double Indemnity Dr. Strangelove Eat, Drink, Man, Woman 8 1/2 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Exorcist, The Fallen Idol, The Fight Club Fish Called Wanda, A Five Easy Pieces Force of Evil Godfather, The (I & II) Gone With the Wind Graduate, The Grand Illusion High and Low High Noon House of Sand and Fog It Happened One Night Jaws Jules and Jim King of Marvin Gardens, The Kramer Vs. Kramer La Jetée La Strada Lady Eve, The Last Tango in Paris L'Avventura Lawrence of Arabia Le Boucher Le Samouraï Letter from an Unknown Woman Like Water for Chocolate Man for All Seasons, A Matrix, The M*A*S*H Memento Midnight Cowboy Miller's Crossing Mother and the Whore, The Morocco Mulholland Drive Nashville Network Night Moves Ninotchka Notorious On the Waterfront Once Upon a Time in the West One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Out of the Past Paths of Glory Patton Point Blank Producers, The Pulp Fiction Raging Bull Ran Rashomon Rear Window Red Red Balloon, The Repo Man Rules of the Game Safe Searchers, The Seven Samurai Seventh Seal, The Shanghai Express Shock Corridor Shoot the Piano Player Silence of the Lambs Stagecoach Star is Born, A (1937) Star Wars Stranger Than Paradise Sullivan's Travels Sunset Boulevard Talk to Her Thelma and Louise Third Man, The Tin Drum, The Touch of Evil Traffic Trouble in Paradise 2001 - A Space Odyssey Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Underworld U.S.A. Unforgiven Verdict, The Vertigo White Wild Strawberries Wizard of Oz, The Written on the Wind Woman in the Dunes You Can Count on Me DOCUMENTARIES: Sorrow and the Pity, The Harlan Country, USA Dogtown and Z Boys My Architect Triumph of the Will Hoop Dreams Roger and Me Super Size Me Grey Gardens Gimme Shelter Crumb Spellbound Capturing the Friedmans Riding Giants The War Room Don't Look Back Brother's Keeper What the Bleep do we know? The Thin Blue Line Fast, Cheap and Out of Control The Kid Stays in the Picture Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser Control Room The Celluloid Closet Sans Soleil Poto and Cabengo TV [available to Rent]: Six Feet Under The Sopranos Sex and the City Freaks and Geeks All in the Family MASH Seinfeld 24 Arrested Development Gilmore Girls Good Times The Wonder Years The Shield The Wire The Office Fascinating, huh? I'm no slouch when it comes to the foreign film or difficult documentary, yet I was amazed at how many of the movies I had never heard of. Guess I know what Kate and I will be doing while we pack... |


Comments on "USC movie list"
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Lee said ... (11:19 AM) :
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post a commentI've only seen 100 of them (I counted) and I'm insane about movies. I actually don't know anyone who's not in the directing track at film school that's more of a movie geek than me, so I'm amazed at the length. And isn't the decalogue like a 10 hour movie that you can only see in theaters? Some of the stuff is also not available on DVD yet (Le Samourai, I tried to rent this a while back). Also, I think they've included some real shit: the Matrix, Donnie Darko, Memento, Fight Club? Come on!
And no Nick Broomfield documentaries?!!!
Oh, I've seen all the TV, but I think they left a lot of good stuff out. Monty Python's Flying Circus, the Simpsons...
I don't think this is a "best of" list, but rather an essential list of movies that the professors at USC use to teach certain elements of screenwriting. Of course, I'm about to start paying a massive amount of money to listen to the things the USC professors have to say, so clearly I'm biased. (My official watch list is 93 films long, but that includes a number of things I need to see again.)
I have seen them all, Mr. Gerber! The Dekalog is available as a 3-disc set from FACETS. There's some great stuff, particularly the Dekalog 1 and what Grandmaster K expanded to "A Short Film About Killing."
If you are interested in EVEN MORE OBSCURE (and some possibly superior--the fact that I don't think there is ONE Powell/Pressburger (the latter possibly the best screenwriter who ever lived) film on the list--please check out my blog, Larryfouch.blogspot.com.
Good luck, Kate,
Larry F.
I'm sure you're right, Kate, but nevertheless, I have a feeling the duds aren't on there for the right reasons. They seem consciously modern? And not essential at all? Hopefully I'm wrong and we can always quibble about what's good and not. It's a pretty good list, nonetheless.
I'll see you in LA! USC's great! Just don't spend any time there at night; I hear the carjackers down there have machine guns.
Mike and Kate--
How I wish I could find the Columbia list! There are a lot of commonalities on both lists; basically the same base, but mine had more "art" films, and was swollen with Fassbinder. Love the addition of "Repo Man!" I disagree with Lee about the inclusion of "The Matrix." Both the script and the movie are balls-out kick-ass and satisfying. Kate, you should start blogging your thoughts on the movies you watch!
Best,
Matt Fogel
Matt, I take it you haven't followed Mike's link to http://surlywriter.blogspot.com. (Hint, hint.)
Kate
P.S. I liked "The Matrix" too. And as you'll see, I am something of a student of good film makers gone horribly, horribly wrong.
Counting the docs, I've seen 145 on the list. This is way longer than the list AFI puts out to its students (I think only about 35 were on that one). Good luck at SC
where's scarface? facking classic...hoohah
No Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Life of Brian? What about This Is Spinal Tap?
As for documentary they didn't have Atomic Cafe?
Surely my tastes are not their tastes.
If I may make one tangential observation: If this is the base from which every USC film grad begins their trek, why is it Hollywood pumps out mostly remakes/covers of comic book characters or 60s/70s/80s TV shows? Is all imagination lost in the process?
I'm surprised that there isn't a single Werner Herzog film on this list. He must be one of the most important filmmakers of the past three decades.
Mike,
I just graduated from 'SC Film School and I haven't seen a whole bunch of dem dere pics. Better yet, I haven't heard of a bunch of dem dere pictures.
Good luck to your wife. I managed to make it through marriage (and kids) intact.
Rob N.
Are silents no longer taught at all?
I've been thinking of applying to USC's Screenwriting MFA program for quite some time, but now I have to reconsider. I would expect to suffer this level of film snobbery from fellow students, but from the university itself? "You haven't seen Clueless?! Gone With The Wind?! Blade Runner?! How dare you think you can write a screenplay!"
Let me clarify-- there's nothing wrong with a screenwriting/film prof using any of these films (or, to be fair, almost any other film) as an object lesson. I'm just surprised that the program would go so far as to expect that incoming students have already seen these movies. I think it would validate film-snobbery at its most counter-productive.
Heh heh--I KNEW this would stir the pot. I should post a list of the fifty greatest comedies, just to release more bees.
Thanks Murph for the kind wishes. And Rob N., that's wonderful news--I hope to stay married for a long time!
Just for the record, this isn't the list I'd put together either--I was surprised at the lack of "Aguirre, Wrath of God," for example; not to mention personal faves like "La Dolce Vita," and, and, and...I work my Facets membership HARD.
I was surprised at the lack of silents, too--but keep in mind that this list is more than a little context-less, so maybe there's a sound pedagogical reason for the obvious lacunae. And mwitty, I'd caution you against reading too much into this list. I'm not the one going, but when we visited I was pretty damn impressed with their attitude and program.
No Herzog, No silent films and no Guy Madden. No Spielburg, either (or maybe they just assume you've seen them all).
And Not even one of the Lord of the Rings trilogy? You could teach a whole course on film making just from those three movies!
"Jaws" is Spielberg, no?
I don't think this will settle anything, but the actual header on the list reads: "The Writing Division's List of One Hundred One Films with which You Should be Familiar, now, by Accretion, containing Somewhat More than the Specified Number."
So this list represents *only* the Writing Division's expectations for incoming students, and only that they be "familiar" with them.
It is interesting--just the first two films I picked up, "Patton" and "The King of Marvin Gardens", demonstrated rock-solid storytelling, but very, very different styles. How odd that there could be so many ways to bring the audience into a fictional world and George Lucas seems to forgotten all of them.
(Yes, I'm obsessed.)
Michael-- thanks for the warning. I too have come away damn impressed every time I've looked into USC's program. I admit, I'm as intrigued as I am put-off that the program would be so bold as to have its own canon. It betrays the same kind of learned passion for cinema that led me to screenwriting in the first place. Good luck to your wife. I'll check in for updates.
Just sos you knows...I teach theatre at a small school and I have to say that there are some that I actually think are MISSING from the list! But what a teacher expects and what a student comes prepared for...usually differ by the means of a chasm. Its far more likely that prof just wanted to expose his/her students. I know I give my students a list of books thats several hundred long and tell them they should have them in their home library. Someday. LOL Its great that you pub'd this. Rock on. Its a good place for film afficiandos to start.
Arrested Development is on there! Yippee! (it's a TV show)