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Jon calls this "a work of genius"--and I had to pay him almost nothing for the blurb. More mystery and mayhem in the Ivy League, mixing my world with real history to create something entertaining.


I've combed my archives to create this collection of my magazine humor. From The Yale Record to The New Yorker, the best of the pre-Barry years is in here.


My first non-parodic novel is now available! It's school like it ought to be: loud, eventful, and full of swearing!


I'm probably going to Hell for this C.S. Lewis spoof.


The ultimate Harry Potter parody. Three novels, 25 foreign editions, over a million copies sold--it's too much to list here, but you can read excerpts and buy the books at Barrytrotter.com!

Wednesday, June 1, 2005

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"

 

Blogger Lee said ... (11:19 AM) : 

I'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...

 

Anonymous Kate said ... (8:01 PM) : 

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.)

 

Blogger Larry Fouch said ... (8:49 PM) : 

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.

 

Blogger Lee said ... (9:29 PM) : 

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.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (9:20 AM) : 

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

 

Anonymous Kate said ... (5:08 PM) : 

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.

 

Blogger Murph said ... (12:45 PM) : 

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

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (8:51 PM) : 

where's scarface? facking classic...hoohah

 

Anonymous TwistTieCollector said ... (6:24 AM) : 

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?

 

Blogger ed said ... (9:15 AM) : 

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.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (3:32 PM) : 

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.

 

Blogger Erik Loomis said ... (7:51 AM) : 

Are silents no longer taught at all?

 

Anonymous mwitty said ... (10:32 AM) : 

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!"

 

Anonymous mwitty said ... (10:58 AM) : 

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.

 

Blogger Michael said ... (11:41 AM) : 

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.

 

Blogger Keith said ... (2:24 PM) : 

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!

 

Anonymous Kate said ... (8:12 PM) : 

"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.)

 

Anonymous mwitty said ... (7:07 AM) : 

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.

 

Anonymous julya said ... (12:43 PM) : 

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.

 

Blogger Victoria said ... (9:11 PM) : 

Arrested Development is on there! Yippee! (it's a TV show)

 

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