Search found 2 matches: F.W. Murnau

Lost Highway really isn't Lynch at peak form, although it is quite good. I think it'd be fine if you flipped a coin for Blue Velvet or Eraserhead as they're both masterpieces. It's really hard to pick just one, although people are more likely to have heard of Blue Velvet (or at least see that Dennis Hopper is in it) and give it a chance, over Eraserhead.

Go with Sunrise for Murnau. With the Sight & Sound list just released people might have heard of it and be interested in checking it out.

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington for sure.

Hopscotch wrote:And to get through the silent films:
These seem like harsh limits, but what are the 2 essentials of early Soviet Cinema? The 2 essentials of German Expressionism? The 5 essentials of silent era Hollywood? And to round out at 10 silents, can we think of one more definitive film?

Not so harsh really when reducing film history to 200 films. If I had to throw ten more or less according to your restrictions, and without repeating any directors, i'd go with:

Intolerance (Griffith, 1916)*
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920)
Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, 1922)
Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)
Safety last (Harold Lloyd, 1923)
Strike (Sergei Einsenstein, 1925)
Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)**
The Cameraman (Buster Keaton, 1928)
The man with the movie camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
Modern Times (Chaplin, 1936)***


*That or just any shorts compilation by Griffith. His films are pretty horrible imo but his endless contributions to the medium were crucial, whether one likes it or not. If you want to encompass all of film history, he's a must, otherwise not really, not at all. Intolerance though is the most watchable of his films I've seen, and the most representative of it's time, even though it's 3 freaking hours long.

**Note that over half of Metropolis was considered lost for over 80 years until a full copy was found a few years ago (I even knew the guy who found it ). The full version of the film has been restored so make sure that if you do get it, you get that one. I've seen the complete last act and it was amazing.

***not really silent era but it's a silent film anyhow, and probably the most important american film until Citizen Kane.

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on a side note, I thought 'Suspiria' was really awful but Deep Red is seriously awesome, I fucking love that soundtrack.