Syllabus

Full Master List on Letterboxd

September (4)

1. The Silent Era (pick one film from before 1937)

2. Classic Hollywood 101 (pick one)

  • The Shop Around the Corner
  • His Girl Friday
  • The Philadelphia Story
  • The Maltese Falcon
  • Sullivan’s Travels
  • Casablanca
  • Arsenic and Old Lace

3. CITIZEN KANE - HBO Max         

4. Any other film from the list

October (5)

1. Classic Hollywood 201 (pick one)
  • The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
  • The Big Sleep
  • White Heat
  • In a Lonely Place
  • All About Eve
  • Harvey
  • On the Waterfront

2. Any other film from the list

3. Asian Film 101 (pick one)

  • Seven Samurai
  • Rashomon
  • Yojimbo
  • Tokyo Story
  • Pather Panchali
  • The Hidden Fortress

4.  Classic Hollywood 301 (pick one)

  • 12 Angry Men
  • Touch of Evil
  • A Face in the Crowd
  • Sweet Smell of Success
  • Some Like it Hot
  • The Apartment
  • The Hustler
  • Marty
5. Scary Movie 101 (pick one)

  • Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
  • Night of the Living Dead
  • The Exorcist
  • The Shining
  • Halloween
  • Evil Dead II
  • Shaun of the Dead

November (4)

1. Alfred Hitchcock (pick one)

  • Rear Window
  • Notorious
  • Vertigo
  • North by Northwest
  • Psycho
  • Strangers on a Train

2. Any other film from the list

3.  European Film 101 (pick one)

  • Children of Paradise
  • Umberto D.
  • The Seventh Seal
  • Bicycle Thieves
  • The 400 Blows
  • Jules and Jim
  • Breathless
  • La Dolce Vita
  • Persona
  • 8 ½
  • Closely Watched Trains

4.  Musicals (pick one)

  • Singin’ in the Rain
  • All That Jazz
  • West Side Story
  • Meet Me In St. Louis
  • The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
  • The Producers
  • Moulin Rouge!
  • South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

December (5)

1. British Invasion (pick one)

  • The Third Man
  • Lawrence of Arabia
  • Dr. Strangelove
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey 
  • The Shining
  • A Hard Day’s Night
  • The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
  • The Italian Job

2.  Westerns (pick one)

  • The Searchers
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
  • Once Upon a Time in the West
  • The Outlaw Josey Wales
  • Blazing Saddles

3.  World War II (pick one)

  • The Bridge Over the River Kwai
  • The Dirty Dozen
  • The Great Escape
  • Patton

4. Any other film from the 60’s

5. THE GODFATHER

January (4)

1.  The Rise of the Directors (pick one)
  • M*A*S*H
  • The Godfather, Part II
  • American Graffiti
  • Badlands
  • Chinatown
  • The Deer Hunter
  • The French Connection
  • The Conversation

2.  Any other film from the 70’s

3. Scorsese and DeNiro (pick one)

  • Mean Streets
  • Taxi Driver
  • Raging Bull
  • The King of Comedy

4.  Steven Spielberg (pick one)

  • Close Encounters of the Third Kind
  • Jaws
  • E.T.
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark

February (4)

1. 80’s Comedies Your Parents Love
  • Animal House
  • Trading Places
  • The Money Pit
  • Dirty Rotten Scoundrels 
  • Blues Brothers
  • The Princess Bride
  • Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
  • Fast Times at Ridgemont High
  • Back to the Future
  • Big
  • Coming to America

2.  Romantic Films to Set Unrealistic Expectations for the Rest of Your Life

  • The “Before Trilogy”
  • Pride & Prejudice
  • Punch-Drunk Love
  • A Man and a Woman
  • Amelie

**  BONUS Tourney Week film: HOOSIERS - Amazon Prime

3. The Cinematographers

  • All the President’s Men
  • There Will Be Blood
  • Blade Runner 2049
  • Manhattan
  • Skyfall
  • No Country For Old Men

4.  Indie Film 101

  • Fargo
  • Rushmore
  • Pulp Fiction
  • Magnolia
  • The Blair Witch Project
  • Being John Malcovich
  • Scream
  • Memento
  • Swingers
  • The Usual Suspects
  • Hard Eight

March (4)

1. LGBTQP+ (pick one)
  • Dog Day Afternoon
  • Brokeback Mountain
  • Call Me By Your Name
  • Beginners
  • Hedwig and the Angry Inch
  • A Single Man
  • All About My Mother
  • Boys Don’t Cry
  • Carol

2.  Female Directors 101 (pick one)

  • The Piano
  • Cleo from 5 to 7
  • Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
  • A League of Their Own
  • Clueless
  • Daisies

3.  Any other 90’s film

4. Romantic Comedy 101

  • Reality Bites
  • Tootsie
  • Wall-E
  • Harold and Maude
  • Say Anything
  • When Harry Met Sally
  • Annie Hall

April (5)

1. Black Cinema 101 (pick one)
  • Dolemite is My Name
  • Malcolm X
  • Do the Right Thing
  • Moonlight
  • Boyz in the Hood
  • Selma
  • 12 Years a Slave

2.  Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting (pick one)

  • Enter the Dragon
  • Legend of the Drunken Master
  • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
  • Kung Fu Hustle

3.  European Film 201 (pick one)

  • The Best of Youth
  • Melancholia
  • The Double Life of Veronique
  • Dekalog
  • Three Colors: Blue
  • Portrait of a Lady on Fire
  • Run Lola Run
  • Russian Ark
  • The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
  • Dancer in the Dark

4.  Documentaries (pick one)

  • Roger & Me
  • The Times of Harvey Milk
  • Hoop Dreams
  • American Movie
  • Paris is Burning
  • Amy
  • Jiro Dreams of Sushi
  • The Thin Blue Line
  • Grizzly Man

5.  Female Directors 201 (pick one)

  • Lost in Translation
  • Winter’s Bone
  • Lady Bird
  • Wendy and Lucy
  • A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
  • Monsoon Wedding
  • Your Sister’s Sister

May (4)

1. Documentaries? (pick one)
  • This is Spinal Tap
  • Best in Show
  • F for Fake
  • Exit Through the Gift Shop
  • A Cock and Bull Story
  • Stories We Tell

2.  Indie Film 201 (pick one)

  • A Ghost Story
  • Her
  • American Splendor
  • Adaptation
  • 25th Hour
  • In the Bedroom
  • Boyhood
  • The Royal Tennenbaums
  • Moonrise Kingdom
  • Uncut Gems
  • Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
  • Palm Springs

3.  Asian Film 201

  • Eat Drink Man Woman
  • Yi Yi
  • This is Not a Film
  • Parasite
  • Snowpiercer
  • Princess Mononoke

4.  Modern British Film 101

  • Billy Elliot
  • In Bruges
  • In the Loop
  • The Full Monty
  • Shaun of the Dead
  • 28 Days Later
  • In America
  • Waking Ned

June (2)

1. The Three Amigos (pick one)
  • Children of Men
  • Roma
  • Gravity
  • Pan’s Labyrinth
  • The Shape of Water
  • Amores Perros
  • 21 Grams
  • Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

2.  What Did I Just Watch? (pick one)

  • Upstream Color
  • Dogtooth
  • Girl Walk // All Day
  • I’m Not There
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  • Holy Motors
  • Waking Life
  • Synecdoche, New York



Lucas McNelly
Writer. Filmmaker. Maker of all the lip balm.

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