As many of you know by now, I am an insatiable lover of
film. If I had life my way, I would watch a film per day, writing reviews,
making observations and sharing mutual recommendations with my readers. As part
of my recent resolution, I decided to take some educational classes. I had
friends who took painting or computer science at the time, complimenting their
rigid work schedules with a subject they fell passionate about it. Following
their lead, I signed up for a continuing education class at Stanford University,
naturally pursuing foreign film. The class taught by knowledgeable and charming
Laura Wittman called “The Golden Age of French and Italian Cinema” spoke for
itself and covered acclaimed film masterpieces of the 20th century,
ranging from late 1930 to 1970’s. As our
semester rounds up, I want to share the list of the movies I’ve seen with you. Many of them you might have watched yet plenty could also be
discoveries, intriguing and pushing you to search further by reading about the
era, cinematographic movements and film criticism. Without further delay, I
give you the movies that proved inspiring and simply enchanting:
“The Rules of the Game” by Jean Renoir (1939)
“Rome Open City” by Roberto Rossellini (1945)
“The Children of Paradise” by Marcel Carne (1945)
“Hiroshima Mon Amour” by Alain Resnais” (1959)
“La Dolce Vita” by Federico Fellini (1960)
“Breathless” by Jean-Luc Godard (1960)
“The Conformist” by
Bernardo Bertolucci (1970)
All these films are incredible given an often grim
historical circumstances under which they were created, lack of resources
driven only by passionate creative vision. If you are a fan of classic movies
and this sample has woken up an appetite for more film, I strongly suggest
checking out THE CRITERION COLLECTION – fantastic resource for hard-to-find cinematic treasures.
