Design Meme

Jim Emerson recently published a list of what he considers the 101 102 basic cinematic texts that everyone should know, at minimum, to be somewhat “movie-literate.” I’ve noticed a few people post their personal movie literacy scorecards on their sites, and thought I’d do the same.

I haven’t been watching as many movies since my son was born, but I did go to film school, so I guessed I’d do okay. I’d at least be somewhat movie-literate—wouldn’t I?

Well, I suppose 56 out of 102 isn’t bad—but it looks like I’ve still got some movie watching to do before I’m reach the basic literacy mark. Of the films that I haven’t seen yet, I’ve heard of all of them and seen bits and pieces of most during various film theory classes. I’m really suprised that I still haven’t gotten around to watching some of these. I guess it’s understandable that I might have missed “Breathless” and “It’s a Gift”, but how could I have not seen A Clockwork Orange or Gone With The Wind yet?

Here’s my scorecard.

Previously Viewed

Films I’ve seen at least once

1. “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) Stanley Kubrick
2. “The 400 Blows” (1959) Francois Truffaut
3. “8 1/2” (1963) Federico Fellini
4. “Alien” (1979) Ridley Scott
5. “Annie Hall” (1977) Woody Allen
6. “Apocalypse Now” (1979) Francis Ford Coppola*
7. “Bambi” (1942) Disney
8. “The Battleship Potemkin” (1925) Sergei Eisenstein
9. “The Bicycle Thief” (1949) Vittorio De Sica
10. “The Big Sleep” (1946) Howard Hawks
11. “Blade Runner” (1982) Ridley Scott
12. “Blue Velvet” (1986) David Lynch
13. “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967) Arthur Penn
14. “Carrie” (1975) Brian DePalma
15. “Casablanca” (1942) Michael Curtiz
16. “Un Chien Andalou” (1928) Luis Bunuel & Salvador Dali
17. “Chinatown” (1974) Roman Polanski
18. “Citizen Kane” (1941) Orson Welles
19. “The Crying Game” (1992) Neil Jordan
20. “Dirty Harry” (1971) Don Siegel
21. “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” (1972) Luis Bunuel
22. “Do the Right Thing” (1989) Spike Lee
23. “Double Indemnity” (1944) Billy Wilder
24. “Dr. Strangelove” (1964) Stanley Kubrick
25. “E.T.—The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) Steven Spielberg
26. “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) Irvin Kershner
27. “The Exorcist” (1973) William Friedkin
28. “Fargo” (1995) Joel & Ethan Coen
29. “Fight Club” (1999) David Fincher
30. “Frankenstein” (1931) James Whale
31. “The Godfather,” “The Godfather, Part II” (1972, 1974) Francis Ford Coppola
32. “GoodFellas” (1990) Martin Scorsese
33. “The Graduate” (1967) Mike Nichols
34. “Halloween” (1978) John Carpenter
35. “Intolerance” (1916) D.W. Griffith
36. “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946) Frank Capra
37. “Jaws” (1975) Steven Spielberg
38. “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962) David Lean
39. “M” (1931) Fritz Lang
40. “Mad Max 2” / “The Road Warrior” (1981) George Miller
41. “The Maltese Falcon” (1941) John Huston
42. “Modern Times” (1936) Charles Chaplin
43. “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (1975) Terry Jones & Terry Gilliam
44. “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) George Romero
45. “North by Northwest” (1959) Alfred Hitchcock
46. “Nosferatu” (1922) F.W. Murnau
47. “Psycho” (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
48. “Pulp Fiction” (1994) Quentin Tarantino
49. “Rashomon” (1950) Akira Kurosawa
50. “Rear Window” (1954) Alfred Hitchcock
51. “Schindler’s List” (1993) Steven Spielberg
52. “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952) Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
53. “Taxi Driver” (1976) Martin Scorsese
54. “Touch of Evil” (1958) Orson Welles
55. “Vertigo” (1958) Alfred Hitchcock
56. “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) Victor Fleming

And now the films I’ve missed…

Coming Attractions

Why haven’t I seen these yet?

1. “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” (1972) Werner Herzog
2. “All About Eve” (1950) Joseph L. Mankiewicz
3. “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946) William Wyler
4. “The Big Red One” (1980) Samuel Fuller
5. “Blowup” (1966) Michelangelo Antonioni
6. “Breathless” (1959 Jean-Luc Godard
7. “Bringing Up Baby” (1938) Howard Hawks
8. “Children of Paradise” / “Les Enfants du Paradis” (1945) Marcel Carne
9. “A Clockwork Orange” (1971) Stanley Kubrick
10. “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951) Robert Wise
11. “Days of Heaven” (1978) Terence Malick
12. “La Dolce Vita” (1960) Federico Fellini
13. “Duck Soup” (1933) Leo McCarey
14. “Easy Rider” (1969) Dennis Hopper
15. “The General” (1927) Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman
16. “Gone With the Wind” (1939) Victor Fleming
17. “A Hard Day’s Night” (1964) Richard Lester
18. “It’s a Gift” (1934) Norman Z. McLeod
19. “The Lady Eve” (1941) Preston Sturges
20. “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962) John Frankenheimer
21. “Metropolis” (1926) Fritz Lang
22. “Nashville” (1975) Robert Altman
23. “The Night of the Hunter” (1955) Charles Laughton
24. “On the Waterfront” (1954) Elia Kazan
25. “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968) Sergio Leone
26. “Out of the Past” (1947) Jacques Tournier
27. “Persona” (1966) Ingmar Bergman
28. “Pink Flamingos” (1972) John Waters
29. “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955) Nicholas Ray
30. “Red River” (1948) Howard Hawks
31. “Repulsion” (1965) Roman Polanski
32. “The Rules of the Game” (1939) Jean Renoir
33. “Scarface” (1932) Howard Hawks
34. “The Scarlet Empress” (1934) Josef von Sternberg
35. “The Searchers” (1956) John Ford
36. “The Seven Samurai” (1954) Akira Kurosawa
37. “Some Like It Hot” (1959) Billy Wilder
38. “A Star Is Born” (1954) George Cukor
39. “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1951) Elia Kazan
40. “Sunset Boulevard” (1950) Billy Wilder
41. “The Third Man” (1949) Carol Reed
42. “Tokyo Story” (1953) Yasujiro Ozu
43. “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948) John Huston
44. “Trouble in Paradise” (1932) Ernst Lubitsch
45. “West Side Story” (1961) Jerome Robbins/Robert Wise
46. “The Wild Bunch” (1969) Sam Peckinpah

It looks like I have some homework to do.