Films I Recommend

Students in a class I taught recently asked me to recommend films I thought they should see.  The resulting list is below. Because of my background, it is weighted towards American films, a deficiency that I will remedy in coming years.  I am sure some films are missing that I would have included had I thought of them--please feel free to point them out.  My film preferences are no better than anyone else's. These are for the most part simply films that I've liked, admired, and enjoyed.

Name	Director	Date
12 Years a Slave	Steve McQueen	2013
2001: A Space Odyssey	Stanley Kubrick	1968
An American in Paris	Vincente Minelli	1951
Annie Hall	Woody Allen	1977
Apocalypse Now	Francis Ford Coppola	1979
Arrival	Denis Villeneuve	2016
Baby Doll	Elia Kazan	1956
Badlands	Terrence Malick	1973
Bambi	David Hand	1942
Barton Fink	Coen Brothers	1991
The Big Lebowski	Coen Brothers	1998
The Big Sleep	Howard Hawks	1946
Blade Runner	Ridley Scott	1982
Blade Runner 2049	Denis Villeneuve	2017
Blow-Up	Michelangelo Antonioni	1966
Blue Velvet	David Lynch	1986
Breathless	Jean-Luc Godard	1960
Cape Fear	Martin Scorsese	1991
Casablanca	Michael Curtiz	1942
Cast Away	Robert Zemeckis	2000
Cheyenne Autumn	John Ford	1964
China Town	Roman Polanski	1974
Citizen Kane	Orson Wells	1941
A Clockwork Orange	Stanley Kubrick	1971
Close Encounters of the Third Kind	Steven Spielberg	1977
Contact	Robert Zemeckis	1997
The Day the Earth Stood Still	Robert Wise	1951
Days of Heaven	Terrence Malick	1978
Deliverance	John Boorman	1972
The Departed	Martin Scorsese	2006
Do the Right Thing	Spike Lee	1989
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb	Stanley Kubrick	1964
Dr. Zhivago	David Lean	1965
Easy Rider	Dennis Hopper	1969
Edward Scissorhands	Tim Burton	1990
E. T. the Extraterrestrial	Steven Spielberg	1982
Eve's Bayou	Kasi Lemmons	1997
A Face in the Crowd	Elia Kazan	1957
Fargo	Coen Brothers	1996
Fat City	John Huston	1972
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off	John Hughes	1986
Forrest Gump	Robert Zemeckis	1994
George Washington	David Gordon Green	2000
The Godfather I and II	Francis Ford Coppola	1972, 1974
Gone with the Wind	Victor Fleming, George Cukor	1939
Goodfellas	Martin Scorsese	1990
The Graduate	Mike Nichols	1967
The Grapes of Wrath	John Ford	1940
Hamlet	Laurence Oliver	1948
Hannah and her Sisters	Woody Allen	1986
High Noon	Fred Zinneman	1952
Howard’s End	James Ivory	1992
Howl’s Moving Castle	Hayao Miyazaki	2004
Hugo	Martin Scorsese	2011
The Hurt Locker	Kathryn Bigelow	2008
In Cold Blood	Richard Brooks	1967
Inside Llewelyn Davis	Coen Brothers	2013
It’s a Wonderful Life	Frank Capra	1946
Jezebel	William Wyler	1938
JFK	Oliver Stone	1991
Kiss Me Deadly	Robert Aldrich	1955
Kubo and the Three Strings	Travis Knight	2016
LA Confidential	Curtis Hanson	1997
Lawrence of Arabia	David Lean	1962
The Lion King	Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff	1994
Lonely Are the Brave	David Miller	1962
Lost in Translation	Sofia Coppola	2003
Love and Death	Woody Allen	1975
Manhattan	Woody Allen	1979
Match Point	Woody Allen	2005
Maltese Falcon	John Huston	1941
Melancholia	Lars von Trier	2011
Moonlight	Barry Jenkins	2016
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington	Frank Capra	1939
Munich	Steven Spielberg	2005
Mud	Jeff Nichols	2012
Nashville	Robert Altman	1977
Night of the Hunter	Charles Laughton	1955
No Country for Old Men	Coen Brothers	2007
O Brother, Where Art Thou?	Coen Brothers	2000
Oklahoma	Fred Zinneman	1955
On the Waterfront	Elia Kazan	1954
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	Milos Forman	1975
Pan's Labyrinth	Guillermo del Toro	2006
The Passenger	Michelangelo Antonioni	1975
Pinky	Elia Kazan	1949
Psycho	Alfred Hitchcock	1960
Raising Arizona	Coen Brothers	1987
Rear Window	Alfred Hitchcock	1954
Room with a View	James Ivory	1985
Schindler's List	Steven Spielberg	1993
The Searchers	John Ford	1956
Selma	Ava DuVernay	2014
The Seventh Seal	Ingmar Bergman	1957
Shane	George Stevens	1953
The Shape of Water	Guillermo del Toro	2017
Singing in the Rain	Stanley Donan, Gene Kelly	1952
The Sixth Sense	M. Night Shyamalan	1999
Spirited Away	Hayao Miyazaki	2001
A Streetcar Named Desire	Elia Kazan	1951
Sullivan's Travels	Preston Sturges	1941
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby	Adam McKay	2006
Taxi Driver	Martin Scorsese	1976
The Thin Man	W. S. Van Dyke	1934
The Thin Red Line	Terrence Malick	1998
Throne of Blood	Akira Kurosawa	1957
To Kill a Mockingbird	Robert Mulligan	1962
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre	John Huston	1948
Tree of Life	Terrence Malick	2011
True Grit	Coen Brothers	2010
Wayne's World	Penelope Spheeris	1992
West Side Story	Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise	1961
Winter's Bone	Debra Granik	2010
Unbreakable	M. Night Shyamalan	2000
Vertigo	Alfred Hitchcock	1958
Wild River	Elia Kazan	1960
Wild Strawberries	Ingmar Bergman	1955
The Yearling	Clarence Brown	1946
Zabriskie Point	Michelangelo Antonioni	1970
Zelig	Woody Allen	1983