What to see to get started with cinema: a beginner's guide

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Lists of the best films of different genres, the work of classic directors and the right publications about cinema will help to open the world of cinematography.

I am not at all versed in cinema. Why do I need it?

Today, cinema is still the most widespread type of cultural leisure that exists: it is discussed on the streets and on social networks, numerous channels with its analysis can be found on YouTube and Telegram, and watching films (at least a couple of times a year) continues to be an integral part. part of the life of almost every modern person.

Knowing about cinema will at least help you distinguish a noteworthy film from a walk-through one and save time when going to the cinema.

As a maximum, it will teach you to notice visual details and read references, recognize the director's handwriting in several frames and see deeper into the plot.

Let's say you've watched Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs. It is set in a fictional version of Japan and tells the story of a brave boy who went in search of his beloved dog. Anderson filled the plot of his journey to an abandoned island and meeting a pack of stray dogs with visual references to the legacy of one of the most famous Japanese filmmakers, Akira Kurosawa. However, in order to catch them and get additional pleasure from watching, you need to know the work of Kurosawa, that is, watch his films. To do this, you need to understand the cinema.

Good. What films do I need to watch for this?

More than a century has passed since the creation of cinema. How many films were shot during this time, one can only guess. For example, IMDb, the largest movie database on the Web, lists 516,726 feature films produced. And these are just pictures, the existence of which is known for certain.

Figuring out which ones are worth watching and which ones can be safely skipped is not an easy task for a novice viewer. But this is exactly what film critics and film critics are doing. These people regularly go to film festivals and view hundreds of films (old and new) every year for their cultural and aesthetic significance. Thanks to them, we not only find out, for example, which films of the Cannes Film Festival are worth taking note, but also continue to revise old authors and rediscover forgotten cinema.

Very often film critics collect their knowledge in the form of lists. They either publish them in person, or team up with cultural organizations and publications to compile ultimatum (that is, claiming maximum objectivity) tops of the most significant films in history. Of course, you won't be able to watch them all, even if you sit in front of the monitor all day and night. However, having chosen even a couple of tapes from such a list, you will already begin to understand cinema better.

Okay, I'm in business! What lists should you start with?

There are already quite a few similar lists of the "best of the best". Today on the web you can find both annual tops from leading film critics and numerous user selections. We advise you to pay special attention to the following.

1. Best movies of all time according to Sight & Sound

This British film magazine began collecting the opinions of leading experts in the film industry before other professional publications and is still considered the most authoritative source. Back in 1952, he published the first list of the best paintings in history. Then it was headed by "The Bicycle Thieves" Vittorio de Sica, a representative of Italian neo-realism. Since then, the list has been updated every 10 years, constantly increasing the number of participants and, accordingly, increasing its importance.

The last time, in 2012, 846 film professionals took part in its compilation, and the famous romantic thriller "Dizziness" was in the first place on the list. This is how Alfred Hitchcock's film surpassed Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, who had been in the lead for 50 years. Today both films are considered the pinnacles of world cinema.

Since 1992, Sight & Sound has also published a separate list of the best films by filmmakers. It allows you to find out which paintings are adored by contemporary authors, for example, Tarantino and Zvyagintsev. In 2012, it was topped by "Tokyo Story" by Japanese classic Yasujiro Ozu.

Finally, in 2014, Sight & Sound decided to compile a separate list of the best documentaries. Its development was attended not only by critics, but also by leading documentary filmmakers. The experimental work of the Soviet director Dziga Vertov, The Man with a Movie Camera, received the most votes - a black-and-white silent film about the life of a big city, collected in the technique of poetic editing.

2. The best films according to the site They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They

Oddly enough, formally the compiler of this voluminous list is listed only one person - Australian film fan Bill Georgaris. In 2006, he decided to figure out which film is considered the best in history, and put together all the existing tops that he could find in the public domain. Georgis began to carry out such an operation annually, and his hobby eventually spilled over into a full-fledged website and gained an army of fans.

Today Georgaris's list is considered the most objective of the existing ones: it includes 6,016 lists from 4,763 film critics and film industry professionals. At the moment, the first place in it is occupied by the already mentioned "Citizen Kane" Wells.

3.100 Best Films of the 20th Century by Village Voice

The American counterpart to the Sight & Sound list is this top major film of the twentieth century. It was compiled by the New York-based Village Voice, an influential cultural weekly. In 2000, he interviewed 50 leading film critics and identified the best, in their opinion, films over the past 100 years.

Okay, what kind of classic directors should you take note of?

As such, there is, of course, no mechanism for identifying the best directors. Some publications rely solely on their own taste, while others appeal to the assessment of film critics. However, most likely, you will see a similar list of names everywhere.

In the magazine Sight & Sound, the films of the Frenchman Robert Bresson (seven times), who, by the way, was the favorite author of Andrei Tarkovsky, are more often than others. He is followed by the ideologue of the French new wave Jean-Luc Godard, the Hollywood station wagon Howard Hawks, the Briton Michael Powell and the pioneer of surrealism in cinema Luis Buñuel.

Alfred Hitchcock tops the list of critically acclaimed directors on They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They, with his films appearing 13 times on the list of the best films in history. Also in his company are the Americans Orson Welles and Stanley Kubrick, the most famous Italian director Federico Fellini and the already mentioned Godard.

If I want to study the history of cinema in chronological order, which list should I look at?

Alternatively, you can follow the links already indicated. For example, the site They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They, allows you to rank the list by the year the movie was released. Or use the list of recommended films for applicants and students of film schools - Russian or foreign. For example, on the Web you can find such a list of 907 films and TV shows, which are received by freshmen of the VGIK production department. It contains the whole history of cinema: from the Lumières to the recent Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro.

I am not very interested in classics, but modern cinema is still. Is there such a list?

There is. Firstly, the CriticsTop10 site annually collects the 50 best films according to critics of popular publications and authors of movie sites. The mechanism of its formation is similar to the principle that is used in They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They: all lists of the best films published on the Internet for the year are collected in a single list, after which the tapes are ranked by the number of mentions. In 2017, for example, the film Get Out by Jordan Peel took the first place. Such lists are available on the site up to 1970.

Secondly, on the already repeatedly mentioned They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They, there is another list of the best films, limited exclusively to the 21st century. From it, for example, one can learn that for 10 years now the title of the main film of our time has been retained by Wong Kar-wai's exquisite Chinese melodrama "In the Mood for Love".

Thirdly, almost every self-respecting publication about cinema, be it the Russian "Afisha" or the American The Hollywood Reporter, as well as individual film critics, each year sums up its own results. Do not forget to check their pages before the New Year, and you will always be aware of what new films are worth watching.

I am not interested in author films, I prefer genre and spectator films. Where, then, to look?

There are numerous popular publications for you like Empire, Entertainment Weekly, IMDb, Slant, Total Film, Time Out, The Hollywood Reporter and others. Each of them compiles tops by genre or conducts audience polls and industry polls to identify the most beloved paintings in history.

For example, in June 2017, the world's largest print movie magazine, Empire, surveyed The 100 Greatest Movies of its 250,000 readers for their favorite movie. They called the fifth episode of "Star Wars" the main favorite.

And in 2014, the American magazine The Hollywood Reporter surveyed Hollywood's 100 Favorite Films 2 120 Hollywood workers. Their favorite movie was the first part of The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola.

There are tops for many genres:

• The 25 funniest comedies by Rolling Stone readers.
• Top 100 Comedies by Time Out Experts.
• Top 10 Action Films by Rolling Stone Readers.
• 100 best action movies according to Time Out experts.
• 100 Best Animated Films by the Society of Film Critics.
• 100 best cartoons according to Time Out experts.
• Best Superhero Movies by Rolling Stone Readers.
• Best Fantasy, according to the readers of Rolling Stone magazine.
• 100 top science fiction films from Time Out experts.
• 5 best musicals according to the readers of Rolling Stone magazine.
• Top 100 Romantic Movies by Time Out Experts.
• Time Out's Top 100 Horror Games.
• Top 100 Horror Games by Slant Magazine.

Of course, many films within them will be repeated.

Finally, head over to the IMDb website and you'll find custom selections for every taste and color, from genre to themed like Best Teen Party Movies.

I want to watch only Russian classics. What do you advise?

Of course, you can use the list of the Ministry of Culture, which has selected 100 Russian paintings for schoolchildren. However, the most authoritative among the Russian lists, in our opinion, are the following:

• List of the St. Petersburg magazine "Seance", which in 2008 surveyed 100 Russian filmmakers. The top was headed by "My friend Ivan Lapshin" Alexei German - Sr.
• List of Afisha magazine, covering the main Russian films from 1992 to 2013.
• 100 best films according to the Guild of Historians of Cinema and Film Critics of Russia.