I like to make lists.
Lists of songs, lists of books, and, especially, lists of films. My 'favorite films of all time' list is constantly in flux and I'm constantly watching amazing movies. What I want to do now though is create an 'essential' films list. Movies that have contributed so significantly to the development of film that had they not existed film would be in a very different place today.
The choices for this list will be more 'obvious' than some other lists because the films that contributed the most to cinema are generally the more well known films. I will present here just an off the top of my head list, and then expand and develop it in the days and weeks to come.
Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein
For the Russian Formalist ideas about edited, of which Eisenstein created his five types of montage. In his later films he would move away from these intellectual formalized technique, but in his early work and most famously in this film, you have a very intellectualized editing and montage technique that was highly influential on filmmakers in the early 20th century, and continues to have an impact today.
Broken Blossoms by D.W. Griffith
Often credited with the first use of the closeup. More than other directors Griffith took advantage of the ability to show the viewer details through close up and with his use of motion to create excitement and climax.
Napoleon by Abel Gance
More so than Griffith, Gance pushes the envelope so hard as to be almost experimental to tell the epic story of the childhood and first campaign of Napoleon. One of the greatest films of all time.
Sunrise by F.W. Murnau
Murnau's amazing American film where he was given the full resources of Fox studios. Does for the tracking shot what Napoleon does for montage, pushes it to the limit in an extremely poetic way to tell the story of city vs. country, of good vs. evil, and above all about the greatness of humanity.
M by Fritz Lang
At the height of his powers and with the tremendous resources and the German Film Institute and the ominous rise to power of the Nazi's all around him, Lang's first sound film is a dark film about the police investigation into a serial killer who murders little girls. In it's pacing and presentation of information it is remarkably ahead of it's time, one of the first modern crime films. The culmination of Lang's earlier crime films 'Spies', and the 'Dr. Mabuse' movies.
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some other films that definatley need inclusion:
Citizen Kane by Orson Welles
The Lady Eve by Preston Sturges
Red River by Howard Hawks
