What to see to begin to understand the movie: a guide for beginners

I'm not versed in the movies. Why do I need it?

Today, the movie still remains the most widespread type of cultural activities from existing: discuss it on the streets and in social networks, with its numerous canals analysis can be found on YouTube and the Telegram, and watching movies (at least a couple times a year) continues to be an integral part of almost every modern person.

Ability to understand the movie at least help to distinguish the film deserves attention from the flow and save time at the Movies.

As a maximum - to learn to notice the visual details and read the references on multiple frames to recognize the director's handwriting and to see a deeper plot.

Suppose you watch the film Wes Anderson "Isle of Dogs". Its action takes place in a fictional version of Japan and tells about the brave boy who went in search of a favorite dog. The plot of his journey on the deserted island and acquaintance with a pack of stray dogs Anderson filled the visual references to the legacy of one of the most famous Japanese directors - Akira Kurosawa. However, to catch them and get extra pleasure from watching, you need to know the work of Kurosawa, that is, to watch his movies. To do this, you need to understand the movie.

Good. What kind of movies I need to see this?

Since the inception of cinema has been more than a century. How many films have been made during this time, we can only guess. For example, in IMDb - the largest database of movies on the web - listed 516 726 full-created movies since 1874. And this is just a picture, whose existence is known for certain.

Find out which ones are worth watching and which ones you can safely skip - not an easy task for a novice audience. But it is engaged in this film critics. These people regularly go to film festivals and annually browsing hundreds of movies (old and new) in terms of their cultural and aesthetic significance. Thanks to them, we not only learn, for example, what movies Cannes Film Festival should take note, but also continue to review the old authors and rediscover forgotten films.

Very often film critics gather their knowledge in the form of lists. They either publish them in person, or combined with cultural organizations and publications for compiling categorical (ie, applying the maximum objectivity) tops the most important films in the stories. Of course, to see all of them will not work, even if it is day and night to sit in front of the monitor. However, by even a couple of tapes of such a list, you already begin to better understand the movie.

Okay, I'm in! From what lists should start?

These lists of "best of the best" was typed already done. Today, the web can be found as the annual tops from leading film critics, as well as numerous custom collection. We advise you to pay particular attention to the following.

1. The best films of all time according to the Sight & Sound

This British movie magazine before other professional publications began to gather the views of leading experts in the industry and is considered the most authoritative source until now. Back in 1952, he published the first list of the best paintings in history. Then he led the "Bicycle Thieves" by Vittorio de Sica, representative of Italian neorealism. Since then, the list is updated every 10 years, constantly increasing the number of participants and, accordingly, increasing their importance.

The last time, in 2012, in its drafting was attended by 846 professionals in the field of cinema, and in the first place list It turned out to be the famous romantic thriller "Vertigo." So the film Alfred Hitchcock pressed in the lead throughout the 50 years of "Citizen Kane" by Orson Welles. Today, both films are considered to be of world cinema tops.

Since 1992, Sight & Sound also publishes separate list best versions of the film auteurs. He lets you know what pictures love modern writers, such as Tarantino and Zvyagintsev. In 2012, he led a "Tokyo Story" Yasujiro Ozu classic Japanese.

Finally, Sight & Sound has decided to make a separate 2014 list best documentary films. Its development was attended not only criticism, but also the leading documentary filmmakers. The most votes won the experimental work of the Soviet director Dziga Vertov's "Man with Movie Camera "- a black and white silent movie about the life of a big city, gathered in the art of poetic installation.

2. The best films according to the site They Shoot Pictures, Do not They

Oddly enough, the formal compiler of this volume list It listed only one person - the Australian film fan Bill Georgaris. In 2006, he decided to find out which film is considered to be the best in history, and gathered together all the existing tops that could be found in the public domain. Similar operation Georgaris began spending every year, and his hobby eventually spilled over into a full-fledged website and has gained an army of fans.

Today the list Georgarisa considered the objective of the existing: it includes a list 6016 of 4763 film critics and film industry professionals. At this point in the first place it occupies we have already mentioned "Citizen Kane," Welles.

3. 100 best films of XX century according to the Village Voice

American counterpart Sight & Sound list can be called this top major films of the twentieth century. Its compiler made the most influential cultural weekly Village Voice, based in New York. In 2000, he interviewed 50 leading film critics and bring out the best in their opinion, the picture in the last 100 years.

Okay, but what classical directors should take note?

As such, a mechanism to identify the best directors, of course, does not exist. Some publications rely solely on your taste, others are appealing to the assessment of critics. However, most likely, you will always see a similar list of names.

The Sight & Sound magazine more often occur movies Frenchman Robert Bresson (seven times), which, incidentally, was the favorite author of Andrei Tarkovsky. Followed by the ideologist of the French New Wave, Jean-Luc Godard, Hollywood wagon Howard Hawks, Briton Michael Powell and the pioneer of surrealism in cinema Luis Buñuel.

The site They Shoot Pictures, Do not They caressed list of the most criticized directors is headed by Alfred Hitchcock: his films are 13 times appear in the list of the best paintings in history. Also in his company - Americans Orson Welles and Stanley Kubrick, the most famous Italian film director Federico Fellini and Godard already mentioned.

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

Alternatively, you can walk through the already mentioned links. For example, the site They Shoot Pictures, Do not They allows you to rank on the list, the release of the film. Or check out the list of recommended films for students and students of film schools - Russian or foreign. For example, here you can find this on the web scroll 907 of movies and TV shows that are first-year students of the Faculty of VGIK producer. In it the whole history of cinema: from Lumiere to the recent winner of the "Oscar" Guillermo del Toro.

Classics I'm not very interested, but the modern cinema - how. There is such a list?

There is. Firstly, the site CriticsTop10 It meets annually 50 best films according to critics and authors of popular books on the movie sites. The mechanism of its formation is similar to the principle used in They Shoot Pictures, Do not They: all published in Network lists of the best films of the year are collected in a single list, and then tape are ranked by the number of mentions. In 2017, for example, in the first place was the film "Away" Jordan saw. These lists are available on the site until 1970.

Secondly, on the already repeatedly mentioned They Shoot Pictures, Do not They exist another list best movies, limited exclusively XXI century. From this example, you can see that for 10 years the title of the main movie of our time retains the exquisite Chinese melodrama Wong Kar-wai "Mood for Love."

Thirdly, almost every self-respecting publication of a movie, whether it's Russian "Bill" or the US The Hollywood Reporter, as well as some film critics, each year brings its own results. Do not forget before the new year to check their page and you will always be aware that because of the cinema novelties worth your viewing.

I'm not interested in auteur films, I prefer the genre and movie viewer. Where in this case, to look at?

For you, there are numerous popular publications like Empire, Entertainment Weekly, IMDb, Slant, Total Film, Time Out, The Hollywood Reporter, and others. Each of them has been compiling tops by genre or spectator holds voting and industrial surveys for the detection of the most beloved paintings in the history.

For example, in June 2017 Printed Empire movie magazine interviewed the world's largestThe 100 Greatest Movies 250 thousand of its readers for their favorite film. Those named the fifth episode of "Star Wars" the main favorite.

And in 2014, The Hollywood Reporter interviewed an American magazineHollywood's 100 Favorite Films 2120 Hollywood professionals. Their favorite movie was the first part of "The Godfather" by Francis Ford Coppola.

There are tops in many genres:

• 25 of the funniest comedies of Rolling Stone magazine readers.
• 100 best comedies according to experts Time Out.
• 10 best action movies of Rolling Stone magazine readers.
• 100 best fighters according to experts Time Out.
• 100 of the best animated films of the version of "Network Society of Film Critics'.
• 100 best cartoons according to experts Time Out.
• The best superhero movies of Rolling Stone magazine readers.
• Best Fiction by Rolling Stone magazine readers.
• 100 major science fiction films from experts Time Out.
• 5 best musicals of Rolling Stone magazine readers.
• 100 of the best romantic movies according to experts Time Out.
• 100 best horror version of Time Out.
• 100 best horror version of Slant Magazine.

Of course, many of the films within them will be repeated.

Finally, go to the website IMDb, and you will find there custom selections for every taste and color: from genre to theme like "The best films of the youth parties».

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

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

• List Petersburg magazine "Seance", which in 2008 surveyed 100 Russian filmmakers. Top headed "My Friend Ivan Lapshin" Alexis Herman - senior.
• List magazine "Bill", covering the main Russian films from 1992 to 2013.
• 100 best films according to the Russian Guild of Film Critics.