Metropolis (1927)
Fritz Lang's 1927 German silent SF epic. The film every dystopian city movie has copied.
Tag: Black and White (Page 6)
1940sBicycle Thieves (1948)
De Sica's 1948 Italian neorealist drama. A father and son search Rome for a stolen bicycle.
1930sM (1931)
Fritz Lang's 1931 German film. Peter Lorre as a child murderer hunted by both police and the criminal underworld.
1960sYojimbo (1961)
Kurosawa's 1961 samurai-noir. Mifune as the masterless ronin who plays two factions against each other.
1940sCasablanca (1942)
Curtiz's 1942 wartime romance. Holds every position it took during shooting.
1940sCitizen Kane (1941)
The film film school built itself around. Deep focus, ceiling shots, fractured timeline.
1950s
1950sSunset Boulevard (1950)
Wilder's 1950 Hollywood gothic. Sunset Boulevard is the Billy Wilder film noir that became Hollywood's most lacerating film about itself.
1940sThe Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Huston's 1948 gold-greed Western. Bogart deteriorating, Walter Huston dancing, Tim Holt holding the moral center.
1950sSome Like It Hot (1959)
Wilder's 1959 cross-dressing comedy. Lemmon and Curtis on the run, Monroe in her last great performance.
1940sDouble Indemnity (1944)
Chandler co-wrote with Wilder. Double Indemnity is the Billy Wilder-directed Paramount Pictures noir that became the canonical template for the genre's mature middle period.
Black and WhiteA Trip to the Moon (1902)
Méliès's 1902 14-minute fantasy short. The first proper science fiction film.