FLM 162 — The Ten Greatest Films of All Time: Part II
Quarter: Spring
Instructor(s): Jonathan Crow
Date(s): Apr 9—May 14
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Tuesdays
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Class Meeting Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Tuition: $340
Refund Deadline: Apr 11
Unit(s): 1
Status: Closed
Quarter: Spring
Day: Tuesdays
Duration: 6 weeks
Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Date(s): Apr 9—May 14
Unit(s): 1
Tuition: $340
Refund Deadline: Apr 11
Instructor(s): Jonathan Crow
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Closed
Since 1952, Sight and Sound, the British film journal, has been conducting a decennial poll to determine the greatest films of all time. The list, compiled from the opinions of over 1,600 critics from around the world, has become a respected barometer of critical consensus. The 2022 list shocked the film world with its boldest and most diverse list yet. Chantal Akerman’s formalist masterpiece, Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, edged out both Hitchcock’s perverse thriller Vertigo and Orson Welles’s audacious debut, Citizen Kane, a film that won the top spot in the poll for a half-century. Relatively recent movies like David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, Claire Denis’s Beau Travail, and Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love climbed into the top 10 alongside time-honored classics like Yasujirō Ozu’s Tokyo Story and Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera.
This course will explore the top five films from the 2022 poll, including Wong Kar-wai’s tour de force, Orson Welles’s mainstay, and Akerman’s magnificent epic of experimental cinema. These diverse masterpieces, taken as a whole, show the range and power of film, the most important and influential art form of the 20th century. Students in this course will learn about the history, production, and artistry of each film and come away understanding why these movies are considered the greatest of all time.
This course will explore the top five films from the 2022 poll, including Wong Kar-wai’s tour de force, Orson Welles’s mainstay, and Akerman’s magnificent epic of experimental cinema. These diverse masterpieces, taken as a whole, show the range and power of film, the most important and influential art form of the 20th century. Students in this course will learn about the history, production, and artistry of each film and come away understanding why these movies are considered the greatest of all time.
This is the second course in a two-part series. Students who did not take FLM 152: “The Ten Greatest Films of All Time: Part I” in Winter 2024 are welcome to enroll in Part II since each course is designed to be taken independently. All films can be rented or streamed through Netflix, Amazon Prime, iTunes, Google Play, or other online platforms.
JONATHAN CROW
Artist; Filmmaker
Jonathan Crow received an MFA in filmmaking from the California Institute of the Arts and an MA in Japanese studies from the University of Michigan. He has taught courses in film history, film arts, the history of cinematography, and Japanese cinema at the New York Film Academy, and his articles have appeared in Open Culture and The Hollywood Reporter. Crow worked in the Hollywood film industry for a dozen years as a writer and editor before working as a film journalist at Yahoo Movies. Textbooks for this course:
There are no required textbooks; however, some fee-based online readings may be assigned.