About time we had a good Classic Film Recommendation thread. Watching old cinema is like going through a time capsule into a forgotten realm that you can barely believe actually existed. It's almost like an alien realm.
I'm curious about the 1970s cut off. Some in here say there is a huge difference in films pre and post 1970, but I'd like to know more about why that is. In doing so you lose some great films that I like from the 70s such as The Conversation starring Gene Hackman or Three Days of the Condor with Robert Redford, both amazing films that you will not see made today.
I'm a sucker for watching videos on YT of the deconstruction of films and cinematography in general. So much goes into making a good film, and in many ways it's a lost or dying art considering the hacks we mostly have nowadays. You have some non-Hollywood films that were made on a shoestring budget that are considered absolute classics such as some of Bergman's films like The Seventh Seal that come down to raw acting, direction and writing talent. Then bigger films like many of the WWII epics mentioned here (both based on reality and fantasy) that are works of art in and off themselves.
I'll need to have a think before posting some films that have not yet been mentioned here, but as someone mentioned the original Pink Panther I'd like to say how intrigued I was when I rewatched it a few years ago and realised that the era of having a hit song accompany a hit film is not something Jerry Burkheimer invented in the 1980s but goes way back. Take a good look at the people in the room in this video and you'll see what I mean above about an "alien realm". The way they sit, their posture, their class, how the fattest man there would be considered almost lean by today's standards. Men being men and women being women. Hell, even clumsy Clusaue or however the fuck his name is spelled is still more masculine than many men today.
www.themoviedb.org
