Steven Spielberg on the Importance of Studying Classic Films

In this video clip, director Steven Spielberg talks about the importance of studying films beyond the recent past, how films of the CITIZEN KANE era influenced him and his filmmaking contemporaries, and how he requires his own children to watch "the classics."

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  Entertainment

[kolajampe]

Citizen Kane, Otto e Mezzo (8 & a half) and Manhattan are some of my favorite films ever made and they are all black and white

[paintballing489]

I try to watch older films, but its so much easier to check out 60's and 70's era films because there on tv so much more. Plus our generation has so much more to catch up on since cinema's now over century old! I can understand what he' saying though.

[Nc Witch]

Eh look at Eberts review of aco again, I guess its not perfect, but kane is kinda.

[JesusCristo2002]

You're absolutely right! I've always had a love/hate relationship with Netflix - because it killed the video store. However, if it wasn't for Netflix I wouldn't have seen Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" which changed my life. I also wouldn't have access to other films from Kurosawa, films from Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Jean-luc Godard, Michael Haneke, Wim Wenders, Francois Truffaut, Vittorio De Sica, Michelangelo Antonioni etc.. I'm 19 and an aspiring filmmaker.

[JesusCristo2002]

They deserve to be!

[JesusCristo2002]

I haven't seen "La Notte" but I've seen "The Eclipse" by Antonioni. Didn't quite know what to think of it, but I plan on revisiting it. "The Seven Samurai", "8 1/2", "2001: A Space Odyssey", Citizen Kane" and "Sunset Boulevard" are easily among the greatest films ever made ("2001" is my number 1). I would actually tie "8 1/2" and "La Dolce Vita" No.1 on my foreign film list (they're just too different from films here in the U.S.). I'm 19 by the way.

[JesusCristo2002]

I'm 19 and grateful for the following masters of my generation: Paul Thomas Anderson, Christopher Nolan, Darren Aronofsky, David Fincher and Quentin Tarantino. Right now there's three upcomers that I'm paying close attention to: Nicolas Winding Refn, Steve McQueen and Derek Cianfrance. MacDowell's performance in "A Clockwork Orange" is unbelievable.  Truly one of the best ever. I've always believed Stanley Kubrick was the greatest of all time.

[JesusCristo2002]

I love "Citizen Kane" and "Casablanca" - in terms of the Old Hollywood filmmakers: Alfred Hitchcock, Elia Kazan, David Lean, Orson Welles, Nicholas Ray, John Huston, John Ford, Howard Hawks, George Stevens, William Wyler and Billy Wilder. I'm trying to get more into Wyler, Wilder and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. I really like Old Hollywood - but I love the foreign masters such as: Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Jean-luc Godard and Michael Haneke. I'm 19 by the way.

[olliegalli1234]

The horror!

[trickster909]

It's like how musicians nowadays that study classic rock, but all the musicians in that era were inspired by black people playing blues which are the ROOTS of rock and roll.