From Chaplin to the 1970s

A chronological journey through 50 essential films that tell the story of cinema's first great half-century, from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in 1920 to The Godfather in 1972.

This is not simply a list of the 50 “best” films. Each film earns its place because it represents an important step in how cinema evolved: visually, technically, narratively or culturally.

The journey follows the major transformations of the medium: silent comedy and expressionism → montage → the arrival of sound → classical Hollywood → animation and genre cinema → film noir → post-war European cinema → widescreen spectacle → Japanese cinema → the French New Wave → the breakdown of the studio system → modern auteur cinema → New Hollywood.

The list deliberately ends with The Godfather. Jaws and Star Wars belong to the next era: the rise of the modern blockbuster.

The beginning and the ending of the list mirror each other. Caligari and The Kid show cinema when storytelling was still being invented through images and shadows.

Fifty films later, The Godfather shows a medium that has absorbed expressionism, montage, sound, colour, noir, realism, widescreen, international cinema, the New Wave and auteur filmmaking.

So “From Chaplin to the 1970s” is not only a title. It describes what the course is trying to teach: how we got from the language of silent cinema to the language of modern cinema.