Longer retrospective · top pick
The Historical Canon
From Chaplin to the 1970s
0 of 50 watched
Log in to start this list →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 idea in one sentence
Watch 50 films, in chronological order, and understand how cinema became modern.
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.
Filters
50 films
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
1920 · Robert Wiene
Drama · Horror · Thriller
The Kid
1921 · Charlie Chaplin
Comedy · Drama
Nosferatu
1922 · F.W. Murnau
Horror · Fantasy
Sherlock Jr.
1924 · Buster Keaton
Action · Comedy · Mystery
Ben-Hur
1925 · Fred Niblo
Adventure · Drama · Romance
The General
1926 · Buster Keaton
Comedy · War · Romance
Sunrise
1927 · F.W. Murnau
Drama · Romance
Metropolis
1927 · Fritz Lang
Drama · Science Fiction
The Passion of Joan of Arc
1928 · Carl T. Dreyer
Drama · History
M
1931 · Fritz Lang
Drama · Thriller · Crime
Frankenstein
1931 · James Whale
Drama · Horror · Science Fiction
City Lights
1931 · Charlie Chaplin
Comedy · Drama · Romance
The Mummy
1932 · Karl Freund
Horror
The Wizard of Oz
1939 · Victor Fleming
Adventure · Fantasy · Family
The Rules of the Game
1939 · Jean Renoir
Drama · Comedy · Romance
Stagecoach
1939 · John Ford
Western
Gone with the Wind
1939 · Victor Fleming
Drama · War · Romance
Citizen Kane
1941 · Orson Welles
Mystery · Drama
Casablanca
1942 · Michael Curtiz
Drama · Romance
Double Indemnity
1944 · Billy Wilder
Crime · Thriller
It's a Wonderful Life
1946 · Frank Capra
Drama · Family · Fantasy
Bicycle Thieves
1948 · Vittorio De Sica
Drama
Rashomon
1950 · Akira Kurosawa
Crime · Drama · Mystery
Singin' in the Rain
1952 · Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen
Comedy · Romance
Tokyo Story
1953 · Yasujirō Ozu
Drama
Rear Window
1954 · Alfred Hitchcock
Thriller · Mystery · Drama
Seven Samurai
1954 · Akira Kurosawa
Action · Drama
The Ten Commandments
1956 · Cecil B. DeMille
Drama · History
The Searchers
1956 · John Ford
Western
Wild Strawberries
1957 · Ingmar Bergman
Drama
12 Angry Men
1957 · Sidney Lumet
Drama
Vertigo
1958 · Alfred Hitchcock
Mystery · Romance · Thriller
Le Beau Serge
1958 · Claude Chabrol
Drama
The 400 Blows
1959 · François Truffaut
Drama
Ben-Hur
1959 · William Wyler
History · Drama · Adventure
Some Like It Hot
1959 · Billy Wilder
Comedy · Romance · Crime
Breathless
1960 · Jean-Luc Godard
Drama · Crime · Romance
La Dolce Vita
1960 · Federico Fellini
Comedy · Drama
Psycho
1960 · Alfred Hitchcock
Horror · Thriller · Mystery
Jules and Jim
1962 · François Truffaut
Drama · Romance
Lawrence of Arabia
1962 · David Lean
Adventure · History · War
8½
1963 · Federico Fellini
Drama
Cleopatra
1963 · Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Drama · History · Romance
Dr. Strangelove
1964 · Stanley Kubrick
Comedy · War
Doctor Zhivago
1965 · David Lean
Drama · Romance · War
A Man and a Woman
1966 · Claude Lelouch
Drama · Romance
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
1966 · Sergio Leone
Western
Once Upon a Time in the West
1968 · Sergio Leone
Drama · Western
2001: A Space Odyssey
1968 · Stanley Kubrick
Science Fiction · Mystery · Adventure
The Godfather
1972 · Francis Ford Coppola
Drama · Crime