IB FILM STUDIES

IB and FILM

"The study of film in an international context allows students to broaden their vision of film culture beyond the dominance of Hollywood or popular network television images, in keeping with the spirit of intercultural understanding promoted by the IBO."

About This Class

Film is both a powerful communication medium and an art form. The Diploma Programme film course aims
to develop students’ skills so that they become adept in both interpreting and making film texts.
Through the study and analysis of film texts and exercises in film-making, the Diploma Programme film
course explores film history, theory and socio-economic background. The course develops students’ critical
abilities, enabling them to appreciate the multiplicity of cultural and historical perspectives in film. To
achieve an international understanding within the world of film, students are taught to consider film texts,
theories and ideas from the points of view of different individuals, nations and cultures.

Objective

The IB film course emphasizes the importance of working individually and as a member of a group. Students
are encouraged to develop the professional and technical skills (including organizational skills) needed to
express themselves creatively in film. A challenge for students following this course is to become aware
of their own perspectives and biases and to learn to respect those of others. This requires willingness to
attempt to understand alternative views, to respect and appreciate cultural diversity, and to have an open
and critical mind. Thus, the IB film course can become a way for the student to celebrate the international
and intercultural dynamic that inspires and sustains a type of contemporary film, while appreciating
specifically local origins that have given rise to cinematic production in many parts of the world.
For any student to create, to present and to study film requires courage, passion and curiosity: courage

Required Text: Visual Storytelling, Videography and Post Production in the Digital Age. 2nd Ed. Osgood & Hinshaw

Films to Watch

1.  Citizen Kane (1941)

  8.4/10 

Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance. (119 mins.)

Director: Orson Welles

Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead

2.  Breathless (1960)

  7.9/10 

A small-time thief steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman. Wanted by the authorities, he reunites with a hip American journalism student and attempts to persuade her to run away with him to Italy. (90 mins.)

Director: Jean-Luc Godard

Stars: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel Boulanger, Henri-Jacques Huet

3. Vertigo (1958)

  8.4/10 

A San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her. (128 mins.)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore

4. The Seventh Seal (1957)

  8.2/10 

A man seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague. (96 mins.)

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Stars: Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe

5. Rashomon (1950)

  8.3/10 

A heinous crime and its aftermath are recalled from differing points of view. (88 mins.)

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura

6. Seven Samurai (1954)

  8.7/10 

A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves. (207 mins.)

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki

7. 8½ (1963)

  8.1/10 

A harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies. (138 mins.)

Director: Federico Fellini

Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, Claudia Cardinale, Sandra Milo

8. Eraserhead (1977)

  7.4/10 

Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child. (89 mins.)

Director: David Lynch

Stars: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Allen Joseph, Jeanne Bates

9. The Godfather (1972)

  9.2/10 

The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son. (175 mins.)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Stars: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton

10. Fight Club (1999)

  8.8/10 

An insomniac office worker, looking for a way to change his life, crosses paths with a devil-may-care soap maker, forming an underground fight club that evolves into something much, much more. (139 mins.)

Director: David Fincher

Stars: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Meat Loaf, Zach Grenier

11. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

  7.9/10 

Bonnie Parker, a bored waitress falls in love with an ex-con named Clyde Barrow and together they start a violent crime spree through the country, robbing cars and banks. (111 mins.)

Director: Arthur Penn

Stars: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman

12. Battleship Potemkin (1925)

  8.0/10 

In the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel's officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police massacre. (75 mins.)

Director: S.M. Eisenstein

Stars: Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barskiy, Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Ivan Bobrov

13. Raging Bull (1980)

  8.2/10 

An emotionally self-destructive boxer's journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring destroys his life outside it. (129 mins.)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Stars: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent

14. There Will Be Blood (2007)

  8.1/10 

A story of family, religion, hatred, oil and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business. (158 mins.)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciarán Hinds, Martin Stringer

15. No Country for Old Men (2007)

  8.1/10 

Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong and more than two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande. (122 mins.)

Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson

16. Bicycle Thieves (1948)

  8.3/10 

In post-war Italy, a working-class man's bicycle is stolen. He and his son set out to find it. (89 mins.)

Director: Vittorio De Sica

Stars: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell, Elena Altieri

17.  Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)

  8.0/10 

In the 16th century, the ruthless and insane Don Lope de Aguirre leads a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado. (95 mins.)

Director: Werner Herzog

Stars: Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Helena Rojo, Del Negro

18. Nosferatu (1922)

  8.0/10 

Vampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife. (94 mins.)

Director: F.W. Murnau

Stars: Max Schreck, Greta Schröder, Ruth Landshoff, Gustav von Wangenheim

19. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

  8.1/10 

Hypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders. (76 mins.)

Director: Robert Wiene

Stars: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover

20. Rear Window (1954)

  8.5/10 

A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder. (112 mins.)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Stars: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter

21. The Shining (1980)

  8.4/10 

A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future. (146 mins.)

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Stars: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers

22. Touch of Evil (1958)

  8.1/10 

A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in a Mexican border town. (95 mins.)

Director: Orson Welles

Stars: Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia

24. M (1931)

  8.4/10 

When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt. (117 mins.)

Director: Fritz Lang

Stars: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke

25. Metropolis (1927)

  8.3/10 

In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences. (153 mins.)

Director: Fritz Lang

Stars: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge