Martin Scorsese Recommends 39 Foreign Films to Young Filmmaker

Young filmmaker Colin Levy reached out to Martin Scorsese asking him for some film recommendations to further his cinematic education and Scorsese’s assistant responded with the following list and a note that read:

Mr. Scorsese asked that I send this your way. This should be a jump start to your film education!

The list is comprised of 39 foreign films and I’ve gone through and put a little check mark next to those that I have personally seen, which, I guess, means I have 19 films I need to begin to explore. Of those I haven’t seen, Rocco and His Brothers and Children of Paradise are two I’ve meant to watch for a long time. Rocco was one Francis Ford Coppola told me was one of his favorite films back when I interviewed him for Tetro and I’ve still yet to give it a watch. (slacking)

According to the post from Colin at Reddit, he was given the list about six years ago and only recently did he decide to begin exploring it. Better late than never… Oh, and Colin, watch Breathless right now and keep on watching it forever!

I have included the list of films in text version below the image thanks to the folks at Reddit and you can click the image for a blank copy of the list for your own check-marking duties.

How many have you seen?

1. Metropolis (1927)
2. Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)
3. Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler – ein Bild der Zeit (1922)
4. Napoleon (1927)
5. La Grande Illusion (1937)
6. La Regle de jeu (1939)
7. Les Enfants du Paradis (1945)
8. Roma, citta aperta (1945)
9. Paisa (1946)
10. La Terra Trema (1948)
11. Ladri di biciclette (1948)
12. Umberto D (1952)
13. La belle et la bete (1946)
14. Tokyo monogatari (1953)
15. Ikiru (1952)
16. Shichinin no samurai (1954)
17. Ugetsu monogatari (1953)
18. Sansho dayu (1954)
19. Tengoku to jigoku (1963)
20. Il soliti ignoti (1958)
21. Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960)
22. Les quatre cents coups (1959)
23. Tirez sur le pianiste (1960)
24. A bout de souffle (1960)
25. Bande a part (1964)
26. Il Sorpasso (1962)
27. L’avventura (1960)
28. Blowup (1966)
29. Prima della rivoluzione (1964)
30. Le Boucher (1970)
31. Week End (1967)
32. Koshikei (1968)
33. Handler der vier Jahreszeiten (1971)
34. Angst essen Seele auf (1974)
35. Die Ehe der Maria Braun (1979)
36. Im Lauf der Zeit (1976)
37. Der amerikanische Freund (1977)
38. Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1976)
39. Aguirre, der Zorn des Gottes (1972)