5 Movies That Made Me Want to Study Film

I think I always knew that I wanted to study film. From a very young age I was always interested in the oddities of cinema, the way things were depicted on screen and probably most of all, the way cinema adapted great works of literature. Since I was a young child, I loved watching all different kinds of movies and as I grew into a teenagers, this continued to expand. I am not saying that I thought I would end up studying film, but I always knew that film would be a huge part of my life. For over fifteen years, I have been thinking about film and writing about film, reading books and focusing on what it was about film I loved so much. It was the stories.

I want to cover five films that helped me get into film, giving you a small anecdote of each along the way. So, here are five films that made me want to study the subject at a higher level. Hopefully, when we escape the COVID crisis, I can safely do my PhD. So, let's carry on with the list then.

They are in no particular order

The Sixth Sense dir. by M. Night Shyamalan

My parents made me watch this on video when I was very young for the sole purpose of getting me to watch a movie that the entirety of my family were obsessed with - especially when they found out an Indian Man had directed it. If you have not realised by my last name, though I am born and raised in England, I am born to Indian parents. I am not going to lie to you when I say I was not frightened by the movie, but not because I was hard-hearted or desensitised. I was not frightened of the movie because of the fact that I was so young I did not understand what was going on. I had no idea what the story was supposed to be, I was too young to understand the pathetic fallacy or be moved by it and honestly, I was just confused. After this watch though, I would be always inquisitive about the film until one day a few years' later, I found it again and since, I have watched it around some twenty times. I accredit this film with raising my interest in narratives in film.

Vertigo dir. by Sir Alfred Hitchcock

I first watched this film when I was either eleven or twelve years' old because it was on TV whilst I was flicking through the channels. By now, I had already watched "Psycho" and the ending had already frightened the absolute crap out of me, but now that I had flicked the channel on to "Vertigo". "Vertigo" is one of those films that once you start watching it, you really cannot take your eyes off the screen. The whole point of the film is to create an air of suspense and within each scene, that is done so well. This is why it is one of my favourite Hitchcock films to date.

Chaplin dir. by Richard Attenborough

I have always loved Sir Charlie Chaplin, I have multiple large posters of him in my bedroom, including a massive canvas on one of my walls. I watched the biopic starring Robert Downey Jr. when I was very young and after I had already seen films like "City Lights", "Modern Times", "The Gold Rush" and "The Great Dictator". The way in which Richard Attenborough adapted the brilliant autobiography stunned me. I must have only been about seven or eight when I watched this film and admittedly had not read the autobiography of Sir Charlie Chaplin yet. But I have to also admit, the feeling of watching that film was absolutely magical. Robert Downey Jr.'s acting and the whole atmosphere of the film, it was all extremely memorable. The scene where he finds out his old girlfriend has passed away is just heartbreaking and is one of the best scenes in the film to me.

Nosferatu dir. by F.W Murnau

When I was a teenager, and admittedly to this day, I have read Empire and Total Film Magazine every month. I own over three hundred copies of each and have loved these magazines for most of my life. In one of the editions, there was a few stills from "Nosferatu" by F.W Murnau. By this time I had already had the pants scared off me by "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" after watching it by accident. But, Nosferatu always stuck out to me because it was a film that tried to blend its monster into the real life of the subject. The way it adapts Bram Stoker's Dracula is weird and very off, but I think that it had a certain oddity to it that drew me in. It is terrifyingly good and after my first watch when I was about thirteen, I think I just watched that movie over and over again for the next few weeks. It was surreal.

The Third Man dir. by Carol Reed

I have seen this film over fifty different times and it continues to be one of my favourite films of all time to this day. When I was about fourteen or fifteen, this film became very important in my life because I had read the book as well. I drew comparisons, but I also watched out for these key scenes. For example: the Ferris Wheel scene. Even if you watch that scene once with Orson Welles' speech, it is very hard to forget. It is well written, well acted and well directed with the heights of the Ferris Wheel shown as being almost as threatening as the subject inside it. The scene when the cat walks up to Harry is just brilliant because then, after some atmosphere, we have a chase scene in which we believe someone has disappeared into thin air. Against the contextual backdrop it shouts out, this film is absolutely and utterly flawless in every way.