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| Still from Seven Samurai |
About a year ago, we rolled out Kanopy, a streaming service that includes hundreds of films from the Criterion Collection and more. We're happy to see classes and students taking advantage of this great video resource, and we want to spotlight some of the most popular titles from this collection.
This week, we're focusing on classics from the film canon.
You can click the link on any of these films to watch them instantly, in your browser, for free with your AU login.
The Battle of Algiers – "One of the most influential political films in history,
The Battle of
Algiers, by Gillo Pontecorvo, vividly re-creates a key year in the
tumultuous Algerian struggle for independence from the occupying French
in the 1950s."
City Lights – "City Lights, the most cherished film by Charlie Chaplin, is also his
ultimate Little Tramp chronicle. The writer-director-star achieved new
levels of grace, in both physical comedy and dramatic poignancy, with
this silent tale of a lovable vagrant falling for a young blind woman
who sells flowers on the street and
mistakes him for a millionaire."
El Norte – "Brother and sister Enrique and Rosa flee persecution at home in
Guatemala and journey north, through Mexico and on to the United States,
with the dream of starting a new life. The
personal travails of immigrants crossing the border to America had never
been shown in the movies with such urgent humanism."
Eraserhead – "In David Lynch's 'dream of dark and troubling things,' Henry is left
alone in his apartment to care for his deformed baby and has a series of
strange encounters with the beautiful girl across the hall and the
woman living in his radiator."
M – "In his harrowing masterwork
M, Fritz Lang merges trenchant social
commentary with chilling suspense, creating a panorama of private
madness and public hysteria that to this day remains the blueprint for
the psychological thriller."
Man with a Movie Camera – "This dawn-to-dusk view of the Soviet Union offers a montage of urban
Russian life, showing the people of the city at work and at play
Considered one of the most innovative and influential films of the
silent era." Includes accompaniment by the Michael Nyman Band.
Seven Samurai – "One of the most thrilling movie epics of all time,
Seven
Samurai tells the story of a sixteenth-century
village whose desperate inhabitants hire the eponymous warriors to
protect them from invading bandits."
Stagecoach – "John Ford's smash hit and enduring masterpiece
Stagecoach revolutionized
the western, elevating it from B movie to the A-list and establishing
the genre as we know it today. The quintessential tale of a group of
strangers thrown together into extraordinary circumstances,
Stagecoach
features John Wayne's first starring role for Ford."
