Slow cinema — the long-take canon
Long takes, minimal cuts, contemplation as method. Tarr, Akerman, Costa, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang, Reygadas. If you can sit through a single shot for ten minutes, this is where you live.
Seven Samurai
foreign gemepicslow burn
Once Upon a Time in America
bittersweetepicslow burn
The Pianist
gut punchrawslow burn
Once Upon a Time in the West
foreign gembittersweetepic
Apocalypse Now
dreadmindfuckneon soaked
The Shining
dreadmindfuckslow burn
The Handmaiden
foreign gemmindfucksexy
Incendies
foreign gemgut punchslow burn
Memories of Murder
foreign gemdreadraw
2001: A Space Odyssey
epicmindfuckslow burn
Barry Lyndon
bittersweetepicslow burn
Lawrence of Arabia
epicslow burn
The Deer Hunter
epicgut punchraw
Society of the Snow
foreign gemgut punchraw
Chinatown
cerebralparanoidslow burn
Rosemary's Baby
paranoidslow burn
The Best Offer
foreign gembittersweetslow burn
L.A. Confidential
paranoidslow burn
Dune
epicneon soakedslow burn
The Hateful Eight
bittersweetparanoidraw
Mystic River
gut punchrawslow burn
The Batman
dreadslow burn
Cast Away
bittersweetslow burntender
Primal Fear
cerebralmindfuckslow burn
Frankenstein
dreadgut punchslow burn
Roma
foreign gembittersweetoutsider
Blade Runner 2049
cerebralneon soakedslow burn
Zodiac
cerebraldreadparanoid
Anatomy of a Fall
foreign gemcerebralslow burn
The Great Beauty
foreign gembittersweetcerebral
Other canon collections
Japanese New Wave — the essentials
80s horror everyone has forgotten
Giallo — Italy's blood-red mystery genre
Korean cinema essentials beyond Parasite
Post-Soviet cinema — Russia & Eastern Europe after 1991
The Romanian New Wave
Essential anime that isn't Studio Ghibli
70s American paranoia — the post-Watergate canon
First features by directors who later mattered
Documentaries that hold up as cinema
Scandinavian noir beyond the Stieg Larsson franchises
Iranian new wave — Kiarostami, Farhadi, and the rest
Argentine cinema — beyond Wild Tales
British kitchen-sink and what it became
First features directed by cinematographers
German New Wave — Fassbinder, Herzog, Wenders, Schlöndorff
Hong Kong action — Woo, Lam, Tsui, To
Spaghetti westerns — Leone, Corbucci, Sollima, and the second tier
Mumblecore — the American indie movement nobody named
Czech New Wave — Forman, Chytilová, Menzel, before they fled
French New Wave — Godard, Truffaut, Varda, Rivette, Rohmer
Blaxploitation — Shaft, Pam Grier, and the 70s Black cinema boom
Dogme 95 — von Trier, Vinterberg, and the vow of chastity
Australian New Wave — Weir, Miller, Armstrong, Campion
African cinema — Sembène, Sissako, Mambéty, and beyond
Italian neorealism — the rubble and the real
Commedia all'italiana — Italy laughing at itself
German expressionism — shadows, angles, madness
Taiwanese New Cinema — Hou, Yang, Tsai, and the island's quiet revolution
New Queer Cinema — Haynes, Araki, Van Sant, and the 90s insurgency
Wuxia and martial arts — flying swords, hidden masters