Spike Lee shares his essential film list.
Love him or hate him, Spike Lee is a talented filmmaker who has made culture shattering movies. But, did you know Spike is a NYU professor? Well, Spike Lee gives all of his aspiring director’s an “essential” list of movies every director should watch if they want to create movies. While these movies are not required viewing for his class, they are recommended as “essential” for every aspiring director.
In the video below, you can see Lee introduce the list of what he considers “the greatest movies ever made.” “If you want to be a filmmaker,” he says, “you should see these films.” The list, above and continued below, includes some of the usual critical favorites Vertigo, On the Waterfront and Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto.
Also on the list is Julie Dash’s Daughter of the Dust, a lyrical landmark of indie cinema about Gullah women living on one of South Carolina’s barrier islands, and French director Euzhan Palcy’s little seen Sugar Cane Alley is about blacks toiling in the sugar cane fields of rural Martinique.
Check out the full list below:
