Some things I love about cinema

Socialist themes in films

Psychological Dramas

Samurai cinema and Edo period dramas

Deep staging and extended takes - Citizen Kane was considered the greatest film for 40 years of the Sight & Sound Poll

Comparing my taste in films to my favorite directors and Charlie Chaplin's films

Poetic Realism

From the few films I've seen, Children of Paradise epitomizes poetic realism, but it isn't as brilliant technically as The Rules of the Game. It's still a masterpiece.

Movies that make me cry

Robert De Niro's Films

Moral uncertainty

Psychological Thrillers and dreams in films

Films about youth

Anti-war films and historical movies with allegories for the present

Discovering underappreciated films and experiencing wonderful cinematic moments

Believable magic.

Communism in films and dark comedies

Bresson's Films and films with unconventional characters, like Balthazar the donkey

Anime and the films of Miyazaki

Films exposing group-think

Films set in totalitarian states and Tarkovsky's films

life-affirming films - there aren't enough characters, especially male characters, like Gelsomina.

Films for the young at heart

Movies about Making Movies and Fellini's Films

The cinematic inventiveness of Ozu's films, particularly the pillow shots

Personal films influenced by the directors' lives, François Truffaut's films, and film series

Truffaut's film is semi-autobiographical. A couple other directors whose life experiences helped shape their work are Mizoguchi (his sister was sold as a geisha) and Kon Ichikawa (his family survived an atomic bombing, and he made some anti-war films).

Films as criticism and Godard's best films

As a critic, I already thought of myself as a filmmaker. Today I still consider myself a critic, and in a sense, I’m even more of one than before. Instead of criticism, I make a film, but that includes a critical dimension. I consider myself an essayist, producing essays in the form of novels or novels in the form of essays: only instead of writing, I film them. - Jean-Luc Godard, 1962 quoted in Breathless as Film Criticism by Jonathan Rosenbaum

"The best way to criticize a movie is to make another movie." — Jean-Luc Godard

Films about how we connect to other human beings

The movie Solaris has a space station, it takes place near another planet, but actually it's a mediation on the human individual and not really a space opera at all. Do we see other people as they are, or do they exist for us only in our ideas about them. The planet can read the man's mind and reproduce his dead wife, but as he looks at the reproduction he grows depressed because he questions how well he really knew her in the first place. The planet cannot supply what's not there in his mind. The movie is quiet and creepy, thoughtful and very moving about the subject how well we can ever really know one another. - Roger Ebert's review of the Solaris remake (applicable to the original film)

films that break the 4th wall

When slapstick is combined with imaginative film-making and Buster Keaton's best films

I recommend the blu ray restoration.

Films showing the language of cinema

Scorsese on Intolerance

Soviet montage and pure cinema

Films influenced by Soviet montage theory

Space Westerns

Claymation and stop-motion

Soviet animated films, Soviet films, and Animated films in general

Queer Cinema and TV - There's a Listal's favorite GLBTQ films list worth checking out.

German Expressionism - I love the use of painted shadows in this film.

Humanist cinema

Documentaries

Documentaries can make you (or at least me) consider things no book or any other type of media could.

The awful thing about life is this: everyone has their reasons - Octave - The Rules of the Game

Documentary film can capture what Renoir's character said perfectly; if I didn't see Kenzo's reasons for his assaults I doubt I would have bothered to figure out his reasons, or feel so much sympathy. The documentary will question what you feel you know about war and might make you even reconsider the Machiavellian maxim 'the ends justify the means'.

Film Documentaries

No matter what you think of Scorsese, you have to admire his passion for cinema.

Incomplete films

I really like fan edits and restorations of films; the recobbled cut was made by a fan who spliced together some rough cuts and the complete inferior versions (the director didn't make the versions) to make a great estimation of what Richard Williams wanted. They un-Disneyfied the film (bad musicals made the film look like an Aladdin rip off when Disney's Aladdin ripped of some scenes), and made Tack a mute.

When directors play tricks on you

Anarchist Cinema

Surreal humour and Don Hertzfedts' films

Cartoons come to life - I really enjoy cartoons where the characters very noticeably break the fourth wall.

Films that show the worst part about our humanity and David Lynch's best films

This video contains loud and NSFW language.

Naked is another film that's harder to watch the more critical you are of your character.

Watching cult movies, especially with commentary from MST3K or RiffTrax

Tracking shots

Films about the unexpected moral consequences of our actions

[M]y film is about today’s unconscious indifference when people only think about themselves and their families. But it is not an anti-bourgeois film. It is not about the bourgeoisie, but about specific people. I am a bourgeois myself. I simply happened to have observed people like that. That’s what I like about the Tolstoy story. People from other classes can behave in the same way, for the love of their children. They are not intrinsically evil, but their behavior has evil consequences. - Bresson, in a interview with Michael Ciment

Watching great films even when I'm opposed to their ideological themes e.g. conservative films (I'm not implying this film is conservative.)