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Martin Scorsese’s Film School: The 85 Films You Need To See To Know Anything About Film

There are few directors who know every nook and cranny of film history with the degree of depth and excitement as Martin Scorsese. And if you’re trying to condense over one hundred years of cinema history, and stack up the movies you need to see to earn you cinephile stripes, the director has you covered.

A few years back, the filmmaker sat down with FastCoCreate for a lengthy four-hour chat during which Scorsese dropped the names of no less than eighty-five movies. The site compiled them at the time (with complete notes and quotes from the filmmaker — so head over there for more context) and Open Culture has put them back on the radar today.

And of course, it cuts a big swath through cinema, from stone cold classics to foreign film essentials, film noir treasures and much, much more.

There are no films in this list released in the 2000s.