At the beginning of the week, Spike Lee launched a Kickstarter campaign for his next film, once again prompting the whole debate about crowd-sourcing by folks who could feasibly raise the cash themselves. And while it says something about our movie culture that both “Veronica Mars” and Zach Braff had far, far exceeded the $240,000 or so Lee has raised so far (we suppose people like the familiar over the new and potentially challenging), we’ll leave that debate for a later date. But if this Kickstarter has been good for anything so far, it’s increased presence of the always intriguing Spike Lee.
And today, the filmmaker, who also teaches at the New York University Film School, decided to drop his list of Essential Films that he believes every filmmaker needs to see. It’s something he hands to students at the start of each year, and as he explains in the video below, he’s always surprised by how many of the classics have not been viewed by kids who want to make movies. You can check out the complete list below, which expectedly has all the heavyweights you might expect: Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston, David Lean, Frederico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa and more. But the oddest choice? “Kung Fu Hustle.” Also, of all the Woody Allen films to choose from, it’s “Zelig” that made the list.
Anyway, have seen them all? Agree/disagree? Watch Spike and then check out the full list below.
