Film Studies: Auteur Focuses

• Woody Allen
• Ingmar Bergman
• The Cohen Brothers
• Federico Fellini
• Alfred Hitchcock
• Akira Kurosawa
• Orson Welles (especially The Lady from Shanghai, Chimes at Midnight, and his Shakespeare adaptations of Macbeth and King Lear)

Comparative Film Studies

Same Director

• Through a Glass Darkly vs. Winter Light vs. The Silence (Bergman trilogy)
  Theme: Spiritual isolation
• Persona vs. The Hour of the Wolf vs. Shame (Bergman trilogy)
  Theme: Interpersonal relationships
• Winter Light vs. Wild Strawberries vs. The Seventh Seal (Bergman trilogy)
  Theme: Meaning of life
• Vertigo vs. Rear Window vs. Strangers on a Train (Hitchcock)
  Theme: Unexpected consequences of choices
• The Conformist vs. The Last Emperor (Bertolucci)
• Simon of the Desert vs. Viridiana vs. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Bunuel)

Different Directors

• The Seven Samurai (Kurosawa) vs. The Magnificent Seven (Peckinpah) vs. The Wild Bunch (Peckinpah)
  Same story retold differently (different culture, and different underlying “message for the audience”)
• King Lear (Olivier) vs. Ran (Kurosawa) vs. King Lear (Godard) vs. A Thousand Acres (Jason Robards) vs. others
  Same story retold differently (different cultures, and different underlying “message for the audience”)
• Macbeth (Olivier) vs. Throne of Blood (Kurosawa) vs. Macbeth (Mel Gibson) vs. Macbeth (Orson Welles)
  Same story retold differently (different cultures, and different underlying “message for the audience”)
• Schindler’s List (Spielberg) vs. Sophie’s Choice (Pakula) vs. The Deer Hunter (Cimino)
  The ultimate in moral dilemmas
• Rashomon (Kurosawa) vs. Last Year at Marienbad (Renais) vs. Wild Strawberries (Bergman)
  Perspectives on the subjectivity of reality
• A Man for All Seasons (Zinnemann) vs. Becket (Glenville) vs. Man of La Mancha (Hiller)
  Perspectives on individual moral choice based on spiritual frame vs. the earthly world
• Other Shakespeare films: King Lear, Macbeth, Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest (interpretations by different directors)

Movie-to-Book Comparisons

• Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring
• Like Water for Chocolate (Laura Esquevel)
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being
• Inherit the Wind
• The Last Temptation of Christ (Kanzantzakis)
• Joan of Arc (historical records vs. several movie versions)
• The Ox-bow Incident (Walter Van Tilburg Clark)
• One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Ken Kesey)
• Sometimes a Great Notion (Ken Kesey)

See Ken Boa’s full list of recommendations for films with spiritual and moral themes. [vector_icon icon=”arrow-circle-o-right” color=”#dd9933″]