In the film Martin Scorsese examines a selection of his favorite American films grouped according to two different types of directors: the director as an illusionist such as D.W. Griffith and F. W. Murnau, who created new editing techniques among other innovations that made the appearance of sound and color possible later on and the director as a smuggler such as filmmakers Douglas Sirk, Samuel Fuller, and Vincente Minnelli, who used to hide subversive messages in their films
The Director as Illusionist
The Cameraman, 1928 silent comedy directed by Edward Sedgwick and an uncredited Buster Keaton
The Birth of a Nation, 1915 silent film directed by D. W. Griffith
Death's Marathon, 1913 silent film directed by D. W. Griffith
Cabiria, 1914 Italian silent film directed by Giovanni Pastrone
Intolerance, 1916 silent film directed by D. W. Griffith
The Ten Commandments (1923), 1923 silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille
Samson and Delilah, 1949, directed by Cecil B. DeMille
The Ten Commandments (1956), 1956, directed by Cecil B. DeMille
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, 1927 silent film directed by F. W. Murnau
Seventh Heaven, 1927 silent film directed by Frank Borzage
Anna Christie, 1930, directed by Clarence Brown
Her Man, 1930, directed by Tay Garnett
The Big House, 1930, directed by George W. Hill
Leave Her to Heaven, 1945 film noir directed by John M. Stahl
Johnny Guitar, 1954 Western film directed by Nicholas Ray
The Robe, 1953 Biblical epic film directed by Henry Koster
East of Eden, 1955, directed by Elia Kazan
Some Came Running, 1958, directed by Vincente Minnelli
Land of the Pharaohs, 1955, directed and produced by Howard Hawks
The Fall of the Roman Empire, 1964, directed by Anthony Mann
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, American television series from 4 March 1992 to 24 July 1993, created and executively produced by George Lucas, directed by various directors
2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968 science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick
The Director as Smuggler
Cat People, 1942 horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur
I Walked with a Zombie, 1943 horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur
Letter from an Unknown Woman, 1948 film directed by Max Ophüls, based on the novella written by Stefan Zweig
Scarlet Street, 1945 American film noir directed by Fritz Lang
Detour, 1945, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer
Double Indemnity, 1944 film noir directed by Billy Wilder
Crime Wave, 1954 film noir directed by André De Toth
Outrage, 1950, directed by noted film noir actress and pioneering female director Ida Lupino
Gun Crazy, 1950 film noir directed by Joseph H. Lewis
T-Men, 1947 film noir directed by Anthony Mann
Raw Deal, 1948 film noir directed by Anthony Mann
Kiss Me Deadly, 1955 film noir directed by Robert Aldrich
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