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THE DRAMA PAGE

I use the term "drama" to denote a serious story in which characters, almost always at variance with one another, propel the narrative.  Conflict, then, is the heart of drama; its filmic elements (mise-en-scène, editing, music, etc.) serve the purpose of the narrative, propelling the characters (and us) toward a conclusion, perhaps an affirmation.  

I said earlier that a strong sense of place is important to me.  This locus need not be static but can involve a journey or passage.   Consider these titles:  La Strada, Stagecoach,  2001: A Space Odyssey, "I Know Where I'm Going!", North By Northwest.  The journey in each of these films not only shapes the film's narrative but it creates change in its characters' situations forcing them to look at themselves, to make decisions they ordinarily don't have to make. These "road" movies are by definition films of movement, usually, though not always, ending up at a different location. The journey may be a round trip (The General), a series of round trips (Sullivan's Travels), mindless meanderings along Main Street, USA (American Graffiti).  Their commonalty (besides the displacement of the trip) is the protagonist's search, an ingredient central to drama.  

Silent drama films can be found on the SILENTS page. 
Due to the extensive number of Powell and Hitchcock films I have created a page for each director.

MUST-SEE DRAMAS (English language) 
ALL ABOUT EVE (Mankiewicz) 
ANNIE HALL (Allen) 
ATLANTIC CITY (Malle) 
BARRY LYNDON (Kubrick)  
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (Wyler) 
BIG NIGHT (Tucci and Scott)  
BLOW-UP (Antonioni) 
BLUE VELVET (Lynch) 
BRIEF ENCOUNTER (Lean) 
CASABLANCA (Curtiz) 
CITIZEN KANE (Welles) 
DO THE RIGHT THING (Lee) 
FARGO (Coen) 
FACES (Cassavetes) 
FAR FROM HEAVEN (Haynes) 
THE GRADUATE (Nichols) 
HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (Allen) 
HUD (Ritt)  
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (Bogdanovich) 
LAST TANGO IN PARIS (Bertolucci) 
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (Lean) 
A LETTER TO THREE WIVES (Mankiewicz) 
LOST IN TRANSLATION (Coppola) 
THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (Welles) 
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (Frankenheimer) 
MICHAEL CLAYTON (Gilroy)
MIDNIGHT COWBOY (Schlesinger)
NASHVILLE (Altman)
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (Coen)
ODD MAN OUT (Reed) 
ON THE WATERFRONT (Kazan) 
THE PASSENGER (Antonioni) 
QUEEN CHRISTINA (Mamoulian) 
THE QUIET AMERICAN (Noyce) 
RAGING BULL (Scorsese) 
REMAINS OF THE DAY (Ivory) 
THE RIGHT STUFF (Kaufman) 
THE RIVER (Renoir) 
THE SERVANT (Losey) 
THE STATION AGENT (McCarthy)
THE STRAIGHT STORY (Lynch) 
THE SWEET HEREAFTER (Egoyan) 
TAXI DRIVER (Scorsese) 
THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (Berger, Powell) 
THE THIRD MAN (Reed) 
TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH (King) 
THE VERDICT (Lumet) 

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