As detailed in his brilliant new Harpers essay, Martin Scorsese is not only continuing to make masterpieces along with highlighting and preserving all corners of world cinema—he’s fighting tooth and nail for the art form itself as media conglomerates further infantilize the medium with four-quadrant, homogenized “content.”

While his accurate comments have caused some backlash, our friends at Bright Wall/Dark Room put it succinctly, “Scorsese is a gate *opener* btw. He wants you to see movies, make movies, love movies, live movies. It’s kinda been his whole thing for 50 years.” The latest proof of this life-long mission has arrived courtesy of a list of new film recommendations.

Spurred on by Edgar Wright’s request during quarantine for more films to devour, Scorsese sent the fellow filmmaker nearly 50 recommendations of British films, including many overlooked ones, revealed in 3-hour conversation that Wright had with Quentin Tarantino on the Empire podcast. Rather this a list of his 50 favorites, which would certainly include the likes of Hitchcock and Powell & Pressburger among many others, this list is a fantastic deep dive with many films I imagine may not have come across your radar before.

Check out the list below via Empire, with hat tip to No Film School.

Update: Edgar Wright has shared the full correspondence from Scorsese, and he’s also added one more to his list: Terence Fisher’s Spaceways.

  • Shooting Stars (1928) – Anthony Asquith 
  • Brief Ecstasy (1937) – Edmond T. Gréville
  • Went the Day Well? (1942) – Alberto Cavalcanti
  • The Man in Grey (1943) – Leslie Arliss
  • This Happy Breed (1944) – David Lean
  • Halfway House (1944) – Basil Dearden 
  • Madonna and the Seven Moons (1945) – Arthur Crabtree
  • Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945) – Robert Hamer
  • Dead of Night (1945) – Anthology
  • The Seventh Veil (1945) – Compton Bennett
  • Green for Danger (1946) – Sidney Gilliat 
  • It Always Rains on Sunday (1947) – Robert Hamer
  • Hue & Cry (1947) – Charles Crichton
  • Uncle Silas (1947) – Charles Frank
  • To the Public Danger (1948) – Terrence Fisher
  • The Queen of Spades (1949) – Thorold Dickinson
  • So Long at the Fair (1950) – Terrence Fisher
  • The Blue Lamp (1950) – Basil Dearden
  • Stolen Face (1952) – Terrence Fisher
  • Sound Barrier (1952) – David Lean
  • Mandy (1952) – Alexander Mackendrick
  • Four Sided Triangle (1953) – Terrence Fisher
  • The Good Die Young (1954) – Lewis Gilbert
  • The Quatermass Films (1955 – 1979) – Roy Ward Baker
  • Yield to the Night (1956) – J. Lee Thompson
  • Nowhere to Go (1958) – Seth Holt
  • The Snorkel (1958) – Guy Green
  • Sapphire (1959) – Basil Dearden
  • The Flesh of the Fiends (1960) – John Gilling 
  • Scream of Fear/Taste of Fear (1961) – Seth Holt 
  • These are the Damned (1961) – Joseph Losey
  • The Innocents (1961) – Jack Clayton 
  • Burn, Witch, Burn (1962) – Sidney Hayers (also known as Night of the Eagle)
  • Station Six-Sahara (1963) – Seth Holt 
  • The Mind Benders (1963) – Basil Dearden 
  • The Nanny (1964) – Seth Holt 
  • Guns at Batasi (1964) – John Guillermin
  • The Pumpkin Eater (1964) – Jack Clayton
  • A High Wind in Jamaica (1965) – Alexander Mackendrick 
  • Plague of the Zombies (1966) – Josh Gilling
  • The Devil Rides Out (1968) – Terence Fisher
  • Whistle and I’ll Come to You (1968) – Jonathan Miller 
  • Underground (1970) – Arthur H. Nadel
  • Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971) – Roy Ward Baker
  • The Asphyx (1972) – Peter Newbrook
  • Legend of Hell House (1973) – John Hough
  • Vampyres (1974) – José Ramón Larraz
  • The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987) – Jack Clayton 

Listen to Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino’s three-hour convo with Empire below.

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