Major films to help us understand film theory

Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

Major Soviet Avant-Garde film that re-imagines the city film (a common silent documentary film in the 1920s).  This film, following the lead of Russian Constructivism and Productivism, continually reminds the viewer of the process of its making and exhibition - precisely what Baudry and Mulvey see as the concealment that's so problematic in narrative film.  Baudry explicitly mentions one clip that pull us out of the diegesis and to the materiality of the film.  It starts around 22 minutes (and goes for around 5 minutes after that).  I recommend this entire film, though!




There are also some great parts of Grindhouse, the Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino double-feature of Planet Terror and Deathproof that do this in order to re-create the lost exhibition venues their films harken back to.

Peeping Tom (1960)

One of the first real slasher flicks of postwar British film, this movie follows a psychopathic serial killer/photographer/filmmaker who is in search for the ultimate face of fear.  The opening credits are a great parallel to the scopophilic and voyeuristic drives Mulvey discusses in her feminist analysis.  The opening scene is below, but I recommend watching the entire film - it keeps you on the edge of your seat and does some fantastic things with sound later on (in addition to a very climactic ending).




I also recommend Hitchcock's Rear Window for its play on voyeurism and immobility.