The Ten Best First Films (7) - Critic and blogger Peter Nelllhaus writes from Denver

Peter Nellhaus lives in Denver Colorado and writes extensively about movies at  Coffee, Coffee and more Coffee. He advises he also contributed a chapter on Thai cinema to the book   Southeast Asian Cinema/Le Cinema d'asie du Sud-Est  and appears smarter translated into French.

Peter writes:

I need to start off by stating that I knew something about these directors when I saw these films.  I was a Cinema Studies student at New York University, reading "Take One", "Film Comment", "Movie", and several other English language magazines.  No numbers, as I am just listing the films that come to mind.  The films listed were all seen theatrically.

Hard Times - Walter Hill (1975)

They Came from Within (Shivers) - David Cronenberg (1975)

Sugarland Express - Steven Spielberg (1974)

THX-1138 - George Lucas (1971)  The short version was distributed as part of a package of student films, so I knew about Lucas well before he became a brand name.

Dillinger - John Milius (1973)

More - Barbet Schroeder (1969).  Probably, the closest to coming to a film knowing almost nothing in advance.  There are only two movies I sat through theatrically twice in a row.  The other one was Goldfinger.