Anyone that wants their own private "film school", can invest 10 years or so and work through the "1001 Movies to See Before You Die" [1]. It's a book compiled by several film critics as I understand it. For each of the films there's a page or two explaining the significance of the film (according to the critic that chose it for the list).
My wife and I have been at it for perhaps 6 years now. We probably have 3 years or so to go to finish it.
You do learn, I think, patience. I found long slow films tedious initially but have come to know why some film are that way and I am more willing now to just go with the flow.
To be sure though, any film over two or so hours we might split across two days to watch.
That's a good list, but it's quite a western list. It's missing some great films from Socialist era Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, etc. If you'd like to know some of my favourites, just let me know.
FWIW, the "1001" has introduced me to a number of Czech (Obchod na korze, Sedmikrásky, Ostře sledované vlaky, Hoří, má panenko, Marketa Lazarová, Ucho) and Polish (Popiól I Diament, The Saragossa Manuscript, Człowiek z marmuru, Człowiek z żelaza) films.
I'm only up to the 1980's though, there may be a few more.
I'm not aware of having seen any Hungarian films (yet).
>(Obchod na korze, Sedmikrásky, Ostře sledované vlaky, Hoří, má panenko, Marketa Lazarová, Ucho) and Polish (Popiól I Diament, The Saragossa Manuscript, Człowiek z marmuru, Człowiek z żelaza)
Excellent! You've watched some brilliant Slavic films already then, especially Marketa Lazarova and The Saragossa Manuscript. I have these two in my favourite films of all time list. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.
Here are some of my favs: Ziemia obiecana (1975), Sanatorium pod klepsydrą (1973), Pociąg (1959), Kanal (1957), Holubice (1960), Slnko v sieti (1962), Zlaté kapradí (1963), Údolí včel (1968), Csillagosok, katonák (1967), A Pál utcai fiúk (1968), A tanú (1969), Kárhozat (1988), Két félidő a pokolban (1961), Szindbád (1971), Szürkület (1990), Dacii (1967), Danton (1983), O slavnosti a hostech (1966), Pădurea spînzuraților (1965), Reconstituirea (1968), and Добро пожаловать, или Посторонним вход воспрещён (1964).
Please see my reply to JKCalhoun. As for lists, I used other people's lists on Mubi a lot back when I used to watch/torrent 1 film per day (from 2008 to 2015), and for good forums there's Karagarga, rateyourmusic, letterboxd is OK, rutorrent is OK if you can read Russian, and there used to be an arthouse IRC channel on rizon back in the days but it's dead now. I stopped watching films religiously around 2015-2016, so I don't know where the cool kids hang anymore. Maybe Discord?
My wife and I have been at it for perhaps 6 years now. We probably have 3 years or so to go to finish it.
You do learn, I think, patience. I found long slow films tedious initially but have come to know why some film are that way and I am more willing now to just go with the flow.
To be sure though, any film over two or so hours we might split across two days to watch.
[1] https://1001films.fandom.com/wiki/The_List