Film, like all things, began somewhere. It hasnt always been the way it is, with its Hollywood formulas, average shot lengths and genre conventions; like some kind of organism, it evolved that way (and, hopefully, will always continue to evolve). The five films Ill talk about here are the five that started it all, and the ones youre not likely to have heard of. Without these five films, cinema simply wouldnt be where it is today. These films advanced the art-form and brought it forward, and the films of today are forever indebted to them. Youll notice that theyre all old films; this is not me being a philistine and saying that cinema stopped moving in 1941; I merely wanted to go to the core of it all, with the very first films that lay the absolute basics. Im going at this from a purely technical point of view, looking at the films that brought about changes and revolutions in the method of film-making. For example, including Jaws or Star Wars with relation to the modern-blockbuster might be valid, but those are mere trends, whereas the Battleship Potemkin invented the montage. There is also a little bit (a lot) of subjective opinion in here. Limiting myself to five has meant that I have had to drop a considerable few films- where, for example, is the Jazz Singer, which was the first sound film? And Cupid Angling from 1918, the first colour movie? And where is Nosferatu, for introducing the big reveal of the scary movie monster? Whilst those films are good, and changed cinema in the early days, I frankly dont think theyre as good as the ones on this list, and prefer this five. Also, its a pet hate of mine that the film Ive chosen as number one rarely ever gets noticed in these kinds of lists, so this is to redress that balance. So here we are; the five most hugely influential films youve never heard of.