ITA 212/HST 320-03: Contemporary Italian History through Film II

Citing films typically entails a different set of problems from books, and the conventions are different. It's always best to check with your instructor first regarding his or her individual requirements.

Chicago style states that citations for recorded media, such as film, should include the following information as appropriate: name of the person primarily responsible for the content of the recording (composer, writer, performer, etc.),a title, recording company or publisher’s name, identifying number, an indication of medium (DVD, videocassette, etc.), and a copyright and/or production/performance date. Entries for recorded material found online should also include a DOI or URL.

There are two specific issues you need to keep in mind when you are citing a film entry:

1. If you are citing supplementary content from a DVD such as an essay or director's commentary, you should consider creating a works cited entry, and not simply list it as the film itself; 
2. It is a very good idea to be clear which version of a particular film you viewed and are therefore citing. Many films are released in different versions for different markets and thus do not even necessarily contain identical footage. F. W. Murnau's Faust (1926), like many films of the silent era, had separate domestic and export negatives constructed from different takes entirely. Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan (1964) was released in a 182-minute version in Japan but was initially released in the U.S. in a 125-minute version missing one of its four episodes, and is currently distributed on video in the US in a 161-minute version that is still shortened and re-edited but contains all four episodes. And with the advent of DVD, it is not uncommon for films to have footage added or removed specifically for the DVD release, as opposed to the theatrical release.

(Text adapted from https://guides.libraries.emory.edu/c.php?g=49968&p=324034)