@ Arcanus — yes, it’s a great picture (and the Criterion Edition is a terrific two-disc package). The Ealing Studios made some dry-as-a-martini comedies, the likes of which we are unlikely to see again. This is my favorite film with Alect Guinness, moreso even than Bridge on the River Kwai.
In-depth review of the Criterion Edition:
http://cinemauprising.blogspot.com/2009/03/kind-hearts-and-coronets-black-comedy.html
Screenwriter Anthony Shaffer should be mentioned here: SLEUTH, THE WICKER MAN, and the forgotten gem ABSOLUTION.
Also worth looking up:
Dead of Night (1945)
Afraid of the dark (Mark Peploe, 1991)
Zwartboek (Paul Verhoeven, 2006)
Dead Man’s Shoes (Shane Meadows, 2004)
Stairs (Stefan Schabenbeck, 1969)
The Book of Eli (The Hughes Brothers, 2010)
Incendies (Denis Villeneuve, 2010)
Stay (Marc Forster, 2005)
The Life Before Her Eyes (Vadim Perelman, 2007)
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (Fritz Lang, 1956)
The Longest Nite (Patrick Yau, 1997)
The great thing about these twist endings are that you say “Holy ^^*%(%@” and then you realize that the twist is the perfect logical end of the movie.
I’m not seeing any particular twist to the end of KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, beyond the open-endedness. A great film, with a terribly underrated performance from Dennis Price.
My favorite twist ending is at the end of Martin McDonagh’s play THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE, the single most shocking surprise ending I’ve yet come across — probably the biggest hardest laugh I’ve ever gotten in a theater. I wish McDonagh would make a film of it.
The Mist has an awesome twist ending.
The Mist? If “awesome” is a synonym for “puerile” then I’d agree with you. But it ain’t. And I don’t.
The Mist definitely does have a great twist ending, but perhaps it’s mostly ironic.
I’d give the prize to the original Planet of the Apes. Totally unexpected.
Les Diaboliques
Psycho
Incendies
Sleepaway Camp
Audition
Oldboy
Buried
Night of the Living Dead
Laura
Chinatown
The Vanishing
Jacob’s Ladder
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Others
The Empire Strikes Back
Brazil/12 Monkeys/Time Bandits- Gilliam loves to pull the rug from under you
City Lights
Strangers On A Train
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Arlington Road
The Vanishing
A few Hitchcocks
Sixth Sense is a cheap twist- should be disregarded entirely.
“Soylent Green is people!”
Sorry to say this, folks, but as far as I was concerned, the twists in THE SIXTH SENSE, USUAL SUSPECTS, MEMENTO, SEVEN, ANGEL HEART, and most especially the idiotic SHUTTER ISLAND weren’t twists. They were painfully evident turns of events that I saw coming from a long way off, mainly by simply thinking for a couple of seconds about where the story might be heading. SHUTTER ISLAND in particular: Ben Kingsley basically held up a sign saying IMPORTANT CLUE with every line of dialogue. LIkewise with SEVEN. A brief consideration of which of the Seven Deadly Sins hadn’t been enacted yet and I was evidently way ahead of the cops in the story.
@Roscoe: not enough people call Se7en on its shit. Terrible movie if you ask me, I saw everything coming from miles away.
I would also add Jess Franco’s insane film, Venus in Furs (1969), to this list. In a picture replete with Franco’s legendary weirdness & surrealism, the totally unexpected ending literally washes up on the beach. Possibly Franco’s best film and one that merits rediscovery. As one critic opined, it is “trippy as hell.”
Cheers,
Cteve
CinemaUprising
The Conversation
Blow Out
Arcanus
Kind Hearts and Coronets.
Sadly, most people here won’t have seen it. That’s their loss as it’s one of the finest British films ever made.