Diary of a Country Priest (1951) Robert Bresson
Winter Light (1962) Ingmar Bergman
For sense of place:
Atlantic City & The King of Marvin Gardens
For two fine performances by a single actor, and for the intriguing tracking shots that conclude both films:
Five Easy Pieces & The Passenger
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (Cronenberg)
STRAW DOGS (Peckinpah)
Study of threatened masculinity, responses to violence, and “rape with pleasure”
FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS (Eastwood)
THE RIGHT STUFF (Kaufman)
Emasculation of men through false heroic representation.
1) “The Battle of Algiers” and “Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask”- The Algerian conflict, both from the perspective of the war and from one its more famous activists, Frantz Fanon, the psychoanalytic theorist, born in Martinique, educated in Paris and who worked in Algeria at the time of the anti-colonial struggle.
2) “Blue Velvet” and “Now Voyager”-female psyche
3) “IF…” and “Streets of Fire”- teenage rebellion.
4) “Salo” and “The Night Porter”-sadism and sexuality in Fascist Italy
5) “The Fly” and “The Blob”-genetic mutations
6) “Raging Bull” and “Nil By Mouth”- issues of masculinity and men living in quiet and no so quiet despair.
7) “Carbon Copy” and “The Landlord”- comedic analysis of racism.
A great double-feature in one valuable purchase -
The Lower Depths double-disc (Kurosawa/Renoir)
See how the two masters adapt Gorky’s work and translate it to their own respective cultures, locations, and time periods.
“a clockwork orange” and “natural born killers”.
i’d also rather pair “battle of algiers” with “roma: citta aperta”.
“Raging Bull” and Bunuel’s “El” — jealousy
Or how about
Straw Dogs
and
Home Alone?
Fitzcarraldo & Apocalypse Now
“scarface” by hawks and “scarface” by depalma. there’s a whole generation of people who have no idea that there was an original and a remake.
Salo and The Night Porter – good family entertainment
Brokeback Mountain/The English Patient, make sure to have lots of tissues.
“On the Waterfront” and “Raging Bull” — boxers and brothers and betrayal, fixed fights and the mob, going for the money on Wilson, it was you, Charlie, etc., etc.
To MS Mouth: Is that to soak up the blood after I slit my wrists?
The_Corduroy_Suit- I agree but how bout a triple feature in the order of-
Straw Dogs
A Nightmare On Elm Street
Home Alone
A very nice home invasion defense tactics friday night.
Bonnie And Clyde with Natural Born Killers
Veronika Voss and Sunset Blvd- faded film stars
Hail Mary and Jesus of Montreal-religious contentiousness
Body Double and Blow Up-De Palma, mystery and suspense
Swann in Love and Death in Venice- Mann and Proust
Veronika Voss and Sunset Blvd- faded film stars
Hail Mary and Jesus of Montreal-religious contentiousness
Body Double and Blow Up-De Palma, mystery and suspense
Swann in Love and Death in Venice- Mann and Proust
Satantango and The Decalogue
An endurance test for cinephiles.
If you’re going to do Fitzcarraldo & Apocalypse Now, why not Burden of Dreams and Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse? Or is that too obvious?
Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail and Big Momma’s House
Black men in drag.
This is a great topic. I’d love to think more about it, but for now I’d say:
La Strada and Sweet and Lowdown- basically the same premise, but very different films by masters
Lost in America and Easy Rider- The original counter-culture odyssey and its yuppie appropriation
The Third Man and Casablanca – I don’t know why, but these movies always seemed to have the same souls
They Live By Night and Badlands – Young Lovers on the run. You could do a whole festival of these movies: Breathless, Gun Crazy, others I can’t think of right now.
Short Cuts
Babel
I actually watched these two films back-to-back unknowing of the beautiful perfection contained in both of them as a double feature. Both have large casts handled wonderfully by the directors, and both of the films show an amazing amount of humanity towards these characters. The single thread that ties them together, though, is that both films are predicated on chance. All the characters in are connected by mere coincidence. Short Cuts is connecting people around a city, and Babel around the globe, but both have the same basic message, we are all connected in some way, and our friendships, and relationships, or lack thereof are based on chance, coincidence, fate whatever term you find appropriate.
“Cobra Women” and “Duck Soup”
I just thought of the sickest, most disrespectful double bill ever and couldn’t help but post it:
1. The Twilight Zone Movie
2. The Crow
Week End and then Schizopolis.
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II and then This is Spinal Tap.
Zelig and then Forgotten Silver.
Joshua, that is sick.
In both senses of the word.
Damla
One of my instructors suggested ideas and options for double features (aka “double bill”) in his blog:
“Option 1:
Mouchette (Robert Bresson, 1967)
Rosetta (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 1999)
Option 2:
Bellissima (Luchino Visconti, 1951)
Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris, 2006)
Option 3:
Cléo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)
Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
Option 4:
Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)
Bloody Sunday (Paul Greengrass, 2002)"
So, basically the films of Options 1 and 2 are linked in terms of their subjects, and the films of Option 3 on the usage of time. (I’m not sure what links the films of Option 4 since I didn’t watch them).
What would your suggestions be for double features for private screenings? The link could be historical, thematic, visual, et cetera.