I just got a copy of a true masterpiece, THE ASCENT, by russian filmmaker Larissa Shepitko. Highly recommended.
The Ascent is really great. also try shepitko’s Wings in the same box set.
The Big Empty (2003) dir. Steve Anderson
Streets of Fire (1984) dir. Walter Hill
Turn Back the Clock – 1933- directed by Edgar Selwyn
Chumscrubber
chumscrubber
Suture
Happy Accidents
Sadie Thompson
6ixtynin9
Ma 6-T va crack-er
Fans of Stalker, Bela Tarr and American avant-garde might like Connections (and other short films) by the Hungarian Hadarics Gabor on youtube
To J – don’t know if you’ll see this post because it’s a month after yours, but for what it’s worth, I’ve seen “Decasia” – the first time, on a jacked-up copy I think I found at a library, and then again at Disney Hall in L.A. with the score played live by the LA Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting. What a mind-blowing experience! I was hypnotized, mesmerized, and had goose bumps through the whole thing. It’s nice to know that someone else here has seen it – it’s one of my secret treasures. ( I burned a dvd copy of it )
Any films out there that you love that need some promotion because they aren’t widely known – as the previous examples here show us?
Man on a Swing – CREEPY Frank Perry murder mystery starring the unlikely duo of Cliff Robertson and Joel Grey. Grey, who never really had a substantive film career despite his Oscar win for Cabaret is absolutely stunning. He plays a fake(?) medium who insinuates himself into cop Robertson’s murder investigation
Serial – A goof on the late 70s faddists who ran rampant in Marin County. Hysterical (and a little naughty)…with Martin Mull, Tuesday Weld and, best of all Christopher Lee as a gay biker in love with new age guru Tommy Smothers! Yikes!
Time Stands Still – Teen angst set against the backdrop of the Hungarian Revolution…one of the most melancholy films
Savages – arguably the most obscure of the Merchant/Ivory lot…it has to be seen to be believed
I highly recommend Alice by Jan Svankmajer as well as Faust – great stop-motion effects and generally weird/dark humour.
Another high recommendation: The Third Part of the Night by Andrzej Zulawski, as well as Possession and The Silver Globe.
I do like me some Dark Star by John Carpenter. Cul-de-sac by ROman Polanski is also an interesting film.
The Last Wave was pretty good. The Naked Civil Servant, Paperhouse, Onibaba, Sisters by Brian DePalma.
Also, I thought Mr. Brooks with Kevin Costner was pretty good. I know, fillet me, but it was a guilty pleasure.
AND how about Raw Meat (otherwise known as Death Line). Great performance by Donald Pleasance.
I’ve always wanted to see Raw Meat…about the cannibals in the train line? NO?
YES! You can find it to download if you’re crafty enough.
Also, I just saw that someone mentioned Begotten … which was a good recommendation I thought.
Oh. And what about Day of the Beast?
Plus, Danny Boyle’s Sunshine is his best film outside of Trainspotting … just thought I’d throw that out there.
Hidden gems are my favorite kinds of movies. Here are some great ones:
Praise (John Curran)- an Australian film about two slackers in love.
Water Lilies (Celine Sciamma)- French coming of age film cinematography and music. It was my favorite movie of last year and it has stayed with me.
Hana and Alice (Shunji Iwai)-Some people have seen All About Lily Chou-Chou which is fantastic, this is a lesser known film by him but just as great.
The Goddess of 1967 (Clara Law)- Road movie with a blind girl and Japanese man through the Australian outback.
Buddy Boy (Mark Hanlon)- An introverted man living with his mother spies on his neighbor. This movie is trippy, funny, original, and GENIUS.
I LOVED Danny Boyle’s Sunshine. Seeing that in the theater with the visuals and the sound – that’s really the only way to see that movie.
The Cruise – Directed by Bennett Miller. It’s my favorite documentary about Timothy “Speed” Levitch who is an eccentric New York City double decker Grey Line bus tour guide and unproclaimed guru.
Cool quote from the movie:
“The anti-cruise is an attempt to imprison us. At every level of living it exists. Younger cruisers have asked me, “Why?” “Why is the anti-cruise so avaricious and constant in its attempt to stop the cruise? And I have no answer. There is no answer. I mean, it’s gravitational, it’s a relationship that’s made up of reciprocals and pulling gravities. It simply exists. Where there is cruise there is an escort of anti-cruise. But even in a bastion of anti-cruise fodder… there is cruise. Somewhere in there is a sparkle of cruising energy. Deeply sublimated, within the bellowing belly of the beast.”
“Two Deaths” (1999.) Roeg, produced with the BBC. Sonia Braga and Michael Gambon. A good widescreen release would be nice.
“Hollywood Boulevard” (1976), directed by Joe Dante, with Dick Miller, Mary Woronow, Paul Bartel and a slew of likeminded niche players.
Nutty, nutty Hollywood-filmmaking story with as little sense and taste as possible.
They need to re-release it including the segment where Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen play “Gypsy Fiddle” (It was shown with it at a film institute screening, but without it on TV.)
“Schultze Gets the Blues”. Gentle German film, both wistful and funny, about chubby accordion-playing worker who has an awakening of the soul and decides to travel to Louisiana to immerse himself in Cajun culture and music.
“Santa Sangre” is not that obscure, but try finding a R1 release of it (my ‘best’ copy is still a Betamax copy of an old VHS rental…)
Jodorowsky in fine form, with dark family secrets, a circus, two-faced men of the church, and many other goodies.
“The Other” seems to have vanished somewhat. Uta Hagen stars a grandmother on the family farm taking care of two young boys.
They get involved in increasingly strange things while their mother is hiding away in her bedroom, grieving over her dead husband.
Finally, “Ed Gein” deserves a mention. Obviously a labor of love for actor and co-producer Steve Railsback, this low-budget film is not a ‘good’ movie per se, but it is a chilling one. Railsback’s performance as Ed the not-so-normal farmer, and Carrie Snodgress as his rock-of-ages religious nut of a mother make this better viewing than the lack of funds and anemic script would suggest.
Oh, forgot one (it’s actually two):
“Scum” by Alan Clarke. Good vitriolic filmmaking about the horrors of the ‘borstels’ ( troubled-youth institutions) in the 1970es.
Like Ozu and his “Floating Weeds”, Clarke got the chance to do the film twice, but in his case it was because of fear.
The original, very low-budget version was done for the BBC, but they took a look at the final product (male rape and all) and said “Frightfully sorry, but….” and so that never aired.
Clarke, determined, collected funds and did it again, as a feature, with Ray Winstone repeating his leading role.
Both versions are tense indictments of a brutal, soul-destroying world run by petty, sadistic bureaucrats who know the law gives them a free run.
Not so much obscure, perhaps, as just not screened very often anymore. The boxed Alan Clarke DVD set is well worth it.
I am revising this to add one film I neglected in an earlier post: Clockwise (1986). This wonderful film stars John Cleese as the ultimate time obsessed neurotic school head. He is brilliant and the film meanders about in many charming and unpredictable ways. The plot has so many hilarious twists, and is so imaginative and real, you really start to identify with poor old Cleese’s character comedy of errors. A well put together minor gem from director Christopher Morahand and screenwriter Michael Frayn. Highly recommended for comic relief.
Heaven. directed by Diane Keaton. A great talking head doc.
i know this thread seems a forgotten one but hey,i found it extremely interesting..let’s see….
Autumn Moon by Clara Law
Limite by Mario Peixoto
The Orphans by Nikolai Gubenko
City after Dark by Ishmael Bernal
Dillinger by Max Nosseck
La Grande Bouffe by Marco Ferreri
Twentynine Palms by Bruno Dumont
Nazarin by Luis Bunuel
Trouble in Store by John Paddy Carstairs
O Drakos by Nikos Koundouros
that’s a good list for now….it’s a shame these movies are neglected….
Todd Haynes – Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story. A Deeply affecting film.
Dimitris, you have seen City after Dark by Bernal? Is it really such a masterpiece as some people say? I´ve only watched Himala so far and it made me think that Bernal might be one of the best Asian directors out there.
i have more…
The Illumination by Krzysztof Zanussi
Detective by Robert Wise
The Herd by Zeki Okten
A Page of Madness by Teinosuke Kinugasa
A Real Young Girl by Catherine Breillat
Stella by Sylvie Verheyde
well,there are plenty of stuff,hehe…
Scott
I don’t think anyone has yet mentioned Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper) — really great movie starring a post Days of Heaven Linda Manz. Masumara’s Blind Beast is definitely worth a look: it’s been released on dvd by Fantomas. And has anyone else ever seen Wicked Woman, a grade C film noir from the mid-50’s with Beverly Michaels?