Recommend a Movie
Spellbound – This is one of my favorites. It really is well acted and directed. The score is just amazing. Plus it has dream sequences by Dali. But all of that is just superficial. I love the movie because it takes a bunch of turns and it takes the viewer on the ride too. We, the audience knows that Gregory Peck’s character has a problem and it is fairly easy to guess what instigates his hysterics. So it has dramatic irony. It doesn’t end when hollywood dictates it too either. It keeps going with the turns and twists. It has one of the rare performances by Michael Checkov on film. Just a superb film, plus the dream sequence is just cool, makes one wonder how it got past Selznick’s clutches.
RAWDEAL BUFFY!!!!
Spellbound is in my top 5 favorite Hitchcock films! It is so underrated and I know some people that think its his worst. Its good to see someone else likes it so much.
just going to put this out there early, anyone who makes a compelling case I will most likely watch the film, and rawdeal buffy started it off well.
Lucky McKee’s May
This is probably the most unseen great horror movies of the past decade. A story of a alienated young girl with a lazy eye, a crush on a hansom young man and unusual preoccupations. The movie dose not rely on any formalistic “tricks”. The director allows the story and characters to develop before resorting to any crass “shocks”. So when the bloodshed does eventually happen, what makes it cringe inducing is not only the gore but the motivations behind the bloodshed. The final scene is phantasmagorical while at the same time being somber and tragic.
Hmm I didn’t really like Spellbound. The 39 Steps is Hitchcock’s most underrated, watch that one!
Crash-Cronenberg
You probably know of it, but may not have seen it. Although it is quite well known, I find that it is under-watched. Its controversy aside, it is an excellent film. Mainly for its bending of the borders of a film’s purpose, and the bending of reality itself. I don’t know your film taste but if you are a fan of fresh ideas or David Cronenberg, you should enjoy it.
Decasia: The State of Decay
Bill Morrison edits together found footage in various states of decay to a multipiece orchestra ensemble with detuned and broken instruments. The result is an aural and visual buffeting of spectres of spectatorship (I’d like to thank the Academy…) and is truly a piece not to be missed. Oh, and my friend Matt says it’s great to get high to, too, so, uh, there’s that. Just don’t drive after watching it, stoned or sober.
—PolarisDiB
“Machine Girl”. It’s balls-out entertainment and you will not be bored with it one bit. It has so much action, ninjas, tons of crazy weapons, people with guns for limbs and lots of crazy violence. The story is pretty decent as well but it’s a rare movie that accomplishes 100% of what it sets out to do.
Regular Lovers.
From, Philippe Garrel, a visual poetic movie, that start, whit hte disturbia from the French May of the ’60, and finish, whit a young and revel boys, smoking Opio in a home
Machine Girl’s a good’un!
—DiB
Real Time, an independent Canadian movie made in 2008 by Randall Cole, now out on Region 1 DVD. Jay Baruchel and Randy Quaid. So why do I recommend? I saw it at the Vancouver Film Festival last October, one of fifty I saw, I went because I had an empty slot, it wasn’t on my “must see” list. I have to say it was probably the film that moved me the most – and I saw all sorts of incredible movies in those two weeks. Baruchel plays Andy, a loser who’s into the loan sharks badly (gambling problem) and Quaid is Reuben, who has been given the job of whacking him. He decides to give him three hours or so to meditate on what’s coming, and to do something he really wants to do, one last time. There follows a funny, moving, and very well written, directed and acted movie, I think, where you really connect with this chump in his late 20’s (probably), and you feel compassion for him. Quaid is also quite brilliant. It really stayed with me. I don’t understand why the Globe and Mail reviewer only gave it 2 (out of 4) stars, but then the same chump gave WALL-E four, on the strength of which I went to see it (and had trouble staying till the end). So, that’s my recommendation. Atom Egoyan’s latest, Adoration, is also superb.
WR: Mysteries of the Organism
bogdonavich’s They all laughed
King Kong 1933
Because I was blown away with the ground-breaking special effects. If I’d had the choice of never have seen any other version but the original, I would’ve had chosen the original only. It’s so appealing even for today’s standards. It is really quite entertaining and there are so many interesting issues in the film like the erotic-sexual relationship bewtween the beast and the woman, the obsessiveness of the director ( the character)and the greed of the show business. Visually is just stunning. I’m not exaggerating.
I recomend also (in black and white):http://chiaroscuroandmore.blogspot.com/2009/03/movies-i-liked-lot-in-last-couple-of.html
Ang Lee – Eat Drink Man Women
Before he cross over to America, he made this beauty of a film. Hints of Ozu in it. Anyone not familiar with modern Asian cinema drama, should watch this film. You will find a bit of cooking, three women living different lives and one father trying to come to terms with their maturity and also his own aging.
Dersu Uzala – Kurosawa’s film that he shot in Russia. It won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
I remember seeing this with my Dad back in the 70’s as a kid, and I’ve never forgotten it.
Tol’able David. Maybe we have passed beyond the stories of courage when one man (boy) stands up to the evils that are enveloping his town. Apart from his manly courage, David displays courting courage with a harmonica as he just waits to be noticed in a way that rings true to me having been a kid in a rural setting.
If you are in to a good action Romance, this one is about vampires. Read the (vampire academy) series there 100 times better than any book I have ever read. I know alot of people who would watch that movie if it came out plus because a big vampire movie just came out more people will try to watch it.
Tarnation
The Witness: very funny satire on communist Hungary. An ordinary dyke keeper naively supportive of the party, saves an official from drowning and is given, by another official, several management jobs that don’t work out. It isn’t the most subtle of films, but it is very cutting.
Nowhere in Africa without reservation
Monday (Hiroyuki Tanaka “Sabu”): It’s a movie filled with a very unusual style of comedy. An average salaryman wakes up in a hotel room, not knowing why he’s there or what he did before. Through different items he finds in the room, he’s able to reconstruct his immediate past. Even if this could sound like the plot of a thriller; it also involves a fun situation in a funeral, some histerycal laughter, an unforgettable dance sequence, ridiculous yakuza and one of the most silly (in a good way) happy false endings I’ve seen.
The Lives of Others
superb.
McCabe and Mrs.Miller, one of Altman’s very best right up there with Nashville
This is difficult to respond to without any context. I’m not sure what you have and have not seen. So, I’ve decided to throw out some recommendations for films that I love, but have not been given a proper DVD release in America.
Wagon Master – John Ford
I don’t know who owns the rights to this Ford masterpiece, but it ranks with his best westerns in it’s depiction of the pioneering spirit of western settlers.
Kapo – Gillo Pontecorvo
You can forget Schindler’s List, or just about any other movie about the holocaust. Pontecorvo’s film has less to do with the horrors bestowed upon Jews by Germans, and more on what humans are capable of doing to each other when put in the right position.
The Crowd – King Vidor
This is among my favorite silent films, and I also am a little astounded that it has not gotten a proper release. It’s King Vidor, and it’s his masterwork.
Shoeshine – Vittorio De Sica
My guess here is that Criterion is working to get ahold of this picture. When they do, I think there will be a great rediscovery for us. We’ll find that De Sica made more than just Bicycle Thieves. This one is just as gut-wrenching as the aforementioned neo-realist staple.
Outrage! – Ida Lupino
No one will release this one, because no one will watch it for the most part. Lupino, a true pioneer as a female director, gives us a b-movie jolt with one of the earliest explorations of what being raped can do to a woman. It’s over the top in some ways, but maybe the subject matter demands it.
The Tarnished Angles – Douglas Sirk
Sirk is known and loved (as he should be) for glorious technicolor soap operas. He has said that The Tarnished Angels is his best movie, and he might be on to something. It’s black and white photography mutes some of Sirks more hysterical elements.
The State of Things – Wim Wenders
One of the best movies about making movies. Dark, cynical, and spot on target. Wenders career (especially of late) seems a bit of a disappointment when we see a film like this.
Johnny Guitar – Nicholas Ray
It’s not every day that you get to see a story of lesbian love masquerading around as a b western. This movie is over the top, and completely entertaining. Watched closely it reveals a subversive agenda that fascinates.
I hope this helps. Some of these movies I’ve managed to catch on TCM, a few I’ve seen on VHS, and a couple others on bootleg copies of region 2 DVD’s. Here’s hoping you get to see them one day on a decent DVD transfer. But I wouldn’t wait around if I were you. See these titles any way you can.
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Very impressive cinematography, beautiful music, and a very compelling and romantic story. I smile every time I see this film.
Damage – Great representations of sex. Extremely tragic.
The Hit – Unexpected, and beautiful.
High Hopes – One of the few movies that shows a mutual male-female relationship, in that, the male is not always domninant, if ever. Brilliant acting, and Leigh’s funniest next to Naked, and Topsy Turvy.
Kikujiro – An actual uplifting movie. Yes, they exist.
Punishment Park – A very thoughtful film on rebellion in dominant society. One of the few to speak harshly against the current standard of living, and the morals most Americans abide by.
Alex Noble
So instead of forcing my views of film at every person on here and asking you to cater to my tastes, I’m going to ask for movie recommendations. I don’t want cop-out just movie titles either, I want reason, and it doesn’t have to be only one, you can give as many as you want, but they must all have some sort of spelled out reason behind it.