Hard to just choose one.
Films that changed my life forever.
Here we go:
-Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)
I learnt that no matter how random and bizarre an idea can be, you can always make it work.
A modern masterpiece in my opinion.
-Magnolia (PT Anderson)
I learnt the meaning of the word EPIC.
-Festen (Thomas Vintenberg)
I learnt about the power of storytelling and the freedom of new digital formats.
-Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio)
I learnt that when people say “an image is worth a thousand word” they’re not kidding.
I also learnt that we are all going to hell.
-The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson)
I didn’t really learn anything. This films just talks to me.
-American Beauty (Sam Mendes)
Direction: check, Cinematography: check, Screenplay: check, Art Direction: check, Perfomances: double-check.
Just perfect.
-Network (Sydney Lumet)
Listen, I’ve seen this film for the first time a month ago.
Need more time to process, but fuck it’s changed my life.
Now that I finished writing this, I’m not sure if I’m answering your question…
I just randomly threw out films that did change me, or at least shaped me in some way…
It is hard to pick just one…
… awww fuck it. “Gremlins 2” changed my lifed forever. not kidding.
Thanks Juan. Yes, as you point out,
there are a number of films
which influence you internally
and shake your view of the world.
When I saw Walt Disney animation as a little girl,
I truly believed one day
the prince would come to get me riding on a white horse…
jajjajaja ahhhhh…
childhood films is a whole other topic…
those films really shake you up forever,
and you might not even notice.
As an adult, I find those princes in Disney films are wheeler-dealers.
Films by Elia Kazan, especially Splendor in the Grass, was a great blow to me.
It has shaken up my soul.
Wait. Let’s do it.
Childhood films forum discussion.
I think The Shawshank Redemption just changed everything for me. Such a moving film
Most important to me:
“The Fountain” and “Reqium For A Dream” by Darrin Aronofsky. These are two of my all time favorite movies, and speak to me on many levels.
“Into The Wild” by Sean Penn. Chris Mccandles story is so amazing, it blows me away every time.
“Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind” and “The Science of Sleep” by Micheal Gondry. These are my kind of love stories.
“28 Days Later” One word: Badass.
Oh, and “American History X”. I think this is a really important movie in cinamatic history in general, showing the extreme side of rascism and hate.
“Chungking Express” because it was the first movie that ever truly made me ache with love for it, there was this one shot toward the end of a woman walking and I was almost in tears at the beauty of the image.
Agreed on “Into the Wild”, right after watching it I ran around my college campus, even though it was midnight, because I just wanted to experience the outdoors.
“High Fidelity” because it expressed every feeling I’ve ever had about love with a character I still connect with on every level.
“Better Off Dead” because it made me love every 80s movie with a premise that would never work as a movie today.
I would have to say both “Waking Life” and “Before Sunrise” by Richard Linklater. The way the characters just roam around and live as if they are completely outside of the pressures of life really stuck with me and made me want to live similarly. “Breathless” worked in the same way.
“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, “Garden State” and “Closer” — I watched all three within a short span of time during my senior year of high school and as I was watching them they seemed to be an autobiography of myself. It was like I could have written the movies because I was feeling the exact same way. Even though the films may have not been the best, I really connected with them and that made me rethink the types of movies I watched. After these I stopped idolising Bond and action flicks and moved in a new direction.
@ Berlinale this year:
-Pulp Fiction. I started loving movies more, it blew my mind, I fell in love with Tarantino’s work. I still think it’s the best movie in the world.
-Fight Club. Is anybody unique? What is wrong with this society? Where does all this frustration come from?
-Lost in Translation. Never I have related to a movie so much and probably never will. This film is from my soul.
and more.
- An Inconvenient Truth (2006) by Davis Guggenheim with Al Gore presenting the facts on global warming
- Manufactured Landscapes (2006) by Jennifer Baichwal
- Into the Wild (2007) by Sean Penn
- The Tin Drum (1978) by Günter Grass
- La Règle du Jeu (1939) aka Rules of the Game… by Jean Renoir
- The Night of the Hunter (1955) by Charles Laughton
These films all stunned me and I couldn’t stop thinking about them for a while… and they made me take both life and cinema more seriously.
Cinema Paradiso and the Mission did it for me. There might be something in Morricone’s music that’s just nostalgic, ambitious and drives you to action. We idealize growing up Toto to become a Rodrigo who aspires to be a Gabriel. At the end, maybe we’re just spectators of life’s forbidden kisses.
Boogie Nights – it packs such a punch
Trust and The Unbelievable Truth by Hal Hartley – style and substance; a new way of writing and performance
A Woman Under the Influence – John Cassavetes’ fluid and spontaneous style
Lost in Translation – the female gaze for once
It is almost impossible to choose one single movie, since there have been so many. But here are some:
Before Sunset- because it shows love is always possible, regardless of how cynical you are.
In the Mood for Love – because it shows how poetic and lyrical Cinema can be!
Funny Games- This was the Film that I have seen outside of Hollywood Films. And, it LITERALLY Changed my life, by showing me that there is an entire world of cinema outside the one that Hollywood portrays. it also showed me how tamed the Hollywood Cinema is (Though, compared to this film, I think a lot of Films are still very tamed)…
And, Finally Amelie, because, to quote a Film critic; ‘it is 2 hours of everything that is beautiful about Paris, Life and Cinema.’
The Hours- I think I was surprised that people could feel how I feel.
Noi Albinoi- It restored a sense of chaotic balance to my psyche.
Marie Antoinette (only the portion of the movie set in Petit Trianon)- I finally had a picture for exactly what I want.
Vagabond- I don’t have a solid reason why, but it stunned me in a good way.
The Mirror by Tarkovsky: This film is simply the greatest cinematic achievement in history to me.
Histoire(s) du cinéma by Godard: How to create the memory of cinema itself.
Querelle
That film is nuts, Baylor. I haven’t seen it, I just read the description and it had an effect on me.
Anyway, I’d have to say the film that’s changed my life is probably John Cassavetes’ The Killing of a Chinese Bookie.
As Good As It Gets by James L. Brooks has, over the years, become one of my personal favorite films. I’ve never watched such a feel-good movie like it before. It has a real ability to pull at the heart-strings if you know what i mean. I think it is one of the best roles Jack Nicholson has ever played, along with Jake Gittes in Chinatown. And Helen Hunt, wow…i never knew she was such an amazing actress till this film. The scene where she breaks down crying at the kitchen table with her Mother is unbelievable acting, really very touching. I can go on and on about how much i adore this film, but ill let it go for now =]
“You make me wanna be a better man.”
Anyone else love this film like me?
Triumph of the Will. It really showed me that democracy can work. The masses are always right.
This is irrelevant to the discussion but…the purpose of the thumb up and thumb down feature next to the posted reviews on the profile and the posted comments in the forum is not very clear to me. Is it tallying our response (positive or negative) to the comments posted? Anyway, I just read a response to another post of mine and I liked it, so I clicked on the thumb’s up icon. I think it’s probably as simple as that and I’m complicating things. Sorry.
Y tu Mama Tambien- I love the small details that the narrator gives and it shows the good and bad sides of friendship really good flick
For me there are three, in different times of my life.
When I was—I don’t know—I was just a baby, it was with no doubt Disney’s Pinocchio. I was astonished with it…
then…
Rear window – I was 13 years old. since I saw it on a rainy sunday afternoon, it was like it had opened a gate on my brain, suddenly I became a film buff… and started to judge every film from the “pure cinema” Mr. Hitchcock taught me…
and then, the film that changed my life forever, and moves me the most is one some people wouldn’t believe…VERTIGO. every time I see it I become Jimmy Stewart and I fall in love with Kim Novak the same way he does. Hitchcock’s images and Herrmann’s wagnerian score are so perfect that I feel absorbed in the most tragic and beautiful of all my dreams…
that’s why Hitch is my favorite director.
I would say that Dario Argento’s films in general completely changed the way I viewed cinema, especially Inferno, Suspiria and Tenebre. Bela Tarr really got me obsessed with the possibilities of the long take, Satantango… amazing!
Yes, Suspiria was something!
Asia Argento, Dario’s daughter, was in a few films shown in Cannes last year.
The Killer/Hard Boiled – showed me that non-American films can be just as good if not better then Hollywood stuff.
In the Mood For Love – made me fall in love with and care most about art films.
L’Eclisse – made me understand that older films can be great too.
The Act of Seeing With One’s Own Eyes (Brakhage) – i got a complete understanding of how fragile we as human beings are from this. Haunting…..
“Tess” by Roman Polanski.
In Japan there is a saying “Beauty and luck seldom go together”
which talks about this film.
It also introduced me to the novels by Thomas Hardy
one of the best humanistic writers from UK.
The eyelashes of Nastasha Kinski were so expressive.
Rica
Has any film ever changed your life forever?
German documentary film “Our Daily Bread” is a surreal stuff,
capturing how our daily food is produced within beautifully framed shots.
It has been a long run in Japan, quite unusual for this kind of film.
It’s been released for several months in UK as well.
I still eat meat occasionally at restaurants but stopped buying it from supermarket
since I watched this film in Tokyo last month.
http://www.ourdailybread.at
http://www.ica.org.uk/Our%20Daily%20Bread+15759.twl