“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” by Michel Gondry. I first saw it when I was 13, and I know I won’t ever ever ever forget it.
Every time I watch it again I love it more.
“Reign Over Me” by Mike Binder. Shows the power of friendship, the beauty of life, and how society lead hurted people to madness just because they react their own way.
“Le Fabuleux destin d’Amelie Poulain” by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Beautiful, shy, lovely, little but great. Just perfect.
“A Clockwork Orange” by Stanley Kubrick. Just as I said before, society changes people. An excellent chronicle about human dark side and social-political cinism. It’s direction is just the best ever.
“Bin-jip” by Kim Ki-Duk. The power of subtle cinema has never been this superb.
“Brick” by Rian Johnson. I loved the pace it had, and it’s a clear example of high quality in low budget industry. A must-see for every begginer filmmaker and every passionate cinephile.
“My Life Without Me” by Isabel Coixet. I’ve never cried harder in a movie. The deepest pleasures of life do not deserve to be felt on the road to death. It’s kinda “Carpe Diem” message, but it’s stronger than that. Sappy and touching.
“Le Violon Rouge” by François Giraud. Excellent storytelling and soundtrack, alongside powerful environments. Has everything a world/history movie has to have.
i don’t know why but the film “amorres perros” got me into deep thinking about human interactivity in the modern world
Blood Diamond…for illuminating the truth about our evil corporations, and man´s complicity in the fall of entire social systems; all for ironically; something that is in essence useless….now that changed my life…
u think that mystic river with sean penn, kevin bacon, tim robbins was a film that got me on many levels, i think that sean penn and tim robbins are great emotional actors, for example everyone loves “shawshank redemption” and tim robbins made that film.
Also anything with sean penn in, even one of his first films (third actually) “bad boys” when he is only like 16 years old showed just how good he was, also i really really loved “state of grace” it just made me think so much how what u do and who u are, are 2 completley different things, and how not matter how well u know and love somebody sometimes u have to do what u feel is right. SERIOUSLY 1 TO WATCH;
The film that made me what I am today is Pink Flamingos. I love this film like it was my first child.
It may not have changed my life, but Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and The Ugly certainly changed the way I watch movies. Something about that film just spoke to my then 13 year old self, and I haven’t looked at movies in the same way since.
Blade Runner – amazing film leaving questions and answers to life.
The Life Aquatic – Definetly one of wes’ best films which opened the world of ironic dry humour and murrays great acting.
Spirited Away – Beautiful film! visually stunning and superb story, something to watch with the kids one day
My own private idaho – Opened my eyes to the cult artistic world of gus van sant.
One flew over the cucoos nest……… Raging bull……. life is beautiful….. all amazing pieces of art.
To be honest, I felt “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest” sexist somehow when I saw it.
Jack Nicholson was so imposing though…
There have been four films that I feel have had an enourmous impact on me- at least in my appreciation for film
pulp fiction-I first saw this film when I was 14 and I have been in love with it since. Everything about the film seemed so cool when I first saw it, from the suavity of the dialogue to the just straight up bad-ass scenes. QT introduced me the world of film that I had been so ignorant about before.
2001: A space odyssey- Of the four most inspirational films that I have every seen, This one was the one that I was introduced to first. When I was about 9 or ten years old, I remember my uncle bringing this film over to my house, and allthough I didn’t have the maturity or attention span to watch it all the way through and appreciate it at the time, The scene where the black obelisk is revealed on the moon really did a number on me. I revisited the film as my interest in cinema began to grow, and it has been one of my favorite films since. Truely the most beautiful, most perfect film in the history of cinema.
Eraserhead- I watched this film for the first time a year ago, without knowing what to expect, and I walked away with having my mind fucked. This film walks off the beaten path of cinema conformity and creates a terrible surreal landscape of unthinkable norms. Never have I been so terrified yet so intrigued by anything in film. This film inspired me to watch the films of David Lynch, whom I have grown to love, and the films that inspired him; from Un Chien Andalou to the films of Ingmar Bergman.
The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) by Jamie Uys can be said to have changed my life by raising my awareness of ecology and global responsibility developed nations have towards linguistically and culturally vulnerable people in the third world. This film also influenced me to read A Mantis Carol (1975), a short novel by Sir Laurens van der Post based on his own life.
The first that come to my mind:
Breaking the Waves (Lars Von Trier, 1996) after watching it I felt sick, I hated it. I was planning to go to Cuba with my x-girlfriend and I decided to brake up and go alone with my best friend in that time. Later it started to hit me, and suddenly I loved it. I learned of the power of film on an unconscious level.
Der Tod der Maria Malibran (Werner Schroeter, 1972) When I saw it, I was blown away by it’s aesthetic, then I learned that in cinema everything is permitted, and we should go for new and original froms instead of conforming.
Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977) how black is black, as the director and Frederick Elmes, cinematographer, used to discuss. In my thesis film in collage we totally went for it inspired.
Peter Pan (Clyde Geronimi, 1947) Yes, the Disney animated movie, my first alter ego. And the first girls I liked, nothing like Wendy though.
Three Crowns of the Sailor (Raoul Ruiz, 1983) So I can be as expressive as in other arts with film?
The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986) So I can let the shot run, and instead of editing I can move characters and camera with all it’s different combinations? mmmm!
Ordet (Carl T. Dreyer 1955) This movie just explode in my mind, just what I was looking for, a perfect mixture of realism that bridges with the magic in a poetic way.
Persona (Bergman, 1966) The usage of ambiguity, full on.
Eclipse (Antonioni, 1962) I don’t know why?
The first 10 Movies that comes in my mind that change my life or change the way I was looking at life…
1 – “Bambi” because it was the first movie I saw in the theatre and I cried and cried and cried… and wasn’t the only one! Because I didn’t know that they changed the ending and I had some tough time to see it again with my children.
2 – “American Graffiti”
3 – “The Birds” because I was young when I saw it and couldn’t sleep after the movie!
4 – “Gone with the wind” and “Casablanca” because I can see and see and see those movies, there is always something new that I didn’t see before.
5 – “The Exorcist” this movie made so many nightmares…
6 – “The Godfather”
7 – “Star wars”
8 – “The silence of the lamb”
9 – “Pulp Fiction”
10 – “Blood Diamonds”
Wes Anderson. Definitely. It has been pretty recently that I have become so interested in film, and it all started because of Wes Anderson’s films. The first one I saw was Royal Tenenbaums, and since than I have watched every one. I am not even sure how to explain it. They are very unique and interesting. I just get instantly happy when I watch them. They are unlike any other films i have seen!
I liked “Fur:…” too!
Robert Downey Jr is my favorite American actor at the moment.
Cannot keep my eyes off away from him!
‘Hard eight (sydney)’ set my own personal benchmark 2 which i can not help compare most film i watch. It certainly didn’t change my life but it ticked all the right boxes and runs through my thoughts frequently. Oh & ‘Mulholland drive’ also (can’t 4get that!)
and the original ‘Critters’. That is class and did change my life!!
ethernal sunshine of mindless
Atom egoyan’s The sweet hereafter
That film for me was Contempt
“A clockwork Orange” really change my point of view on so many things, including violence, politics and even Beethoven lol….
Blade Runner – incredibly cinematic and beautiful imagery and symbolism. In the top 100 films made in film history by the American Cinematographers Society. I am very happy they never did a sequel or tv series like the Crow. Too bad Harrison will never talk about that film – even to this day.
It’s a tie between “Half Nelson” and “Into the Wild”
i was about watching half nelson the other day but i felt asleep now that u say it’s good i ll give it one more try
Die Hard
Terminator 2
Predator
Aliens
Die Hard 2
WKW’s In the Mood For Love… it made me want to make films to the point where I want to do little else.
AMORES PERROS AMORES PERROS AMORES PERROS AMORES PERROS AMORES PERROS AMORES PERROS
Bliss. The one by Ray Lawrence. Not the other crappy ones. Nice affirmation of anarchist lifestyle. Rica’s post about “Our Daily Bread” reminded me of another Australian film called “The Apocryphal History of Meat”. Very funny, but powerful. Impossible to find now.
Taxi Driver after seeing it i suddenly realised where and how i stand in life and how quickly i adapted to state of eternal cataclasym
Caroline Phillips
Can I just say, all pretentions and bollox aside..filmbuffs…the film that has had the biggest impact on my life is …ta…da…“Jaws”. I still am petrified of sharks, and yeah I know already about how these predators have been recast as the villians…but I don´t buy it…