Irreversible
Alphaville and Pierrot le Fou
All Quiet on the Western Front – it made a pacifist of me.
Grapes of Wrath – it helped to form my social conscience.
2001 – as we said in the 60s, the ending of this film literally blew my mind.
Stalker and Nostalghia – they made me into a mystic.
Fanny & Alexander – it restored my faith in humanity in extremis.
Trois Couleurs: Bleu. I was going through a very difficult time in my personal life and was contemplating removing myself from human contact to save myself from further pain. Bleu changed all of that for me: not only is it impossible to live in society without impacting/being impacted by another person, you’re not really living without human interaction. It’s easily the most personally affecting film I’ve ever seen.
Trois Couleurs is the perfect trilogy:)
First:
4 films I saw when I was young: Being There, Annie Hall, The Red Balloon & Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. The first two of those were the first non-kids movies I think I ever saw, and there was a lot that I didn’t get at the time, but enough that I was still very excited by the idea of films that weren’t just passive experiences, but sources of ideas that one could carry around.
The third of those films was the first non-U.S. film I ever saw, and I was eager to see more from that point onward (Kurosawa, Truffaut and Fellini were my next, adolescent forays into international film).
The last of those films I have great affection for. Steve Martin/Carl Reiner comedy, and I saw it with my dad, who was into more serious kinds of films, and I think he expected to hate it. Instead, we got a slapstick deconstruction of film noir, and we went back to see it again, and my dad made a game out of seeing how many older films he could spot in the cut-and-paste of ‘Dead Men Don’t…’ I was instantly curious to see those older films, and began to seek them out when they ran on TV, and this was to become a life-changing discovery.
In my adult life, I would mention Ugetsu, Floating Weeds, and Satyajit Ray’s ‘Apu’ trilogy as very random discoveries that left an unforgettable immediate impact.
BARRY LYNDON was the first film to make me realize how much film could be. While I was only 10, I really felt as if I was transported to a different time and place. I have rarely been that thrilled by any experience, and i remember it still. I never wanted it to end.
The film to hit me hardest most recently is Malle’s LE FEU FOLLET. God, what a movie.
THE GODFATHER (After that I decided to become a director) and Collateral( I realized it’s awesome to be a killer).
If I’m sticking to the bare bones of it, probably Raising Arizona, Taxi Driver, Rushmore, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I could get fancier than that, but these three movies literally altered the way I think and speak. In one case, not necessarily in a good way. I saw Eternal Sunshine in the theater three times and it just destroyed me each time. I own the two-disc DVD and have never watched it. There’s something comforting about having it but I don’t want to put myself through that. It’s like Dancer In the Dark; incredible movie, but I can’t watch that again. Are you kidding me?
Recently, though, in the past few years, there have been a few newer movies that have really affected me deeply. Those would be Lars and the Real Girl, The Three Burials of Melquiadis Estrada, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly above all others.
Rouge was great. It got me into French films. Even though Kieslowski is Polish, I know!
Raiders of the Lost Ark
I saw this film as a 7th grader and of course loved it. That summer, XETV Channel 6 started playing movie documentaries in between Saturday shows (usually these shows were Abbot and Costello or Universal Horror) ..
But it was these little 5 – 10 Minute docs that showed THE MAKING OF RAIDERS where I first came to realization there was a person called a Director. In this case, Steven Spielberg. I had never had a conscious thought that some person was responsible for making these films and that it was a job.
I realized there was an actor and lights and cameras ….
How did it change my life ? From that moment on, I always knew I wanted to be a director. My dream.
Adaptation
Chungking Express
Brick
In The Mood For Love
Eternal Sunshine
Magnolia
Synecdoche, New York
The French film “Diva” made me start to love movies. A girl and a gun- Godard’s ingredients, and the start of a new wave of 80s French cinema including “Le Cop” and the masterly “La Balance”.
Style Wars.
Les 400 Coups.
The Last Picture Show
Days of Heaven
Stanley Kubrick changed my life, as far as sparking my interest in serious cinema. I admit, I first watched A Clockwork Orange when I was a young man purely out of curiosity spurred on by the controversy surrounding it. It was a film with a social conscience and was much more than the violence that society denounced so vehemently. That is when I learned that watching movies is a personal experience and can be enlightening and inspiring. 2001, of course, taught me that one does not have to understand what is going on to admire beautiful images. I might also add, as far as beautiful images go, that Terrence Mallick’s films change my life everytime I watch them.
When I was a teenager the strong personality of Scarlett O’Hara was very important to me. She change my life in some way.
But years later, when I was a law student I watched SENSO, by Luchino Visconti. In that moment I understand my real desires about life, career, future. So I am here… bachelor in law and political sciences just by the name.
So many films speak to many different levels but the few I return to often are:
Brazil – Terry Gilliam (I view it every chance I get in theatres)
Blade Runner – Ridely Scott (Ditto above)
The Fisher King – Terry Gilliam (Just makes me happy when the world is rotten)
Tideland – Terry Gilliam (The innocence of a child is AMAZING!)
Mulholland Drive – David Lynch (Still thinking about this one on a daily basis)
A Clockwork Orange – Stanley Kubrick (A beautiful, violent ballet)
2001: A Space Odyssey – Stanley Kubrick (Still blows me away)
The Matrix – Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski (Helped me grasp the concept of philosophy)
This is a great forum! I’m new as of today…
So many films to discuss. Growing up, “Cabaret” excited me with the possibilities of filmmaking, the different kinds of excitement generated through editing as opposed to that of movement within the frame. “The Red Balloon” still moves me, wordlessly, with its extraordinary final image. “Nashville” captured my imagination in college, with its stunning sense of controlled anarchy and political and social astuteness….after my first viewing at a matinee, I dragged all my friends from the dorm to see it. Finally, the quiet beauty and power of “Brokeback Mountain” has been something like the culmination of everything I have loved in movies, things I fear are being lost in the art form.
Man, I love this forum!
For me:
Shoot the Piano Player – Francois Truffaut
Ikiru – Akira Kurosawa
Rebel Without a Cause – Nicholas Ray
Riffi Chez Les Hommes – Jules Dassin
Laputa, Castle in the Sky – Hayao Miyazaki
Chushingura – Hiroshi Inagaki
Breathless – Jean-Luc Godard
Chloe in the Afternoon – Eric Rohmer
Manhattan – Woody Allen
Bicycle Thieves – Vittorio De Sica
Touch of Evil – Orson Welles
2001: A Space Odyssey completely turned my head around when I first saw it. I was eight years old (it had just been released) and it at once fascinated me and confronted every notion in my young mind about what movies and art could be. It made me aware of the idea that movies (and music, books, creative media in general) was something to think about, not just a fun way to kill time, and if it weren’t for that, I literally don’t know what I’d be doing with my life today. I’ll always be indebted to Kubrick for the gift of that movie at that time.
Ikiru – The first Kurosawa film I saw.
Before Sunset – Introduced to the captivating power of conversations/stories. Also led me to Eric Rohmer.
Amelie – Because I watched it 5 times in two days, on dvd that is.
Pierrot le Fou – So far my favourite Goddard film. The energy, pacing is amazing.
There is probably more but those are the once I recall.
“Spirited Away” really changed my life because that film is what lead me to watch all the films I have seen to date. After sitting in front of the poster in my 9th grade English class for months, I started getting really curious about it and I finally ended up watching it a year later. Never before have I felt a great amount of nostalgia from watching a movie and I really wanted more. So I decided to explore foreign films because I was so accustom to Hollywood films and I happened to stumble upon the right films at the right time: “Amelie”, “Oldboy”, “Chungking Express”, and others I can’t remember at the moment. Sometimes I wish I could experience all that again, but I can’t, which is why I absolutely love trying to show others films they have not seen — that comes closest to the nostalgia I felt before because I’m spreading the word about these wonderful films that I’ve seen.
La Chinoise, in that it made for my political awakening. And Rear Window as well, probably, as it formed my cinematic awakening!
I’d say:
-Madame de… (1953) as it introduced me to romanticism, impeccacle acting, directing, music
-American Beauty (1999) a real mind-opening movie about what we think makes our life worth living and a film which helped me during depressing times
-Sunrise (1939) for the naturalistic beauty yet powerful portrayal of all the things that we encounter with love! And for that superb scene where husband and wife walk in the street and don’t seem to see the traffic around them! Love does make us blind! Just for that single scene, I want to experience what it is!
-La Meglio Gioventu (2003) for it’s its length, allowing us to really see real complex characters, for the poignancy of the story, as we follow an Italian family’s path, from the 60s til the beginning of the 21st century
-Notorious (1946) for the unbelievably erotic chemistry between Bergman and Grant (without any sex scenes), for its attack at the Hays Code, for Hitchcock!
-The Wizard of Oz (1939) this film took to a a blissful place back when I was a kid. Pure magic!
-Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), an extremely famous and grand play transformed into a flamboyant, lyrical movie! Que du panache!
-Lagaan (2001) for its epic feel (charismatic leads, gorgeous landscapes) that shoes us that Bollywood is the new Hollywood!
-Das Leben der Anderen (2006) as it unravels a shockingly painful German history but also as it pays a vibrant tribute to Art! RIP Mühe.
-Le Salaire de la Peur (1953) pure psychological thriller!
-Le Corniaud (1964) the lines, the tour-guide of 60s Italy, two French comedy monsters (Bourvil and De Funès), who could ask for anything more?!
-the Magdalene Sisters (2002) for an engaging and revolting topic that makes the viewing quite intense!
-Profumo di Donna (1976) the film that started the crush on Vittorio Gassman and for 60s-70s Italian comedies
-The Kid (1921) oh gee, I so cried for this one!
-The Graduate (1968) its message is still striking today and I always get something to learn about youth and its insecurities when seeing this one!
I’d say:
-Madame de… (1953) as it introduced me to romanticism, impeccacle acting, directing, music
-American Beauty (1999) a real mind-opening movie about what we think makes our life worth living and a film which helped me during depressing times
-Sunrise (1939) for the naturalistic beauty yet powerful portrayal of all the things that we encounter with love! And for that superb scene where husband and wife walk in the street and don’t seem to see the traffic around them! Love does make us blind! Just for that single scene, I want to experience what it is!
-La Meglio Gioventu (2003) for it’s its length, allowing us to really see real complex characters, for the poignancy of the story, as we follow an Italian family’s path, from the 60s til the beginning of the 21st century
-Notorious (1946) for the unbelievably erotic chemistry between Bergman and Grant (without any sex scenes), for its attack at the Hays Code, for Hitchcock!
-The Wizard of Oz (1939) this film took to a a blissful place back when I was a kid. Pure magic!
-Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), an extremely famous and grand play transformed into a flamboyant, lyrical movie! Que du panache!
-Lagaan (2001) for its epic feel (charismatic leads, gorgeous landscapes) that shoes us that Bollywood is the new Hollywood!
-Das Leben der Anderen (2006) as it unravels a shockingly painful German history but also as it pays a vibrant tribute to Art! RIP Mühe.
-Le Salaire de la Peur (1953) pure psychological thriller!
-Le Corniaud (1964) the lines, the tour-guide of 60s Italy, two French comedy monsters (Bourvil and De Funès), who could ask for anything more?!
-the Magdalene Sisters (2002) for an engaging and revolting topic that makes the viewing quite intense!
-Profumo di Donna (1976) the film that started the crush on Vittorio Gassman and for 60s-70s Italian comedies
-The Kid (1921) oh gee, I so cried for this one!
-The Graduate (1968) its message is still striking today and I always get something to learn about youth and its insecurities when seeing this one!
Pulp Fiction: A friend and I snuck into the theatre when we were 13, and it was like everything I didn’t know I wanted in a movie was now right in front of me. As a result, Tarantino will always be a favorite of mine no matter how much more recycled/fake ’70s television crap he puts out in movie form during what is shaping up to be a long-ass midlife crisis.
The Neverending Story: “The Nothing” that swept through Fantasia destroying everything = childhood fear of death. Still scares me.
Before Sunrise: Once again, when I was 13 or so. I think that’s the time when you’re ripe for life-changing. Loved the idea of a movie’s plot being one extended conversation (this before I had even heard of My Dinner with Andre). Also, the unrealistic expectations set up by this movie probably ruined my love life for a while as well.
Synecdoche, New York: Maybe not technically a life-changer, but it struck that “Yes!” chord with the whole attempt-to-capture-one’s-life-in-art thing (and, of course, fear-of-death thing). Felt the same thing with the death scene in Bergman’s The Silence. And apparently I have issues with death. Well, this has been illuminating.
Fat Girl-Briellet
Hour Of the Wolf- Bergman
Being John Malcovich- Jonez
Brazil- Gilliam
thenearesttheatreis1hraway
Cool Runnings.
I was about 10 when I saw it and I cried when their spoiler stuff happened. Only time I have ever truly broke down and cried. Not to say I haven’t teared up. That happens all the time.