All time favorite films

#1: Never Cry Wolf

#1.1: Brazil

Watched them both many times

Off the top of my head, but maybe not my 'all time favorite', is "Dead Man" a Jim Jarmusch film, starring Johnny Depp and the sound track is all Neil Young. It is in black and white and rated R. Gary Farmer too.

Michael, Thank you for starting this!

The films of Chris Marker (1921-2012)

La Jet'ee (1962) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezkAeQuUqCg (Click on CC for English subtitles)

IMDb- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003408/bio

NY Times Charis Marker, Dies at 91. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/movies/chris-marker-enigmatic-multimedia-artist-dies-at-91.html?_r=0


1.1...
Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner (2001) by Zacharias Kunuk -

Movies I have seen a million times & couldn't turn the channel back when I owned a tv:

Into the Wild
Vanilla Sky
When Harry met Sally
Office Space
Caddyshack
Napoleon Dynamite
Alien & Aliens
Most movies by John Carpenter, Steven Spielberg (pre 2004), & Alfred Hitchcock
Adaptations of Stephen King & Jane Austen
Goodfellas
Casino
The Godfather
A Christmas Story
Groundhog Day
Signs
Dirty Dancing
What Lies Beneath
Tombstone
Harry Potter series
Twister
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
Dawn of the Dead (2004)

i tend to gravitate to the esoteric, off beat, little films, character studies and films where sometimes where not much happens. My wife has the same taste and is the film finder. I just pick from the menu. Whatever else I list here I would watch more than once

Jim Jarmish films tend to be about snippets, no real beginning or end, a checking in on people's lives. I'll have to get out the soundtrack to Dead Man, haven't heard it in a while..


From the menu: (taken from Wikipedia

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (French: Le scaphandre et le papillon)

is a 2007 biographical drama film based on Jean-Dominique Bauby's memoir of the same name. The film depicts Bauby's life after suffering a massive stroke, on December 8, 1995, at the age of 43, which left him with a condition known as locked-in syndrome. The condition paralyzed him from the neck down. Although both eyes worked, doctors decided to sew up his right eye as it was not irrigating properly and they were worried that it would become infected. He was left with only his left eye and the only way that he could communicate was by blinking his left eyelid.

A speech therapist and physical therapist try to help Bauby become as functional as possible. Bauby cannot speak, but he develops a system of communication with his speech and language therapist by blinking his left eye as she reads a list of letters to laboriously spell out his messages, letter by letter.

Gradually, the film's restricted point of view broadens out, and the viewer begins to see Bauby from 'outside', in addition to experiencing incidents from his past, including a visit to Lourdes. He also fantasizes, imagining beaches, mountains, the Empress Eugénie, and an erotic feast with one of his transcriptionists. It is revealed that Bauby had been editor of the popular French fashion magazine Elle, and that he had a deal to write a book (which was originally going to be based on "The Count of Monte Cristo" but from a female perspective). He decides that he will still write a book, using his slow and exhausting communication technique. A woman from a publishing house with which Bauby had the original book contract is brought in to take dictation.

Michael, Judith and Rion, Great selections!!!

Outstanding Films of 2012.... or released on DVD this past year... or finally available from Netflix...or just recently getting around to viewing them.

(In no particular order)

Kelly Reichardt - Meek's Cutoff (2012)

Abbas Kiarostami - Certified Copy (2010) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM_8TPLMCOU

Wes Anderson - Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Paul Thomas Anderson - The Master (2012) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ1O1vb9AUU

Asghar Farhadi - A Separation (2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58Onuy5USTc

David Cronenberg - Cosmopolis (2012) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3ZmIwteUAY

David Cronenberg - A Dangerous Method (2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=664eq7BXQcM

Lars von Trier - Melancholia (2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzD0U841LRM

Peter Watkins - La Commune Paris, 1871 (2009) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oCdl6tjlGQ

La Commune, Paris 1871- Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbRMEV0wDBU Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbRMEV0wDBU

Jean-Luc Godard - Film Socialisme (2010) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLuWoz9OpqU

Pedro Almodovar - The Skin I Live In (2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EolQSTTTpI4

Benh Zeitlin - Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF7i2n5NXLo

Andrew Haigh - Weekend (2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUU_WzRBHX4

Jonathan Lee - Paul Goodman Changed My Life (2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrmEdhg4aPQ

Bela Tarr - The Turin Horse (2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kawX46GHKYk

Apichatpong Weerasethakul - Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2012) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk-EoUb0nvg

Roman Polanski - Carnage (2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON3kwJPwcMU

Michael Winterbottom - Trishna (2012) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd3CMCUiJnU

Mike Cahill - Another Earth (2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlPfAYpnpuw

Darren Aronofsky - Black Swan (2010) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jaI1XOB-bs

Jim Jarmushch - The Limits of Control (2009) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AUFMGAck6A

Adam Curtis - The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear (2004), The Century of the Self (2002) (wow, this documentary was a life changer!)



The Centrury of the Self - FULL Film parts 1 -4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7EwXmxpExw

The Power of Nightmares - Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAGjQm8VJHc

The Power of Nightmares - Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGZM53rBMOI

The Power of Nightmares - Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETmo3edd9QQ

Guilty pleasure: Disaster movies. The 70s rock!

More Jarmusch favorites..."Coffee and Cigarettes" with lots of his frequently used actors including Tom Waits. We both liked it well enough to own it. And "Ghost Dogs" too and the one I can't remember the title of but also done in short 'stories' ...something like "a Night on Earth"
Are you all finding these movies on your lists on netflix? If so I may have to subscribe.
We have four Bogart/Bacall movies on tape that we watch when all else fails and we need a relaxing moment..."The Big Sleep", "The Maltese Falcon","To Have and Have Not", and "Key Largo".

Almost all Bollywood movies with Aamir Khan or Hrithik Roshan!!!

Also documentaries: "What I've Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy", "Life and Debt", "The Corporation", "Conscience of a Nation", "The World According to Monsanto", etc.

Thanks to all!

I added these films to my queue. Never Cry Wolf, Napoleon Dynamite, To Have and Have Not, Bollywood films of Aamir Khan / Hrithik Roshan.

Renate, Do you have any specific suggestions of said Bollywood films?

Judith, All the films I listed are available via Netflix and some can be found at RedBox.

Michael, The Limits of Control as i'm sure you know could never be boring. It's a JJ film! Actually it's an exciting, enlightening work of art that is relevant, pertinent to the times. My review... "This Guitar Kills Fascists" - Woody Guthrie

The Fishing with John series is highly entertaining. I wish he had made more. John Lurie is a wonderful artist, actor, film maker and musician, I've followed him around the lower Manhattan scene since The Lounge Lizards.

Hey Rion are you old enough to remember EARTHQUAKE in SENSURROUND?

Please, keep posting!!! I'm a film freak and need the fix.

About my two number one favorites:

Never Cry Wolf: The only film I watch over and over again. Not quite sure why. Not a complex story. Maybe it's the animistic nature underlying self discovery.

Brazil: The following was taken from a letter to my sister, comparing the film to a surreal painting she did in the late eighties. --

On the film Brazil and Cindy's beach painting

Brazil directed by Terry Gilliam (the American of Monty Python) is one of the finest films every made. The first time my partner & I saw it, as soon as we walked out of the theater we both said we need to see this again & literally turned around, paid, & saw it a second time on the spot. It had a profound effect on me, more viscerally gut-level at first I think. The movie would pop into my mind from time to time; saw it a few more times in the last 20 years. Then last year I mentioned to my wife how I’d like to see it again. (She had seen it years ago, but didn’t remember it that well). I bought the director’s cut (with not so happy ending) DVD & upon watching it last fall I realized how “wonderfully” chilling, spot-on, kind-of-creepy in it’s foretelling, deeply metaphorical about our present world this “dream” film is. In terms of impact there are parallels between the story’s ”life” and the life of your brilliant painting of the blindfolded-naked humanoids walking the beach with their vanity mirrors held up to their faces. Blindly ignoring the world around them.


What is the film about (to me)? Like any fine piece of art, the depth & richness of metaphor combined with the accessibility of understanding is what makes for a long lasting impact. & like your painting, the director wasn’t consciously trying to implant many of the films allegories. There in lies the beauty & awe.

Some bits & pieces of impressions/thought: This film is about now – that is the Big Chill. The ignorance & false pretence of life when an explosion goes off in a restaurant as nothing more than a trivial nuisance to the well-off, quickly screening off death & destruction as not to inconvenience nor distract the “public”. Blotchy Plastic surgery will probably become a “heath care necessity” in the future for all the care that is given to real health concerns.
The on going war of “terrorism” is perpetuated by the government. Robert De Niro as the keen “wise” good guy who gets sucked to death, literally, by a whirlwind of bureaucratic paperwork. (Know anyone who can truly track their health insurance billing)? The Control Cops cut holes in floors w/o warning, encapsulate victims in black-belted bags, never to be seen again (extradition), not because they did anything wrong but a typo in the f*cked up system is trusted w/o doubt.
The “hero” gets his half-of-a-desk sticking through the wall at work (a cubicle looking like a prison cell) only by being aggressive (the efficiency of government cut-backs). The arcane technology is always breaking down, in need of repair but only by the proper authority of entrenched paperwork.

The most living organic thing is the “heating & ventilating” systems pulsing in the dwelling walls: overwhelming & threatening and highly inefficient. It’s something that’s needed but we try to keep it behind walls – it’s messy, invented & not completely understood. (Glitchy bloated software or maybe its just the way “real life” works.)

A favorite writer, Joe Baegent ( who died this spring) gave lectures at a couple of graduating university commencements telling them that America, especially, is really just a hologram. Joe left the US when Bush became prez and literally lived simply in Belize and Mexico. He had a good perspective of the US from people who were disenfranchised & not by any means, as influenced by the American capitalist market which predominately runs the world system -- money money money – In God We Trust.

Google (the “do no evil” company) now “customizes your searches to fit your “needs & desires”. All being done by algorithms – mathematical computations.. The vanity mirrors in your painting – all of us looking “blindly” at ourselves, not the world around us, the great ocean practically kissing our feet. (One of Jimi Hendrix’s great lines: “ I used to live in a room full of mirrors, all I could see was me. Then I took my spirit smashed the mirrors & now there’s the whole world for me to see…”).

In the film, what of the dream sequences, the hope of escape of being a “true” hero? (Alright liberals let’s get together & have a real revolution --- this time). The “System Monster” is just too big to be truly beaten. (Now we call it “too big to fail”).

Maybe the answer lies in realizing we think/breath too much “American”: the courtship of fear, security, defined well-being, (even the thought of chance kills itself) glued to the soles of our feet defining movement, direction and future steps. Those who run the Club savage the rest of the world with the $$ of the American people. Protection, defense which the individual takes personally as insurance, maybe helplessly hating what we think our government is doing “over there” but paying for all kinds & forms of insurance “over here”.

In Brazil the hero is tortured to death, but perhaps not physically, as his “old friend” who does the torturing says: “he’s gone…” ………….Then there’s all of us in your painting, walking back & forth on the beach going --- just going……..


From an on line FAQ covering the film: "It seems nearly impossible that
a single viewing of BRAZIL could possibly supply the viewer with all
of the information needed to fully digest what's happening in the film".

If you're going to see the film seek out the Director's Cut version or you'll end up watching the sanitized American $version$.

Michael, spot on critique. Thanks.

I remember the controversy and long delay in releasing the Criterion LaserDisc version of Brazil (1990s) with the 142 min. extended directors cut and added commentary, documentary of the film, etc. I think it has over 7 hours of supplement and the price was a hefty $150.00 ( worth every penny). I plan on watching it on the updated Criterion Blu-ray version. If any film is deserving of a re watch in HD its Brazil.

IMHO, best Aamir Khan movies: Lagaan, Ghajini, Mangal Pandey, and of course, The 3 Idiots (which you used to be able to get from RedBox)

Best Hrithik Roshan movies: "Koi, Mil Gaya" (after that watch Krrish, they must be seen in order!), Jodhaa Akbar, Dhoom 2, Guzaarish (tho it's really depressing the filming is GORGEOUS!)

Maybe slightly OT, but I did say I love documentaries... have you seen any of these? Billed as top films about food.

So many films I could mention, it depends on my mood, on whether I want to be entertained or educated, or both.
I recently saw Melancholia, a Lars von Trier film, the opening sequence alone is just beautiful. It's kind of a disaster movie (which appeals to my love of 70's disaster movies Rion Mather) about a meteor heading towards earth. Have a look at the opening on youtube as I can't even begin to describe it.
Another film I saw recently for the first time was Apocalypto, the Mel Gibson film about the Mayans.
Apart from those I love old Hitchcock films, David Lynch. Not a great fan of Woody Allen, apart from Vicky Christina Barcelona.

Gone With the Wind, Vertigo( Most Hitchcock), The Artist, Black Swan, Pi, Woody Allen films, esp Midnight in Paris, lots more:)

Rick Roman wrote:
Hey Rion are you old enough to remember EARTHQUAKE in SENSURROUND?

I was too busy playing my Disney Robin Hood album over and over at the time. (I was about 4) Sounds like a blast though. Too bad I missed it.

Another genre I enjoy is the film noir period of the 40s and early 50s. Some great classic stuff there.

Frank Zappa's "200 Motels" . First taped in video with special effects then transfered back to 35mm so it could be shown in theaters. Has Ringo Starr as a Zappa decoy , Keith Moon as a strung out nun rock band groupie , the GTO's , Flo and Eddy at their best , Mothers of Invention , Zappas orchestral arrangements, Jimmy Carl Black . It's a kick - you gotta see it.
Dittoe on "Brazil" and most other Gilliam films.
"The Gods must be Crazy"

I had forgotton "200 Motels"! Right around the same time as "Clockwork Orange", "2001Space Odyssey", "The Strawberry Statement", "Catch 22" ? I grew up going to every musical of the time with my mom and sister...then got hit with a whole other world of movies late sixties into the seventies.

Well then , how about "Greasers Palace" subtitled "Jesus in a Zoot Suit" by Robert Downey Sr. First film appearance by Robert Downey Jr , then 5 yrs old.
My favorite quote " If ya feel , ya healed". There was alot of experimentation at that time . People were willing to go out on a limb and invest in films that were definitely not sure bets.

Koyaanisqatsi - Life out of balance. 30years old. The following sentence from a relatively recent review shows unknowingly the relevance of the film for the 21st century. Italics added:


While the film is powerful, it is perhaps about 30 minutes too long especially for today's viewer.

agreed, brazil is definititely one of the best films ever. seen it at least a dozen times and i could watch it again.
almost as good: anything else by terry gilliam- 12 monkeys, fisher king, time bandits, etc =)

i love anime so anything by miyazaki - nausicaa of the valley of the wind, howls moving castle, and of course princess mononoke would also be on my short list of fave films.

been geeking out rewatching full metal alchemist lately =)
also just rewatched cowboy bebop. those are more of series, but theres movies too.

of course theres more, i love films. have watched most of what you all list here, its good stuff.

More of my favorites :
Concert Film : The Last Waltz
Western: Little Big Man
Farm Animal : Babe
Martial Arts : The Seven Samurai {at 3 hours and 27 minutes probably 30 minutes too long for todays viewer}
Sports Documentary : When We Were Kings

Thanks for this thread ! I love Film ! I studied film and have been writing a screenplay for the last 20 years- that first page is a booger!

Thanks Everyone, added several more suggestions to my Netflix Queue.

The new film "Leviathan" (2012) is somewhat reminiscent of the work by Reggio and Fricke (Koyaanisqatsi). Wow, Leviathan is amazing, highly recommended! Should be out on DVD soon.

Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel - Leviathan (2012) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEQoB_aRB3c


Hayao Miiyazaki!

Anime and Animation are each deserving of their own thread.

Some fairly recent favorite feature length Anime films:

Michael Arias - Tekkonkinkreet (2006) - http://vimeo.com/44725160 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWj77NUjLI4

Mamoru Oshii / Masamune Shirow - Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iks8HAq7Q30

GITS2 - Documentary - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egRAxn8DiQc

Satoshi Kon / Shogo Furuya- Tokyo Godfathers (2003), Kon / Yasutaka Tsutsui - Paprika (2006)

Tokyo Godfathers - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q6mcx2qF4Q

Paprika - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJzEW_eE1G0

Baraka
Bottle Rocket
Whale Rider
Dead Man
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Delicatessen
Amelie
Kukujiro
The Princess and the Warrior

And, hi! I'm new.

Oasis

A true jewel of a film, haunting, beautiful. The actress is extraordinary in conveying where heart and soul of being human comes through. Easily one of the best films ever made, in my opinion of course. By Korean director Chang-dong Lee

The review below gives a good description:


(Excerpt from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320193/reviews?ref_=tt_ov_rt )

What love truly means

Author: Howard Schumann from Vancouver, B.C.
10 May 2004
We talk a lot about love in our society but often love is only acceptable to us if it fits our pictures. For example, the love of an older person for a younger, love between members of the same sex or between disabled individuals may make us uncomfortable and rejecting. Winner of five awards at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, Oasis, a film by Lee Chang-dong, stretches our comfort zone to the limit with a boldly unconventional portrait of the love of a mentally retarded young man for a woman suffering with cerebral palsy. The film is both emotionally honest and powerfully realized and will keep you pondering its implications for a long time. Moon So-ri's performance as Gong-ju is nothing short of astonishing. She goes through contortions to make us aware of the agony of her illness, but is never inappropriate or over-the-top. Her movements are spasmodic and uncoordinated and she appears to be in constant pain but there is a kindness in her face that allows us to see the person behind the pain.

As the film opens, Jong-du (Sol Kyung-gu) has just been released from prison and is freezing in his short sleeve shirt in the middle of winter. Jong-du is a sociopath who flaunts society's rules, unaware of or unconcerned with the consequences of his actions. Unable to hold a job and always on the edge, he has been in jail three times: for attempted rape, causing an accident while drunk (he took the rap for his elder brother), and armed robbery. On the spur of the moment, he decides to visit the family of the man killed by his brother and apologize. When he arrives, he finds a husband and wife moving out of their apartment, leaving the husband's seriously disabled sister, Han Gong-ju (Moon So-ri) for the neighbors to look after.

Jong-du is attracted to the disabled woman who seems barely in control of her own body. He returns for another visit but it sadly ends up in a disturbing sequence that is very difficult to watch. Surprisingly, Gong-ju invites him back once more and the two slowly begin a friendship based on their mutual feelings of isolation. He provides her with the closeness she desperately needs and she finds someone to care for, maybe for the first time in her life. As their relationship becomes known, both families are scandalized and, aided by the prejudices of society, transform the innocence of their love into something sick and twisted.

Joshua Oppenheimer - The Act of Killing (2012)

Producers Werner Herzog and Errol Morris talk about the film - http://www.vice.com/read/Werner-herzog-and-errol-Morris-talk-about-the-act-of-killing

Excellent interview with the directer Joshua Oppenheimer - http://www.democracynow.org/2013/7/19/the_act_of_killing_new_film

The Act of Killing Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD5oMxbMcHM

The Act of Killing Website - http://theactofkilling.com/

Film Synopsis from the above website:

Anwar Congo and his friends have been dancing their way through musical numbers, twisting arms in film noir gangster scenes, and galloping across prairies as yodeling cowboys. Their foray into filmmaking is being celebrated in the media and debated on television, even though Anwar Congo and his friends are mass murderers.

Medan, Indonesia. When the government of Indonesia was overthrown by the military in 1965, Anwar and his friends were promoted from small-time gangsters who sold movie theatre tickets on the black market to death squad leaders. They helped the army kill more than one million alleged communists, ethnic Chinese, and intellectuals in less than a year. As the executioner for the most notorious death squad in his city, Anwar himself killed hundreds of people with his own hands.

Today, Anwar is revered as a founding father of a right-wing paramilitary organization that grew out of the death squads. The organization is so powerful that its leaders include government ministers, and they are happy to boast about everything from corruption and election rigging to acts of genocide.

The Act of Killing is about killers who have won, and the sort of society they have built. Unlike ageing Nazis or Rwandan génocidaires, Anwar and his friends have not been forced by history to admit they participated in crimes against humanity. Instead, they have written their own triumphant history, becoming role models for millions of young paramilitaries. The Act of Killing is a journey into the memories and imaginations of the perpetrators, offering insight into the minds of mass killers. And The Act of Killing is a nightmarish vision of a frighteningly banal culture of impunity in which killers can joke about crimes against humanity on television chat shows, and celebrate moral disaster with the ease and grace of a soft shoe dance number.

A Love of Cinema. In their youth, Anwar and his friends spent their lives at the movies, for they were “movie theatre gangsters”: they controlled a black market in tickets, while using the cinema as a base of operations for more serious crimes. In 1965, the army recruited them to form death squads because they had a proven capacity for violence, and they hated the communists for boycotting American films – the most popular (and profitable) in the cinemas. Anwar and his friends were devoted fans of James Dean, John Wayne, and Victor Mature. They explicitly fashioned themselves and their methods of murder after their Hollywood idols. And coming out of the midnight show, they felt “just like gangsters who stepped off the screen”. In this heady mood, they strolled across the boulevard to their office and killed their nightly quota of prisoners. Borrowing his technique from a mafia movie, Anwar preferred to strangle his victims with wire.

In The Act of Killing, Anwar and his friends agree to tell us the story of the killings. But their idea of being in a movie is not to provide testimony for a documentary: they want to star in the kind of films they most love from their days scalping tickets at the cinemas. We seize this opportunity to expose how a regime that was founded on crimes against humanity, yet has never been held accountable, would project itself into history.

And so we challenge Anwar and his friends to develop fiction scenes about their experience of the killings, adapted to their favorite film genres – gangster, western, musical. They write the scripts. They play themselves. And they play their victims.

Their fiction filmmaking process provides the film’s dramatic arc, and their film sets become safe spaces to challenge them about what they did. Some of Anwar’s friends realize that the killings were wrong. Others worry about the consequence of the story on their public image. Younger members of the paramilitary movement argue that they should boast about the horror of the massacres, because their terrifying and threatening force is the basis of their power today. As opinions diverge, the atmosphere on set grows tense. The edifice of genocide as a “patriotic struggle”, with Anwar and his friends as its heroes, begins to sway and crack.

Most dramatically, the filmmaking process catalyzes an unexpected emotional journey for Anwar, from arrogance to regret as he confronts, for the first time in his life, the full implications of what he’s done. As Anwar’s fragile conscience is threatened by the pressure to remain a hero, The Act of Killing presents a gripping conflict between moral imagination and moral catastrophe.

This one was artsy.

http://rubberthemovie.com/

Stanley Kubrick. I love his stuff.

China: A Century of Revolution

This is perhaps the best film I have seen. Intimate portraits on a century of film of the lives of the people of China on their journey to nationhood. From common Chinese citizens to party officials and Chiang Kai Shek staffers. It is a truly amazing story told largely by the people who lived it. A flowery writer I am not or I would go at some length about it. Worth viewing for the archival footage of Chinese agricultural practices alone

Also

Little Big Man, Never Cry Wolf, Dances with Wolves, Back to the Future, the Blues Brothers, Ken Burns the Civil War, and the Princess Bride.

Also great - but not all time favorites are many other films and directors here listed + Clerks

and how could I forget. The cartoon rendition of Watership Down that one might even trump a 6 hour documentary

I still can't keep a straight face when I watch this film...



BRIAN: Aaah!

CENTURION: Oh, and, uh, throw him to the floor, sir?

PILATE: What?

CENTURION: Thwow him to the floor again, sir?

PILATE: Oh, yes. Thwow him to the floor, please.

BRIAN: Aah! [whump]

PILATE: Now, Jewish wapscallion.

BRIAN: I'm not Jewish. I'm a Roman.

PILATE: A Woman?

BRIAN: No, no. Roman. [slap] Aah!

PILATE: Your father was a Woman? Who was he?

BRIAN: He was a centurion in the Jerusalem Garrisons.

PILATE: Weally? What was his name?

BRIAN: 'Naughtius Maximus'.

CENTURION: Ahh, ha ha!

PILATE: Centuwion, do we have anyone of that name in the gawwison?

CENTURION: Well, no, sir.

PILATE: Well, you sound vewy sure. Have you checked?

CENTURION: Well, no, sir. Umm, I think it's a joke, sir,... like, uh, 'Sillius Soddus' or... 'Biggus Dickus', sir.

GUARD #4: [chuckling]

PILATE: What's so... funny about 'Biggus Dickus'?

CENTURION: Well, it's a joke name, sir.

PILATE: I have a vewy gweat fwiend in Wome called 'Biggus Dickus'.

GUARD #4: [chuckling]

PILATE: Silence! What is all this insolence? You will find yourself in gladiator school vewy quickly with wotten behaviour like that.

BRIAN: Can I go now, sir? [slap] Aaah! Eh.

PILATE: Wait till Biggus Dickus hears of this.

GUARD #4: [chuckling]

PILATE: Wight! Take him away!

CENTURION: Oh, sir, he-- he only--

PILATE: No, no. I want him fighting wabid, wild animals within a week.

CENTURION: Yes, sir. Come on, you.

GUARD #4: Ha ha haa ha, ha ha ha. Hooo hooo hoo hoo. Hoo hoo...

PILATE: I will not have my fwiends widiculed by the common soldiewy. --- Anybody else feel like a little... giggle... when I mention my fwiend... Biggus...

GUARD #1: [chuckling]

PILATE: ...Dickus?

GUARD #1: [chuckling]

PILATE: What about you? Do you find it... wisible... when I say the name... 'Biggus'...

GUARD #3: [chuckle]

PILATE: ...'Dickus'?

GUARD #1 and

GUARD #2: [chuckling]

PILATE: He has a wife, you know. You know what she's called? She's called... 'Incontinentia'. Incontinentia Buttocks

GUARDS: [laughing]

PILATE: Stop! What is all this?

GUARDS: Ha, ha ha ha ha ha...

PILATE: I've had enough of this wowdy webel sniggewing behaviour. Silence! Call yourselves Pwaetowian guards? You're not-- Seize him! Seize him! Blow your noses and seize him!

Rick Roman wrote: The Act of Killing

This is without a doubt one of the most disturbing films I've ever seen and I specialise in disturbing!
It manages to be horrific, ridiculous and tedious all at the same time and my brain is still trying to make sense of it.
Not gonna happen.
A few other great, but less traumatising movies:
Blade Runner
Beasts of the Southern wild
Solaris
The road (a whole nother kind of traumatising!)
Children of men
the first two Star Wars movies
Burnt by the sun
Shaun of the dead

Hi Leila, Agreed, "The Act of Killing" stands alone, that's one aspect of the film that makes it great. The fact is, this is real, true horror. At the opening, several people exited the theater and they were probably hardcore film buffs. I should have added a warning! Lol!

Anyway, great film list Leila.

"Beasts of a Southern Wild" is another great achievement in film. They made that film on a budget of only 1.7 million (I think). To accomplish that it was a collaboration of some real talented and dedicated volunteers. It's just an astounding piece of art.

I haven't seen "Burnt by the Sun" so I added it to my Netflix queue. Thanks.

Thinking back on "Solaris" not the original by Tarkovsky so much but Soderbergh's Solaris reminds me of the film "Upstream Color".

I posted this film in another thread, but after watching it a few times now, I found I really love it. So I'm posting here. (edited)

"Upstream Color" (2013) by director / writer / editor / sound Shane Carruth know for his excellent independent Si-Fi film "Primer" (2004). Everything about this film reminds me of the permaculture movement. I have a feeling that this will be the first quintessential art house permiculture-ish film.

Here is an example, the chapter titles of Upstream Color - 1. Grubs 2. Controlled 3. Infested 4. Ruined 5. Fascinations 6. Sampling lives 7. Forgotten trauma 8. Shared Experience 9. Underwater 10. Walden : or, Life in the Woods ( Book by Henry David Thoreau) 11. The Connection 12. Finding Peace

Upstream Color - Trailer (2013) -

"Walden : or, Life in the Woods" - book by Henry David Thoreau - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden

Critique - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gna3Mm8R7Nw

Disclaimer: Warning Permie Folk, This is an independent, art-house film, not a mainstream movie proceed with caution.

I'm really glad I saw 'the act of killing', I'm also glad I won't see it again!
I should've said, the original Solaris. The remake didn't have the queazy, off-kilter beauty and power.
I like sci-fi movies, there aren't many good ones though.
Here's a few goodies:
The first two Alien movies
District 9. Awesome!
If you like your satire pointed, but darkly humourous...Series 7.
or silly and amusing: starship troopers and Mars attacks.

Heads Up Film Freaks! I found this documentary on Youtube, a film that I've been wanting to see for close to 10 years.

From Wikipedia:
Los Angeles Plays Itself is a video essay by Thom Andersen, finished in 2003, exploring the way Los Angeles has been presented in movies. Consisting entirely of clips from other films, it was never released due to rights issues, though it has been seen at film festivals and in special presentations by the director.


From IMDB
Of all the cities in the world, few are depicted in and mythologized more in film and television than the city of Los Angeles. In this documentary, Thom Andersen examines in detail the ways the city has been depicted, both when it is meant to be anonymous and when itself is the focus. Along the way, he illustrates his concerns of how the real city and its people are misrepresented and distorted through the prism of popular film culture. Furthermore, he also chronicles the real stories of the city's modern history behind the notorious accounts of the great conspiracies that ravaged his city that reveal a more open and yet darker past than the casual viewer would suspect. Written by Kenneth Chisholm

Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003) by Thom Andersen - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATvOyAdrDB0