your top ten films (?)

M

Melmoth

Bruxist
dominic said:
saw this film last year -- very powerful -- seems like an allegory for our times -- what's the meaning? a civilization's loss of its will to live?
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there are some ambiguously redemptive moments in it, that bit where the guy steers the kid away from
the fire, and the final few minutes shot from the moving train. Is it really an allegorical film? I compared it to Stalker on another thread but thats much more obviously allegorical, TOTW is in some ways remarkable in its unremitting grubby materialist realism, none of Tarkovsky's metaphysics.
 
bruno

bruno

est malade
h-crimm said:
i cant even begin to imagine what its like on film. surely it must have been sucked down into a soft porn adventure romp?
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lol

no, the film is aparently true to the book, which i haven't read. but i have read a number of his stories and novels (box man, secret rendezvous), and the atmosphere of absurdity and claustrophobia is pure abe kobo. it is also austere and economical, and sometimes obsessed with details, much like abe's books. add to this one of takemitsu's best sound pieces [which you can find (abridged) on 'film music of toru takemitsu'] and you have an amazing film, well worth tracking down!
 
M

martin

----
Robotrix
Police Story
The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue
Made in Britain
Bladerunner
Matador
Batman (the Adam West one)
Psychomania
Way of the Dragon
Rockers
 
I

Ivan Polygon

Member
My first post

These are my favourite films:

1. 2001, a Space Odissey, Stanley Kubrick
2. Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola
3, Arrebato / Rapture, Iván Zulueta (THE Spanish cult filrm you shouldn't miss if you have the chane of seeing it)
4. Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock
5. Blade Runner, Ridley Scott (did he really direct it?)
6. Viridiana, Luis Buñuel
7. Blue Velvet, David Lynch
8. 8 1/2 , Federico Fellini
9. L'anée dernière a Marienbad, Alain Resnais
10. Touch of Evil, Orson Welles

This list is no doubt subject to change, but there's nevertheless no way any of this films could get out of my personal top 20.
 
B

bassnation

the abyss
loads of good films mentioned already and very hard to whittle it down to just ten, but heres my choice.

dead mans shoes
(heart rendingly sad, well observed in regards to uk small town culture and a powerful moral concerning "an eye for an eye" which has never been more relevant - one of the most moving and heavy films i've ever seen, even managing some laughs in the process)

night of the living dead
dawn of the dead
day of the dead
(romero's trilogy of films on the human condition haunt my dreams to this day)

dune (one of lynch's most cohesive and visually stunning films as well as being suprisingly true to herbert's brilliant book - if you discount the pulsing space vagina scene, naturally)

goodfellas
scarface
godfather parts 1 and 2
(always been addicted to gangster movies)

alien parts 1 to 3
john carpenters the thing
(wicked sci fi centred on mankinds primal fears)
 
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M

mms

sometimes
pompous list runs :
bladerunner
the conversation
alien
aguirre wrath of god
wickerman
l'atlante
the idiots
le feu follet
salesman
black narcissus

i think, no order
 
D

DigitalDjigit

Honky Tonk Woman
Only movies I've seen more than once with one exception:

Big Lebowski
Hackers (you can quit rolling your eyes now)
Trainspotting
Eyes Wide Shut
Brazil
Stalker (this is the exception. It was pretty memorable. I thought "you can show a plot of grass for 10 seconds in a movie. Wow.")
 
H

h-crimm

Well-known member
mms said:
aguirre wrath of god
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i was secretly slightly disappointed with that one, yeah it was visually stunning, claustrophobic and crazy but hmmm i dunno
maybe i never bought aguirre as sane in the first place. i think i was also burdened by thinking that it was going to be more than loosely based on the real life story, not that it needed to be, but i was expecting something different.

i mean, i did like it but maybe not as much as i was expecting...


i do love the way the director werner herzog just goes totally mental sometimes, like the scene where theyre riding real wooden rafts down fucking terrifying rapids and have absolutely no control and the camera lens is all covered in spray cos he's on there too about to get drowned
the horse thing is amazing too,
or in fitzcarraldo where they really are dragging that steam ship over the mountain...


the backstory to the film is pretty amazing... isnt this the one where klaus kinski threatened to leave and herzog said if ihe did he'd shoot him and then himself? and where the cast and crew actually got lost in the jungle while making it and nearly starved but the director just kept them going, kept them in peroid costume.

then when they got out of the jungle it was christmass eve and there was only one flight out of peru that wasnt cancelled and they had to draw lots for seats but they lost. then the plane crashed and only one woman survived cos everyone else got blown off her row and the empty seats acted like the wing on a sycamore seed and she spiralled down into the jungle where she was lost for a month. i think he went back to make a documentary about that...
 
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M

michael

Bring out the vacuum
Haha.. pretty sure Aguirre is the one where the locals approached Herzog and said something re: Kinski to the effect "we are not violent people, but we can kill him for you, if you like". :D :D Gold.

It's the only Herzog film I've seen and I found it fairly boring. I appreciate its place and all that, but ...
 
J

jed_

Well-known member
h-crimm said:
i was secretly slightly disappointed with that one, yeah it was visually stunning, claustrophobic and crazy but hmmm i dunno .
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BUT WHAT ABOUT THE MONKEYS!!!!!!?
 
F

francesco

Minerva Estassi
michael said:
Haha.. pretty sure Aguirre is the one where the locals approached Herzog and said something re: Kinski to the effect "we are not violent people, but we can kill him for you, if you like". :D :D Gold.

It's the only Herzog film I've seen and I found it fairly boring. I appreciate its place and all that, but ...
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had to greatly desagree, really. A void of a film.

Had someone watched the even more incredible films by Herzog before Aguirre, "fata morgana" and the one with only midgets as actors, who if i translate the title in english is: "even the midgets begins as little ones"? pure Jodorosky "el topo" pan allucinogenic teathre of cruelty. Extreme to the n.
 
M

mms

sometimes
h-crimm said:
i was secretly slightly disappointed with that one, yeah it was visually stunning, claustrophobic and crazy but hmmm i dunno
maybe i never bought aguirre as sane in the first place. i think i was also burdened by thinking that it was going to be more than loosely based on the real life story, not that it needed to be, but i was expecting something different.

i mean, i did like it but maybe not as much as i was expecting...


i do love the way the director werner herzog just goes totally mental sometimes, like the scene where theyre riding real wooden rafts down fucking terrifying rapids and have absolutely no control and the camera lens is all covered in spray cos he's on there too about to get drowned
the horse thing is amazing too,
or in fitzcarraldo where they really are dragging that steam ship over the mountain...


the backstory to the film is pretty amazing... isnt this the one where klaus kinski threatened to leave and herzog said if ihe did he'd shoot him and then himself? and where the cast and crew actually got lost in the jungle while making it and nearly starved but the director just kept them going, kept them in peroid costume.

then when they got out of the jungle it was christmass eve and there was only one flight out of peru that wasnt cancelled and they had to draw lots for seats but they lost. then the plane crashed and only one woman survived cos everyone else got blown off her row and the empty seats acted like the wing on a sycamore seed and she spiralled down into the jungle where she was lost for a month. i think he went back to make a documentary about that...
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i just love the story, the acting and the monkeys
yep in the documentary my best fiend it turns out the locals were pretty close to killing kinski.
 
H

h-crimm

Well-known member
francesco said:
"even the midgets begins as little ones"?
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the english title is "even dwarves started small",

i do really like herzog in general.
does anyone know if he's done any more acting since that film with harmony corine?
 
D

dominic

Beast of Burden
michael said:
I met Dominic and we talked about Jean Cocteau films!??!
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sadly, i'm not the least bit versed in Jean Cocteau -- definitely need to have a cocteau dvd marathon at some point!!!

michael said:
Passion Fish - A John Sayles drama about a soap actress who loses the use of her legs in an accident and returns to her family home in the South. Soorrrta selfish bitch comes good, but I found it really moving in some way I can't explain, and it's not like a major redemption story.
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I'm partial to "Lone Star" -- a very intelligent treatment of the tangled legacy and social relations of southwest Texas -- well acted and well paced and a story that engages all viewers

michael said:
Down By Law - I should say, having thought I was a big Jim Jarmusch fan, and having watched every one of his movies, I've actually concluded I'm not!
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i've never been terribly impressed by Jarmusch -- have seen perhaps five of his films -- none stand out in my mind . . . . i'd say he suffers from a lack of artistic amibition, the cinema equivalent of indie rock

and i suspect he's got nothing to say

michale said:
La Haine - What needs to be said about this? Just a simple drama really, about 3 young guys in the slums of Paris and the culture surrounding them.. You either get into it or you don't
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i liked this film, but don't remember much about it

michael said:
I've seen many art movies, from Jodorowksy to Lye to Svankmajer
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haven't seen any of this stuff -- not even jodorowksy (Sante Sangre, Rainbow Thief) -- or if i have, i didn't realize or appreciate what i was seeing at the time -- so again, looks like a dvd marathon is in order
 
D

dominic

Beast of Burden
confucius said:
oh my. what good tastes in this little forum! :)
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yeah -- i have nothing like a unified approach to popular art, such that my approach to film in any way coheres with my approach to music

again, when it comes to film i usually go for overweening ambition -- and i'm very forgiving of failure -- so long as the direction was bold, the intention grand
 
D

Dr.Doom

Umm...
My top 10

1.Shaun of the dead(Edgar wright)
2.Mallrats(Kevin Smith)
3.Taxi Driver(Martin Scorsese)
4.Tonari no Totoro(Hayao Miyazaki)
5.Laputa: Castle in the Sky (Hayao Miyazaki)
6.The Exorcist(William Friedkin)
7.Jay and silent bob strike back(Kevin Smith)
8.The Godfather(Francis Ford Coppola)
9.Spireted away(Hayoa Miyazaki)
10.Goodfellas(Martin Scorsese) :)
 
D

DigitalDjigit

Honky Tonk Woman
Dr.Doom said:
2.Mallrats(Kevin Smith)
7.Jay and silent bob strike back(Kevin Smith)
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Argh, WHY!!! There's only one director whom I know by name who I hate and that is Kevin Smith. His movies are all so freaking whiny and the characters won't shut up. All they do is talk about their shitty relationships. "Clerks" was the only decent one. "Mallrats" may have been ok, I can't remember it too well. "Chasing Amy", "Dogma" are shit. "Vulgar" I couldn't even watch past the first 20 minutes. Bizarelly the local video store had it under comedy. I've never seen anything so disturbing.
 
R

Rambler

Awanturnik
Agreed that Mallrats and Jay and Silent Bob are odd choices to make a top ten films, but disagree completely that Dogma is shit. The whole Kevin Smith thing can be pretty irritating (even if it doesn't bother me so much), but Dogma's the one film where he really breaks out of that (I've not seen Vulgar, so it might not be the only one...) and makes a film that really tries to do something more than show the weird and whacky lives of comic store geeks. It reminds me of Neil Gaiman a lot - that easy-going, non-preachy, but totally informed crossover between day to day life and eternal religious/mythic truths. It's a film about how all organised religion is bollocks because it is man-made, but that this doesn't for one second discount the existence of a God (or gods), and that if everyone just shut up and recognised this, that's it's easily possible - even in a comedy stoner road movie - to imagine a pantheon that can accomodate all deities at once without contradiction or centuries of war. At it's core it's a very angry film, and easily the most interesting (and misunderstood) thing he's done.
 
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