The 40+ best movies that more people should see
formally: best movies that don't get mentioned in imdb lists (this was perhaps overstating the case: however, where great under-seen films are concerned, hyperbole has its uses).
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- DirectorPeter WatkinsStarsMichael AspelPeter GrahamDave BaldwinA docudrama depicting a hypothetical nuclear attack on Britain.Demonstrates more eloquently and efficiently than any other film the power of cinema to confront injustice, hypocrisy and human perseverance.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsHenrik MalbergEmil Hass ChristensenPreben Lerdorff RyeFollows the lives of the Borgen family, as they deal with inner conflict, as well as religious conflict with each other, and the rest of the town.Can a movie change the way you look at the world? No, but an excellent example such as Ordet can open your mind to the transcendental possibilities that intersect and interfere with day to day existence.
- DirectorMohsen MakhmalbafStarsMirhadi TayebiMohsen MakhmalbafAli BakhsiA semi-autobiographical account of Makmahlbaf's experience as a teenager when, as a 17-year-old, he stabbed a policeman at a protest rally. Two decades later, he tracks down the policeman he injured in an attempt to make amends.Bliss. Pure and simple. This kind of cinema, mixing both social and magic realism, isn't coming from anywhere else in the world. Iranian cinema is magical. Also see Kiarostami's Close-Up (1990), Jafar Panahi's The Circle (2000) and Offside (2006), Samira Makhmalbaf's Apple (1998), Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Gabbeh (1996), Majid Majidi's Children of Heaven (1997) and Baran (2001), Bahman Ghobadi's Turtles Can Fly (2004).
- DirectorHumphrey JenningsStewart McAllisterStarsLeonard BrockingtonJoseph MacleodBud FlanaganA depiction of life in wartime England during the Second World War. Director Humphrey Jennings visits many aspects of civilian life and of the turmoil and privation caused by the war, all without narration.The documentary as an art form. Sublime.
- DirectorAgnès VardaStarsCorinne MarchandAntoine BourseillerDominique DavrayCleo, a singer and hypochondriac, becomes increasingly worried that she might have cancer while awaiting test results from her doctor.Better than A Bout de Souffle, better than Jules et Jim, better than Band a Part, better than 400 blows, better than Rohmer's moral tales, better than Celine and Julie go Boating. This is what the French New Wave is all about.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsThorkild RooseLisbeth MovinSigrid NeiiendamThe young wife of an aging priest falls in love with his son amidst the horror of a merciless witch hunt in 17th-century Denmark.Transporting. This film doesn't observe a distant age; it enters into and occupies its mindset, it thinks in the terms of those who dwell in it. A dangerous and disturbing kind of sympathy is born.
- DirectorPeter WatkinsStarsTony CosgroveOlivier Espitalier-NoelDon FairserviceThe 1746 Battle of Culloden, the last land battle fought in the British Isles and the battle that ensured that Scotland was controlled by England.History is torn free from the textbooks and interrogated to its fullest by Watkins's unflinching camera. There has never been anything quite like it since.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsClaudio BrookSilvia PinalEnrique Álvarez FélixSimon, a deeply religious man living in the 4th century, wants to be nearer to God so he climbs a column. The Devil wants him to come down to Earth and is trying to seduce him.Bunuel's best film. Everything before it is a prelude, everything after an epilogue.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsMargaret LockwoodMichael RedgravePaul LukasWhile travelling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train.‘Timeless’ is the kind of word that movie critics use as a nervous apology for recommending old British films, as if there’s something terribly embarrassing about their blithe optimism and quaintly old-fashioned characters (and gosh, there were actually starring roles for middle-aged women back then!). The Lady Vanishes is about as far removed from anything made in the last 50 years as you can get, and all the better for it. Its mixture of comic moments and nail-biting suspense would be unimaginable by today’s rigidly generic standards. Margaret Lockwood has never looked so good and Michael Redgrave is in full pipe-munching bravura. Unlike its many imitators, The Lady Vanishes has much more than just a gripping story going for it. It’s great fun and, incidentally, has a terrific Cambridge Vs Oxford face-off that will set any Cantabridgian’s pulse a-racing.
- DirectorWim WendersStarsRüdiger VoglerHanns ZischlerLisa KreuzerA traveling projection-equipment mechanic works in Western Germany along the East-German border, visiting worn-out theatres. He meets with a depressed young man whose marriage has just broken up, and the two decide to travel together.This is not a film. It is rebellion, escape, love and the pain of existence experienced in film.
- DirectorMilos FormanStarsHana BrejchováVladimír PucholtVladimír MensíkA factory manager in rural Czechoslovakia bargains with the army to send men to the area, to boost the morale of his young female workers, deprived of male company since the local boys have been conscripted. The army sends reservists, mostly married middle-aged men - and the local beauty Andula, spurns those bold enough to try to win her, for the jazz pianist, newly come from Prague to perform. He seduces her and impresses her, telling her "most women are round, like guitars but you are a guitar by Picasso". Staying the night with him causes a lecture on a young woman's honour at her hostel so she throws over her other suitors and makes her way to Prague to find the young man. His protective Mamma and weary Pappa are not pleased when she arrives on the doorstep with her suitcase.Happy-making to the nth degree
- DirectorBob RafelsonStarsJack NicholsonKaren BlackBilly Green BushA dropout from upper-class America picks up work along the way on oil rigs when his life isn't spent in a squalid succession of bars, motels, and other points of interest.The magnificent end point of the 60s "young, middle-class and rebellious" flicks (The Graduate, Adam at 6AM, Goodbye Columbus). A poetic deconstruction of a genre, a profound meditation on the state of an America divided by Vietnam, civil rights and economic woes. Jack Nicholson gives his most measured performance, and the the photography and screenplay are magnificent.
"I move around a lot, not because I'm looking for anything, really, but because I'm getting away from things that get bad if I stay. Auspicious beginnings, if you know what I mean." - DirectorFrank PerrySydney PollackStarsBurt LancasterJanet LandgardJanice RuleA man spends a summer day swimming as many pools as he can all over a quiet suburban town.I could watch this all day
- DirectorKároly MakkStarsLili DarvasMari TörőcsikIván DarvasThe wife of a political prisoner tends to her mother-in-law and keeps from the old woman the truth about her son, whom she believes is in New York making a film.Stunning. Best of Hungarian cinema.
- DirectorRobert WiseStarsWilliam HoldenBarbara StanwyckJune AllysonWhen the head of a large manufacturing firm dies suddenly from a stroke, his vice presidents vie to see who will replace him.Criminally under-watched. The ultimate high point of the 50s big cast powerhouse drama. The plot unravels in surprisingly subtle ways and allows space for some nuanced and non-typical character development.
- DirectorÉric RohmerStarsJean-Louis TrintignantFrançoise FabianMarie-Christine BarraultA devout Catholic man's rigid principles are challenged during a one-night stay with Maud, a divorced woman with an outsize personality.Proof that a film can sustain a high level of philosophical content
- DirectorJohn SchlesingerStarsPeter FinchGlenda JacksonMurray HeadThe emotional intricacies of a polyamorous relationship between young artist Bob and his two lovers: a lonely male doctor and a frustrated female office worker.It's still ahead of our time. One of the most successful attempts by a film to deconstruct the emotional dynamics that underlie sexual relationships.
- DirectorKarel KachynaStarsJirina BohdalováRadoslav BrzobohatýGustav OpocenskýAfter coming home from a Party gathering one night, a Czech official becomes convinced that he is about to be the subject of a political purge and tries to do damage control, while also dealing with his turbulent marriage.Edward Albee goes Soviet in this brilliantly executed 'long night' drama about an overly imbibed couple who, in between hurling abuse and plates at each other, are also trying to figure out if they are being spied on by big brother. Painfully tense and superbly evocative of a particular place and time in Czech history. This needs to be seen.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsIngrid ThulinGunnar BjörnstrandGunnel LindblomA small-town priest struggles with his faith.This is Bergman's best film; however, I've tied it with a lesser known work called Waiting Women; indeed, part of me enjoys the latter much more than Winter Light's chilling study of God's silence. Bergman is a complex and wide-ranging filmmaker. He excelled in making the kind of gloomy and existentially alert films for which he is best remembered. However, he was also as subtle an observer of the dynamics of human relations as Mike Leigh or Eric Rohmer, as Waiting Women beautifully, and indeed affectionately, demonstrates.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsAnita BjörkEva DahlbeckMaj-Britt NilssonThe four wives of four brothers share stories of their marriages as they each wait for their husbands in a small, secluded cottage.Waiting Women ---tied with Winter Light above
- DirectorRobert HamerStarsGoogie WithersJack WarnerJohn McCallumAn escaped convict tries to hide out at his former lover's house, but she has since married and is reluctant to help him.Robert Hammer's masterpiece of British noir isn't derivative of its American cousins (cf Night and the City) but instead establishes a uniquely British feel for itself. The bleakest film ever produced by Ealing by a home county mile.
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsCelia JohnsonTrevor HowardStanley HollowayMeeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsAnna MagnaniEttore GarofoloFranco CittiAn ex-prostitute reunites with her son, but an extortion scheme threatens her aspirations for a decent life.Without the melodrama of De Sica, without the boredom of Rossellini, without the superficial flamboyance of Fellini. This is the best Italian film ever made by Italy's most gifted filmmaker.
- DirectorAlfonso CuarónStarsJulianne MooreClive OwenChiwetel EjioforIn 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have somehow become infertile, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.ok- this one will be on a good few imdb lists, so no self-righteous correction of ignorance here. Still, it's bloody good!
- DirectorStephen FrearsStarsDavid MorrisseyMatt BlairMichael SheenFollows the rise to power of Tony Blair, and his friendship and rivalry with his contemporary, Gordon Brown.