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wolves no I haven't. I'll check it out when I get a chance. Thanks for the recommendation. I really like Haneke's last four films, but didn't care for Funny Games. It felt a little too didactic and overly disturbing. Yet to see any of his earlier works.

ddml you are welcome :) I also highly recommend 4 adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle by Rohmer, which is no.7 on my list above. Available on VHS only though.

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i could list 100 but here are a few populist picks

blade runner

clockwork orange

the shining

raiders of the lost ark

robocop

12 monkeys

seven

moulin rouge

batman begins

the living deads (night, dawn, day, return of)

martin

amelie

city of lost children

time bandits

tucker

the road warrior

rushmore

eraserhead

2001

annie

akira

the alien trilogy (even 3)

man bites dog

superman: the movie

edward scissorhands

thats enough. could never do just 10...

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In response to a pm from mis, on film recommendations. I couldn't reply his pm because my response was too damn long... so I have made it longer, and more general and am posting here for everyone to see. The following message is no longer targetted towards mis only, so please read if you want some film recommendations.

Hi mis!,

Actually my film taste is vastly different to others around here, in that I can no longer enjoy films that are made for entertainment purposes. I did in fact liked and enjoyed all the films you have mentioned above (except run lola run which I hate), but that was in the past and currently I really do have trouble trying to sit through two hours of mementos or pulp fictions anymore.

Therefore I was sort of temporarilly torn between recommending you some films I enjoyed before, or recommending you films that I enjoy now and try to pursuade you into the darkside of film-as-art world. I decided to do a bit of both since there's definitely no clear distinction between an entertainment film and an art film. What I mostly enjoy are films that employ original ways to tell their stories both visually and narratively and that are genre defying (or defining its own genre). Also, I tend to highly regard directors who have his/her own distinct storytelling style; which I am sure you do appreciate as well since your choices of Jeunet & Caro and Tarantino are certainly good examples of directors with distinct color. So that, say, when I feel like watching a Marc Caro film, I can pop one in and I could half expect what I am getting.

I feel that all films are about film-making (because it is what I find most important, and it should be what's most imporant to the directors who make those films because they are, afterall, film directors), and even when a film is 'about' something else there are more thoughts involved in film-making than that something. As an example, despite the fact that Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line are both about war, they are nothing like each other, but on the other hand TTRL feels just like any other Terrence Malick film and SPR is just like any other Spielberg entertainment bullshit (sorry if you are a fan :P); and if you were a Malick fan, the chances are that you will enjoy TTRL more than SPR, and it has nothing to do with 'war'.

Now, I do believe all (or most) of the directors mentioned on my list, + many more, have his/her own style, and after that it's only a matter of taste on what you do like or do not; so from the directors mentioned on my list I will recommend you a few who you may enjoy and some of their more accessible/representative films.

Please see my rank on the top10 movies thread as a reference. I do find 'ranking' films like that a little wack and irresponsible, but it is a good way to keep track of who I've been following, and a good reference.

- Abbas Kiarostami (Iran)

Abbas Kiarostami is my favorite living director. When you watch his films you can feel his sincerity and his willingness to do good to the world. I find his films very pure and innocent, and in this cynical film world full of quirkiness, gimmicks, and pessimism, Kiarostami comes off as a refreshing childlike (never childish) director. Zendegi edame darad is my favorite film, but it is more about film-making and blending fiction and reality, which I am nuts about; so if you aren't as interested in film-making process in general, I wouldn't recommend it. I find myself a little stupid that this is all I could say as his introduction after reading a 100+ page book on Kiarostami. A good starting point would be his 'Taste of Cherry' and then 'Close-up'.

- Jean-Luc Godard (France)

I recommend his early phase films that are breezy, carefree, genre-bending, low-budget, and experimental all at the same time.

Breathless

Pierrot Le Fou

Le Mépris

Masculin féminin: 15 faits précis

- Ozu Yasujiro (Japan)

All of his films are about families, family values, and how little changes affect everyday life. Very minimal, simplistic, humble, and poetic... whatever these words may mean...

Floating Weeds

- Luis Bunuel (Spain/Mexico/France)

A master surrealist.

Belle de jour

Los Olvidados

Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie

- Victor Erice (Spain)

The Spirit of the Beehive: A very quiet, serene, beautiful film about childhood, innocence, Spanish revolution, and Frankenstein.

- Teshigahara Hiroshi (Japan)

Woman of Dunes: An entertaining atmospheric surrealistic claustrophobic masterpiece.

- Jim Jarmusch (USA)

Stranger Than Paradise

Down by Law

I will include more directors and write more about each director/film when I get time to, but this will do for now.

Sorry mis, while writing this I thought what I am writing was getting totally out of hand, and I started adding bits and pieces in the middle of the paragraphs to dumb down a bit; in order to post this on one of the film threads instead of just replying you on a pm. So please excuse me if you find me saying things that you already know, or are too obvious.

On where to obtain these films, most of what I have mentioned are available on DVD and you can check to see which version is the best from this site. Go to their search, and look for titles/directors, and you will find most of the films I have listed have been reviewed there.

Cheers,

Jun

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Here is my updated top 40 with one per director limit (I've deleted my previous list which was a few pages ago). The ranking is the same, I think, but I've added whole lot of links and pictures. I recently did this for a film forum somewhere, and I'm just crossposting. Again, this list changes all the time, and I've probably left out a few by mistake.

keys:

i* imdb link

B* DVD Beaver link

++: other highly recommended films from the same director (films not mentioned here doesn't necessarily mean I don't regard them as highly. I've limited the choices to two.)

1. Zendegi edame darad (Abbas Kiarostami, 1991) i*

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++: Ta'm e guilass (1997), Nema-ye Nazdik (1990)

2. Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965) i* B*

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++: À bout de souffle (1960), Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965)

3. Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1969) i* B*

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++: Zerkalo (1975), Nostalghia (1983)

4. Journal d'un curé de campagne (Robert Bresson, 1951) i* B*

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++: Au hasard Balthazar (1966), L'argent (1983)

5. Sátántangó (Béla Tarr, 1994) i* B*

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++: Werckmeister harmóniák (2000)

6. Ochazuke no aji (Ozu Yasujiro, 1952) i* B*

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++: Ukigusa (1959), Tôkyô monogatari (1953)

7. 4 aventures de Reinette et Mirabelle (Eric Rohmer, 1987) i*

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++: Ma nuit chez Maud (1969), La femme de l'aviateur (1981)

8. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) i* B*

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++: Scener ur ett äktenskap (1973), Nattvardsgästerna (1962)

9. Nun va Goldoon (Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1996) i* B*

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++: Sokout (1998)

10. L' Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960) i* B*

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++: L'eclisse (1962), La Notte (1961)

11. Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (Luis Bunuel, 1972) i* B*

++: Los olvidados (1950), Belle de jour (1967)

12. El sur (Victor Erice, 1983) i*

++: El espíritu de la colmena (1973), El sol del membrillo (1992)

13. Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1955) i* B*

++: Vredens dag (1943), Gertrud (1964)

14. Suna no onna (Teshigahara Hiroshi, 1964) i* B*

++: Tanin no kao (1966)

15. Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch, 1984) i* B*

++: Permanent Vacation (1980), Down by Law (1986)

16. The Draughtsman's Contract (Peter Greenaway, 1982) i* B*

++: The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover (1989), The Baby of Mâcon (1993)

17. New York Beat Movie (Edo Bertoglio, 1981) i*

18. Code inconnu: Récit incomplet de divers voyages (Michael Haneke, 2000) i* B*

++: Caché (2005), La pianiste (2001)

19. Sans soleil (Chris Marker, 1983) i* B*

++: La jetée (1962)

20. Koroshi no rakuin (Suzuki Seijun, 1967) i* B*

++: Tôkyô nagaremono (1966)

21. Bob The Gambler (Jean-Pierre Melvielle, 1955) i* B*

++: L'armée des ombres (1969), Le cercle rouge (1970)

22. 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963) i* B*

++: La dolce vita (1960), Giulietta degli spiriti (1965)

23. Vive L'amour (Tsai Ming-Liang, 1994) i* B*

24. City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1989) i*

++: Kôhî jikô (2003), Tong nien wang shi (1985)

25. Sayat Nova (Sergei Parajanov, 1968) i*

++: Ambavi Suramis tsikhitsa (1984), Ashik Kerib (1988)

26. Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984) i* B*

++: Buena Vista Social Club (1999)

27. Tale of Cinema (Hong Sang-Soo, 2005) i* B*

++: Saenghwalui balgyeon (2002), Woman Is the Future of Man (2004)

28. Fox and His Friends (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975) i*

++: Angst essen Seele auf (1974), In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden (1978)

29. Shadows (John Cassavetes, 1959) i* B*

++: The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), Faces (1968)

30. Ukigumo (Naruse Mikio, 1955) i*

++: Okaasan (1952), Onna ga kaidan wo agaru toki (1960)

31. Beau travail (Claire Denis, 1999) i* B*

32. Chungking Express (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994) i* B*

++: A Fei zheng chuan (1991), Chun gwong cha sit (1997)

33. All About My Mother (Pedro Almodovar, 1999) i* B*

++: Hable con ella (2002), Carne trémula (1997)

34. Sanshô dayû (Mizoguchi Kenji, 1954) i* B*

++: Ugetsu monogatari (1953), The Life of Oharu (1952)

35. Jam Films: Arita (Iwai Shunji, 2002) i*

++: Swallowtail (1996), Riri Shushu no subete (2001)

36. Brown Bunny (Vincent Gallo, 2003) i* B*

++: Buffalo '66 (1998)

37. Double Life of Veronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1991) i* B*

++: Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994), Dekalog (1989-1990, I've only seen the first six)

38. Humanity and Paper Baloons (Yamanaka Sadao, 1937) i* B*

39. City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931) i* B*

++: The Circus (1928), The Gold Rush (1925)

40. Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (Werner Herzog, 1972) i*

++: Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997), Grizzly Man (2005)

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Guest jmatsu

recently viewed top 5

1.tesseract

2.love, honour, obey

3.midori- the girl in the freakshow

4.the criminal

5.the piano tuner of earthquakes

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I just looked over designersheep's list and realized how only few of these films are made in 'recent' years. Even that I love almost all on his list it saddens me that it's so hard to see good movie nowadays. I'm not talking about some small independent films but something that is available to a broad audience. I think last great movie I saw with a full movie theater was "The Lives of Others" and nothing since then.

This is my cry for help, if you saw a great movie in recent months let me know, I'm going through a withdrawal.

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Guest jmatsu
I just looked over designersheep's list and realized how only few of these films are made in 'recent' years. Even that I love almost all on his list it saddens me that it's so hard to see good movie nowadays. I'm not talking about some small independent films but something that is available to a broad audience. I think last great movie I saw with a full movie theater was "The Lives of Others" and nothing since then.

This is my cry for help, if you saw a great movie in recent months let me know, I'm going through a withdrawal.

some good japanese movies at midnighteye.com. i think i mentioned the site before, but...

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wow...it's actually quite hard to list just 10

Fight club

Snatch

Lock stock & 2 smoking barrels

Blow

Gladiator

Pulp Fiction

Matchstick men

Man on Fire

Training Day

A Beautiful Mind

Honorable mention…

Garden State

Basketball Diaries

Memento

Oceans 11

...i could go on and on...

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  • 2 years later...

wanted to bump this to peep some more lists, maybe not the 'best' films i've seen but here are movies I could watch over and over

Taxi Driver

Scream

The Warriors

Fargo

The Departed (haven't seen Infernal Affairs)

Blade Runner

Leon

Heat

Raising Arizona

Suspiria

I'm definitely forgetting a few that I prob like more than a few of these...

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I'll post some of my favorites..these don't include my favorite comedies

Dial M for Murder

North by Northwest

Maltese Falcon

Judgment at Nuremberg

Captains Courageous

Annie Hall

Manhattan

Miller's Crossing

Fargo

Barton Fink

Snow Angels

Brick

Life Aquatic

Squid and the Whale

Adaptation

Name of the Rose

Blue Velvet

Mulholland Drive (watch this 3 times to understand what's going on)

There Will be Blood

Recently...

Just got around to watching Collateral, it was good

Hurt Locker

500 Days of Summer

Lookout

The Cove

Moon

Pineapple Express

Whatever Works

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trainspotting

storytelling

american beauty

dark days

taxidermia

taxi driver

deer hunter

better luck tomorrow

lock stock & 2 smoking barrels

boogie nights

lost in translation

finishing the game

gattaca

little miss sunshine

shawshank redemption

i cant count..

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  • 2 months later...

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