White Christmas
Life-Affirming films
- Thread starter 8ball
- Start date
It made me cry
I'm not sure what life-affirming means tbh but it sounds like 'films you'd watch on Sunday afternoon' so I'd go for Whistle Down the Wind.
Zabo
Well-Known Member
Grocer's Son - Le Fils De Iépicier
Conversations With My Gardener - Dialogue avec mon jardinier
The Postman - Il Postino
The Choir - Les Choristes
To Have And To be Be - Être et avoir
An Angel At My Table
Pocket Money - L'argent de poche
Together - Tillsammans
My Life As A Dog - Mitt Liv Som Hund
Pelle The Conqueror
Enjoy! All available from Love Film
Conversations With My Gardener - Dialogue avec mon jardinier
The Postman - Il Postino
The Choir - Les Choristes
To Have And To be Be - Être et avoir
An Angel At My Table
Pocket Money - L'argent de poche
Together - Tillsammans
My Life As A Dog - Mitt Liv Som Hund
Pelle The Conqueror
Enjoy! All available from Love Film
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
A Matter of Life & Death is good too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Matter_of_Life_and_Death_(film)
Marius Goring is particularly entertaining. In fact I can't find fault with this film at all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Matter_of_Life_and_Death_(film)
Marius Goring is particularly entertaining. In fact I can't find fault with this film at all.
miss minnie
Well-Known Member
It made me cry
I'm not sure what life-affirming means tbh but it sounds like 'films you'd watch on Sunday afternoon' so I'd go for Whistle Down the Wind.
I trust that this clears up any confusion.
Btw, here is CNN's top 10
8ball
Decolonise colons!
Grocer's Son - Le Fils De Iépicier
Conversations With My Gardener - Dialogue avec mon jardinier
The Postman - Il Postino
The Choir - Les Choristes
To Have And To be Be - Être et avoir
An Angel At My Table
Pocket Money - L'argent de poche
Together - Tillsammans
My Life As A Dog - Mitt Liv Som Hund
Pelle The Conqueror
Enjoy! All available from Love Film
I'll need some independent verification on that list since you look like another wind-up merchant.
8ball
Decolonise colons!
I'd best read that when I'm not pissed
Nanker Phelge
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
The Apartment
A Matter of Life and Death
Harold and Maude
Brewster McCloud
The Red Balloon
Sullivan's Travels
Harvey
Stand by Me
A Matter of Life and Death
Harold and Maude
Brewster McCloud
The Red Balloon
Sullivan's Travels
Harvey
Stand by Me
dylans
overlord of all acorns
One of my favourite films and by far the best movie Sellers ever made. If there is such a thing as perfection in film making this is it.
Nanker Phelge
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
It's fucking great ctually - and very very funny, and sad, and clever.
Zabo
Well-Known Member
I'll need some independent verification on that list since you look like another wind-up merchant.
Actually no. In my other life I am a film critic. Just go to IMDB and check the list out. You should also go to the External Reviews and choose accordingly. Roger Ebert is excellent
Here's one I suggested:
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/118577/My-Life-As-A-Dog/overview
You will notice I rarely mention shit from Hollywood - with one or two exceptions.
Zabo
Well-Known Member
Seriously 8Ball I wouldn't give you duff stuff mate. The above are some of my favourites I have watched about three times and more. "My life as a dog is very funny and touching.
As they say:
It’s clear within minutes as to why My Life as a Dog is so widely liked. It’s a nostalgic coming of age tale shot in warm colours and told with an amiably quirky sense of humour. Set in 1950s Sweden, it is neither overly mawkish nor especially downbeat whilst its subtitles give it a ‘worthy’ arthouse cache that isn’t likely to have existed had it been made in the US. Much like Cinema Paradiso this is “world cinema” for those with no real interest in global filmmaking.
Directed by Lasse Hallström, My Life as a Dog currently occupies the mid-point of his cinematic career. It was his final Swedish film before the move to the US that would result in helming the likes of What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and The Shipping News. Stylistically too, it exists somewhere in the middle, with the brash humour of his early Swedish comedies Father to Be and Happy We having been largely ironed out, though not to the anonymous state of such nineties efforts as Once Around and Something to Talk About. Indeed, on the surface this most distinctive of Hallström’s films would appear - paradoxically - to have the least relation to the rest of his oeuvre.
And yet if we do look under this surface (or at least attempt to do so) the similarities become abundantly clear. As with, say, The Cider House Rules, My Life as a Dog is an exercise in safe filmmaking. Just as that film moulded its themes of abortion and incest into a palatable 12 rated form, so too My Life as a Dog never really engages with the potential of its material. Certainly, as said, this means very little in the way of sentimentality - though Björn Isfält’s score tempts fate on occasion - especially as central figure Ingemar is downplayed to perfection by Anton Glanzelius, but there’s also no attempt to connect with the story’s darker aspects. His mother’s illness, for example, is never specified and she’s shoved down the cast list, whilst the question of her parental abilities (or rather lack thereof) is never fully explored. Moreover, Hallström’s penchant for quirkiness (even if it has now been entirely diluted) constantly outweighs the drama, yet this too is similarly vague and ultimately pointless. He gives us a boy with green hair simply because he can, or a unicyclist on a tightrope in the background of a glassworks.
Admittedly, there is nothing nasty about such peripheral diversions meaning that they are not quite as disagreeable as they could have been, but then this also demonstrates how absolutely everything is been viewed through the same nostalgic lens; the cinematography, unsurprisingly, favours warm yellows and soft focus. Indeed, in its episodic manner My Life as a Dog recalls similar exercises by François Truffaut and Woody Allen, L’Argent de pôche and Radio Days. Both took a equally fuzzy look at growing (though the latter’s high gag quotient makes it the more appealing) and both represent weaker moments in their respective directors’ filmographies. In contrast, though of roughly the same standard, My Life as a Dog is undoubtedly Hallström’s best.
As they say:
It’s clear within minutes as to why My Life as a Dog is so widely liked. It’s a nostalgic coming of age tale shot in warm colours and told with an amiably quirky sense of humour. Set in 1950s Sweden, it is neither overly mawkish nor especially downbeat whilst its subtitles give it a ‘worthy’ arthouse cache that isn’t likely to have existed had it been made in the US. Much like Cinema Paradiso this is “world cinema” for those with no real interest in global filmmaking.
Directed by Lasse Hallström, My Life as a Dog currently occupies the mid-point of his cinematic career. It was his final Swedish film before the move to the US that would result in helming the likes of What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and The Shipping News. Stylistically too, it exists somewhere in the middle, with the brash humour of his early Swedish comedies Father to Be and Happy We having been largely ironed out, though not to the anonymous state of such nineties efforts as Once Around and Something to Talk About. Indeed, on the surface this most distinctive of Hallström’s films would appear - paradoxically - to have the least relation to the rest of his oeuvre.
And yet if we do look under this surface (or at least attempt to do so) the similarities become abundantly clear. As with, say, The Cider House Rules, My Life as a Dog is an exercise in safe filmmaking. Just as that film moulded its themes of abortion and incest into a palatable 12 rated form, so too My Life as a Dog never really engages with the potential of its material. Certainly, as said, this means very little in the way of sentimentality - though Björn Isfält’s score tempts fate on occasion - especially as central figure Ingemar is downplayed to perfection by Anton Glanzelius, but there’s also no attempt to connect with the story’s darker aspects. His mother’s illness, for example, is never specified and she’s shoved down the cast list, whilst the question of her parental abilities (or rather lack thereof) is never fully explored. Moreover, Hallström’s penchant for quirkiness (even if it has now been entirely diluted) constantly outweighs the drama, yet this too is similarly vague and ultimately pointless. He gives us a boy with green hair simply because he can, or a unicyclist on a tightrope in the background of a glassworks.
Admittedly, there is nothing nasty about such peripheral diversions meaning that they are not quite as disagreeable as they could have been, but then this also demonstrates how absolutely everything is been viewed through the same nostalgic lens; the cinematography, unsurprisingly, favours warm yellows and soft focus. Indeed, in its episodic manner My Life as a Dog recalls similar exercises by François Truffaut and Woody Allen, L’Argent de pôche and Radio Days. Both took a equally fuzzy look at growing (though the latter’s high gag quotient makes it the more appealing) and both represent weaker moments in their respective directors’ filmographies. In contrast, though of roughly the same standard, My Life as a Dog is undoubtedly Hallström’s best.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
Good one - not in the bracket I was thinking of but looks like an interesting film.
. . . .
but lovefilm don't have it!! D'Oh!!
(but it seems to be on Google video for free so that's cool)
Watching an angry horde of people, well aware that they were about to get mugged of by western influenced and equipped elites, chanting 'no pasaran!' as they storm the places of power is fucking epic.
polly
Well-Known Member
It's a feature-length documentary, so not really a film, but King of Kong is a great epic-battle-of-good-vs-evil type story. It's really funny, and takes your mind off more serious things 
8ball
Decolonise colons!
Is it actually on DVD?
Lovefilm pride themselves on having just about all the films in the world, so if it is I'll send them an email to let them know about the film (they say if you do this they'll make it available).
8ball
Decolonise colons!
Nanker Phelge
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
There is nothing depressing or shit on my list.....
8ball
Decolonise colons!
Ok, cool, didn't mean any offense, was just basing it on a couple of earlier posts where people were clearly having a laugh.
My lovefilm list is becoming unwieldy but I'll be referring back to this thread when it needs replenishing - thanks everyone for your suggestions.
Nanker Phelge
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
It really is!
Cribynkle
squawk
When I read the OP I thought of Whale Rider, True Romance and Juno, so will def be watching Pecker
Also The Station Agent is very lovely
miss minnie
Well-Known Member
Oh yes, The Station Agent... not major league but certainly left me with a wistful smile.
Nanker Phelge
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Oh yes. Lots of Ealing films will meet your needs.
Lavender Hill Mod
Man in the White Suit
Passport to Pimlico
Nanker Phelge
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
Oh yes, The Station Agent... not major league but certainly left me with a wistful smile.
I like angry midgets! They remind me of me....just a bit shorter.
