What's The Best Film Most People Have Never Seen?

[dooley]

nobody's fool

 

[water lily]

Pigalle - brilliant

 

[DaveCinzano]

A few more films suggested themselves as I was cataloguing my DVDs (plot summaries from Wikipedia):

Kagemusha / Shadow Warrior

Kagemusha is a 1980 film by Akira Kurosawa. The title (which literally translates to "Shadow Warrior" in Japanese) is a term used for an impersonator. It is set in the Warring States era of Japanese history and tells the story of a lower-class criminal who is taught to impersonate a dying warlord in order to dissuade opposing lords from attacking the newly vulnerable clan. The warlord whom the kagemusha impersonates is based on daimyo Takeda Shingen and the climactic 1575 Battle of Nagashino.

The Music Of Chance

The Music of Chance (1990) is an absurdist novel by Paul Auster about the meaninglessness of the universe. In 1993, it was made into a film; Mandy Patinkin played Nashe and James Spader played Pozzi.

Jim Nashe is a fireman with a two-year-old daughter and a wife who has just walked out on him. Knowing he cannot work and raise a kid at the same time, he sends his little girl, Juliette, off to his sister's. Six months of sporadic visits pass and Nashe realizes that his daughter has begun to forget him. Suddenly, the father that abandoned Nashe as a child dies, leaving his son and daughter a large amount of money. Nashe, knowing that his daughter will be happier with her aunt, pays off all of his debts, buys a red Saab and spends a solid year doing nothing but driving back and forth across the country.

His fortune now squandered, Nashe picks up a hot-headed young gambler named Jack Pozzi, also known as Jackpot. The two hatch a plan to fleece a couple of ridiculously wealthy bachelors in a poker game. Of course, the two marks, Flower and Stone, gained their fortune by gambling...in this case, by winning the lottery. In addition to purchasing a mansion, the two eccentrics have also bought ten thousand stones, each weighing more than sixty pounds. The stones were from the ruins of a fifteenth-century Irish castle destroyed by Oliver Cromwell; Flower and Stone intend to use them to build a wall in the meadow behind their mansion.

49th Parallel

Early in the Second World War, Nazi survivors of a German U-boat sunk in Hudson Bay attempt to evade capture by travelling across Canada to the still-neutral United States — the title comes from the 49th parallel north which marks part of the border between the two countries. Led by Lieutenants Hirth (Eric Portman) and Kuhnecke (Raymond Lovell), the small band of sailors encounter a wide range of people, including a French-Canadian trapper (Laurence Olivier), pacifistic German Hutterite farmers (led by Anton Walbrook) and an eccentric English academic (Leslie Howard) — who despite being wounded helps capture a Nazi.

One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing

One of Our Aircraft is Missing (1942) is a British war film, the fourth collaboration between the British writer-director-producer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and the first film they made under the banner of The Archers...One of Our Aircraft Is Missing begins dramatically with the crash of "B for Bertie", an unmanned RAF Vickers Wellington bomber. Its crew was forced to bail out over the Netherlands near the Zuider Zee. The film tells the story of how the Dutch help the crew despite the dangers. A reversal of the plot in the previous film by Powell and Pressburger, 49th Parallel (1941), in this film it is the British trying to escape with the help of various local people.

The Cockleshell Heroes

The Cockleshell Heroes is a 1955 Second World War film with Trevor Howard, Anthony Newley, David Lodge and José Ferrer, who also directed. It is a fictionalised version of Operation Frankton, the true story of a commando raid on shipping in Bordeaux harbour.

Slaughterhouse-Five

The film follows the novel in presenting a first-person narrative from the point of view of Billy Pilgrim, who becomes "unstuck in time" and experiences the events of his life in a seemingly random order, including a period spent on the alien planet of Tralfamadore. Particular emphasis is placed on his experiences during World War II, including the bombing of Dresden in World War II, as well as time spent with fellow prisoners of war Edgar Derby (played by Roche) and the psychopathic Paul Lazzaro (played by Leibman). His life as a husband to Valencia (played by Gans), and father to Barbara and Robert (played by Near and King respectively) are also depicted, as they live and sometimes even enjoy their life of affluence in Ilium, New York. A "sink-or-swim" scene with Pilgrim's father is also featured. The scenes of extraterrestrial life on Trafalmadore feature Hollywood starlet and fellow abductee Montana Wildhack (played by Perrine).

Southern Comfort

The film, set in 1973, features a Louisiana National Guard squad of nine on weekend maneuvers in rural bayou country as they come under threat from local Cajun settlers.

The Asphalt Jungle

The Asphalt Jungle (1950) is a film noir directed by John Huston. The caper film, is based on the novel of the same name by W.R. Burnett and stars an ensemble cast including Sterling Hayden, Jean Hagen, Sam Jaffe, Louis Calhern, James Whitmore, and Marilyn Monroe.

It tells the story of a group of men planning and executing a jewel robbery. It was nominated for four Academy Awards.

Breakheart Pass

In the 1870s, the garrison at the Fort Humboldt Army outpost are supposedly suffering from a cholera epidemic. A train is heading towards the fort filled with reinforcements and medical supplies. There are also civilian passengers on the train -- Nevada governor Fairchild and his mistress Marica (Jill Ireland) among others.

Telefon

Telefon is a 1977 spy film, starring Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence and Lee Remick, and was directed by noted action-film director Don Siegel. The film is based on a 1975 novel about mind control by Walter Wager.

During the Cold War of the 1950s, the Soviet Union planted a number of long-term, deep-cover sleeper agents all over the United States, spies so thoroughly brainwashed that even they didn't know they were agents; they could only be activated by a special code phrase (a line from Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" followed by their real given names). Their mission was to sabotage crucial parts of the civil and military infrastructure in the event of nuclear war.

Death Hunt

Death Hunt is a 1981 film starring Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, Tantoo Cardinal, Angie Dickinson, Carl Weathers, Maury Chaykin, Ed Lauter and Andrew Stevens. The film was directed by Peter Hunt, and was a fictionalized account of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police pursuit of a man named Albert Johnson.

Funny Games

Funny Games is an experimental 1997 Austrian horror film directed by Michael Haneke. The plot of the film involves two teenagers who hold a family hostage and torture them with sadistic games.

 

[badlands]

Sans Soleil
Spring in a Small Town
Ugetsu Monogatari
The Mirror
Andre Rublev

 

[Mr Moose]

I'd imagine that most people haven't seen these - apols if any repeats

lilya4ever -Most upsetting film I've ever seen.

Hostile Hostages - overlooked Dennis Leary comedy with Kevin Spacey

Most John Sayles - esp Matewan and City of Hope

 

[Orang Utan]

Johnny Get His Gun

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Kagemusha / Shadow Warrior

Seen

One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing

Seen


The Cockleshell Heroes

Seen

Southern Comfort

Have on DVD


The Asphalt Jungle

Seen

I thought this thread was "Films Most People Have Never Seen?"

 

[starfish]

Dont think too many people will have seen Derzu Uzala by Kurosawa.
If you havent, you should.

 

[belboid]

49th Parallel


One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing

Not enough Michael Powell young man. Their best war movies were Contraband, Spy In Black & Life & Death of Colonel Blimp.

Any P&P could be included in here, other than those mentioned, and the obvious ones, Tales of Hoffmann & the very rarely seen Bluebeard's Castle are magnificent versions of operas (!), and Small Back Room (starring the late great Kathleen Byron) is grossly under-rated.

 

[belboid]

I thought this thread was "Films Most People Have Never Seen?"

just cos you've seen them!

And I bet most people haven't seen them, indeed I doubt there are many movies, if any that most people have actually seen.

I'm shocked - shocked I tell ya - at how many people still have never seen Casablanca.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

I've still not seen Casablanca or Citizen Kane.

Belboid have you seen the Kazakh film I mentioned above...

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

just cos you've seen them!

And I bet most people haven't seen them, indeed I doubt there are many movies, if any that most people have actually seen.

Do a poll then and we'll find out

 

[belboid]

Belboid have you seen the Kazakh film I mentioned above...

nope, never heard of it till you mentioned it. does sound interesting, but can't see it on any torrent sites, unsurprisingly

Do a poll then and we'll find out

hmm, anonymous or not...probly should be anonymous or people might be embarrassed to admit it

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Yeah just looked and it's not even on Karagarga.

Actually hmm, there could be scope for doing and upload to boost my ratio :Cool:

 

[DaveCinzano]

lilya4ever -Most upsetting film I've ever seen.

Sounds interesting (and bleak).

 

[DaveCinzano]

Small Back Room (starring the late great Kathleen Byron) is grossly under-rated.

I think I might rather like that one.

The Killer, from Kazakhstan

Almost Kitano-esque at times. Fucking great film.

That definitely sounds interesting!

I also remember my Korean student when I was in China saying that this was going to be really good :http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190539/

Makes a change from Brotherhood and Sassy Girl!

 

[DaveCinzano]

Andre Rublev

Looks awesome!

nobody's fool

1986 Rosanna Arquette & Eric Roberts comedy, or 1994 Paul Newman & Jessica Tandy comedy-drama?

 

[jodal]

• Suburbia - Punk kids create their own family in squatted tract homes in suburban California; it can't (and doesn't) last.

Good call. It's dated a bit but still good.

My list would be:

Brothers imdb
Fucking Amal imdb
Nana imdb
Bænken imdb

 

[Kaka Tim]

The Battle of Algiers.

The French Army v the Algerian Uprising as it tries to maintain its empire.

Made in 1962 and feels like it was made in Gaza or Baghdad yesterday.

Brilliant, utterly uncompromising, unsentimemtal, gripping and disturbingly clear sighted account of an armed uprising and its brutal (but ultimately futile) supression.

No easy moral choices or Hollywood emotional manipulaiton here, your confronted with the brutal reality of an anti-imperalist struggle and left to draw your own uncomfortable conclusions.

Anyone with the slightest interest in interantional politics, national liberation struggles and/or the politics of the arab world should watch it.

 

[Kaka Tim]

Citizen Kane
Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
Casablanca
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Grapes of Wrath

Er... films that most people haven't seen?

Bar The Grapes of Wrath these are all pretty regularly on TV.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

hmm, anonymous or not...probly should be anonymous or people might be embarrassed to admit it

Not really, some people are younger so haven't had time to watch them - yet

 

[DaveCinzano]

White Of The Eye - Creepy film about a serial killer by Donald Cammell. I always confuse David Keith and Keith David in my head. Be sure that this one has David Keith.

There's another film that's long stuck in my mind, but I can't remember what it was called. It was black and white, but not from the B&W era. It begins with a man in a hospital, swathed in bandages. He is black, but he doesn't seem to know this. That's pretty much all I can recall, so any identification help would be appreciated.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Homicide - An effective early David Mamet effort, about a New York homicide cop, Joe Mantegna, whose latest murder investigation forces him to reappraise his jewishness. Tense, but not in the standard police procedural way.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Switchback is an enjoyable, above-average Fed-tracks-killer yarn, with Danny Glover, Jared Leto and Dennis Quaid, as well as fine use of Colorado locations.

 

[DaveCinzano]

One last serial killer suggestion: American Perfekt, which is a nice road movie variant, with Robert Forster, Fairuza Balk, Amanda Plummer and David Thewlis.

 

[Upchuck]

Marnie is a much overlooked film by the younger generation

Friday Night Lights is an overlooked and weird film. Has very, and perhaps unintended, homosexual overtones

 

[DaveCinzano]

A few more coming to mind:

White Heat - Jimmy Cagney as an Oedipal Roaring Thirties gangsters
Bad Day At Black Rock - Spencer Tracy as a one-armed WW2 vet rocking up at a one-horse western town at the end of the war, and finding the locals distinctly unfriendly.
The Blue Dahlia - Demobbed soldier Alan Ladd teams up with Veronica Lake when his wife is murdered shortly after his return home.
Rolling Thunder - Vietnam vet (and ex-POW) William Devane does not enjoy a happy homecoming. Depressing stuff, a kind of companion piece to First Blood, by way of Point Blank.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Marnie is a much overlooked film by the younger generation

Such films might make one think that Hitch didn't greatly like women

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Marnie is a much overlooked film by the younger generation

Marnie's been on hundreds of times, but yeah, I would agree.

I think there's probably a bit difference between people who grew up with just 1 or 2 television channels and people now who have dozens of channels to watch.

Saturday and Sunday afternoons were nearly always old B&W films (I know Marnie's not but ignore that for now), now it's a rarity to see them

Speaking of Marnie, I'm always struck by how Melanie Griffith looks so much like her mother. Can't stand Melanie Griffith though

 

[Upchuck]

No I can't stand Melanie Griffith either. She is vile I used to try and find some redeeming features for her and there are none.