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The Untouchables.
Great cinematography in the train station with the pram rolling down the stairs in slow motion. Brutal and uplifting.
And don't forget Busy Malone and a young Jodie Foster and reward to being 12 years old.
[i]no one has said Debbie Does Dallas[/i]
Maybe cos I'm the only one who's actually seen it 😉
Loads for me, including -
[b]Blue Velvet[/b] - Mr. Hopper's performance
[b]The Warriors[/b] - First 'X' film I saw and I shook with excitement all the way through
[b]Un Chien Andalou[/b] - was the support film to The Warriors. Most bonkers thing I'd ever seen
[b]Eraserhead[/b] - couldnt work out if I loved or hated it
[b]Near Dark[/b] - Just pushed all my buttons. Amazed that no-one's tried to **** it up with a cheesy remake
[b]Miami Blues[/b] - was a favourite book, so when Fred Ward and Alec Baldwin perfectly realised the 2 main characters, it blew me away. Still my favourite film just for their performances.
[b]Thunderbolt & Lightfoot[/b] - similar reasons to the last one. A brilliant interpretation of a brilliant book with perfect performances from Clint and Jeff.
and honorable mentions to the only 2 films ever to make me cry: Awakenings and The Lovely Bones. Not great films, but both had moments that hit me.
oh there's more - The Shining, Deliverance, Southern Comfort (soundtrack), Dead Man (soundtrack and atmosphere), True Romance (Most of it but mostly the James Gandolfini/Patricia Arquette scene). Stop!
Shawshank Redemption - can start watching it at any point. One of the few films to guarantee a tear (Brooks)
Amelie - Had never seen a film like it, I was at a fairly low point in my life and a girl was involved. It made me feel so much better and still does
Empire Strikes Back - I was very little and my mind was blown
Manon des Source - When the guy sews her ribbon into his chest. Watching the film with my dad when i was fairly young and we ended up discussing the psycology behind it
American Beauty - It made me want to know what happened to the pair of them after.
ET, but oddly my two strongest memories from that film were:
1. The huge pizza the family had for dinner at the start, of which I was just in complete awe
2. The very long lead on their phone which meant you didn't have to stay within 30cm of the phone to have a conversation
Both images I can still recall now, but not much else...
Se7en - saw it in a dark Manchester cinema when it was on release - knew nothing about it - still influences how I see things from music to photography and beyond
'On the subway today, a man came up to me to start a conversation. He made small talk, a lonely man talking about the weather and other things. I tried to be pleasant and accommodating, but my head hurt from his banality. I almost didn't notice it had happened, but I suddenly threw up all over him. He was not pleased, and I couldn't stop laughing. '
'Honestly, have you ever seen anything like this? '
La Haine - blew my tiny teenage mind
Pi - ditto
Apocalypse Now - made me realize that I'm usually more interested in the cinematography than anything else
Irreversible - horrible film. 12 years later I'm still angry about how much I hated it. So it definitely stayed with me!
The Wicker Man (all time favourite)
They Live
Falling Down
Repo Man
Oh, Harold and Maude . Made me reassess my attitude to what love is supposed to be as opposed to what Hollywood tells you it is.
Into The Wild.
Freddy Got Fingered.
a few up there to watch again
usual suspectss:
Taxi Driver - first "real" film I saw
Apocolypse Now
The Deerhunter
instead of Debbie does Dallas I'd go for The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Koyaanisqatsi with its Phillip Glass score
Plenty - an underated Meryl Streep film (same year as Out of Africa) with a great haunting scene looking out across the golden french countryside at the end of the 2nd world war
The Limey. Terrance Stamp's outrageous accent aside, I like the way the footage of him as a young man is used. And the creeping realisation at the end that everything's his fault is really nicely done.
Youth. Not the whole film, but Rachel Weiss' reaction in the background when Michael Caine explains why he won't perform for the queen sent a shiver down my spine.
There Will Be Blood
I thought Daniel Day Lewis couldn't top Bill the Butcher in terms of terrifying antihero, but Daniel Plainview is probably the best portrayed character I've ever seen.
Batteries not included...
There are many superb family movies from the 80s but this takes the biscuit for me. It's a fairly generic story, but the combination of the music, the special effects that somehow look more real than today's CGI efforts, and the wonderful cast somehow just place it above others.
Stand By Me
With the exception of the finding the dead body bit, few films capture the lost magic of my youth quite like that.
American History X - I can still 'feel' that stamp on the head 😯
Brilliantly acted, probably EN's best performance.
Being a not very original bloke....
+1 for The Star wars opening sequence, Southampton Gaumont, 1977
the first 10 minutes of Saving Private Ryan
+1 Shindlers list
the swirling bag and leaves scene in American Beauty
the last scene from the usual suspects
the opening sequence of an English patient
Betty Blue / 37 degrees le Matin
Saw it in about 93, watched it at least once every year since, still captivating.
[b]Platoon[/b]. I was 16, and still thought that going to war would be an adventure for a young man. Oliver Stone persuaded me otherwise.
If you have the time, watch the making of documentary. It gave me a whole new level of respect for O.S.
[b]Requiem For A Dream[/b]. Some films I can watch over and over again. That film I could only ever watch once.
[b]La Haine[/b]. I saw it in the cinema Paris whilst still at University, so the same age as the characters in the story. Outside the cinema were armed Police, and there had been riots and bombs causing chaos and panic. You could feel the tension in the city [i]because[/i] of that film. Very powerful.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/03/la-haine-film-sequel-20-years-on-france
[b]The Shining[/b]. "Come and play with us Danny" No thanks 😯 Still freaks me out now.
Have yet to watch [b]The Witch[/b], but think it will stay with me for a while too
[b]Schindlers List[/b] Goes withoput saying, or needing to explain why. I've never sat in a cinema so full of people, and yet so quiet. Think it changed everyone in the whole room.
Fun Fact though, he turned in the film to get a final credit, so he could finish off his degree 34 years after he dropped out 😀 http://articles.latimes.com/2002/may/31/local/me-graduate31
Have yet to watch The Witch, but think it will stay with me for a while too
The film as a whole, probably not. But you'll never look at goats in the same way.
Lots up there I would include plus
The lady vanishes/the 39 steps Hitchcock.....great films and take me back to being a kid with 1/4 of chocolate limes
Some like it hot.....roared with laughter first time I saw and still do
Cyrano de Bergerac,...GerardD read the book then saw the film loved it brilliant
Cathy come home,.......made to watch by a teacher on a wet day, grim and nothing has changed......same teacher made us watch and read Kes(
So many more
Lots of No country for old men references. One of my favourites, particularly the end.
Jacob's ladder is another of my favourites, haunting.
Touching the void will stay with me too.
Touching the void will stay with me too.
Good call. I was an hour into watching that, and I looked down to realise I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat. Couldn't bear to watch what was gong to happen next.
The Lives of Others.
In many ways, a re-telling of 1984 (and set in the same year) it's an immensely moving film - watching admirable human qualities systematically crushed by State apparatus, yet in the end there is a justice of sorts.
If you want a film to stay with you, watch "Son of Saul". I have seen it twice, I think I need to stop now.
Another film I can't get out of my head is "I've Heard the Mermaids Singing" but for very different reasons.
Under the Skin (like marmite, you love it or hate it)
2001: A Space Odyssey
Never Let Me Go (about growing humans for spare parts)
The Big Blue
Wicker Man (original)
Silent Running
Gattaca
Once Were Warriors
Close Encounters
Ah, Cyrano de Bergerac. Not just the film, which is wonderful, but even the Anthony Burgess subtitles are a masterclass.
The Lives of Others... In many ways, a re-telling of 1984
Both stories are descriptive of enantiodromia, but the latter is hardly a re-telling. '1984' is an abstract description of totalitarian rule seen through the eyes of humanity; 'TLoO' is merely set in a (literal) State of Communist/totalitarian rule.
I'd give another mention for Dogtooth, also The Lobster from the same director.
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Stalker
Being There
Irreversible - horrible film.
One of the best films I've ever seen. Never want to watch it again though.
The Serbian film. Why I watched it I don't know but out of some form of morbid curiosity I did. Half way through I got paranoid that by downloading something so vile I was now on a government register of some sort...
Zombieland - just because I had no expectations, didn't know anything about it and it was ace!
Into the Wild
Frances Ha - best film ever which had me thinking about it for weeks after!
Skin Deep. Raye Hollitt and the cock fighting scene. Both unforgettable.
Platoon.
The Way
The Dark Knight trilogy are great
Lord of The Rings trilogy, locations are just epic, and it was sympathetic to the original.
Betty Blue - just amazingly brilliant and incredible music also. I still want her as my girlfriend.
Cuckoo's Nest
The Crash Reel
The Wicker Man (original) - scariest scene ever made by a long way
Vanilla Sky (the TC one)
'1984' is an abstract description of totalitarian rule seen through the eyes of humanity; 'TLoO' is merely set in a (literal) State of Communist/totalitarian rule.
Of course there are differences, but both examine the effect of totalitarian rule, and its reaction to the people who oppose it.
Alien - saw it at the cinema before all the hooha and came out wringing with sweat after all the tension.
The Killing Fields - Incredible story and cinematography
Schindler's List - I couldn't speak for about 30 minutes after coming out of the cinema. The ending with the actual survivors putting stones on the graves still brings me to tears.
Oh, I just thought I would add Lord of the Rings. Memorable for the fact that I don't think I have ever seen so many people walk out of a film before the end (I did too).
The Serbian film. Why I watched it I don't know but out of some form of morbid curiosity I did. Half way through I got paranoid that by downloading something so vile I was now on a government register of some sort...
Yeah, the only film I really, truly regret downloading, just way too messed up, no artistic value but there are about 5 scenes I will never forget. Grim.
Saviour
Grave of the Fireflies - the depiction of the suffering of the weakest when society collapses under the onslaught of strategic area fire bombing, it's a difficult film to watch and forget.
I'd go with
Mullholland Drive
Magnolia + (All other T.P.A film's)
Barry Lyndon
Under the skin
To name a few
This is England. I couldn't talk for a while after coming out the cinema. Meadows will never top it. Everything came together and the music was the icing on the cake.
The Selfish Giant is little seen but is a hometown masterpiece according to me. Shocking, delightful and worrying.
Saving Private Ryan had a lasting impact on me, and not just because I lived in Hatfield whilst it was being filmed.
Lord of War, superb film and maybe the only film with Nicholas Cage in that I've liked.
+1 Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. (Sadly) I saw it whilst still a kid and it messed with my head.
Another recent (for me) one that really got to me was 'Sin Nombre'. I thought the subject matter would be far away from me as can be but the film reminded sharply of my young desire to escape from the weirdness and often violent undercurrent of (macho) adolescent peer pressure*
*Albeit on another level ie they used guns with bullets and actually killed each other, whilst in polite England I was simply robbed, beaten and shot with an airgun. A boy in a neighbouring comprehensive school was stabbed to death but that was an anomalous occurrence in our neck of the woods.
I think the overwhelming feeling I got from Sin Nombre was the sometimes hopelessness of young people who wish to escape the peer culture they were born/thrown into. It's like escaping from glue, where the merest effort to extricate makes it stickier still!
a clockwork orange. all time favourite.
pulp fiction
apocolypto
psycho
crimes of passion. bit of a sh1t film when i think now, i just love anthony perkins as a nutter.
street trash. stays with me cos i just thought 'wow' when i watched it.
Pulp Fiction and Trainspotting.
Can't remember coming out of a cinema so gob smacked after watching those two movies.
the Anthony Burgess subtitles are a masterclass.
Very much so!
Salem's Lot.
The mist clearing and the tapping on that window.
Haven't seen it for years but can visualise that perfectly.
Wooden rocking chairs scare me.
Sleep tight everyone 😉
Schlinder's List.
Harrowing. Pretty sure everyone in the cinema was crying at some point.
Pulp Fiction for sheer cool and unique way it's constructed.
I need to watch that again soon.
Dead Man's Shoes. Just brilliant.