Yes, what I’ve seen I’ve liked. Reminds me: I still need to see Ghost in the Shell II.
[QUOTE=Hodge]
Keeping with the foreign language theme and the recent thread about Canadian epics, how about trying some French-Canadian cinema:[ul][li]Un Zoo la Nuit, Leolo - dir. Jean-Claude Lauzon[/li][li]Jesus of Montreal, Decline of the American Empire, The Barbarian Invasions - dir. Denys Arcand[/li][li]Le Confessionnal, Le Polygraphe, No - dir. Robert LePage[/li][li]Les Boys (and sequels) - dir. Louis Saia[/li][li]Mon Oncle Antoine - dir. Claude Jutra[/ul]All of these are good to excellent, particularly Leolo, Jesus and Le Confessionnal which are outright masterpieces.[/li][/QUOTE]
I’ve only seen a couple of these. Thanks!
Yes. I try to see all the Dogme 95 films I can.
Haven’t read all the other posts but I was fascinated by The Bridge. It’s a documentary about suicides off the Golden Gate Bridge, the “most popular place” * for same in the world, 24 in one year.
*(Before Iraq, that is.)
[ul][li]L.I.E. is a great movie, but disturbing; it portrays a man who seduces underage teenage boys without outright condemning him.[/li][li]My Boyfriend’s Back is interesting. It’s not that great, but it’s quirky fun, and it’s directed by one of the most underrated and underutilized directors I can think of, Bob Balaban. Almost every other movie he’s done is a masterpiece, but this was obviously a work for hire, with a pretty peurile script. Still, worth seeing I’d say.[/li][li]The Ice Storm is good, but heavy. Watch a comedy after.[/li][li]Fallen is moderately entertaining, but ultimately not that good.[/li][li]Halloween is a masterpiece of suspense horror; one of the most influential movies of the era. A canon film.[/li][li]From Hell is a fascinating failure. A huge mess, but a lot of talent tangled up in the mess. Worth seeing, and then forgetting about.[/li][/ul]
Yes, seen pretty much all Ballard and Leone, and the Decalogue. Seen some Harold Lloyd; I find him annoying. I like Keaton and Chaplin better. Haven’t seen Map of the Human Heart, but I’ve always heard squicky things about it. Will add it to the list.
Lissener you probably have seen all these films but on the off chance I thought I’d suggest them, they’re ones I’ve enjoyed->
The Butcher Boy
Breakfast On Pluto
American Splendor
Jump Tomorrow
Backroads (Australian '70s)
Seen all that’s available; even bought a couple bootlegs in my quest. Would pay way more than I should for a copy of Man’s Castle.
Should see more Kusturica. Thanks.
Big Rohmer fan.
Haven’t seen much. Noted.
HUGE Boetticher fan; seen all that I can, including bootlegs, the search continues.
Seen all I can. (Criterion is packaging Berlin Alexanderplatz for later this year!!!)
Seen all I can. I love The Leopard especially.
Only the last one; noted.
Seen all I can. Huge fan.
I am a Kiarastomi, Panahi, and Majidi completist. If it’s available, I’ve seen it. At least twice. Will note the other names.
Yes, seen all the Ozu I can, including a lot of, um, unavailable stuff. Only a couple of his silents though. Will investigate Naruse. (Seen Teshigahara’s stuff? Wow.)
Noted, will seek out.
To the rest of you I haven’t responded to individually, thanks very much for your input. I’ll add the ones I haven’t seen to my list.
Now, on to last night’s experiment. Gigli.
Not as bad as its rep, although not good: it’s the same as the tonnage of dreck that Hollywood spews by the airsick-bag-full every day. About on a par with Rain Man or The Other Sister. Terrible first draft of a script; more people should have said no to this. Now I’m going to try to forget it.
Have you done any Czech new wave? It’s been my obsession for the last year or so. It watches like French New Wave on freaking PCP. Start with Daisies and Closely Watched Trains, then move on to Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Pearls of the deep (compilation featuring shorts by the directors of the other ones listed here), Late August at the Hotel Ozone, and more. GREAT stuff.
TWo random completely obscure movies that I love: Celine and Julie Go Boating (watches like a french Jodorosky movie) and What happened was, Tom Noonan’s one feature film (it’s totally awesome).
Have you seen the If…, Oh Lucky Man!, Britannia Hospital trilogy starring Malcolm Mcdowell? They’re incredible, very overlooked, and “If…” was just released by Criterion and Lucky is FINALLY getting a DVD release in about a month.
How can one possibly appreciate films if one consumes them at that rate? I find that with any film that I actually like, I watch it, ruminate on it for a day or two, and then maybe watch it again. To see another, what, six films in the meantime would interfere with the ruminatory process.
Racing through the works of, say, Kurosawa in a few days seems to me like those tourists who bus round the world crossing off sights that they’ve “done”.
My copy, too, idn’t it? 
Re Theo Angelopoulos, avoid Ulysses’ Gaze. Three or four absolutely stunning images embedded like raisins in what feels like ten hours of unapologetically indulgent “look at me I’m a genius” nonsense.
Noted, thanks.
C&JGB is a masterpiece. WHW was better than I expected.
Yes, way fun.
THAT’S where that came from! I still have your Lost I too, btw. Will trade both for my Singing Detective . . .
See, that’s the thing; that’s the only Angelopoulos I’ve seen, which is why that’s the only Angelopoulos I’ve seen. Will try to remedy that.
It depends on the movie. Some stick with you, and you ruminate. Some slide right off the neurons like an over-easy egg. I watch many, many movies twice in a row. And some people ruminate faster than others. 
Well, to be fair, Kurosawa mostly made westerns; genre adventure films. *Ikiru *and Dersu Uzula are masterpieces for the ages (and the last time I watched them I watched them twice), but most of his other stuff was just brilliant entertainment. (With some gap bridgers, like Throne of Blood and Rashoman.) I think of him as kind of the John Ford of Japan (he was a huge fan of Ford, by the way, and acknowledged his influence.) You want to put Kurosawa in perspective, watch you some Mizoguchi. He was more, say, the Bergman of Japan. Not really; he was unique and one of the true great masters of world cinema, on a par with Ozu and Dreyer and Tarkovsky. I have a great love for Kurosawa, but it’s not the same kind of reverence I have for the others I just named.
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989, U.K./West Germany, dir. Terry Gilliam)
After Hours (1985, U.S., dir. Martin Scorsese)
Before Sunrise (1995, U.S./Austria/Switzerland, dir. Richard Linklater
Before Sunset (2004, U.S., dir. Richard Linklater)
Blood Simple (1985, U.S., dir. Joel Coen)
Chungking Express (1994, Hong Kong, dir. Wong Kar-Wai)
Excalibur (1981, U.K., dir. John Boorman)
The Fantastic Planet (1973, France, dir. Rene Laloux)
House of Games (1987, U.S., dir. David Mamet)
La Jetée (1962, France, dir. Chris Marker)
Macbeth (1971, U.K./U.S., dir. Roman Polanski)
Menace II Society (1993, U.S., dir. Allen Hughes, Albert Hughes)
Play Misty for Me (1971, U.S., dir. Clint Eastwood)
Ride the High Country (1962, U.S., dir. Sam Peckinpah)
Salvador (1986, U.S., dir. Oliver Stone)
Seven Beauties (1976, Italy, dir. Lina Wertmuller)
Slacker (1991, U.S., dir. Richard Linklater)
They Live (1988, U.S., dir. John Carpenter)
The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978, Italy, dir. Ermanno Olmi)
The Year of Living Dangerously (1983, Australia, dir. Peter Weir)
You’ve probably seen most of these.
Just released in a pristine Criterion edition a couple-few weeks ago, incidentally.
Have you seen all the Edward Yang you could get your hands on? Yi-Yi is the easy one, of course, but Confucian Confusion, Mahjong, Brighter Summer Day…
What about Edgar Reitz’s Heimat?
And you’ve probably seen it, but The Wire is America’s TV masterpiece, so if you haven’t seen it, do so.
One of my least unfavorite of Gilliams. A failure, but a fascinating one, and well worth seeing.
I love this movie.
These have been on my list for a long time, they’ve just never bubbled up to the top. I’ll keep them in mind.
A favorite.
A REAL favorite.
Not Boorman’s best, but one of the better Arthurs.
A unique experience. Playing as a midnight show in town this week.
A favorite.
A REAL favorite; 9,000 times better than 12 Monkeys.
One of the better Macbeths.
A really great movie; seen several times.
Pretty entertaining, but haven’t seen for a while.
One of my favorite westerns.
Hmm. Haven’t seen since 1986. Don’t remember it being that distinguished. Maybe I’ll try again.
Not a Wertmuller fan, but maybe I’ll check it out.
A good one.
Classic cheesy SF allegory/satire, with one of the best fight scenes ever.
Wow. What a great movie. Maybe it’s time to see that again.
One of Weir’s least annoying films. Linda Hunt is still a favorite actress, dating back to this movie.
[/QUOTE]
Won an Oscar for playing a dude, IIRC.