El Vampiro Negro, a film noir made in Argentina in 1953. A remake of Fritz Lang’s German film “M”.
This film actually is on You Tube, but not with subtitles as I viewed it. An Argentine film archivist had to bring the subtitled version to the theater where I watched it for it’s US debut, and he barely made it to the theater carrying the film can.
Even subtitled it is one of the best noir’s I’ve ever seen, and I’ve watched a lot of noir. It wasn’t as good as Citizen Kane, or Kurosawa, but it was in that league.
Le Bossu (“The Hunchback”), a swashbuckling movie set in Ancien Regime France, where a noble fencing master is foully done to death and his trusty henchman disguises himself as a crippled beggar to bring up his baby daughter and avenge the murder.
The Other Wise Man, which I saw on Youtube a month or so before Christmas. One of the Magi missed the rendezvous, spends the next thirty years trying to search for the Messiah but continually gets sidetracked with charitable works.
Haven’t read the whole thread, but in the late 1980s, an independent local theater screened an ultra low budget documentary called “The Beer Drinker’s Guide to Fitness and Filmmaking.” The filmmaker was there doing a Q&A; I went with a friend and we loved it! Several years later, I knew a woman who worked at a video store, and she said everyone who rented it hated it.
I’m in the middle of a recent documentary called “Somm”, about a competition that’s basically the Olympics of sommeliers. These people take their wine VERY seriously.
My college’s campus theater screened this when I was there, and I first heard about it when the backlash erupted. I finally saw it a few years ago when (to my surprise) I found it on Netflix. I can’t believe this got any kind of non-porno distribution, and felt like taking a shower afterwards.
Several months ago, I watched a hilarious documentary, made in the mid 1990s, called “So Wrong They’re Right”. It’s about 8-track tape aficionados. Ultra-low budget, and a total hoot.
Because I was a *Xena *fan, I located a copy of Desperate Remedies, a 1993 New Zealand film featuring the late Kevin Smith (Ares) & Michael Hurst (sidekick of Hercules). Set in 19th century Australia (?), it’s a feverish epic of love, lust & hate. With over the top performances & lush, arty production values.
I know my sister saw The Woman Chaser, too. It popped up on IFC. This 1999 black and white film stars Patrick Warburton as a used car dealer who wants to make a film. Set in the 50’s. At the end, the main character is locked up in asylum. My sister & I wondered if the director had also been locked up in asylum. Then we thought that, since we sort of liked the thing, maybe we needed to be locked up in an asylum, too…
I think I mentioned these the last time we had a similar thread…some films remain with you.
How about “I Was A Zombie For The FBI”? The old USA overnight program “Night Flight” used to show this all the time. It was a film-school project made in the early 1980s; it’s in B&W and while all the hair and clothing styles are from the early 80s, the cars are all from the 1950s.
Spaceman (1997)- an ultra low budget sci fi movie. It’s so bad it’s good. The production quality is so pathetic, you can’t help but feel sorry for the filmmakers.
Jess + Moss (2011) - a low budget coming of age story. Not bad, but not great either. At times is feels like a feature length student film.
Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural (1973) - probably my favorite obscure film. A fairy tale horror film starring a beautiful Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith in the lead role. I recommend watching this is you haven’t.
I’ve seen it on the big screen and it was briefly very popular on the art film circuit; the soundtrack still gets a fair amount of play in other contexts. The sequel Powaqqatsi is less interesting, if you can imagine that.
Have I mentioned The Arrival of Wang yet? Italian film about an alien captured in Rome and interrogated by “the government” , but as the only Earth language the alien speaks is Chinese they have to bring in an interpreter who becomes increasingly upset by the brutal treatment of the alien. Lots of moral ambiguity over who the good guys and bad guys are and who is telling the truth and who is lying, but unusually for such films you get a very definite answer at the end.
Well, someone else must have seen it since it’s on imdb.
Contains what remains one of my favourite one-liner (two grannies become monsters because of an ancient curse. They burst into their manor’s kitchen and one of the cooks deadpans: “The lobster must have gone bad”.
Koyaanisqatsi may be relatively obscure now, but I first saw it in a major first-run theater when it first came out. it then became a regular on the art-cinema circuit, playing at least twice a year at the local art house. Peter Schiickele (PDQ Bach) even did a parody of the title/title song (“Coy Hotsy-Totsy”)
Beast from the Haunted Cave(1959) This film creeped me out as a kid in elementary school, when I saw it on TV.
The Judas Project(1990) The Judas Project (1990) - IMDb
A fantasy about Christ coming in the now, rather than not quite 2000 years ago. Saw it in the theater actually, it was strange but kind of interesting.
