The only two mentioned so far that I’ve seen are The Sunshine Boys and The Station Agent, both of which I would recommend.
The Sunshine Boys is slow motion comedy. Watching George Burns and Walter Matthau re-arranging furniture in Matthau’s apartment is priceless. It’s one of my favorites.
Songwriter- Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Rip Torn in a charming, quirky little movie about the music business.
Tapeheads - John Cusack and Tim Robbins as pioneers in the early video business.
Repo Man - Emilio Estevez as a punk. Too weird to describe.
Tears of the Black Tiger - Bonkers Thai spaghetti-western action adventure romcom in supersaturated colour with surreal backdrops and cartoon violence. Yeah, that about covers it.
I saw and liked these as well.
I adore Shirley Booth - ‘Come Back, Little Sheba’ and also ‘Hot Spell’. (I really can’t understand the relationship in ‘About Mrs. Leslie’ - was it companionship, or were they having an ongoing once-a-year affair?)
In fact, I like those little 50’s slice-of-life dramas. (William Inge, especially - ‘All Fall Down’ is one of my favorites. Barry-Barry, you old rhinoceros!)
Every time ‘Middle of the Night’ comes on TCM, I drop everything to watch it. From 1959, it stars Kim Novak as a divorced secretary who plans to marry her much older boss, Martin Balsam, to the distress of all her friends and family. Akin to ‘Marty’, it’s low key black and white, a lot like an expanded early TV show from the time. But I get a kick out of it.
Allegro Non Troppo - a comical Italian suite of cartoons similar in scope to Fantasia
Silent Running - an underappreciate sci-fi gem starring Bruce Dern and some robots
Since Robert Duvall won the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Actor, I suspect a great many others have seen it.
Very distinctive, trippy animation style (also used on Sesame Street, I believe). Interesting soundtrack. Pretty weird, overall.
Tapeheads is fucking awesome–executive producer Mike Nesmith of The Monkees and approximately nine billion obscure but hilarious cameos by famous musicians, most notably Devo performing as a sucky European trash band and Jello Biafra as an FBI agent. Insanely great music, trust me on this one.
Along the same lines but even more obscure is Get Crazy which is so unknown it never even got a DVD release–I have it but I had to download a VHS rip, that’s how unknown it is. Also an insane number of musical cameos and a great soundtrack and who can resist Malcolm McDowell playing an asshole super rich rock star named Reggie Wanker? Not I!
For something completely different, how about Sirens? I don’t understand why this one never got famous, if for no other reason than every woman cast in this film appears naked–go on, go look at the list and tell me that doesn’t have some appeal. It’s just a genuinely lovely movie though and it makes me feel happy every time I watch it.
‘Nebraska’. Bruce Dern, 2013-ish, all the more somber in it’s black & white.
‘About Schmidt’. Jack Nicholson, somber, but in color.
‘Cedar Rapids’. 2011, light hearted comedy with serious overtones.
‘The Lives of Others’. 2006. Gripping film. A crying shame so many people only “know” it through the overuse of the Hitler meltdown scene’s use by wags to parody other situations via dubbed subtitiles.
‘Idiocracy’. It’s existence and appreciation seems to be a few inches wide, but a mile deep.
Another vote for ‘The Station Agent’
Another vote for ‘Repo Man’
I’m confused about this one. The famous Hitler-losing-it scene comes from a movie called Downfall. Is it referenced in The Lives of Others?
Oops, I meant ‘Downfall’. :o
Alucarda (1977) – Strange and surreal story of young girls getting into devil worship in a repressive convent.
A Stolen Airship (1967) – The usual utterly fantastic Karel Zeman production of boys having a grand adventure. In Mystimation!
* The Battle Wizard* (1977) – Outlandish martial arts fantasy; twice the fun and imagination of the same year's *Star Wars*.Bed of Roses (1933) – Pre-Code sleaze of two whores on the loose “rooking umpchays.”
The Black Book, a.k.a. Reign of Terror (1950) – French Revolution-set film noir. A b-movie with first-class talent behind the camera.
Challenge of the Ninja, a.k.a. Heroes of the East (1978) – Gordon Liu is forced to marry a crazed Japanese woman who keeps trying to kill him. Then he inadvertently insults her family and has to battle them. Great martial arts action, humor and theme.
*
Crime Spree* (2003) – Virtually unknown French ensemble comedy of inept crooks set up in Chicago.
Day Watch (2006) – Less bombastic sequel to Night Watch is more entertaining as various odd characters seek the “Chalk of Life.”
Death in the Garden (1956) – Obscure, ironic and largely unheralded Luis Buñuel-directed film of characters on the lam in an unrelenting jungle.
Dog Day (1984) – French-made elegy to the American gangster with Lee Marvin, Tina Louise (small role) and scene-stealing David Bennent (from The Tin Drum), one of the greatest child actors ever.
Dragon Chronicles (1994) – Awesome martial arts fantasy of dying master looking for worthy successor to take on betrayer Ting and his devastating Melting Stance. Almost as good as Swordsman II (1992).
Kongo (1932) – Superior remake of West of Zanzibar (1928) remains one of the most politically incorrect films ever released by a Hollywood studio.
The Last Valley (1971) – Bleak 30 Years War story with no one to root for.
Marquis (1989) – Actors in weird animal masks play out Bastille-based story with lots of philosophy and perversity.
The President Vanishes (1934) – A politically connected judge conspires with leaders of industry to get the U.S. into another war to boost profits…but then the prez vanishes! Prescient and amazing.
Revengers Tragedy (2002) – Updated adaptation of Jacobean-era tragedy retains the (not for passive listening) language in one of director Alex Cox’s best - and least seen - films.
Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948) – Superior remake of Rome Express (1932) with everyone after a stolen diary.
State Secret (1950) – Surgeon in “Vosnia” operates on dictator, who dies, forcing surgeon on the lam. Great cast, suspense, cynicism and a cool subjective camera opening sequence.
The Sword of Doom (1966) – Master swordsmen Tatsuya Nakadai is going nuts in one of greatest samurai movies ever.
Two Seconds (1932) – As E.G. Robinson goes to the e-chair, a flashback reveals how he got there in tawdry pre-Code story.
Vidocq (2001) – Legendary French detective tries to solve weird murders. Brilliant production design, though inclusion of supernatural elements and the super-lame revelation of the killer are regrettable.
Wicked City (1987) – Outlandish fantasy of alien “reptoids” living amongst humans and the Anti-Reptoid Squad cops pledged to bring them down.
The Revenger’s Tragedy is the only movie I’ve ever seen that rivals Titus for gleeful, over the top old school ultraviolence. I loved it but everyone else watching with me was all “Dafuq did I just watch?!”
“Nebraska” and “About Schmidt” aren’t obscure. The former was nominated for six Oscars, while the latter had nominations for best actor (Nicholson) and best actress (Kathy Bates). “Downfall” (which BrickBat meant to name instead of “The Lives of Others”) was nominated for best foreign language film. I love “Nebraska” and like the other two, but I don’t think they meet the OP’s criteria.
Based on conversations with people over the years, I’ve run into very few people that actually heard of those films, let alone saw them. It’s anecdotal. In any case, the OP didn’t use the term obscure, just that movies one thinks not many others have seen.
Good movie… I thought of a German movie made around 2004, called “The Edukators”, pretty cool movie.
I thought I’d posted this, but it must have been in a different, similar thread. Anyways, True Stories. It’s a really charming movie David Byrne made about his visiting a small town in Texas about to celebrate its sesquicentennial. That’s why it says “A film about a bunch of people in Virgil Texas” on the titlecard.
Auto Focus is another Greatest Movie No One Has Seen. Greg Kinnear plays Bob Crane as he descends into depravity during and after his career on Hogan’s Heroes.
Fantastic Planet gave me the heebie-jeebies, but A Town Called Panic was a riot.
Good lord. Men in tights. spiderman, batman, superman. Very few people have actually heard of fuck all. Don’t know who Bette Davis, Cary Grant, or John Wayne are. No color, 'splosions, CGI? Jesus.