I married a monster from Outer Space
Get past the title. A great example of 50’s science fiction.
Here’s the list I’m working from (which I got from a Dope thread):
The Bicycle Thief
Open City
Umberto D
The Wages of Fear
Shoot the Piano Player
Delicatessen
City of Lost Children
Jules and Jim
Rules of the Game
The Grand Illusion
Sorry, no links, but these are guaranteed excellent films, per the Dopers who recommended them.
Six-String Samurai features an awesome soundtrack by The Red Elvises (a Russian Surf-abilly group) that also makes cameos in the film. A guitar and sword toting guy has to cross post-apocalyptic America to get to Vegas to claim the title of ‘rock and roll king’.
The Stunt Man with Peter O’Toole, Barbara Hershey, and that guy who played Manson and Gein. Amazingly, deliberately ridiculous and over-the-top action sequences.
I don’t know how obscure it is, but Der Untergang, a film on the last weeks of Hitler’s reign, was pretty good, and pretty chilling. They really went to pains for accuracy, especially with the portrayal of Hitler himself.
Nope, it’s not a figment of your imagination. The crazy thing is, it’s a damn good movie, and the director’s previous two films were The Exorcist and The French Connection, yet it does seem to be mostly forgotten. It’s also a remake of the all time classic film The Wages of Fear (mentioned by Auntie Pam) which you must see if you haven’t Paul. (French with subtitles. Don’t let that stop you. Buy it if you can’t rent it. Seriously.)
Urbania - While grieving over a recent tragedy, Charlie stumbles across several real life occurances of the sort that urban legends are created about. And eventually comes to terms with what really happened to him, too.
If Lucy Fell - Did you like Eric Schaeffer in “Starved”? But kind of wondered what it would be like if he played a character with a soul? Then perhaps this comedy about two best friends (the girl is Sarah Jessica Parker at her least annoying) who have a death pact: find love by 30 or die.
The Last Supper - A bunch of liberal grad students share a house, and outrage that there are so many terrible people in the world. They decide to invite people, whom they precieve as “bad”, over for dinner and see if there’s anything redeeming about them. If not, they’re murdered and burried in the tomato garden.
The Devil’s Backbone - A brilliant and bleak horror movie that takes place at a school for (abandoned) boys during the end of Spain’s Civil war. Ten-year-old Carlos is haunted by both a ghost, and his grim reality.
Little Boy Blue - a twisted southern gothic story that’d of made Flannery O’Connor proud.
Oh, and I second levdrakon’s No Such Thing nomination. It’s a damn shame the movie is so little known, because it’s the perfect blend of fairytale and often absurd reality. I think it was more successful than Big Fish in that aim.
Brazil – I don’t know how obscure it is, but it never got much play even when it was new and the version that was widely shown was mutilated into pure pap. Be sure to get the director’s cut.
Alice – By great Czech animator Jan Svankmajer. This is the oddest, most visually intriguing version of Lewis Carrol’s “Alice in Wonderland” you will ever see. I don’t know if Netflix has it because I don’t know if it’s on DVD, but if you can find the tape (I got it through the wonderful Kino Video catalogue) grab it.
Nosferatu – The wonderful silent movie that was so close to Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” it was nearly destroyed by his estate. The legends about Max Schreck are all false (he did wear makeup, he did do other films, etc.) but he delivers an extremely effective performance in an interpretation of the role that is the exact opposite from anything that has been done since.
The Shadow of the Vampire – This is just funny. It’s a movie about the making of Nosferatu that begins with the premise that all those rumors about Max Schreck are true, and that he was this decrepit old vampire who basically played himself in the movie. Again, I don’t know from ‘obscure’ but it’s certainly a good comedy.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari – A masterpiece of German Expressionist cinema. This film is like a painting come to life.
I have no idea how many, if any, of these are on Netflix. I hope they all are. But if even one is, I suppose I’ve done something worthwhile in this thread.
Not sure how obscure it is, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be really well known:
Terence Stamp is great in this, and Steven Soderbergh’s directing is also excellent.
The Best Years of Our Lives – I won’t spoil it. Why this doesn’t play every Veteran’s Day they way they play “A Christmas Story” is beyond me.
Little Big Man – basically, Forrest Gump in the Old West.
The Thief of Bagdad, which Disney’s Aladdin shamelessly stole from, has a fantastic feel and surprisingly timeless special effects that would do very well on a double feature with The Wizard of Oz some Saturday.
Pretty much anything by John Sayles, esp. Passion Fish, City of Hope, Brother From Another Planet and Lone Star.
The original, Japanese version of Shall We Dance? I also enjoyed A Taxing Woman and Tampoco.
Last year’s Danny the Dog with Jet Li and Morgan Freeman was terrific.
The extremely underrated black “heist” and “con man” popcorn movies Set It Off, Dead Presidents, Menace II Society and Out of Time.
Ooo! Chevy Chase in Modern Problems.
If Askia is mentioning films like Dead Presidents and Menace II Society, which are neither very old nor very obscure, I might as well mention Zelig, a funny Woody Allen film with some great lines. If you’ve never seen Annie Hall that’s probably his best-known and ‘essential’ film, but Zelig gets much less respect than it deserves.
On a similar note, Being There is a very funny Peter Sellers film that isn’t in the ‘Pink Panther’ series and isn’t Dr. Strangelove, so it’s pretty well ignored these days. (The first three ‘Pink Panther’ moves and Dr. Strangelove are the ‘essential’ Peter Sellers movies, no doubt. But this post is about good films from good actors that have been overshadowed by classic films from those same actors.)
Another film you might enjoy is Touch of Evil, an Orson Welles movie which was critically acclaimed in its own time and many people really love but has been eclipsed by Citizen Kane since then as the only Welles movie most people know about. Again, a worthy film unjustly ignored.
Finally, there is Tod Browning’s Freaks, a strange little picture that was probably one of the first to portray circus freaks in a positive light. Made in 1932 and starring real circus performers, it is a classic revenge movie.
Unleashed was the title of that, for the record.
I recommend two excellent movies starring Ryan Gosling: The Slaughter Rule and The Believer.
If you like action movies, The Transporter is one my favs.
Local Hero
My favoritest movie of all. Texas oilman gets sent to a tiny Scottish town in order to buy it for an oil refinery. He falls in love with the town. Quirky (before quirky was trendy)funny, gorgeous scenery, engaging characters. Directed by Bill Forsythe.
His Gregory’s Girl is lovely as well.
I agree with whoever said “pretty much anything by John Sayles.” But Sayles’ Lone Star is my fave, with Sunshine State a close runnerup, followed by The Secret of Roan Inish. Watching Sayles on DVD is great. Sometimes his movies meander a bit, and it is nice to be able to stop and take a break.
Lone Star
[from IMDB]: When the skeleton of his murdered predecessor is found, Sheriff Sam Deeds unearths many other long-buried secrets in his Texas border town.
Sunshine State
Family matters and real estate dealings on coastal northern Florida.
The Secret of Roan Inish
Magical realism on the rugged coast of Ireland.
That’s because people were beating me to responses like The Stuntman, Seven Samurai, The Limey, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, The Last Supper, The Bicycle Thief, Da Untergang…
It was released around the world as Danny the Dog. Only in the hyper-PC United States does it go by the godawful, uninteresting title of – gah – “Unleashed.”
I’m confident whoever that was thanks you for sharing his opinion.
Saw this just last night on VCD. Two classic lines, which I’ll no doubt misquote slightly, or even greatly:
Allen (who thinks he’s a pychiatrist): “I’m teaching Advanced Masturbation.”
Farrow (who is): “Well, it’ll be okay if you’re a little late.”
Allen: “No, I don’t want them to start without me.”
Wonderful put down of Nazism, when Allen (superimposed Forrest Gump-style among the flunkies behind Hitler on the podium) has interrupted one of Hitler’s rallies, because he spots Farrow in the audience and starts manically waving at her. Cut to a former brownshirt, being interviewed 50 years after the event (remember this is a “documentary” with Sontag, Bellow etc apparing in person):
“Hitler was very upset because he had a good Polish joke…”
“Worms, Roxanne–I was afraid of worms!”
For samurai movies, I recommend the following:
Seven Samurai (the western Magnificent Seven is based on this)
Throne Of Blood (MacBeth in feudal Japan)
Yojimbo and Sanjuro (I forget which one is first)
Ran (King Lear in feudal Japan)
These are all directed by Akira Kurosawa, and except for the last one have Toshiro Mifune in them. Kurosawa and Mifune - two great tastes that taste great together!
There’s a movie called Wasabi, directed by Luc Besson and starring Jean Reno that’s pretty good. It’s about a French detective who only discovers he has a teenage daughter in Japan when her Japanese mother dies. Many hijinks ensue when the girl gets caught up in a criminal plot.
I just finished watching two movies from Thailand that were also very good. Ong Bak: Thai Warrior is a martial arts movie with some mind-blowing moves, all done without wires. Tony Jaa as the village hero hurdles clear over moving cars, for Og’s sake. The plot was a bit cheesy, but what the hell.
The other Thai movie is Bang Rajan, a true story about an 18th century village that held off a far larger and better armed Burmese army for five months. It’s depressing but fascinating as well.
How is that little joke a wonderful put down of Nazism?
If you haven’t seen Noises Off, please take this opportunity to do so. It’s freaking hilarious, stars tons of big names, and yet hardly anyone I know has heard of it.
Also of note: it features some dear departed actors like Christopher Reeve, John Ritter, and Nicolette Sheridan’s original face.