Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald (Rajio no jikan): It’s a Japanese farce about a woman who wins a contest writing a radio play. Minutes before it is to be performed live, the lead acrtress demands a name change. From there, everyone starts to change things until the whole story goes wildly out of control. It’s one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. The audience was crying, it was so funny.
I found Society in its full, uncut version on region 1 DVD not long ago. It is a late 80’s splatter movie starring Billy “Baywatch” Warlock and ends with the wierdest, most surreal 30+ minute sequence I’ve ever seen.
Slightly more popular although still a little obscure is Ghost Dog - Way of the Samurai with Forrest Whittaker. A hitman who lives by the Samurai code of conduct and has a non-English speaking best friend who sells ice cream from a truck is sent details of who he must kill next by carrier pigeon. Truly wonderful, slightly off center, movie.
Last one would be Scandal, an 80’s British movie about the John Profumo scandal. Great performance from John Hurt in that one.
I’ll also second Diva and Liquid Sky
Ooh, and to get really obscure I love the Dead Gentlemen Production of The Gamers.
But I love shorts and so few people actually ever get around to watching them that naming obscure ones is too easy. “This Guy is Falling”, “Peep Show”, “One Hand Left” and “Pennyweight” are all among my favorites.
Dead Man - directed by Jim Jarmusch, starring Johnny Depp. Almost impossible to explain. Abstract western??
Akira Kurosawa’s “Dreams” - beautiful and haunting series of vignettes taken from Kurosawa’s own dreams. It’s one of my most favorite movies.
Another just floated through my head…
If You Could See What I Hear, with Marc Singer (IIRC, not seen this one in many many moons) in the semi-biographical tale of a blind man who refuses to act the way he’s “supposed to act.”
The only bit I remember clearly, he bottoms out the convertible he’s driving in the sand on the beach. A cop rolls up and the dialogue runs something like:
“How did you get stuck way out here? Are you blind?”
“Well, yeah.”
<Cop turns to main character’s friend, in back seat.>
“Your friend is blind? Why the hell is he driving?”
“He’s the only one that’s sober…”
<Main character stands in seat, flips over windshield, slides off hood into the surf, and stands up sputtering.>
“See?”
Canadian Film Board backed flick, I seem to recall.
The Horse’s Mouth - a British comedy with Alec Guiness as an aging artist who still wants to paint after he has been written off by the world.
Rancho Deluxe - Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterston as modern day cattle rustlers in Montana. Quirky is the best word for it.
Long Live Your Death - a spaghetti western starring Eli Wallach, Franco Nero, and Lynn Redgrave. Very funny with great action scenes and sharp dialog.
Sword Of Doom - a samurai film told mostly from the view point of the villain as he mentally crumbles from his torment and guilt over his actions. Powerful ending.
Ratty, you’re the only person outside my family who’s ever mentioned “The Reflecting Skin”. What a great movie! I loved the scenery…almost an Andrew Wyeth feeling to it. The kid was perfectly cast. It’s one of those films you just can’t shake once you’ve seen it.
I also like “Eraserhead”, although I’d be hard-pressed to tell anyone what it’s about. It’s just the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen. But I LIKES it!
I don’t think this is considered obscure anymore, but “The Legend of 1900” is a great, unheralded movie. Tim Roth at his best, as far as I’m concerned.
True. But it’s still a fascinating read, IMHO. The movie was good, (I need it on DVD), but a little slow-paced. That said, I think the play’s better than the movie, but I love 'em both.
The Red Tent - Recounts the ill-fated Nobile expedtion to the North Pole.
Would love to find a DVD…
Not hugely obscure, but:
Hedwig and the Angry Inch. It rocks muchly
Velvet Goldmine. “The characters and events in this movie are fictional. Nonetheless, it should be played at full volume.”
Beautiful Girls Okay, I saw this on Comedy Central, but still… standard “older guy meets 11 year old girl played by Natalie Portman but he isn’t a creep or a sniper and its a sweet movie” story
Interesting reading this, I don’t see a lot of movies, but I know the plots for lots that I’ve not seen. I notice I’ve not heard of a lot of these films, but the ones I have heard of, I think, “that’s not obscure, I’ve heard of it”, lol.
My favorite is Movie Movie, & as you can imagine, it’s really hard to do searches on that one! I don’t think it’s ever been released to video. Well, ok, the video store release that’s like $60 to buy. It’s two films in one, plus a long trailer for a third in the middle. The two films have the same cast, they are both parodies of 1930’s style movies. One is the boxer that wants to be a lawyer, he fights to pay for his sister’s eye operation. The other is a musical, the understudy saves the show. Hiliarious stuff!
Try Diabolik DVD. They’re an excellent source for import DVDs in North America. Fair warning: the grainy, washed-out cinematography of The Kingdom, doesn’t lend itself very well to compression. As a result, the picture quality on this DVD release is mediocre at best. If you have the VHS, I’d recommend sticking with that. I’ve heard rumours about an improved, special-edition release but no solid news, I’m afraid.
I’d like to second Rampo, a beautiful and disturbing tone poem of a film, Diva, a thrilling and artsy french action flick, and Ghost Dog a typically low-key and oddball Jim Jarmusch effort.
My own nominees:
Queen of Hearts, a charming and magical tale of an Italian immigrant family living in London. It manages to encompass elements of mysticism, comedy, melodrama and a good old fashioned heist to top things off. I’ve recommended this here before.
Tampopo, a japanese comedy about the quest for the perfect noodle recipe. Funny, intense, and erotic. One of the all-time great food movies.
Leolo, a French-Canadian movie about a severely dysfunctional family (most of them are outright insane). The young boy narrator is convinced that he is the offspring of a union between his mother and a sperm-covered tomato :eek:. It’s extremely dark and alternately hilarious and disturbing. I guarantee you that you’ve never seen anything quite like this movie before. Tragically, it’s the final movie by the late Jean Claude Lauzon.
There’s tons more, of course, but these are the ones that come immediately to mind.
My favorite comedy is Noises Off which has a great cast & script. I’d kill a small furry creature to get a copy of this on DVD.
Another favorite, although slightly less obscure, is LA Story. It’s sweet, almost a fairy tale but also slightly surreal. It has quick sight gags that aren’t obvious on the first viewing. Thankfully, it is available on DVD (although the transfer is a couple of F-Stops too bright.)
Larry Mudd, I read a lot of Edogawa Ranpo when I was studying in Japan. He creeps me out more than any other author I’ve read. I still remember one story in particular about a man who returns from a war with his arms and legs cut off. His wife keeps him in a box and basically tortures him. You do know he took his name from his main inspiration, Edgar Allen Poe, and his name is a Japanized version of it, right?
Anyway, if I have nightmares tonight from remembering his works, on your head be it!
CJ
One picture that I never hear anything about, but should be on the list is Where the Heart is with Uma Thurman (1990) - a movie that works some very inventive paintings into the script.
There is another movie with the same name so here’s a link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6301759001/qid=1039627002/sr=1-15/ref=sr_1_15/103-0695431-8816657?v=glance&s=video
You and me both. I LOVE THIS MOVIE. One of Christopher Reeve’s best perfromances, IMHO. And this movie showed me just how good Mark Linn-Baker could be.
It’s not too obscure, but my guess is that most folks haven’t seen it even if they’ve heard of it.
I’m gonna get the film and the soundtrack.
Like Hodge said, I loved Tampopo, I need to go find a copy of it so I can watch it again. I also liked The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, it’s a surreal movie with John Neville, Eric Idle and Robin Williams. It’s strange but funny.
Blue Velvet isn’t too obscure, but I like it. And I won’t ever miss Valley Girl when it comes on tv, but don’t tell anybody!
DeepPurple: If you or someone close to ya has got access to it, the Encore Networks (a whole slew of cable movie channels) still run Movie Movie every so often. It was just on either last month, or the beginning of this month, if I’m not too much mistaken.
I don’t think this is a very very obscure movie, as I’ve seen a couple of threads on it in the past. But since nobody I know in real life knows about it at all, and I’ve never seen it in any video store thus far, I’ll mention it:
Magic, the 1978 movie with Anthony Hopkins, Ann-Margeret, and Burgess Meredith, directed by Richard Attenborough, and written by William Goldman (The Princess Bride, Marathon Man) based on the book he also wrote. It’s a thriller about a ventriloquist who can’t seperate his personality from the dummy’s. It’s not a new concept, as there were a couple of Twilight Zone episodes that dealt with the same thing, but it’s a fun movie nonetheless. It’s on the Bravo channel every now and then, and I managed to get my very old VHS copy through eBay. I wish they would release this on DVD, especially since my VHS copy is really poor quality 'cause of it’s age.