Romero (1989) Raul Julia in a biopic of Oscar Romero, who works his way up the catholic diocese by simply keeping his head down and not rocking the boat. Choices of ethics, church politics, and bare survival arise when his paritioners begin to beg him to do something about the ‘disapearance’ of political dissidents.
Incredibly powerful film, and, of course, Raul Julia delivers in spades. Sadly, last I checked, Netflix says it’s unavailble on DVD… At least in the US.
Zoe writes:
> Enchanged April
I presume you mean Enchanted April.
Now that it’s available on DVD, maybe Two-Lane Blacktop isn’t a “movie no one else has seen” anymore. But I love it. Existential movie about drag racing, starring (Sweet Baby) James Taylor, (Beach Boy) Dennis Wilson and a '55 Chevy. What makes the film extraordinary is Warren Oates, one of my favoritie actors. Once Oates and his GTO come into the picture, the film is amazing.
Dangit, that’s MY recommendation! The Devil-plays-bingo scene is among my favorite scenes ever, as is the Devil-corrupts-the-child-singer scene.
Not sure how unknown it is but Diva is a particularly engaging film. It’s about a singer who refuses to be recorded, a wildly smitten young man who tapes her singing anyway, and a mixup with the local mafia-types and corrupt police who mistake the singer’s film for a taped confession/espose of their crimes. The visuals in this film (especially the chase scenes through the streets of Paris), and the voice of the singer (Wilhelmina Fernandez) are breathtaking. The film recently came out in the “director’s cut” edition, which I bought but have not yet seen.
Also loved Prick Up Your Ears, a very entertaining - and at times very funny - story about the life and death of the gay writer Joe Orton. I think this was the first film I saw with Gary Oldman in it (as the title character), and he does a great job.
Also Celine and Julie Go Boating (Celine and Julie Vont En Bateau) - a sort of mystical film about two young women who get caught up in something totally outside their daily life, sort of a parallel reality thing, they’re trying to solve a mystery that goes in and out of the different world. IIRC it is a very looooong film - over 3 hours - which would be OK for DVD, but I saw in the theatre, and remember getting antsy after a while. Was still worth it to see the film, though.
I just realized how long ago I saw these films! 30 years, and I still remember them vividly.
Angel-A by Luc Besson.
I stayed up one evening and watched City of the Dead. It’s about a small town of undying witches and Christopher Lee plays a minor role. Not campy or gory, but riveting nonetheless.
And of course, there’s Stalag 17. It’s such a great movie and so few people have seen it, it should be prime for a good remake.
Thomas in Love
(Belgium, French with subtitles)
Filmed as a series of videophone conversations, you never see the protagonist. Thomas is severely agoraphobic and is living locked inside his apartment, but he’s starting to want a girlfriend.
I would add a second vote to Le Dernier Combat.
Pretty Village, Pretty Flame or ‘Lepo sela lepo gore’ in the original Serbian. The best film ever made about war and its effect on people’s lives, but it wasn’t made in Hollywood by a big-name director so no-one has heard of it. Powerful, moving, well-made and with a wonderful story to tell. Yes, you can get it with subtitles.
Onegin/ Pretty much a perfect film. An amazing, brilliant cinematic realisation of my favourite story in all literature, and yet hardly anyone saw it. Widely available on DVD, and well worth seeing.
Man, talk about mileage varying! I watched this over the weekend and hated it so much, I thought it was just terrible, and wanted to beat the crap out of all the actors, especially those Quarterpunks! I notice that I tend to hate almost all the Fearnet movies, though. I thought this was even worse than the one Fearnet one where they kind of ripped off Battle Royale, but it was these fast zombies on the island, and was like a video game.
Sorry, this is just one of those few movies that got me almost violently angry with how much I hated it! I will say it was put together well, has good production values. I must have been in a bad mood, because other people on netflix seemed to like it.
I feel like almost all of mine have been mentioned, I’m sure Battle Royale, which I mentioned above has been seen by everyone, that is one of my top ten favorite movies. Did anyone mention Come and See? I think someone might have, if so, then a second vote for that one. There are some images in it that are stuck in my head forever, it’s about the Nazis invading Byelorussia. Obviously, it’s not a light hearted romantic comedy, but an excellent war movie that told me about a side of World War II that I knew nothing about.
Watched it last week and really enjoyed it, McBride was great as always but I’m sad to see that most of his roles are just McBride as Kenny Powers in ___ situation.
My recommendation is Stalingrad
filling_pages writes:
> One of those movies, like Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, that you
> had to deliberately search out to watch.
Not just difficult to see but impossible to legally see:
However, it’s available on YouTube anyway.
Hopefully these aren’t too mainstream, but no one in my circle has ever heard of these:
Big Fish a Tim Burton film that I watched again immediately after finishing it the first time. Stars Danny Devito. A story about a son trying to learn more about his dying father by reliving stories and myths his father told him about himself.
Saved - When a girl attending a Christian high school becomes pregnant, she finds herself ostracized and demonized, as all of her former friends turn on her. Mandy Moore and Macaulay Caulkin are in it and I still liked it.
Life As a House - A cryfest. When a man is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he takes custody of his misanthropic teenage son, for whom quality time means getting high, engaging in small-time prostitution, and avoiding his father. Stars Kevin Spacey.
Gosh,Hock…I wouldn’t say it stars Danny DeVito,it stars Ewan Mcgregor.Very good movie.
I feel your pain. I love that movie. (It’s what I came here to mention) I went ahead and bought a video from online. It wasn’t expensive and unfortunately, it didn’t work. 
I got a refund, no worries there, but I was so upset. My boyfriend just came back from a convention in Amsterdam and I was so—“but…FIVE FLOORS OF FORNICATION!” and “I was thinking along the lines of maybe licking jam from off your nipples…HOSPITAL jam! You can say fairer than that!”
The two guys look at a heavy set prostitute in a window. Edwards: “Ohhhh! You don’t come out alive from thighs like that!” Dalton: “Yes you do” Edwards: “Europeans maybe.” It’s silly and fun
I guess Devito had the most memorable character for me. Ewan is the bigger role definitely. Sorry for the oversight. 
Are you human?
*Eyes Hock suspiciously
Turns out that it wasn’t really on the torrents… Seems that the fakers are now listing made up torrents to get people onto their websites…
A British kid is sitting in his backyard, minding his own business, when 225,000 pounds literally falls on top of him. He has to blow it all before it becomes worthless when the pound converts to the Euro in a few days.
Oh, and Catholic saints regularly appear to him and converse with him.
DISCLAIMER: I wouldn’t categorize this movie as particularly obscure, but it’s hardly mainstream either.
Atanarjuat is one of the best films ever produced in Canada, and yet, it is virtually unknown. Fantastic!
I don’t think it’s that obscure, but you never know what other people don’t know until you get in trouble for stating the obvious. Jésus de Montréal is my favourite of many films by Denis Arcand.
And may I also mention Le Confessional by Robert Lepage? Again, I don’t think it’s unknown, but I haven’t run across it that often, and I think it’s worth the recommendation whether it’s too popular or not…
A major second to Tampopo - this film has stayed with me for years!