I thought it had a unique style and strong acting from Helen Mirren. I admit the political message went over my head, but even ignoring the politics I thought it was enjoyable. Did you just not like it, or do you disagree with it being an independent film? It certainly is not a conventional, mainstream film.
Seconding Primer…I recommend El crimen ferpecto
Well, I’ve only seen about half the recommendations, but everything I have seen I agree with.
A few of my favorites would be Brick, Primer, Being John Malcovich, Pi, Life is Beautiful. Also Let the Right One In or Let Me In, I just saw the remake and I think they did a really good job, see either one, or, ya know, see both.
I’d like to add,
Children of the Revolution, a quirky Austrailian comedy starring Sam Neill and the underappreciated Judy Davis.
Clay Pigeons is a cool thriller with a creepier than life Vince ‘my name ain’t cowboy’ Vaugn.
And, of course, Tremors.
Here are some movies I like. Some of these have already been mentioned in this thread.
Foreign-language films:
Waltz with Bashir
The Story of Qiu Ju
City of God
The Lives of Others
Kung Fu Hustle
The Host
La Vie en Rose
The Triplets of Belleville
The City of Lost Children
Let the Right One In
Persepolis
Good Bye Lenin
English language foreign films:
Once
The Queen
Vera Drake
Notes on a Scandal
Nowhere in Africa
Brazil
Proof (There is more than one movie by this name, so be careful to get the right one if you’re interested - this is an Australian movie released in 1991.)
Indies (and other non-mainstream American movies):
Lars and the Real Girl
Fido
Chan Is Missing
Tully
House of Games
You Can Count on Me
Memento
American Splendor
Being John Malkovich
Bagdad Cafe
Oh yeah, for your animated pleasure I’d like to 2nd **Waltz with Bashir **and Persepolis, and add Through a Scanner Darkly. The scene where the truck breaks down and they’re trying to fix it is worth the price of admission.
Seconded - this really is a superb movie.
Someone upthread mentioned How to get Ahead in Advertising. Add to that my favourite movie of all time,Withnail & I by the same screenwriter and director, Bruce Robinson. He originally conceived HtgAiA as the sequel to W&I, but changed his mind. However, both movies have Richard E. Grant at his best.
Let’s say everything from 1960 onward.
A good one that hasn’t been mentioned yet is Burnt by the Sun.
Provided you’re OK with subtitles, then some I’ll recommend are:
Hong Kong
Kung Fu Hustle
Hard Boiled
A Better Tomorrow II
Vengeance
Japan
Battle Royale
France
Les Pacte Des Loupes (The Brotherhood Of The Wolf)
Astérix et Obélix contre César (Asterix & Obelix vs Caesar) (Both films have pretty good English dubs, FWIW)
Germany
Die Untergang (Downfall)
O.K., all these are post-1960 and among my favorite films:
Foreign (and I’ve dropped a couple which are generally listed as being produced outside of the U.S. but have substantial American participation):
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989, U.K./West Germany, dir. Terry Gilliam)
Amarcord (1974, Italy, Federico Fellini)
Chungking Express (1994, Hong Kong, dir. Wong Kar-Wai)
Excalibur (1981, U.K., dir. John Boorman)
Fantastic Planet (1973, France, dir. Rene Laloux)
Jules and Jim (1961, France, dir. Francois Truffaut)
La Jetée (1962, France, dir. Chris Marker)
My Brilliant Career (1979, Australia, dir. Gillian Armstrong)
American independent (but “independent” is very loosely defined, so other posters may not consider some of these to be made by independents, just as I don’t consider Being John Malkovich to be an independent production):
American Splendor (2003, U.S., dir. Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini)
Before Sunrise (1995, U.S./Austria/Switzerland, dir. Richard Linklater
Before Sunset (2004, U.S., dir. Richard Linklater)
Blood Simple (1985, U.S., dir. Joel Coen)
Diner (1982, U.S., dir. Barry Levinson)
Do the Right Thing (1989, U.S., dir. Spike Lee)
House of Games (1987, U.S., dir. David Mamet)
Menace II Society (1993, U.S., dir. Allen Hughes, Albert Hughes)
And that takes me through M in the alphabet. I’ll give you more later.
Diner. Very quoteable movie with such a fantastic young cast. He ate the whole left side of the menu!
Not really sure if it counts as “Indie” (or “Foreign”), but I highly recommend Flash Gordon, which has (amongst others) Max Von Sydow, Timothy Dalton, and BRIAN BLESSED in it.
Akira
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
La Retour de Martin Guerre
Everyone should see Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky. It is unquestionably the [del]worst[/del] finest film ever made.
Gummo is good, but you’ll need to watch it with a movie buff afterwards so you can figure out what the hell it is you just saw.
If you don’t mind David Lynch, there’s Mulholland Drive.
The Vanishing - the Dutch original, not the American remake.
“Following” - very early Christopher Nolan
Another vote for Withnail and I.
Or, instead of having to endure pretty-face-full-of-himself Cruise, just watch the original “Abre los ojos” (open your eyes).
This got an awful lot of hype when it came out, but I was very underwhelmed when I saw it a bit later on TV. Correction: I was very disappointed. Not only did it have handsome Marc Dacasos, they had stressed it was not a Hollywood production, but a lot of money put to good use. Instead, it had a stupid script and money wasted on special effects. We can have that from Hollywood any day of the year, no difference.
Well, if you know the Asterix comics, I guess. I have no idea how it looks to an outsider not familiar with them.
Nitpick: It’s “Der Untergang”.
Also, as long as we are on that topic, “Das Boot” of course.
While I really liked that movie, I wonder how much an American not familiar with Germany can get out of it. When the mother is lying in bed and hears the gong of the Tagesschau from her upstairs neighbour, you need to know the background about “Westfernsehen” (Watching west TV) during the DDR, and the reputation of the Tagesschau in the West, to understand the significance. I’ve read many comments from Americans dissing the movie as “a son lying to his mother, big deal” because they didn’t know anything about the background and so didn’t understand most of the clues.
Oh, the acting was fine. The cinematography was fantastic. The score was memorable. The story is just a big, “What the fuck?” Even for Greenaway, who likes allegory (his previous film, the excellent Drowning By Numbers, is basically an adult fable) it was pretty abstruse, and seemed mostly calculated just to shock and disgust. It certainly isn’t the film I would cite to introduce someone to the world of non-Hollywood big studio films.
Stranger
Have you seen already the Oscar-winning movie “Das Leben der Anderen” (Lives of others)?
With the same caveat as before - you need to know some background about the DDR - and it’s a bit depressing (I haven’t watched it myself), but Ulrich Mühe (who died shortly after from stomach ulcers; he was a very sensitive guy) got heaps of praise for his portrayal of a Stasi (secret police) man listening to an artist couple and reflecting on his own life. (Ulrich Mühe lived in the DDR for some time before moving to the West).