Comments on: Films with very small casts?

Question: Films with very small casts?

fire&wings — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:57:53 -0800

Engaging, quality films with very small casts. Recommendations?

I've realised that I really like films with small casts. Moreso if they don't take part in confined stage sets (like Tape.) For instance Closer, and to a lesser extent Keane, have miniscule casts yet they never feel like theatrical plays forced onto the big screen. They are shot in various locations, indoors and out, and you don't fully realise there are only a handful of main characters until the credits roll. Looking for more of the same.

By: parmanparman

parmanparman — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:02:18 -0800

Whisky, about a Uruguayan sock manufacturer and his very happy, estranged brother. A cast of probably seven.

By: logic vs love

logic vs love — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:05:15 -0800

The Squid and the Whale.

By: porn in the woods

porn in the woods — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:06:41 -0800

What Happened Was... is quite good, poignant for dating losers like myself, and has a cast of two.

By: sweetkid

sweetkid — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:07:09 -0800

ooh. I came to recommend Squid and the Whale. I enthusiastically second.

By: quentiniii

quentiniii — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:09:07 -0800

Before Sunrise
Before Sunset

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:15:49 -0800

Sleuth is an outstanding thriller with a core cast of just two: Sir Michael Caine, and Sir Laurence Olivier.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:17:41 -0800

My Dinner with Andre

By: ORthey

ORthey — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:19:22 -0800

Gerry!

By: jayder

jayder — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:20:52 -0800

Jim Jarmusch, Down by Law
Jim Jarmusch, Stranger Than Paradise

By: atomly

atomly — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:21:03 -0800

Closer

Withnail & I

I also agree with The Squid and the Whale.

By: beaucoupkevin

beaucoupkevin — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:22:38 -0800

Glengarry, Glen Ross.

Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin (for seven electrifying minutes, if I can Gene Shalit for a moment) Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, and Jonathan Pryce. David Mamet screenplay based on his play. Tight as all get out and despite the fact it's a favorite among salesman, it's more to do about human nature and desperation than anything else. Lemmon is just amazing.

By: scarylarry

scarylarry — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:24:43 -0800

You Can Count on Me, by playwright kenneth lonergan, is excellent and has a pretty small cast.

California Split has a relatively small cast, especially for a Robert Altman film. It's also one of his best.

My Dinner With Andre, mentioned above, does not fit your "various locations" requirement at all (with the exception of a few exterior shots at the beginning and end, it's set entirely at a dinner table), but it's one of my favorite movies. Well worth seeing if you haven't.

Coffee and Cigarettes has a very large cast, but no more than three people in a scene together at once. Seconding Down By Law.

By: wafaa

wafaa — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:30:25 -0800

2nding Glengarry, Glen Ross and My Dinner with Andre. Also, Death of a Salesman, A Streetcar named Desire.

By: scarylarry

scarylarry — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:31:05 -0800

Oh, I can't believe I didn't think of this, but a whole lot of Bergman films fit the bill. Persona, Autumn Sonata, Shame, Cries and Whispers, Through a Glass Darkly. Most of them, really, use a very small cast of Bergman regulars. Scenes from a Marriage (the mini-series version) might be my top choice for your interests.

Also, Blow-Up (Antonioni) really only has two main characters, plus a small handful of bit parts.

Does 2001 fit the bill?

Oh, also The Straight Story, a very un-Lynchian Lynch film.

By: Maxwell_Smart

Maxwell_Smart — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:33:19 -0800

Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:35:29 -0800

Blind Beast. Three characters: the mother, the sculptor son, and the model. But the film really focuses on the sculptor and model.

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:38:13 -0800

scarylarry - weird, but Bergman is probably my favourite director. I didn't immediately think of him when asking this question, which is interesting.

By: The World Famous

The World Famous — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:40:08 -0800

Rope

By: B-squared

B-squared — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:45:30 -0800

Six Degrees of Separation

By: drjimmy11

drjimmy11 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:46:46 -0800

The Breakfast Club!

By: nitsuj

nitsuj — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:46:49 -0800

Once

By: wafaa

wafaa — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:50:38 -0800

Oh yeah..........! Rope. Thanks The World Famous. Great Hitchcock.

By: nilihm

nilihm — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:59:59 -0800

Primer.

By: cushie

cushie — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:04:15 -0800

Old Joy.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:07:23 -0800

Closet Land, but it does feel a bit like a play.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:08:18 -0800

Almost anything by Mamet.

By: Salvatorparadise

Salvatorparadise — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:11:22 -0800

last days

By: matildaben

matildaben — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:22:24 -0800

The Cuckoo (Kukushka)

By: chudmonkey

chudmonkey — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:48:30 -0800

Sunshine, which just came out in North America, is terrific, IMO. It takes place on a small ship heading for the sun, but it isn't really a sci-fi movie. It has a psycho killer in it, but it isn't really a horror movie.

The really small cast works really well in what I would describe as a "psychological adventure" movie. Cillian Murphy and Chris Evans impressed me, in particular.

It's a Danny Boyle movie, which means a great deal to some people. =)

By: rob511

rob511 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:16:01 -0800

Lifeboat

By: tkchrist

tkchrist — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:23:02 -0800

The Wizard of Oz and the Terror of Tiny Town.

Oh. "Small casts." I get it.

I was wondering why people were posting movies that didn't have midgets in them.

So. Never mind.

By: katie

katie — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:24:44 -0800

Seconding You Can Count On me

By: ads

ads — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:34:00 -0800

Great post. I like a lot of films with small casts too. Some favourites: Bad Boy Bubby, Death and the Maiden, The Interview, Red Rock West and Roger Dodger. I agree that Primer is excellent.

By: ads

ads — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:41:51 -0800

On second thoughts, those last two don't qualify as minuscule casts although they have a similar stripped-down quality. You might also like Rosetta.

By: DevilsAdvocate

DevilsAdvocate — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:42:29 -0800

The Quarrel

By: redteam

redteam — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:49:40 -0800

Seconding "Withnail and I"

I also recommend "Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner" - it's mindblowing. I believe it satisfies your criteria, if my memory serves me correctly. The cast list on IMDB is pretty big, but there's hardly anyone around at any given time and most of those cast members are from flashbacks and so on.

Sexy Beast might also do it, but it mostly takes place at a house in Spain. Worth it just to see Ben Kingsley as the scariest guy ever ever ever.

By: softlord

softlord — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:51:11 -0800

The Woodsman has a cast of about 8 and one of Kevin Bacon's finest performances. Not for the family, though.

By: Zonker

Zonker — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:02:34 -0800

Secret Honor. (And now that I see it's available on DVD, excuse me while I go order it.)

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:05:40 -0800

The Station agent. ( has a midget too, for double entendre on small cast )

By: carsonb

carsonb — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:07:21 -0800

Kind Hearts and Coronets has as its core Dennis Price in the lead, Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood as the ladies, and Sir Alec Guinness playing 12 roles. The rest of the cast is ancillary, either in a scene or two or as extras. It is a delightful comedy.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:08:13 -0800

Alien
The Thing (John Carpenter version)

By: cinemafiend

cinemafiend — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:50:14 -0800

ONIBABA may be one of the great works of Japanese cinema. If you love Bergman, then I believe that you will definitely enjoy this film.

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:57:14 -0800

The Trouble With Harry

Shallow Grave

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?

I Bury The Living*

*Ok, it's far from great but it was on TV last weekend, so it sprang to mind, and it's really better than it has any right to be.

By: NortonDC

NortonDC — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:59:48 -0800

First off, of course there's 12 Angry Men.
Misery
Gattaca has a very intimate feel, though a few scenes have several extras
The Shining
maybe Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
maybe The Sixth Sense, though many people are tired of it by now
The Crying Game (seems appropriate to place it with Sixth Sense)
The African Queen

and ROU stole Alien

By: rhizome

rhizome — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:00:30 -0800

Nick Gomez' "Laws Of Gravity"
Lots of Henry Jaglom's are small.
Dawn of the Dead
Assault on Precinct 13/Rio Bravo

By: cinemafiend

cinemafiend — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:31:43 -0800

WALKABOUT is another great film that has a very limited cast (three characters lost in the Outback). Beautiful cinematography, intriguing film-making techniques, and great locations in the outback of Australia. Its also suitable for children (well, children ten years of age or older)

By: atbash

atbash — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:36:35 -0800

It's not quite as small a cast as some of the films mentioned, but I think Dr. Strangelove is worth mentioning anyway.

By: dobbs

dobbs — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:42:45 -0800

I'm too lazy to read the suggestions so some of these might be seconds:

Five Easy Pieces
In the Mood for Love
Happy Together
Carnal Knowledge (Closer is the poor man's CK)
le Jetee
Clean Shaven (same director as Keane)
Claire Dolan ("")
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
The Graduate
Straw Dogs
Laws of Gravity
Spanking the Monkey
Cold Comfort
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
L'Enfant
Funny Games
Benny's Video
Cache
Streetcar Named Desire (Brando version)
Maelstrom
Stalker
I You He She
Stranger Than Paradise
Down By Law
Naked
Ghost World
Eclipse
Unforgiven
Petrified Forest
The Fountain
Requeim for a Dream
Pi
Punch Drunk Love
Hard Eight
Closet Land
L'Avventura (for the most part)
Knife in the Water
The Passenger
Fallen Idol
Undertow
All the Real Girls
Last of the Red Hot Lovers
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Diabolique (original)
Eyes Without a Face
Breathless
Lantana
The Man Who Wasn't There
Buffalo '66
Deliverance
3 Women
Woman in the Dunes
Hiroshima, mon Amour
The Vanishing (original)
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Talk Radio
Brief Encounter
The Sea Inside
Wild Strawberries

By: porpoise

porpoise — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:47:35 -0800

Deathtrap staring (mostly just) Michael Caine & Chris Reeve (Superman - man oh man do I have a platonic man-crush on Chris Reeve and Clive Owen).

By: biscotti

biscotti — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:10:34 -0800

Dead Calm

By: paulsc

paulsc — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:58:08 -0800

The Upside of Anger has a cast of 10, of whom 6 characters are 90% of the movie. In a similar way, The Bridge of San Luis Rey feels like a much smaller cast than the movie actually has, because of the intense plot focus on only a handful of characters. Babette's Feast. The Edge. Garden State. The Professional. Play Misty For Me. Cast Away.

By: arcticwoman

arcticwoman — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 22:09:00 -0800

Treed Murray

By: bijou

bijou — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 22:29:35 -0800

Conversations with Other Women, for one.

Most of Michel Haneke's movies have relatively small casts: Cache, Time of the Wolf, and Funny Games (which I haven't seen, but is supposed to be extremely disturbing). I also haven't seen The Piano Teacher, so I can't speak to that.

By: bijou

bijou — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 22:30:16 -0800

Oh, and The Descent, if horror movies with small casts fit the bill.

By: tatiana wishbone

tatiana wishbone — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 22:56:50 -0800

The House of Yes. Parker Posey plays a skewed woman obsessed with Jackie O and her twin brother, hilarity ensues. It's adapted from a play and it is all shot in several rooms in a single house, but I remember being astounded that there were only 5 characters.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 22:59:49 -0800

Most of Mike Leigh's movies fit the bill - high quality, small cast, wonderful acting, marvelous realistic stories. Secrets and Lies is nearly perfect.
Seconding Aronofsky's sci-fi love story The Fountain - small cast and odd structure, a bit challenging but ultimately satisfying, with very unusual visuals.

I'd also suggest Wit with Emma Thompson, from a Pulitzer-winning play about a sharp literature professor dying of cancer, if you can get over the fact that it mostly takes place in a hospital room. Thompson's performance is amazing and the film focuses intently on her and a very small supporting cast.

By: spasm

spasm — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 23:22:59 -0800

Never Cry Wolf
IMDB lists a cast of 8, but mostly it's just Charles Martin Smith and some beautiful wolves, with excellent occasional support from Brian Dennehy and Zachary Ittimangnaq.

By: bluefly

bluefly — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:43:01 -0800

junebug
y tu mama tambien

By: SageLeVoid

SageLeVoid — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 09:43:56 -0800

Smoking/No Smoking

A strange film in two parts with lots of characters but only two actors. The two parts follow the same storyline until one character decides whether or not to smoke a cigarette.
In the first part she does, in the second she doesn't and the story changes entirely.

By: shannonm

shannonm — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:31:57 -0800

Seconding "Once", especially if you're into music and non-mainstream story arcs.

By: hurdy gurdy girl

hurdy gurdy girl — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:28:49 -0800

Melvin Goes to Dinner

Walking and Talking

House of Sand

And nthing You Can Count on Me.

By: underwater

underwater — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 09:02:01 -0800

Proof