Looking for movies to check out...
September 3, 2010 6:34 PM Subscribe
Looking for film suggestions along the lines of Lynch, Refn, Jarmusch, Aronofsky, and so on...
I've now seen nearly all of the films directed by these directors: David Lynch, Nicolas Winding Refn, Jim Jarmusch, Darren Aronofsky.
I am looking for suggestions/recommendations on further films that I should see, or directors I should investigate, based on the fact that I've liked virtually all the films by the above directors.
I especially like ones where many aspects of the film are open to interpretation (or at least more so than your run-of-the-mill Hollywood films) and especially endings like that or endings that don't resolve all of the conflicts (such as Refn's Pusher series). Also portrayals that don't romanticize difficult situations/topics or do romanticize situations/topics that aren't normally romanticized, if that makes any sense.
I'm not sure exactly how to describe it, but I like that these directors explore topics or themes outside of most of the boring/bland/vanilla films out there or explore them in a different/interesting way.
I've now seen nearly all of the films directed by these directors: David Lynch, Nicolas Winding Refn, Jim Jarmusch, Darren Aronofsky.
I am looking for suggestions/recommendations on further films that I should see, or directors I should investigate, based on the fact that I've liked virtually all the films by the above directors.
I especially like ones where many aspects of the film are open to interpretation (or at least more so than your run-of-the-mill Hollywood films) and especially endings like that or endings that don't resolve all of the conflicts (such as Refn's Pusher series). Also portrayals that don't romanticize difficult situations/topics or do romanticize situations/topics that aren't normally romanticized, if that makes any sense.
I'm not sure exactly how to describe it, but I like that these directors explore topics or themes outside of most of the boring/bland/vanilla films out there or explore them in a different/interesting way.
Response by poster: I'll be sure to check out Lone Star.
I've seen all of Jodorowski's films. Good stuff.
posted by doomtop at 6:50 PM on September 3, 2010
I've seen all of Jodorowski's films. Good stuff.
posted by doomtop at 6:50 PM on September 3, 2010
If... and O Lucky Man by Lindsay Anderson
posted by Bigfoot Mandala at 6:58 PM on September 3, 2010
posted by Bigfoot Mandala at 6:58 PM on September 3, 2010
Cronenberg. His adaptation of J.G. Ballard's 'Crash' with James Spader was a bit of a trip.
posted by chmmr at 7:01 PM on September 3, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by chmmr at 7:01 PM on September 3, 2010 [1 favorite]
Also from Sayles, check out "Limbo". Man do I loves me some David Strathairn.
posted by mcstayinskool at 7:06 PM on September 3, 2010
posted by mcstayinskool at 7:06 PM on September 3, 2010
I definitely agree with cronenberg, but came in to say Kurosawa.
posted by TheBones at 7:26 PM on September 3, 2010
posted by TheBones at 7:26 PM on September 3, 2010
You might be interested in this movie question I asked. I gave a long list of movies I like (or that I dislike but resemble ones I like) and asked for more in that difficult-to-describe vein. I gave a very verbose explanation of what type of movie I was looking for, so you can see if it fits what you're interested in or not. Four different people recommended Jarmusch movies in general, and at least one person recommended a Lynch movie. I also emphasized endings that don't resolve everything neatly the way audiences have come to expect.
posted by John Cohen at 7:43 PM on September 3, 2010
posted by John Cohen at 7:43 PM on September 3, 2010
Luis Buñuel's catalog.
posted by cmgonzalez at 7:55 PM on September 3, 2010
posted by cmgonzalez at 7:55 PM on September 3, 2010
Last Year at Marienbad, directed by Alain Resnais.
posted by infinitewindow at 8:03 PM on September 3, 2010
posted by infinitewindow at 8:03 PM on September 3, 2010
Response by poster: @John Cohen: Thanks for linking your previous question. I've seen all of the movies on your, except After Hours and Zazie dans le Metro. I'll look into those and dig through some of the answers on your list. I think I may find some items that would fit here as well. thanks!
posted by doomtop at 8:28 PM on September 3, 2010
posted by doomtop at 8:28 PM on September 3, 2010
Anything by Peter Greenaway; possibly Todd Solondz, depending on your appreciation of bleak humor.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:28 PM on September 3, 2010
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:28 PM on September 3, 2010
@John Cohen: Thanks for linking your previous question. I've seen all of the movies on your, except After Hours and Zazie dans le Metro. I'll look into those and dig through some of the answers on your list. I think I may find some items that would fit here as well. thanks!
Thanks -- glad to hear it. Definitely see After Hours! Alas, Zazie dans le Metro does not seem to be available on DVD in the US.
posted by John Cohen at 8:34 PM on September 3, 2010
Thanks -- glad to hear it. Definitely see After Hours! Alas, Zazie dans le Metro does not seem to be available on DVD in the US.
posted by John Cohen at 8:34 PM on September 3, 2010
Best answer: I don't know how it holds up, but I used to love Mary Lambert's Siesta.
Ellen Barkin, Gabriel Byrne, Isabella Rosselini, Julian Sands, Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, Alexie Sayle, Grace Jones.... famous soundtrack by Miles Davis...Good Times.
posted by jbenben at 8:37 PM on September 3, 2010
Ellen Barkin, Gabriel Byrne, Isabella Rosselini, Julian Sands, Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, Alexie Sayle, Grace Jones.... famous soundtrack by Miles Davis...Good Times.
posted by jbenben at 8:37 PM on September 3, 2010
Response by poster: Alas, Zazie dans le Metro does not seem to be available on DVD in the US.
I have access to extensive collection of movies. Accessibility will not be a problem.
posted by doomtop at 8:52 PM on September 3, 2010
I have access to extensive collection of movies. Accessibility will not be a problem.
posted by doomtop at 8:52 PM on September 3, 2010
Morally ambiguous semi-mindfuck movies by weirdo autuers? I love those.
Seconding Cronenberg (eXistenze, Naked Lunch,Videodrome, maybe even the Fly). He's a big talent who is pretty under appreciated. David Fincher (Fight Club, Seven) is another obvious choice. Kubrick (2001, AI, Barry Lyndon, Clockwork Orange) belongs on this list too. Christopher Nolan (Memento, Inception, skip the Batman, its just toughguy drama). Definitely Michel Gondry (Science of Sleep, Eternal Sunshine). Bergman too, not exacty sure what, but you can start with Persona. Fellini's 8 and a half is right up your alley too. Maybe even check out Bladerunner, but the rest of Scott's work won't interest you. Richard Linklater (Waking Life, Scanner Darkly). Hitchcock (Vertigo). Donnie Darko, but not the director's other works. Proyas (Dark City, The Crow). Almost forgot one of the masters: Terry Gilliam (Brazil, Time Bandits, 12 Monkeys)
Or pretty much any sci-fi anime like FLCL, Neon Genesis, etc.
posted by damn dirty ape at 9:03 PM on September 3, 2010
Seconding Cronenberg (eXistenze, Naked Lunch,Videodrome, maybe even the Fly). He's a big talent who is pretty under appreciated. David Fincher (Fight Club, Seven) is another obvious choice. Kubrick (2001, AI, Barry Lyndon, Clockwork Orange) belongs on this list too. Christopher Nolan (Memento, Inception, skip the Batman, its just toughguy drama). Definitely Michel Gondry (Science of Sleep, Eternal Sunshine). Bergman too, not exacty sure what, but you can start with Persona. Fellini's 8 and a half is right up your alley too. Maybe even check out Bladerunner, but the rest of Scott's work won't interest you. Richard Linklater (Waking Life, Scanner Darkly). Hitchcock (Vertigo). Donnie Darko, but not the director's other works. Proyas (Dark City, The Crow). Almost forgot one of the masters: Terry Gilliam (Brazil, Time Bandits, 12 Monkeys)
Or pretty much any sci-fi anime like FLCL, Neon Genesis, etc.
posted by damn dirty ape at 9:03 PM on September 3, 2010
Might as well toss in Orson Welles. They're 70 year old movies and might be slightly more difficult to appreciate, but they're all gold. Start with Citizen Kane and work your way down.
posted by damn dirty ape at 9:12 PM on September 3, 2010
posted by damn dirty ape at 9:12 PM on September 3, 2010
Robert Morin, especially Yes Sir... Madame, The Thief Lives in Hell and Le Nèg'. If you don't mind silent/B&W, there's also The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or Mabuse, the Gambler and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 11:05 PM on September 3, 2010
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 11:05 PM on September 3, 2010
Best answer: That seems like kind of a narrow list of directors. Are you only interested in American films from the last ten years or so, or are you willing to go beyond that a bit? If so, here are some things that might deepen your experience:
Andrei Tarkovsky. See every one of his seven movies, starting with Andrei Rublev; they are all stunningly good, and he may well be the most accomplished and expert director of film in history thus far. I tend to feel this is true, given his advanced grasp of cinematography, and his deep and thorough knowledge of film history and theory. Also, his films are deeply beautiful in an intense and striking way, without being romanticized or sentimental at all. His central theme, I think, is faith.
You should see everything by Chris Marker that you can get your hands on. In particular, you should see his two best known (and easiest to find) works: La jetée, a brilliant 30-minute short from 1962 (on which the movie Twelve Monkeys was based) and Sans Soleil, a poetic sort of documentary that's mostly a series of letters about time, home, art, war, etc, from a man returning to Japan after many years, read over footage collected around the world, and sometimes concerning that footage. It's one of the two or three best movies made in the last thirty years, and maybe the best. I highly recommend it.
I personally believe that the greatest director who's still working actively today is the British director Mike Leigh. Though it is slightly different in immediate tone than the rest of his films, you absolutely must see Naked. In fact, that's the movie I most thought of when I read your question; it will undoubtedly shock you, but it's exciting and incredibly thrilling at the same time. It's about a loud-mouthed miscreant from Manchester who barges in on his ex-girlfriend in London and insists on living with them for an indefinite period of time, finally taking to the streets in the middle of the night and carrying on wild conversations with strange people he happens upon. Mike Leigh is known as a director of dramas, and one of the central reasons for the quality of his films is his unflinching and incessantly realist eye for human character. Every single person in his films feels like a person you'd meet, to the point where these movies can get painful to watch sometimes; there are scenes in his other 90s masterpiece, Secrets and Lies, where the arguments between the characters are so immediate and tense that you find yourself cringing while watching, because they're not these grand ideological arguments that people in movies often have. The arguments that characters in Mike Leigh movies have are just like arguments in real life: they're ugly things said by angry people in a moment of cruelty, and they're hard to watch but much more meaningful. And it's not all argument, either, though conflict tends to drive his films. Leigh's been making extraordinary films for three decades now; all are of extremely high quality, but my favorite of them is High Hopes, from 1988, which Leigh has said was supposed to be about how hard it really is to be a communist. I don't think Leigh himself is a communist; he was just interested in the difficulties a person faces in that life.
Another fantastic director working today is Takashi Miike, a ridiculously prolific Japanese filmmaker. His wiki page says that he's done over seventy projects since he started in 1991, but it's almost certainly behind by a bit, considering the speed at which he works and the small lag in the English-speaking world. He works in many genres, and in all of them he tends to be very interesting. For instance, his horror films are infamous; one of his best, Audition, has become a classic of the genre in Japan and in the United States, and you may have heard of it. He's also made a lot of yakuza (gangster) flicks, for instance his Dead Or Alive trilogy, which interestingly ended (spoiler alert!) with the entire earth blowing up, and the horrific and sadistic Ichi the Killer, which seems to concern sadomasochism and psychological conditioning. He's even done some very funny stuff, principally the awesome Happiness Of The Katakuris, a zombie horror musical. Now, I know all of this makes him sound very... well, campy, and I don't think that's what you asked for. But I mention him because he is incredibly diverse; and he has at least one film I think you'd really like: The Bird People in China, a really interesting and quiet piece about a remote tribe in China that apparently teaches its children how to fly by giving them paper wings. I love that movie; a really great meditation on the relationship between Japan and China and the meaning of embracing another culture.
That should be enough to get you started. There are others – Yasujiro Ozu, Sergei Paradjanov, Jean-Luc Godard, etc – but the ones I've listed are, I think, the most essential and/or the most current.
posted by koeselitz at 11:30 PM on September 3, 2010 [4 favorites]
That should be enough to get you started. There are others – Yasujiro Ozu, Sergei Paradjanov, Jean-Luc Godard, etc – but the ones I've listed are, I think, the most essential and/or the most current.
posted by koeselitz at 11:30 PM on September 3, 2010 [4 favorites]
I'd recommend these films:
anything by Michael Haneke but Code Unknown, Cache, 71 Fragments, and Time of the Wolf in paritcular
The Servant (Joseph Losey / Harold Pinter adapt)
The Knack and How to Get It (Lester, I think)
anything by Lodge Kerrigan (Clean Shaven, Claire Dolan, Keene)
L'annulaire
Maelstrom
Performance (Roeg)
F for Fake (Welles)
Nicholas Ray's films
early Rafelson (King of Marvin Gardens, Five Easy Pieces)
Laws of Gravity
Patrice Leconte's romances (Girl on a Bridge, Hairdresser's Husband, Monsieur Hire)
Dardenne Brothers films
The Hours and the Times
I, You, He, She
Eyes Wide Shut
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Electra Glide in Blue (preferably right after watching Easy Rider)
posted by dobbs at 11:33 PM on September 3, 2010 [1 favorite]
anything by Michael Haneke but Code Unknown, Cache, 71 Fragments, and Time of the Wolf in paritcular
The Servant (Joseph Losey / Harold Pinter adapt)
The Knack and How to Get It (Lester, I think)
anything by Lodge Kerrigan (Clean Shaven, Claire Dolan, Keene)
L'annulaire
Maelstrom
Performance (Roeg)
F for Fake (Welles)
Nicholas Ray's films
early Rafelson (King of Marvin Gardens, Five Easy Pieces)
Laws of Gravity
Patrice Leconte's romances (Girl on a Bridge, Hairdresser's Husband, Monsieur Hire)
Dardenne Brothers films
The Hours and the Times
I, You, He, She
Eyes Wide Shut
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Electra Glide in Blue (preferably right after watching Easy Rider)
posted by dobbs at 11:33 PM on September 3, 2010 [1 favorite]
Wings of Desire - Wim Wenders
Bagdad Cafe - Percy Adlon
Three Colors: Blue - Krzysztof Kieslowski
The Double Life of Veronique - Krzysztof Kieslowski
posted by doctor_negative at 12:36 AM on September 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
Bagdad Cafe - Percy Adlon
Three Colors: Blue - Krzysztof Kieslowski
The Double Life of Veronique - Krzysztof Kieslowski
posted by doctor_negative at 12:36 AM on September 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
Krzysztof Kieslowski, especially his Three Colours trilogy (Blue, White, Red) and The Decalogue. The Decalogue is one of my favourite miniseries ever--it was originally broadcast on Polish TV in 10 installments, with each installment loosely based around one of the ten commandments. GREAT stuff.
If you like David Lynch, you'll probably like Lars von Trier's miniseries Kingdom. It's set in a Danish hospital that was built on top of an ancient haunted marsh. It is totally bizarre but fascinating, more dreamlike and surreal than BOO! SLASH SLASH as one might expect from the description.
I especially like ones where many aspects of the film are open to interpretation...endings that don't resolve all of the conflicts...Also portrayals that don't romanticize difficult situations/topics or do romanticize situations/topics that aren't normally romanticized.
This made me immediately think of Atom Egoyan's work, particularly The Sweet Hereafter and Exotica.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:44 AM on September 4, 2010
If you like David Lynch, you'll probably like Lars von Trier's miniseries Kingdom. It's set in a Danish hospital that was built on top of an ancient haunted marsh. It is totally bizarre but fascinating, more dreamlike and surreal than BOO! SLASH SLASH as one might expect from the description.
I especially like ones where many aspects of the film are open to interpretation...endings that don't resolve all of the conflicts...Also portrayals that don't romanticize difficult situations/topics or do romanticize situations/topics that aren't normally romanticized.
This made me immediately think of Atom Egoyan's work, particularly The Sweet Hereafter and Exotica.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:44 AM on September 4, 2010
Jonathan Weiss's movie adaptation of The Atrocity Exhibition by J G Ballard falls into this category for me. The book is totally non-linear and without a typical narrative, yet Weiss recreates the mood in film perfectly.
posted by wackybrit at 1:17 AM on September 4, 2010
posted by wackybrit at 1:17 AM on September 4, 2010
Alas, Zazie dans le Metro does not seem to be available on DVD in the US.
I have access to extensive collection of movies. Accessibility will not be a problem.
Actually, it's on YouTube.
posted by John Cohen at 4:45 AM on September 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
I have access to extensive collection of movies. Accessibility will not be a problem.
Actually, it's on YouTube.
posted by John Cohen at 4:45 AM on September 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
Definitely check out the works of Michael Haneke and Nicholas Roeg. There's something quintessentially... unsettling about them.
posted by mkultra at 10:59 AM on September 4, 2010
posted by mkultra at 10:59 AM on September 4, 2010
The new imdb interface is useless, so I'm not sure how much I miss the mark by suggesting Jan Švankmajer.
To be honest I've only seen Alice and Faust.
I suppose this post should be tagged drunken spam.
posted by kittenstew at 4:26 PM on September 4, 2010
To be honest I've only seen Alice and Faust.
I suppose this post should be tagged drunken spam.
posted by kittenstew at 4:26 PM on September 4, 2010
Response by poster: @kittenstew: Well, I've seen Alice and I will check out Faust. Thanks.
And thanks to everyone making suggestions. I will check them all out and likely watch many of them.
posted by doomtop at 4:35 PM on September 4, 2010
And thanks to everyone making suggestions. I will check them all out and likely watch many of them.
posted by doomtop at 4:35 PM on September 4, 2010
Based on your description I'd recommend the Coen Brothers recent film A Serious Man.
posted by haveanicesummer at 12:56 AM on September 6, 2010
posted by haveanicesummer at 12:56 AM on September 6, 2010
Response by poster:
Based on your description I'd recommend the Coen Brothers recent film A Serious Man.
Way too Jewish! LOL maybe it's just because I'm Jewish. It was a good movie though.
posted by doomtop at 1:18 PM on September 10, 2010
Based on your description I'd recommend the Coen Brothers recent film A Serious Man.
Way too Jewish! LOL maybe it's just because I'm Jewish. It was a good movie though.
posted by doomtop at 1:18 PM on September 10, 2010
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posted by fairytale of los angeles at 6:39 PM on September 3, 2010 [1 favorite]