Little Known Flicks We Should See?

I've been down every amazon road whether .com .de. .uk .fr or .jp - I've checked netflix too. I even tried contacting someone directly on a website, but never received a response. I saw some great documentaries on him at a film festival at the University of Alabama at Birmingham called "Travelling Film South Asia." It was film fesitival package tour sponsored by HIMAL magazine, a great Nepalese magazine on south asian political & cultural affairs.

 

Mindwalk with Liv Ullman, Sam Waterston and John Heard. A physicist, a politician and a poet walk around a French island (that one that you can walk to by land at low tide but I forget the name) and talk about everything. The movie is one big conversation.

Trees Lounge - Steve Buscemi's directorial debut. Not to sure if this rates as a 'little known flick' but I love giving it props whenever I can. About a thirtysomething loser and drunk on Long Island and his gradual awakening to life. No pat answers or plot resolutions.

 

Pi

Darren Aronofsky's first film (before Requiem for a Dream).

From IMDb:

In Manhattan, behind six locks, lives Max Cohen, a mathematician and computer whiz. Since staring at the sun at age six, he's had terrible headaches; plus, he can't abide human contact except with an aging professor, and he's obsessed with finding numeric patterns. His current obsession is the stock market; his theories bring him to the attention of Wall Street traders. He also keeps running into Lenny, a fast-talking Hasidic who fronts for a cabal that wants to rediscover long-lost mathematical mysteries in the Torah. Neither group is benign, and they pursue Max as his hallucinations and headaches worsen.

I would think many people posting in here know of this, but for some reason a lot of people haven't heard of or seen it. Personally, I thought it was excellent. Aronofsky made the film for almost nothing, but did a great job. Sean Gullette, who was the lead, also cowrote the film with Aronofsky.

 

I saw it or atleast part of it. It was terrible.
Just my opinion, maybe a guy/girl split b/c the guy at the video store liked it and I think my BF watched it through.

 

Living in Oblivion,Floundering(Steve Buscemi)

Romper Stomper(Russell Crowe)

Mifune( Iben Hjejle )

The Closet,The Return of Martin Guerre,A Pure Formality(Gerard Depardieu)


Twin Town(Rhys Ifans,Dougray Scott)


I'm surely leaving out many but this is what I can come up with off the top of my head.

 

"Johnny Stecchino" (starring Roberto Benigni)

It's in Italian, so those of you who don't speak the language will have to deal with subtitles. Still, though, it's perhaps the funniest movie I've ever seen.

 

Just make sure you're pronouncing it "right." That's the important thing. (If you've seen American Movie -- and Phat's right, you should -- you'll know what I mean)

I'll just mention three I've seen in the past month that probably aren't at the local Googleplex. Unless you have a really cool one.

Since John Sayles has been mentioned, I'll recommend his newest, called Sunshine State. Great use of the "Greek Chorus" in the form of 4 rich guys golfing.

Also saw this weekend 13 Conversations About One Thing. A great slice of life film that has a beginning a middle, and an end, but not in that order.

And for a good indy date movie, The Bread, My Sweet made in Pittsburgh. It'll leave you asking the universal question, "damn, since when did Scott Baio know how to act?"

 

'Yojimbo' (don't know how well known this Kurosawa flick is, but its my current favorite).

'Tetsuo the Iron Man' - this is some crazy f***ing s**t.

'Fallen Angels' (great HK film and its not Kung Fu either).

Some of the Werner Herzog films are interesting - particularly those with Klaus Kinski (he was a crazy mother*****r):

'Aguirre, Wrath of God'

'Fitzcaraldo'

'Nosferatu'

'The Legend of Caspar Hauser'- not with Kinski

The Jacques Tati movies are all funny, particularly:

'Mon Oncle'

'Playtime'

 

What a quality film this is. I thought the movie was pretty well known, but then again, I guess black and white Japanese cinema isn't exactly mainstream with most folks.

 

Heart of Glass is also a very fine film Aguirre is terrific. , one of my favortes.

I saw JOhn Cassavetes Shadows this weekend. it doesn't get much mroe slice of life. Somewhat like early Godard without the loopy intellectual moments and, well, generally the Frenchness.Quality film.

 

For those of you who like movies such as 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' and 'Snatch' there is a UK film (Scottish) which might satify you (and no, its not Guy Ritchie).

Its called 'Orphans' and I liked it better than Snatch. The version I saw in the theatre actually had subtitles because the Scottish accents are so thick. Unlike, LSTSB, and Snatch I don't think it was ever intended for major release in the US. Anyone else seen this?

It may not be the best movie ever but I liked it nonetheless.

 

The Debt Collector with Billy Connolly and Andrew Stott.

Billy is a reformed debt collector who used to beat the crap out of those who couldn't repay the money owed to loan sharks. He's now a successful sculptor, and has an exebition in a Glasgow gallery. Andrew was the policeman who caught him and is obsessed with proving that Billy's character is an evil man, and should be an outcast for his previous deeds.

This, and Mrs. Brown show what a good actor Billy is.

 

nobody i know has seen "after hours" , so ill qualify that as "little known" for now, though i am really in no position to judge. i could be totally wrong.

Anyways, its about the one long night this guy as after he gets off work. ill leave it at that.

Its one of my all time favorites.

 

Not sure if it's little-known enough to belong here, but, see Lola Rennt (English title Run Lola Run).

 

A lot of people have heard of "Europa, Europa", but very few have seen it. I found it terribly interesting.

 

Would edit my previous post to add a link, but apparently it's past some time limit, so...

Lola Rennt (English title Run Lola Run).

 

Same thing, tried to edit my previous post, and it wouldn't let me, so here it is, in revamped form:

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The first movie I would add to this thread would be Vertical Ray of the Sun. It is one of the most beautifully shot movies ever.



Another great little known movie is Shower. It pits modernity against traditional ways. Its a Chinese movie. Very funny, but very serious too.

Andrei Rublev would be another classic. Long movie though (over 3 hours.) It has a great surprise in store at the end. One of the coolest sequences I've ever seen in a movie.

You should be able to get all of these at any decent video store, eventhough most of them are "little known."

The impossible to find movie I would suggest would be Music in Their Bones a great documentary about bluegrass in rural Alabama. This was listed at IMDB, but there were no reviews, no information and no buying information. I saw it at a film festival.

 

That's the one where the cast are hypnotized, right? Funny story about that one: It was shown on "International Film Friday" at my college, and it attracted an unusually large crowd of trendily-dressed new-wave wankers. The film started, and instantly the crowd is restless. A low murmer runs through the theater. Suddenly, about 5 minutes in, a guy with wrap-around shades and an outfit that makes him look like that robot from The Day the Earth Stood Still stands up and says, "hey! What the F#*k! This isn't Blondie!" (You younger folks may not know that Blondie... AKA Deborah Harry's Band, had an album called Heart of Glass, and the trendoids thought they were getting look at the live concert film....

On the the obscure flick part of my post:

Rogopag is a must see for anyone who likes European film from the 60s. It's a series of short films by different directors (similar to New York Stories, only about 30 years earlier). The names of the directors are in the title: Rossellini, Pasolini, Godard, and Gregoretti. Rossellini's seems sort of mailed in, Pasolini's and Godard's are great, but the best one is by Gregoreti (Ghost, I think you'd really dig this one), a director who seems, as far as my local (and excellent) video place iis concerned, fell off the roof shortly thereafter... anyone knows anything about this guy, let me know.

I would also add another good indy American flick that I've seen three or four times and which I like better each time: The Florentine. It revolves around a Pennsylvania bar and features incredible performances by Tom SIzemore, Jim Belushi, and Luke Perry... I'm not kidding.