Moving Images listed by Title

• Accident – Interesting Losey film centering on corruption at Oxford.
• The Age of Innocence – Made me feel like I was there – upper class NYC in the late 1800s, but the story is typical Wharton. It's a bit contrived.
• Alien – A classic! Loved the sets as well as the story.
• Aliens – So different from the first one, yet still good.
• All About Eve – Great portrayal of ruthless ambition, though Anne Baxter's performance is a little stilted.
• Andrei Rublev – Russian with subtitles. Long, but rewarding tale of a religious padependence Day in the category of alien invasions. Hearkens back to the paranoid science fiction films of the 1950s.
• As Good As It Gets – Great film with some great performances.
• At Land – Nearly insane yet captivating. [Experimental]
• Autumn Sonata – Swedish with subtitles. A lesser Bergman film, but worth seeing. A few scenes are overdirected, but there are some good perfomances nonetheless.
• Beautiful Thing – While it's definitely flawed in many way, this coming of age, coming out of the closet drama goes in a different and more positive direction than most gay films. Comical at times, but not to belittle the main characters or their problems. Corey recommended this one.
• Belle de jour – French with subtitles. Surreal, raw, and a great perfomance by Catherine Deneuve.
• Black Sunday – Italian with subtitles or English audio track. Gothic horror, Italian-style.
• Blood Simple – Surprising, especially for a first film.
• The Big Lebowski – John Goodman is great in this one.
• The Birds – Simply a classic.
• Blair Witch Project – Low budget that delivers. Despite flaws, this belongs in the big league.
• The Blue Angel – German with subtitles. The film that put Marlene Dietrich on the map. Emil Jennings is excellent as the stuff professor and admirer.
• Brazil – Mindblowing.
• Bridge on the River Kwai – Simply a classic.
• The Burmese Harp – Japanese with subtitles. Great antiwar war film.
• The Butcher Boy – The weirdest coming of age story I've ever seen. One of my two favorite Irish films.
• Catch-22 – Excellent satire of the bureaucratic mindset.
• Children of Heaven – Farsi with subtitles. A poor boy loses his sister's only pair of shoes. Comical and sad at turns. This might not sound like much, but the acting is not forced and the situations seem uncontrived. One of the gems of Iranian film.
• Children of Men – Near future science fiction with a documentary feel.
• Chinatown – A classic. The reversals in it are well done.
• Citizen Kane – I know it's on too many list, but it's still a great film.
• City of the Lost Children – Bizarre and very interesting.
• Clerks – Great film, though the dialogue is a bit too snappy (read: unrealistic).
• The Color of Paradise – Farsi with subtitles. Story of the relationship between a blind boy and his father, who does not want to be saddled with a crippled child. Sentimental at times, yet the overall story is well done, the acting superb, and a lot of the landscape shots remind me of Ang Lee or Michelangelo Antonioni. Director Majid Majidi does it again. He also did Children of Heaven.
• Come and See – Russian with subtitles. The hell of war seen through a child's eyes. One of the most disturbing films I've ever seen.
• The Conversation – Paranoia well done.
• Cookie's Fortune – Good performances by Neal, Dutton, and Close.  Shows that Altman is still in top form.
• Cool Hand Luke – Great film about a man who can't follow society's rules – in and out of prison. Another one Chris recommended.
• Crumb – The funny thing about this is that Crumb is the most normal person in his family.
• Dark City – Hard to believe such a film could be made these days. Avoids a lot of the pitfalls of science fiction film, such as being mushy and grandeloquent. Also, Sutherland was fantastic in it.
• The Dark Crystal – Simply a classic.
• Day of Wrath – Danish with subtitles. Paced drama centering on witchcraft in Denmark. Filmed in 1943. Great photography, memorable soundtrack, good performances, some brilliant scenes, and a neat plot.
• The Deer Hunter – Powerful look at the effects of war on a small Pennsylvania town.
• Demon Seed – In some ways, parallels 2001: A Space Odyssey. Christie is great in it.
• Der Golem – Silent. A classic that had a huge impact on Wales' Frankenstein. Great sets.
• Destination Moon – One of the postwar science fiction films that set the tone for the 1950s craze of space films. Actually, this one has its flaws as a work of art, but, for the time, the story and the science are convincing.
• The Devil's Backbone – Spanish with subtitles. Compelling ghost story set during the Spanish Civil War.
• Dimensions of Dialogue – Claymation with a serious twist.
• Down to the Cellar – An interesting play on childhood fears.
• The Dreamlife of Angels – French with subtitles. Proof that French film is not dead. This one is the tale of two young woman trying to make it on the margins of society. They are at first drawn to then repelled from each other. Well done and not overintellectual.
• Drugstore Cowboy – Interesting take on drug addiction.
• Easy Rider – The road trip film that shook up the American film landscape.
• Edge of Seventeen – Another of the more solid coming of age, coming out of the closet dramas.
• El Mariachi – Spanish with subtitles. This low budget Mexican films is spectacular, especially considering that it only cost $7,000 to make and two weeks to shoot. Spanish with subtitles.
• The Emperor and the Assassin – Madarin with subtitles. Deals with the first ruler of all China, showing how the best of intentions do not prevent corruption. Very well done, interesting story, large sets, with great acting, especially by Gong Li. It can be a little on the long side, weighing in at nearly three hours.
• Event Horizon – Somewhat corny, but I liked it.
• The Evil Dead – Another low budget classic. The story is rather simple and a lot of it is formula horror (e.g., people go off alone in the forest at night), but the camera effects are great.
• Eyes of Fire – Good up until the end, then it decides to go for the obvious trick.
• Eyes Wide Shut – A flawed film with lots of powerful and sometimes funny scenes. It's a shame Kubrick didn't live long enough to do postproduction work on it. The soundtrack was great!
• The Exorcist – Great film with appearance by Max von Sydow of many a Bergman film fame.
• Fahrenheit 451 – Not Truffaut's best, but good nonetheless.
• Fanny and Alexander – Swedish with subtitles. Bergman's last film. Supposedly autobiographical. Full of many wonderful and arresting scenes.
• Fantastic Planet – Cartoon that is very imaginative.
• Faust – Czech with subtitles. I believe this is Svankmajer's most ambitious film to date.
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – I've heard the Thompson book it's based on is supposed to be serious, but this film had me cracking up. Sadly, a lot of people who saw it probably didn't get as much out of the social and political satire.
• Fearless – Powerful portrayal of what happens to the survivors of a commuter jet crash.
• Fires on the Plain – Japanese with subtitles. Great antiwar war film.
• Fireworks – Brief and powerful short work by Kenneth Anger. [Experimental]
• The Flat – Imagine a world where every object is not what it seems...
• Forbidden Games – French with subtitles. War and loss seen through the eyes of two young children in rural France. Very funny at times.
• The 47 Ronin – Japanese with subtitles. The best telling of this tale I've seen.
• The 400 Blows – French with subtitles. I haven't seen all of Truffaut's films, but this the best of the ones I've seen.
• Gosford Park – Shows that Altman can still do it.
• The Ghost in the Shell – This is what anime should be all about!
• The Grand Illusion – French with subtitles. Good Renoir film about French prisoners of war in World War I. Does not demonize the Germans. Probably influenced later works, such as Stalag 17. (The latter film is about Americans prisoners of war in World War II.)
• Halloween – A classic.
• Harold and Maude – Funny, satirical, and moving. Chris and Kevin both recommended this to me.
• Hiroshima Mon Amor – French with subtitles. Resnais goes overboard again, but it works
• Hour of the Wolf – Swedish with subtitles. Like Through a Glass Darkly, this film deals with insanity. Disturbing, memorable, and fine.
• Homegrown – Well made stoner film.
• Hud – Great film starring Paul Newman. This one should be part of everyone's must see list. Another Corey pick!
• In the Bedroom – Well shot and performed domestic drama about how a middle aged couple deals with tragedy
• In the Company of Men – Twisted! About two men who decide to take advantage of the same woman as a vicious gag.
• The Ice Storm – Powerful, but very icy – character-wise, that is. Another Corey pick! This should probably be seen with American Beauty because they both have much the same take on life, though the former has better direction and seems less forced than the latter.
• Ivan's Childhood – Russian with subtitles. War through a child's eyes with the focus on the child.
• Jaws – Mythic in its handling of a simple man-, woman-, and child-eating shark.
• Johnny Stecchino – Italian with subtitles. A mafiosi tries to use a double to escape prosecution.
• Key Largo – No list would be complete without one Bogart film. It's interesting to see the antihero become the hero.
• The Killers – The 1946 version. Double-dealing and slick dialogue. Great performances and well directed. By the way, Andrei Takovsky also did a version of this when he was in film school.
• The Killing – Not Kubrick's best, but worth seeing.
• King and Country – Great Joseph Losey film about war and justice. His typical claustrophobia permeates the film. Great performance by Dirk Bogarde – as expected.
• Klute – Classic.
• Koyaanisqatsi – An audiovisual fugue. Though I disagree with the message, it was fun to watch.
• Kundun – Not as good as Seven Years in Tibet, but in some ways, much more intense. Maybe, it was the soundtrack.
• L'Avventura – Italian with subtitles. Antonioni's masterpiece. Has to be watched attentively.
• L.A. Confidential – Great and a lot like Chinatown and not just in setting.
• La Bête Humaine – French with subtitles. Not Renoir's best, but good nonetheless.
• La Jette – French with subtitles. Time travel story shot as a sequence of photographs. Basis for the more recent film Twelve Monkeys.
• La Notta – Italian with subtitles. Not as good as L'Avventura, but still worth seeing.
• La Ronde – French with subtitles. Stylized film about love triangles in Vienna circa 1900. Not overly sexualized and not at all cynical.
• The Ladykillers – Hilarious Ealing Studios caper.
• The Last Picture Show – Just rent it and see for yourself.
• Les Diaboliques – French with subtitles. Very like Hitchcock.
• Life is Beautiful – Italian with subtitles. It takes a lot of balls and talent to set a comedy in a concentration camp. If you like this one, see Night of the Shooting Stars.
• Little Dieter Needs to Fly – Fine documentary.
• Little Otik – Czech with subtitles. Based on a Czech fairy tale, this film combines many of Svankmajer's experimental techniques with a straightforward narrative. It would probably be the best introduction to his feature length films.
• Lone Star – Sayles' best film.
• Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring – Decent adaptation of Tolkien's first novel from the trilogy.
• Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – More action packed and visually stunning than the first film.
• McCabe & Mrs. Miller – Altman's Western.
• Macbeth – The Orson Welles version. Very stylish sets and Welles is in top form in the title role. It can be a bit hard to watch, since it's so close to the play and the accents are authentic Scottish. The wood moving scene obviously was borrowed by Kurosawa for his Throne of Blood.
• Macbeth – The Roman Polanski version. Gorey and realistic in a way only Polanski could make it.
• Mad Max – The one that started it all off. I thought it was very intense and gritty.
• Man of Aran – Decent documentary of life on the island of Aran.
• Man on the Moon – Brilliant portrayal of a man who tried to rattle everyone's cage.
• Marty – Funny and entertaining story of plain man trying to find love. Not very profound, but enjoyable.
• Matewan – Makes me feel like I was part of the strike.
• Memento – Well directed.
• Meshes of the Afternoon – Surreal and, at times, horrifying. [Experimental]
• Metropolis – Another classic of silent film.
• Midnight Cowboy – Powerful performances and some extremely memorable scenes in this tragicomedy about a "cowboy" who tries to become a giggolo in NYC. A Corey pick.
• Miller's Crossing – One of the best mob films made.
• The Mirror – Russian with subtitles. A collection of dream sequences that are captivating. One of Tarkovsky's best.
• The Monster – Italian with subtitles. The police trying to track down a serial killer pick the wrong man.
• The Mosquito Coast – The Apostle and this have similar themes about fanaticism and devotion. Obligatory viewing for utopians.
• Nanook of the North – Great documentary on life of Unuit in the Hudson Bay filmed in the early 1920s.
• The Neverending Story – Original for the genre – kid fantasy film.
• Next Door – Norwegian with subtitles. A film that starts out with a quite normal breakup and gets more twisted from there on.
• The Nick of Time – Good plot that is well executed.
• Night of the Hunter – Bizarre 1955 camp classic about a psychopathic preacher. Some parts of it just don't make sense, but Mitchum is powerful and a lot of the scenes are self-consciously stylized.
• Night of the Living Dead – Low budget, but very well done.
• remake. Klaus Kinski's performance is, as expected, powerful and maniacal.
• Night of the Shooting Stars – Italian and German with subtitles. About a village in Tuscany during World War Two. Should be compared with Life is Beautiful for its comic aspects, though this is not a comedy.
• Nights of Cabiria – Italian with subtitles. It's amazing how the main character manages to wind her way through all levels of society in such a short time and, despite all her failures, still finds joy in life.
• Nineteen Eighty-Four – Powerful performances by Burton and Hurt. Burton was especially powerful since he was so subdued. Compare him to hams like William Shatner or Charlton Heston.
• Ninotchka – Melvyn Douglad and Greta Garbo are great in this.
• Nosferatu – Silent. The original is a classic. One of the few silent films I'll even bother watching.
• Nosferatu – German with subtitles or dubbed into English. Werner Herzog's remake has problems, but it's still a good
• Nostalghia – Russian and Italian with subtitles. Surreal tale set in Italy in the way on Takovsky could direct it. Corey thinks it's his best film.
• The Nutty Professor – The 1996 version. IMHO, Murphy's funniest film.
• Once Upon a Time in the West – One of the greatest Westerns.
• Ordinary People – Family drama with a good plot, great performances (by Hutton, Sutherland, More, McGovern, and Hirsch), good direction, and cinematography. Compare this view of an American family with The Ice Storm. Another Corey pick.
• Ossessione – Italian with subtitles. Transplanting an America crime story into Fascist Italy might seem doomed to failure, but it works.
• Paper Moon – Well shot, well performed, and well directed. Funny without being silly.
• The Passion of Joan of Arc – Silent. Wonderfully shot and performed story of Joan of Arc's trial and demise. Mostly told through brilliant closeups and based on the actual trial transcript.
• Pather Panchali – Bengali with subtitles.
• Pathfinder – Laplander with subtitles. A passage to manhood tale set in the Norwegian Tundra. Based on a legend.
• Pecker – Lighthearted, happy, funny, and "the end to irony." The running gag with Pecker's little sister is hilarious.
• Persona – Swedish with subtitles. Great psychological drama about the relationship between an actress who refuses to speak and her nurse. Well shot, well performed. One of Bergman's best.
• Picnic at Hanging Rock – Full of foreboding. Some memorable scenes. More of a thinking person's horror film than the typical members of the genre.
• Planet of the Vampires – Inventive Italian science fiction horror that influenced Alien.
• The President's Analyst – Chris, my former roommate, turned me on to this. It starts out on a standard comedy premise and just gets weirder and weirder.
• Psycho – The Hitchcock version. A classic.
• Putney Swope – I'm glad Chris turned me on to this.
• Quo Vadis – Simply a classic.
• Ran – Japanese with subtitles. Great retelling of "King Lear." Set in Japan during its feudal period.
• Raise the Red Lantern – Madarin with subtitles. Interesting role for Gong Li as fourth wife of a man who collects wives.
• Rashomon – Japanese with subtitles. Another classic.
• The Red Shoes – Perhaps the only film where dancing is the focus that I like. Well acted, choreographed, directed, and even the music is good. The story's a little worn – choosing between love and career or love and art – but well wrought.
• The Rite – Swedish with subtitles. Claustraphobic, semi-Kafkaesque, risque drama about a troop of actors being prosecuted for violating the laws of some unnamed country.
• Ritual in Transfigured Time – Very playful, especially the stop action sequences, but then builds up to a sort of terror. [Experimental]
• Rivers and Tides – Really brings out the essence of Goldsworthy's work.
• The Road Home – Madarin with subtitles. Sentimental, but well executed film about a man recalling how his parents got together after his father dies.
• Road Warrior – Isn't it funny how many times this sort of thing has been copied? Anyway, everyone probably knows this has one of best chase scenes on film ever. The production was also better than Mad Max and this is more strictly a science fiction film (using the postapocalyptic setting as the touchstone).
• Romeo and Juliet – The 1968 version, directed by Zeffirelli. The titles roles are actually played and played well by teenagers.
• Rosetta – French with subtitles. Highly kinetic film set in Belgium about a girl trying to maintain her self-respect and lead a normal life despite being saddled with poverty and an apathetic, alcoholic mother.
• Rosemary's Baby – Well done paranoid supernatural horror.
• Rules of the Game – French with subtitles. Very funny take on adultery and risque for its time.
• Running on Empty – Filmed in New Jersey, if you can believe that. Probably the best role for River Phoenix. Judd Hirsch gave a great performance too.
• The Sacrifice – Swedish, French, and English with subtitles. Tarkvosky's last film. Not as good as all his others, but worth seeing.
• Sansho the Bailiff – Japanese with subtitles. In my opinion, the greatest Japanese film and one of the greatest films.
• Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – The best of the British angry young men movies.
• Seance on a Wet Afternoon – Well shot and well performed film about a mad psychic who pushes her passive husband into crime.
• Scorpio Rising – Short film of amazing ferocity. My favorite of Anger's. [Experimental]
• Secret Ceremony – The 1968 film. A psychological thriller more than a true horror film. Strong performances by Taylor, Farrow, and Mitchum. Great camera work and use of color. The ending is a bit pat, but the overall effect lingers.
• Secrets and Lies – Great contemporary British domestic drama. Not mean-spirited or hackneyed.
• The Set-Up – Great early Robert Wise film set in real-time.
• The Servant – Well filmed tale about a servant and his master declining into decadence together. It has problems, but Dirk Bogarde is excellent as the servant and the photography is excellent.
• Seven Samurai – Japanese with subtitles. Entertaining, though not a great film. Inspiration for The Magnificent Seven.
• The Seventh Seal – Swedish with subtitles. One of the most accessible (to Americans) foreign films I've seen.
• Seven Years in Tibet – Good story and another example of Brad Pitt's flexibility.
• The Shining – The Kubrick version. Believe or not, there was a made for TV version. Far from the book, but great direction and good performances.
• The Shop Around the Corner – Predictable, but still funny.
• The Shop on Main Street – Czech with subtitles. One of the better films of this genre.
• The Silence – Swedish with subtitles. Third part of Bergman's "faith" trilogy, along with Through a Glass Darkly and Winter Light. Not as good, in my opinion, as the second part, Winter Light, but worth seeing once you've gotten some other Bergman under your belt.
• Simon of the Desert – Spanish with subtitles. Surreal and irreverent.
• A Simple Plan – This is probably Raimi's best film. Serious subject with nods to exploitation films. Billy Bob Thornton's performance is great as expected.
• Slaughterhouse Five – I don't much like Kurt Vonnegut, but this film was trippy.
• Small Time Crooks – Woody Allen's welcome return to comedy that is not obscure.
• Spartacus – Should be part of everyone's cultural knowledge.
• Solaris – Russian with subtitles. Very long but captures the essense of Lem's novel. This refers the Tarkovsky version.
• The Star Wars Trilogy – Part of our modern mythology.
• Stalker – Russian with subtitles. Slow moving yet arresting.
• The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum – Japanese with subtitles. Depressing and well filmed and acted tale of an actor in 19th century Japan who changes his whole life based on one act of honest decency. Early Mizoguchi effort comes off great as usual.
• The Straight Story – An unexpected jewel from David Lynch.
• Sunset Blvd. – Simply a masterpiece.
• Swept Away – Italian with subtitles. Role reversal on an island in the Mediterranean that combines social commentary with slapstick. Well shot and well performed.
• Tampopo – Japanese with subtitles. An interesting look at food culture in Japan centering on one woman's desire to become a master noodle chef. A little predictable and overdone at times, but it still works.
• Targets – Great first film.
• Taste of Cherry – Farsi with subtitles. I like this film a lot, except for the last sequence.
• Terminator – Even though it's pretty much a standard anti-technology theme – robot meets girls, robot tries to kill girl, robot gets crushed by girl – I thought it was very well done.
• Terms of Endearment – Great story and performances. McClaine, Winger, and Nicholson are outstanding in this film about the ups and downs of a mother and her daughter.
• There's Something About Mary – Unexpectedly funny and surprisingly risque.
• The Thing – The John Carpenter remake, which is closer to the original Campbell story "Who Goes There?"
• Three O'Clock High – Typical standing up to the bully plot, but with quite a few funny twists.
• The Third Man – Great setting, great story, great acting. I'll never think of cuckoo clocks the same way.
• Through a Glass Darkly – Swedish with subtitles. First part of Bergman's "faith" trilogy, along with Winter Light and The Silence. You might have to be a Bergman fan to like this one.
• A Time for Drunken Horses – Farsi with subtitles. Story of a Kurdish family trying to get by on the border between Iran and Iraq. At times, sentimental, but still powerful. Wonderful landscape shots too.
• To Live – Madarin with subtitles. Story of one family's life in China from right before the Revolution to today.
• Touch of Evil – Flawed, especially with Charlton Heston's typical overacting, but still powerful scenes and Orson Welles is perfect as the bad cop here. Welles also directed it.
• The Treasures of the Sierra Madre – Another Bogart film, this time set in Mexico.
• The Trial – Welles adaptation of the Kafka novel. Difficult to watching but ultimately rewarding.
• Twelve Monkeys – Gillian's version of La Jette.
• 28 Days Later – Derivative and not without flaws, but compelling.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey – A classic and, for me, the epitome of science fiction film. Great soundtrack too.
• Umberto D. – Italian with subtitles. Depressing, funny, and uplifting all roled into one.
• Vanya on 42nd Street – Louis Malle's last film. Set in NYC where a production of Chekov's "Uncle Vanya" takes centerstage.
• Village of the Damned – The 1960 Wolf Rilla version – not the bloodless John Carpenter 1995 remake.
• Vincent and Theo – Great portrayal of van Gogh based on his letters to his brother. Corey also recommended this to me.
• The Virgin Spring – Swedish with subtitles. The Last House of the Left does not do justice to this classic. Another Corey pick!
• Wallace and Gromit – This is actually three short films, but all of them are good. I especially liked The Wrong Trousers.
• The War of the Buttons – The Irish version. I have yet to see the French original. This is my other favorite Irish film.
• Welcome to the Dollhouse – Anyone who has felt like an outsider should see this.
• What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? – Davis was an excellent madwoman in this somewhat dated tale of one sister who terrorizes another.
• What's Eating Gilbert Grape – Powerful film.
• The Wicker Man – Lost classic. Chris turned me on to this too!
• Wild Reeds – French with subtitles. This recent (1994) coming of age story is set in France during the Algerian crisis – early 1960s – and masterfully focuses on 4 young students coming to grips with life. Thanks to Corey for turning me on to this.
• Winter Light – Swedish with subtitles. Second part of Bergman's "faith" trilogy, along with Through a Glass Darkly and The Silence. Great, though very stark and depressing.
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? – Sizzling and claustrophobic. Taylor and Burton are great together. Another Corey pick!
• Zardoz – Perhaps a bit too symbolic in a Sixties way, but the story is good.
• Zelig – Another Woody Allen classic.