So a friend gave me his Netflix account – wooohooo! I started adding films to his queue so recommend to him (oh god, he has a horrible recommendation system, namely Netflix itself and ends up watching a whole bunch of bad movies…). While DVDs would always be sent to him, there’s still a whole lot of films that I can stream. So quickly, I started adding things for myself…
It turns out that most of what I am adding is qualified as “cerebral”, what the heck XD I actually thought that recently I am watching more fun films than necessarily deep, meaningful stuff. I guess I was wrong then. I also realized that I keep adding non-American movies! Even though the majority of the films I like are probably still all from the U.S., I have a feeling that I have a tendency towards European and Asian films now (which are all grouped into “foreign” on Netflix, LOL).
I don’t know if you can browse Netflix without an account, but if you can, feel free to recommend stuff to me! Also, this is a list of films I already have in my “instant queue”, and of course you are also free to warn me from watching any of these. ;)
Rebel without a Cause
Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams
Oasis
Tout va Bien
Paris, Texas
Ichi, the Killer
The Trial (Welles)
Bed and Board
8 1/2
Amarcord
Playtime
Pickpocket
L’Avventura
The Bicycle Thief
Fahrenheit 451
The Third Man
The Boss of it all
Dead Snow
Europa
Grad Illusion
Jeanne Dielman
Late Spring (ahhh another Ozu XD I will not give up yet!)
Rachel Getting Married
Seven Samurai
Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday
Ikiru
La Jetée
Delicatessen
Batman Returns
Not One Less
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
Goya’s Ghosts
24 City
Umberto D.
Rome Open City
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Syriana
The International
Letters from Iwo Jima
In the Mood for Love
Together
A Tale of Two Sisters
Turtles can fly
Alexander Nevsky
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Ugetsu
The Seven Year Itch
His Girl Friday
It happened one night
Holiday
Everyone says I love you
A midsummer night’s sex comedy
Paths of Glory (ahh!)
Three… Extremes
The Turandot Project
The Marriage Circle
The Virgin Spring
The 7th Seal
Smiles of a Summer Night
You, the Living
The Short Films of David Lynch
Synecdoche, New York
Dune (1984)
Woman in the Moon
Vampyr
Psycho
The 39 Steps
Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach
Love is colder than death
Legend of Paul and Paula
Katzelmacher
Marriage of Maria Braun
Beetlejuice
How to Steal a Million
The Big Sleep
Laura
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
The Ramen Girl
Aria
Swimming Pool
The True Story of Jesse James
What an interesting list! :) I’m so jealous!
“OMG, you haven’t already watched it?” Or: Total recommendation:
* Parix, Texas (One of the best acted scenes ever.)
* La grande illusion (Don’t you hate Renoir? XD)
* Not One Less (Haven’t you I burned you the DVD a long time ago? XD)
* Ugetsu (Just one of the best Japanese classics.)
* The 7th Seal (Watch it, like, right now!)
* Psycho
Recommendable/Watchable:
* Fahrenheit 451 (Has its original sides and is probably a good adaptation, but… I hated how they, namely Bradbury himself, changed the blonde girl into an adult woman with a romantic relationship to the protagonist, ugh)
* Together (I loved it, but, well, it’s a Lukas Moodysson and thus pretty much a question of taste and emotional state while watching.)
* Everyone says I love you (Just random.)
* In the Mood for Love (Style. Nothing else. :P)
* Beetlejuice (Well, amusing and Burton-ish, but nothing that you remember much after having it finished. Watch Sleepy Hollow or Mars Attacks instead!)
And the only one I didn’t like is
* Black Orpheus (Boring kitsch)
Ohhhh, thanks for the comments!
* La Grande Illusion: No no, the one I hate is Resnais! Also I keep thinking Resnais is Rivette and the other way around, but this is amusing too, ahahaha.
* Not One Less: I don’t have any of me DVDs with me! XD
* Black Orpheus: It’s kicked from the list XD
put some Cassavetes up there!
i’d say start with “Shadows” (the closest that American independent cinema got to the Nouvelle Vague), and then go anywhere you want from there. “A Woman Under The Influence” is a must-see, while to me “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie” and “Love Streams”, despite their meanderings and fuzziness, are unquestionably the greatest of his films.
randomy things on your current list that I am very enthusiastic about:
Rachel Getting Married
The Trial (isn’t that one on the monolith though??)
Psycho
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Katzelmacher (you’ll immediately see the brilliant Straub-ness of this one!)
Rebel Without a Cause (just because it has been so influential on a couple of films I adore)
Ohhh, they don’t have either of those Cassavetes movies you were mentioning! What they have is “Columbo” (LOL), “Big Trouble”, “Tempest”, “Minnie and Moskowitz” and “Husbands”.
The Trial: I remember you brought the DVD, but for some reason or another, it’s not on the Monolith *cries* Maybe it’s because I have the physical DVD at home? Ahahaha.
Katzelmacher: I’m so looking forward to it!
Rebel without a cause: Which ones are there?
In that case take Minnie & Moskowitz! xD
O Sangue and A Brighter Summer Day both strongly recall the particular atmosphere in the Nicholas Ray film, especially during the many scenes at night and in their depiction of teenage conflicts (the former one is basically a direct hommage, with scenes that seemed almost re-staged).
But see if Netflix has “They Live By Night” or “Johnny Guitar”
Great, it’s added. Unfortunately they don’t have “They live by night” and “Johnny Guitar”, but they have “The true story of Jesse James”! XD
So that means I should watch “Rebel with a cause” before “A brighter summer day” then? Hmmmmm. (It’s just like how I am planning on watching Piz-Palü before Inglorious Basterds.)