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Top 10 memorable films

The old Dune, Wally? With the guy from Twin Peaks?

That was indeed memorable, though I'm afraid at moments as a comedy.
 
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This thread is a fun read.

Fight Club: EVERYTHING about this film is so damn excellent.
Yes.
Pulp Fiction: Another film that has worked its way into our cultural fabric more than we realize - for better or worse.
Yes.
Jurassic Park... that one doesn't age at all!
Ha ha, you have your opinion and I respect it. (I don't share it.)
The Sting
Glad this made someone's list.
Lost Highway
So much yes.


MOST MEMORABLE i.e. not "favorites" per se. Though they can and might be both, I would assume. My list of most memorable is probably half favorites and half not:

Fight Club
Pulp Fiction
Lost Highway
Godfather I (and II, whatever)
Interstellar
Strictly Ballroom
Life is Beautiful
The Happening (odd choice but I still think about it every year when we get the Santa Ana winds in LA)
Big Lebowski
Cinema Paradiso
Glengarry Glen Ross
Shawshank Redemption
The Matrix
Any Given Sunday
Inception
Napoleon Dynamite

How many is that? 10? Close enough.
 
nobody mentioned Scott Pilgrim Saves the World!

Stranger than Paradise

Down by Law

but someone mentioned "Babette's Feast," one of the all time most fun "small" movies and someone else "The Grand Budapest Hotel" which I like / love despite its obvious over-cranked-ness in places. Plus a fab score, my favourite from M. Desplat
 
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Here are a few more:

Bicycle Thieves (Italy)
Drained (Brazil)
Taxi Driver (South Korea)
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (Japan) -- docufilm.
Children of Heaven (Iran)
The Invention of Lying (U.S.)
The Guard (U.K.) - viewer's discretion advised --> extremely sarcastic and downright rude.
 
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The first nine were easy:
  1. Metropolis (1927)
  2. The Apartment (1960)
  3. Woman in the Dunes (1964)
  4. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
  5. Walkabout (1971)
  6. Star Wars (1977)
  7. Stalker (1979)
  8. Blade Runner (1982)
  9. My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

But all of these are jockeying for inclusion to make ten:
  • La Belle et la Bête (1946)
  • Late Spring (1949)
  • Tokyo Story (1953)
  • Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953)
  • Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
  • Kwaidan (1964)
  • Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
  • Tampopo (1985)
  • Lord of the Rings (2001-2003)
 
How can anyone forget David Lynch Eraserhead! Just to start

I'm not as stirred by that one as many people seem to be but some of his other stuff -- Wild at Heart, Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man -- talk about unforgettable.

Mr. Lynch tugs at the old "curtain of sanity" and exposes an alternate reality. I find his version of reality all the more disturbing and freaky because it's not far from the one we experience in normal times. For me, it's subversive because, unlike slasher films or anything supernatural, Mr. Lynch's scary version is only a step (or two) away; discard a couple of norms, unleash some of the atavistic, primitive craziness that people certainly have within them, and wham!
 
Reducing it to 10 is hard, however,
that's an attempt:

Tři oříšky pro Popelku (German: Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel, Dir.: V. Vorlíček, 1973)
This was my favorite movie as a child.

Landru (Claude Chabrol, 1962)
An incredible film.

A Clockwork Orange (1971)
While the film distorts the substantial intention of the book (not Kubrick's fault), it's still a classic.

Meaning of Life (1983)
I've picked this film as a representative for the art of Monty Python.

Texas (Helge Schneider, 1993)
The art of absurdity

Happiness (Solondz, 1998)
Humor can be pretty tough

Bitter Moon (Polanski, 1992)
This one is probably not an extraordinary film. But i was young and really liked it; also
because of the extremely clever use of music (Vangelis)

Laura (Preminger, 1944)
This made it into this list mostly because of the music (Raksin).

Fight Club (Fincher, 1999)
I didn't watch this one in the cinema (i think the trailer was misleading), but lots of times on DVD...

Idiocracy (Judge, 2006)
Intented as a comedy, this film turned out to be kind of a documentary.
 
Its memorable purely because there was no way I was going to watch it at night lol I watched in the daylight ;)
I'm not as stirred by that one as many people seem to be but some of his other stuff -- Wild at Heart, Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man -- talk about unforgettable.

Mr. Lynch tugs at the old "curtain of sanity" and exposes an alternate reality. I find his version of reality all the more disturbing and freaky because it's not far from the one we experience in normal times. For me, it's subversive because, unlike slasher films or anything supernatural, Mr. Lynch's scary version is only a step (or two) away; discard a couple of norms, unleash some of the atavistic, primitive craziness that people certainly have within them, and wham!
 
Tried to enjoy Laura but just too sentimental for me, notwithstanding the music.

That's interesting.
I've always perceived the movie in the sense of Bertolt Brecht's concept of an "epic theatre" (of course there is no direct relation, so this is with a grain of salt...), where the
passion is abstracted to a massive degree. For me, this works because the character of Waldo; this complexion of stoicism, cynism, sarcasm and in the same time consciously perceived sentimentality
reaches me in a humorous way (not in the sense of "funny" humour).
And the music really underlines this on the semantic level.
One interesting thing is that Laura's theme is less about Laura and more about Waldo seeing Laura.
And Raksin handles this in a remarkable way; e. g. when the theme's tonality follows the circle of fifth, which is a traditional symbol for something inevitably taking place (like some destiny unfolding).
An interesting detail (on a personal level) is the fact that Raksin studied with Schoenberg, who wrote that incredibly valuable (and often overseen) book Structural Functions of Harmony [1948], which deals with the use of tonality on the level of tonal regions that get used in longer formal blocks. (That book had a huge impact on me personally, i read it at age 18...;) )
 
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Heres one more vote for Casablanca so its up to 3 votes now. Theres a Ricks Bar in todays Casablanca - at least it was there 3 years ago - some American had invested big. Its worth the visit to Morocco just for that bar, and the movie plays non stop. Sams piano located on first floor, the roulette on 2nd.

Second vote is for Lars von Triers, Breaking the Waves. Just as an odd horse - about power of a faith (or call belief in miracles). I just kept weeping, like I wept to Schindlers list in end. I dont weep, so thats quite an accomplishment.

Third vote is 12 Monkeys - The movie. It wouldnt be what it became without the magic of Astor Piaollas bandoneon.
 
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