POO: Underrated/unknown film

Hungarian movie from 1990 or so. Allegory for, uh, the 20th century. I think. I have a lot of different theories about it. Anyway, it's one of my favorites.

Downside: (for some but not me) Bam skating sequences that have nothing to do with the plot.

Hahaha! I worked for a talent agency (in fact SWS was filmed in the old Triad offices) for a couple years and this movie was required viewing. Half the office was quoting lines from it daily.

Reminds me of the best animated feature I've ever, ever seen: the Iron Giant. It was a flop, and an unwanted "contractual obligation" project because Warner Animation was going down the shitter but they still had tons of workers on contract. It gets written off by people who don't know it as a Disney ripoff. But it's actually superior in every way except price tag, there was no huge unnecessary budget to make it overcooked. A lot of people think the director Brad Bird is the best guy in animation today, alongside Miyazaki and John Lasseter. The Iron Giant has everything. It's witty, fun, artistic, huge scope of a story, and very mature too because of the cold war setting. It has interesting credits because british poet laureate Ted Hughes wrote the original book and Pete townshend was involved early on, before it changed direction and he went off and did his "iron man" musical instead.

"Donnie Darko" gets a lot less credit than it deserves, I think.

I saw a Dutch movie called "Flodder" that was released in Canada with the title "Welfare Party". It's probably hard to see here but it's unbelievably hilarious. It seems like sort of a John Waters tribute but more subtle and pretty original. They actually try to act and it has a decent budget and stunts and stuff like that. It was such a huge hit in the netherlands that they made 3 sequels. I think it was the only good thing the director ever did though. The story is pop culture class war. A fucked up family on welfare sues the city for a better place to live and the only place left is in a mansion in the snootiest part of town. They move in and the slut girl starts screwing the neighbor and her brother takes pictures and blackmails him so they can get away with throwing wild parties and not get kicked out. The brother starts screwing the wife of an army general who gets so pissed he steals a tank and destroys everything. There's lots of great scenes with the welfare people driving other people off the road. In one scene they ram a mercedes with their jalopy and send some frat boys into a pool. In another scene, a mobile deli in a truck gets run off the road while it's full of rich housewives buying gourmet food.

Cannabis Serge Gainsbourg as a hit man, a practically nude-all-the-time Jane Birkin as his girl. Lotsa violence. The soundtrack is classic.

I'd vote for "The Shout" though - it's a really strange little semi-supernatural drama thing w/john hurt in it. It's quite odd, and very atmospheric.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0120536/

Then where were you Antipodean bums on this thread, I ask you? ;-)

To answer the question, I pick Robert Altman's 3 Women. Brilliantly acted, and still unavailable on DVD, or even VHS.

- spoilers -

I knew it was very good whilst watching it for the first time, I knew it was great when William Peterson, the "hero" of the film, gets killed via an extremely graphic shotgun blast to the face.

Stanley Donen directed stylish, intelligent film with witty dialogue that in non-linear flashbacks to various road trips thru Europe shows how a success, infidelities and passage of time affects a couple’s relationship over 12 years.

Possibly Audrey Hepburn’s best role, as it allows her to show a sharper, more acerbic side than she was normally permitted and her transformation from a lighthearted girl to a sophisticated (at times somewhat brittle) woman always amazes. I think Albert Finney is great in the film but there are mixed opinions on that.

(that said, 3 Women is the movie that warmed me to Altman. and loving The Black Hole is one of my earliest memories.)

I'd nominate The Mother and The Whore (1973) by Jean Eustache as a film that really should be more widely known.

A Boy and His Dog (1975) Don Johnson walks the earth post-World War 4 with his talking dog "Blood", who searches out women for him to mate with in exchange for food. Johnson is eventually kidnapped by an underground cult who want to use his fertility to impregnate the ladies. As weird as it sounds.

The Bride with White Hair (1993) Before he went Hollywood Ronny Yu perfected the "wire fu" techniques later picked up for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in this awesome Eastern adventure film.

A Bullet in the Head (1990) John Woo's best film is a super violent spin on "The Deer Hunter" only much much better and far less racist than its inspiration. Three friends end up in Vietnam, carrying a shed load of cash, and get stuck in the midst of the war. Features the always watchable Tony Leung and is miles away from Woo's tepid Hollywood output.

The Magnificent Butcher (1987) One of my all time favourite Far East films, starring Sammo Hung who stages some jaw dropping martial arts sequences. The film is non stop and as atmospheric as a kung fu movie can get.

The Plague Dogs (1982) Martin Rosen's fiercly anti-vivisection animated movie is even better than anything Disney churned out in the 80s.

Spider Baby (1964) Jack Hill does postmodern long before anyone else with this very strange, but always enjoyable, story of a family of crazies led by Lon Chaney Jr. Also stars Hill regular Sid Haig. The film goes out of control pretty fast and never lets up - "It's not nice to hate".

Switchblade Sisters (1975) Jack Hill again with a movie that Quentin Tarantino himself now owns the rights to (check out the Q Man's awesome Region 1 DVD release). Joanne Nail is one of the sexiest women ever, and as far as kickass, chicks beatin' up the guys movies go - this is possibly the best.

Uzumaki (2000) Manic Japanese horror flick about a small town which finds itself obsessed with spirals. Soon people are, literally, turning into spirals and/ or snails. As insane as it sounds, but beautifully made.

The Wanderers (1979) I'm never shocked by how few people seem to have seen Philip Kaufman's incredible period set (in this case the 60s) "coming of age" movie, which also happens to feature a brilliantly choreographed fight sequence at the end and Karen Allen in her underwear.

Stanley Tucci's "The Imposters" (1998) is fun, smart, surrealistic, extremely well-acted by everyone (especially Tucci, Oliver Platt, and Lili Taylor, who should always play brassy 1930s dames)...and was unfairly trashed by everyone who was mad that it wasn't "Big Night 2." Also it dared to be silly, apparently a no-no.

Bodysong (2003)

The process of human life, from birth through to death, without dialogue. the entire thing can be watched on youtube.

I know it's been discussed elsewhere on ILX, but Possession (1981) has had a profound impact on me since my first mutedly horrified viewing. It's of a kind with Lynch at his best in terms of surreal nightmarishness but with none of his warmth. It's a hermeticaly-sealed universe with no exit, and, although it barely meets the criteria of a traditional horror film, it's oozing with more genuine dread than most examples of the genre. RIYL Inland Empire, maybe.

Also Hot Rod, which is funny.

I saw Bodysong at a local film festival years ago, it was indeed breathtaking, but I'm not sure if I'd want to watch it at Youtube quality. The director was at the screening, and he mentioned that the film has absolutely no original film material at all, everything in it is archival footage he got from the BBC archives (or something like that). So it's a movie that was literally created on a cutting board.

I know it's been discussed elsewhere on ILX, but Possession (1981) has had a profound impact on me since my first mutedly horrified viewing.

^ one of my favorites. wouldn't call it unknown, exactly, but definitely deserves more attention.

human life, from birth through to death, without dialogue. the entire life can be spent on youtube.

'possession's been getting an arthouse revival around the US lately (just ran in nyc and is coming to LA soon)

Thomas est Amoureux (Thomas in Love) (2000)

Belgian sci-fi/psychological drama about a agoraphobic prodigy searching for love in all the wrong places, shot from the point of view of his computer screen, in a well fleshed out future. On Netflix streaming.

xpost

Whaaaaaat? That's amazing news! I can, for some reason, imagine a lot of walk-outs, though. I hadn't read any description of the film beforehand that adequately prepared me for what I saw.

Funeral Parade of Roses
(1969)

Crazy queer experimental/avant-garde film from Japan; very playful but goofy like "Hausu". Highly recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCvz3O3cB8k

blanche (1972)

Running on Empty - Sidney Lumet 1988

River Phoenix is the son of two Weather underground types who've been on the run for years after a botched bomb attack (?) - they move all the time, he gets to be the new kid in school once a year. His parents are Judd Hirsch, a tough but tender union activist who organises wherever he goes, and his more middle-class renegade wife, Christine Lahti. Despite their situation, they are committed and intelligent parents, who try and teach the kids right and pass on their ideals. The crisis emerges from the kid's musical talent: he's gifted pianist, but there's no way he can get the education he needs without his parents coming clean about who he, and they are.....

Despite the subject matter, low key and underplayed. Deserves to be better known (maybe it is in the States?)

Looooooooove Running On Empty.

'possession's been getting an arthouse revival around the US lately (just ran in nyc and is coming to LA soon)

― Prince Rebus (donna rouge), Thursday, February 9, 2012 1:20 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there was also a recent mubi post abt the full zulawski retro coming up. i'm pretty jazzed that im gonna be in nyc for some of that time

Hysterical Excess: Discovering Andrzej Zulawski will be the first complete retrospective of the Polish director's work in the US, running from March 7 through 20 at BAMcinématek in New York. What's more, Zulawski will be making his first appearance in the US to present an oeuvre that "spans four languages and four decades," as BAM puts it, announcing that they'll be presenting "all 12 of Zulawski's feature films, many of which remain unavailable on home video, with 11 in 35mm prints. Additionally, the two rarely screened shorts that Zulawski made for Polish television at the beginning of his career, Pavoncello and The Song of Triumphant Love (both 1967), make their US debuts in the series."

just watched the new dvd of rolling thunder (1977), which has always been a v difficult film to view in the uk, at least.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/feb/04/rolling-thunder-john-flynn-dvd?newsfeed=true

movie is a great, schrader-scripted taxi driver variant w/ william devane as a former pow who returns home a 'dead' hero - really straddles the line between new hollywood arty alienation and cormanesque exploitation bloody revenge fantasies (it was produced by sam arkoff). also has def similarities to bob clark's deathdream/dead of night (1972)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathdream

itself a great hybrid of cassavettes-realism and proto-savini gorefestery.