Films that linger on in your mind

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Powell & Pressburger's A Canterbury Tale left this wonderful memory in my head, and I might be tempted to rate it as one of my favourite films, despite only having seen it once or maybe twice a long time ago. It's at once dreamlike and amazingly evocative of 1940s Britain in a way that makes you realise how few directors we had that documented that world. I was pleased to see it get a third place in this little survey.

Another film that has had a similar effect on me is The Man Who Fell To Earth.

Which films fall into this category for you?

― N., Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sorry about the crappo html skills.

― N., Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

This is hard to answer, because most of my favorite films I own and/or have seen so many times. I think for many years, though, it would have been The Uninvited, an excellent supernatural thriller from 1940 or so starring Ray Milland. Saw it with my mom on TV once in 1984 or so and was totally amazed by it -- when I finally got a chance to tape and own it in 1991 or so, I was taken by how much I remembered about the film.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Victor Erice's 'The Spirit of the Beehive' - I've only seen it once, over twenty years ago, but I can still bring to mind certain scenes and images from it. Ditto: Paradjanov's 'The Colour of Pomegranates'.

― Andrew L, Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"The Man Who Fell to Earth" for sure, most Nic Roeg films are pretty haunting. Also haunting/disturbing are Cronenberg's films; "Dead Ringers" is a hard one to shake. "Requiem for a Dream"? "Suspiria"?

― Sean, Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Requiem for a Dream

You're having a LARF. Crappo MTV editing and some nice shots of Coney Island do not a haunting film make.

― N., Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"If...", "Solaris" and "Stalker"

― Norman Phay, Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Funny, I thought he was asking for opinions.

― Kim, Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Bah I have just had a squint at that loopy poll and can't believe 'Black Narcissus' - far and away P&P'S best flick - came so low (one sodding vote!)

― Andrew L, Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Perfect Blue and Videodrome back-to-back.

― Dan Irons, Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Police Squad". I now see the world as a cage of perpetually flatulent dwarfs.

― Brian MacDonald, Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The Rapture kind of messed me up for a bit when I first saw it. I had a buddy that said he couldn't sleep until the following night after seeing it. I recall from the IMDb that others seemed to have similar experiences. (some hate it though)

― Ron Hudson, Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

D. W. Griffith's "Orphans Of The Storm". I only saw it once, over 20 years ago, but still have a vivid memory of how the tension of the car (riage) chase sequence with Lilian & Dorothy Gish nearly gave me a heart attack.

― David, Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Nanook of the North

― anthony, Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The Warriors, perhaps. Those lips, the heat...

― Ally C, Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Tiger Bay. When Horst Bucholz says to Hayley Mills, before he leaves, "Don't worry--wherever I go, I'll always be your friend."--that part really got to me.

And Choose Me.

― Arthur, Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

it certainly wouldn't rank in my cinematic Top Ten, but in terms of lasting effects...when i was a wee lass, i snuck up to watch Stephen King's It mini-series in the late-movie slot. Scared the crap outta young me. even hearing Fur Elise gave me the creeps for years and years after that. conversely, the Carrie splatterfest-ending and The Exorcist were just cooooooool.

― petra jane, Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

in serendipidously related news, i just got send this link. prob OK for work. quick, before it stops being funny!

...oh, wait, there it goes...

― petra jane, Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Umberto D.

― Evangeline, Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Scarface.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

james at fifteen at about age 12, on a black & white tv; haven't seen it since.
saw some of if... by lindsay anderson on telly late at night when i was young and was rather obsessed with those images (even the pace of the film was very unusual from what i was used to)...have seen that whole movie right through as an adult though.
my parents let us watch the remade david bowiefied cat people and the scene where someone was gonna have sex with someone but they turned into a panther and i think ripped him up instead made a big impact. not in a good way! and there's the other "erotic" things which i still can't explain very well and one of them i still don't know what film it was from (i wrote about it on the thread about earlist erotic feelings for famous people...or something...the one where duane expresses his burning desires for the folly foot farm lasses). oh the scene from the nz movie vigil where the girl starts her menstrual bleeding and thinks she's dying was a big one too, because i was about eight or nine and didn't really understand it for a while.

― elizabeth anne marjorie, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

oh and of course i will never fully recover from the effects of the jaws movies

― elizabeth anne marjorie, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

a lingering film scene for me is in the abyss where the two people who love each other are staring at each other through their diving gear head bubble thingies and i think one or both of them is gonna die and they can't get close enough and they move up and bump aginst each other and it's really sad and i guess i use it (involuntarily) in my brain in an over-obvious metaphorical way. i don't know - maybe it was a good scene; i haven't seen the abyss for ages.
what about that trippy stuff at the end of contact. you should watch that movie after reading terrence mckenna theories!!

― elizabeth anne marjorie, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

My films. Ho ho.

I have recurring nightmares about the editing room months after they're done.

― geeta, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Boring answer - 2001.Other answer - Solaris.

― Damian, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The Last Picture Show, even though I've only seen it once and it was on so late I was dozy the whole way through. And an Alison Anders one called Gas, Food, Lodging.

― Anna, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Most films seen in a haze of drunken cynicism on a Friday night will fit into this catagory. SO Switchblade Sisters, Lust For A Vampire have recently moved into that slot. (As is oddly Six Degrees Of Separation).

However the film that lingers the most and refreshes itself regularly since BBC1 programmers love it so is Tremors.

― Pete, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The Slipper and the Rose cos it is still my ultimate fantasy (well nearly) to have a swing with flowers on the chains and wear a princess dress while swinging on it. This could be because I am high on toothache though.

― Emma, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

awww the sense of joy and innocence in Gregory's girl, as seen on saturday night in my snotty state, it was the perfect thing.

― chris, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Funny, I thought he was asking for opinions.

Sorry if you meant what I wrote seemed snippy. If RFAD haunts Sean then fine. I was just bewildered by the attention that film got.

― N., Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Bewildered? RFAD is the kind of image heavy, grotesque movie which fits perfectly into this kind of catagory (if we wander down the road of visual images being arresting and stay in the memory longer - if you have that kind of imagination).

I'm trying to find the thread where I slag off Gas, Food, Lodgings but life is too short.

Favourite movies do not bear watching too many times.

― Pete, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It's weird. Maybe RFAD should be like that but I forgot it almost the moment I walked out of the cinema. The only images I can remember are the mother's teeth chattering speedfreakery and her and her neighbours sitting in the street waiting for the TV invite to come. Oh, and the double butt fucking.

― N., Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yeah but a double butt fucking lingers a long time. I was thinking of the dream-like qualities (or trip-like?) - something which you refer to above in you Canterbury Tales eulogy. And the music... And the confusion I got when I was convinced they cut off the wrong arm (since proven to be incorrect Pete reading of film).

― Pete, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

this might be too obvious as "haunting" but how 'bout picnic at hanging rock?
i don't know how well known that film is outside of australia & new zealand.

― elizabeth anne marjorie, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

PAHR = Classick!

― Pete, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Spaceballs!

― I Am A Pleb, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'm trying to find the thread where I slag off Gas, Food, Lodgings but life is too short.

No Pete, no. It's a wonderful film. (Also one I haven't seen for about seven years, but the mood sticks, which is what I interpreted this thread as.)

― Anna, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Indeed.

'Gas Food Lodging' was on at the film soc at university and I saw the trailer a few times, which I vaguely recall. I think I decided it looked boring and about women things.

― N., Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes, ignore Pete's flapdoodle. GFL is lovely (and Fairuza Balk as Mexican film/Bowie fan is adorable). Nice soundtrack by J Mascis also.

Films that have lingered with me: L'Atalante (the underwater scenes); Wonderlands' fireworks scenes (what a great day of films last Saturday was: Kane/Ambersons/Wonderland/FisherKing/Gregory's Girl/Tremors/Bird); weirdly, as a non-Cronenberg fan, ExistenZ - it had a genuinely surreal dream clarity.

― Edna Welthorpe, Mrs, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'll second Picnic At Hanging Rock - of course, its the non- resolution of the story that mostly causes the movie to be indelibly stamped in your mind. ("B-b-but...", etc.)

Four other movies that left an impression on me when I was at an impressionable age:

Dead of Night (Ealing mystery/horror film - mainly due to the mirror and ventriloquist dummy sequences, altho' the ending is also terrific)
Halfway House (Ealing again - a gentler, erm, 'mystery' tale - don't want to SPOILER it)
The Curse Of The Cat People (stupendous sequel, mostly beautiful and charming, but momentarily scary too)
Lonely Are The Brave (Kirk Douglas and horse. Again, can't really talk about this without SPOILERS. A must-see, however)

N. is right about 'A Canterbury Tale' BTW. Almost as good from the same pair: "Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" and "I Know Where I'm Going".

Hmmm, lots of British WW2-era movies in the above list.... obv I have a John Major-ish nostalgia complex or something. Hey, I like Abel Ferrara movies too, y'know.

― Jeff W, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I no like-ee Gas, Food, Lodgings quite possibly for all the reasons people who like it, like it. Whatever happened to Alison Anders by the way? She made one of the Rooms in Four Rooms and then what?

(Checks imdb). Ah well she redeemed Gas, Food, Lodgings with Grace Of My HEart anyhoo - that's a brilliant film (though NOT a musical).

― Pete, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

One with Julie Delphy in, I saw when I was quite younger, on a tiny B&W tv, in my room late at night, called something beginning with a V, I don't recall what. Spent ages trying to find out what it was, then it came back on tv and I watched it and it was nothing like I'd remembered. Anyone know what it is?

― alix, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

As others have hinted, everything Powell and Pressburger ever did. Yes, even "Gone To Earth" ...

― Robin Carmody, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Oh, I forgot about La Belle De Noiseuse. I recall being transfixed until the wee small hours despite it running for 4 hours and nothing much happening. And not just because Emmanuel Beart spends most of the time naked.

― Ally C, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Eureka

― Nitsuh, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I still think The Dreamlife of Angels is one of the most heartrenching movies I've ever seen. It's one I haven't watched very often because I can't watch it-- it bothers me too much. I'm curious to see if anyone else feels the same way, since it seems to be a movie people watch and say "That's brilliant!" then never want to speak of it again.

― xwerxes, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ha, that's the way I felt about RFAD (although it didn't particularly linger in my mind).

― Dan irons, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Alix: I bet you're remembering Julie Delpy in Voyager with Sam Shepherd. She was incredible.

― Curt, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The original Nosferatu

― Curt, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i saw Fantastic Planet when i was little on the KTLA Family Film Festival and it totally tripped me out. i didnt know what it was for so long.

― chaki, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Skipping 39 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I'd add my voice to the recommendations for Selby - I think he's one of the greatest living novelists, and badly underappreciated.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 7 July 2003 11:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

four months pass...

A Kind Of Loving

The Ruling Class

Wings Of Honneamise

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Thursday, 4 December 2003 14:48 (twenty years ago) link

nine months pass...

canterbury is amazing(ly weird)

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Saturday, 18 September 2004 18:47 (twenty years ago) link

WHERE IS A GIRL WHO, SERIOUSLY, AIMS 'A CANTERBURY TALE'?

― cºzen (Cozen), Saturday, 18 September 2004 18:49 (twenty years ago) link

seriously.

― cºzen (Cozen), Saturday, 18 September 2004 18:49 (twenty years ago) link

haha i would totally love it if i met ANYONE else who loves this film as much as i do

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Saturday, 18 September 2004 18:50 (twenty years ago) link

also all the films i love have this effect on me, that is, of lingering in the mind for a long time. the top candidate has to be wagon master which i've seen but once and which never fails to pop into my mind every day.

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Saturday, 18 September 2004 18:51 (twenty years ago) link

it seems in glasgow there are almost two.

― cºzen (Cozen), Saturday, 18 September 2004 18:51 (twenty years ago) link

charles barr likes this film

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Saturday, 18 September 2004 18:52 (twenty years ago) link

Has anybody else seen The Nine Lives Of Tomas Katz? That is made for this thread. I ordered it on DVD from Germany, and while not as good as I first remembered, it is extremely evocative and resonant, like the kind of dream one might have right after eating a turkey and swiss sandwich.

cºzen would hate it.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Saturday, 18 September 2004 18:52 (twenty years ago) link

dude, you don't know!

― cºzen (Cozen), Saturday, 18 September 2004 18:53 (twenty years ago) link

I watched A Canterbury Tale again with my (then) girlfriend a few months ago. She fell asleep. We broke up.

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 18 September 2004 18:53 (twenty years ago) link

yes I do.

xpost

I need to see a Canterbury Tale. (not because it made Alba and his gf break up, obviously)

― adam. (nordicskilla), Saturday, 18 September 2004 18:54 (twenty years ago) link

it's a terrible story.

― cºzen (Cozen), Saturday, 18 September 2004 18:55 (twenty years ago) link

Alba's story or the film?

― adam. (nordicskilla), Saturday, 18 September 2004 18:57 (twenty years ago) link

alba's : /

― cºzen (Cozen), Saturday, 18 September 2004 18:58 (twenty years ago) link

Ah -
The Archers (Powell & Pressburger): S/D

― adam. (nordicskilla), Saturday, 18 September 2004 18:58 (twenty years ago) link

Anyway, I should explain. Cozen, if you don't like Aki Kaurismaki or Roy Andersson, you will not like The Nine Lives Of T(h?)omas Katz. Some critics referred to it as "Pythonesque" which is just lazy.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Saturday, 18 September 2004 19:00 (twenty years ago) link

But if you want a shorthand (but unfair) idea of what that film is like, I guess that might suffice.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Saturday, 18 September 2004 19:01 (twenty years ago) link

cozen, you need to work on getting over this aki kaurismaki dislike. it is the one thing that's keeping adam (and me, i suppose) from loving you unconditionally.

― lauren (laurenp), Saturday, 18 September 2004 19:03 (twenty years ago) link

I am utterly loveable, despite.

― cºzen (Cozen), Saturday, 18 September 2004 19:09 (twenty years ago) link

I do imagine you that way. How tall are you?

― adam. (nordicskilla), Saturday, 18 September 2004 19:11 (twenty years ago) link

5'10"

― cºzen (Cozen), Saturday, 18 September 2004 19:11 (twenty years ago) link

And do you like comedy?

xpost - oh taller than me, which I suppose isn't hard

― adam. (nordicskilla), Saturday, 18 September 2004 19:12 (twenty years ago) link

I laugh a lot and smile.

― cºzen (Cozen), Saturday, 18 September 2004 19:12 (twenty years ago) link

"After Life" and, oddly enough, "Ferris Buellers's Day Off" are two of my absolute favourite films in terms of structure, pacing, themes, and general outlook.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Saturday, 18 September 2004 19:23 (twenty years ago) link

The Rapture.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 18 September 2004 19:35 (twenty years ago) link

Full Metal Jacket

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 18 September 2004 20:49 (twenty years ago) link

Testament
Resurrection (the original, with Ellen Burstyn and Sam Sheppard)
Jacob's Ladder
A Tale of Two Cities (again, the original, with Ronald Colman)
The Crow (oddly enough)
The Great Escape
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Freaks
Lawrence of Arabia

― Hey Jude, Sunday, 19 September 2004 15:00 (twenty years ago) link

Enemy of the State
Hollywood Homicide

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 19 September 2004 15:14 (twenty years ago) link

Only coz I keep thinking I've seen them more than times I have.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 19 September 2004 15:21 (twenty years ago) link

Wings of Desire
Alien
The Fisher King

― Hey Jude, Monday, 20 September 2004 23:20 (twenty years ago) link

one year passes...

in discussions with RJG I have since found out I'm 5'11"

I watched a canterbury tale again today and, in the mood I am in, I know I shouldn't have

― cozen (Cozen), Monday, 17 October 2005 16:04 (nineteen years ago) link

Dead Man's Shoes was pretty haunting.

― chap who would dare to violate the least amount of laws of physics (chap), Monday, 17 October 2005 16:07 (nineteen years ago) link

The French/Dutch original of The Vanishing.

Also The Shining and Mulholland Drive and Dancer in the Dark and Boys Don't Cry and A Touch of Evil and ... but there are way too many so will leave it at these ones which first came to mind.

― salexander / sophie (salexander), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 01:38 (nineteen years ago) link

A Touch of Evil is made by the same director as F is For Fake

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 01:54 (nineteen years ago) link

Someone is obv. not a fan of Mr. Welles. Each to their own.

― salexander / sophie (salexander), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 02:08 (nineteen years ago) link

Any Ozu.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller - watched for the first, second and third time this past weekend. God, what a beautiful thing.

Au Hasard Balthazar

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 07:23 (nineteen years ago) link

Irreversible, i didn't realise this until a man who looked like the receiver of the fire extinguisher got on. Made my stomach turn.

― not-goodwin (not-goodwin), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 07:29 (nineteen years ago) link

one year passes...

I saw The Earrings of Madame de... for the first time last night. What a stunning film - the subtle descent from frivolity and flirting to absolute despair and tragedy, the ever-changing value (monetary and emotional) of the earrings as they made their circles, the ideas (and only just ideas) of respectability and honor. Plus simply gorgeous - costumes, interiors, and people (Danielle Darrieux was 36 when this was filmed and is so luminous!)

― Jaq, Friday, 2 March 2007 22:22 (seventeen years ago) link

La double vie de Véronique

― Michael White, Friday, 2 March 2007 22:30 (seventeen years ago) link

I know this sounds lame, but Brokeback Mountain. The last scene of that movie stayed with me for weeks.

― Hurting 2, Saturday, 3 March 2007 00:27 (seventeen years ago) link

this is a little lame too, but funny ha ha. characters and dialogue blew me away and broke me down at the same time. most movies are alien in some undefinable way for me--this one was weird because the world felt crazily real-to-life like casavettes but contemporary (i feel like i've seen dumber versions of every scene over the last two years), very natural, director + actors have an amazing gift for character-based drama. and then it was all very desirable and almost instructive at the same time! first movie i've ever felt defined my generation, for what that's worth.

― strgn, Saturday, 3 March 2007 00:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Je T'aime Je T'aime. i watched it this morning and it killed my whole day.

― t0dd swiss, Saturday, 3 March 2007 01:18 (seventeen years ago) link

Children of Men, or as my ticket stub called it, Children of Man.

― Abbott, Saturday, 3 March 2007 02:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Two recent ones I find hard to stop thinking about:

Children of Men
Pan's Labyrinth

― HI DERE, Saturday, 3 March 2007 02:32 (seventeen years ago) link

I am still amazed by how much I didn't care about "The Departed" until the pivotal bit with Martin Sheen happened, after which it suddenly morphed into an awesome movie.

― HI DERE, Saturday, 3 March 2007 02:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Also the Spielberg WOTW.

― Hurting 2, Saturday, 3 March 2007 03:15 (seventeen years ago) link

i have thought about pan's labryinth since I saw it, 16 hours ago

― tremendoid, Monday, 5 March 2007 17:57 (seventeen years ago) link

thirteen years pass...

Gas Food Lodging gets a mention here. I concur--even though I just watched it and the lingering hasn't yet happened.

― clemenza, Monday, 16 November 2020 04:30 (three years ago) link

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