What films will I like if I like these?

So I don't actually know a lot about films, I just tend to read wikipedia entries about them and download based on that, and prob like really obvious canonical stuff but as I say, I don't really know films in depth. So if I like these (and this is a fairly incoherent list) what else might I like?

Dark Star
Bladerunner
Chinatown
Blue Velvet
Holy Mountain
Stardust Memories
Badlands
The Sweet Smell Of Success
The Long Goodbye

There are more but I guess this can get us started? I think music playing a big part in a film is really big for me, obv the above list is sort of split between dark stuff and funnier but it probably doesn't make a lot of sense.

Don't be afraid to name classics, decent chance I may not have seen them!

Bio-Dome

haha...thanks a lot!

The Stalker

El Topo
Network
Weekend
Ace in the hole
Point blank

Fellini's '8 1/2' which Stardust Memories is indebted to

the shining
the man who fell to earth
pierrot le fou
2046

As a fellow Sweet Smell of Success fan, if you haven't seen His Girl Friday yet you MUST. STAT.
Actually, I don't know much in the vein of hilarious fast-talking noir beyond that, so if anybody has any other suggestions in this realm I'd love to check them out.

hilarious fast talking noir = 'the hudsucker proxy'?

If you don't care about quality too much, you can check the whole thing out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kZQ8-MmHwM

my mind has gone blank but i second Tarkovsky's Stalker if you want to go a bit further out there.

Coppola's The Conversation

Ashby's Harold and Maude

(ps i sent you an invite to a good torrent community - sent it to your gmail acct)

I think music playing a big part in a film is really big for me

See Mishima. Still no in-print Region 2 DVD ffs, but there are ways. The music runs this movie.

thanks guys these all look good, and thanks for that invite jed...

Rosemary's Baby if you haven't seen it, or even if you have!

I think Billy Wilder's a safe bet considering several of the movies listed above. Ace in the Hole was already mentioned, but you might want to check out Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment, and The Lost Weekend.

Also, you'd probably like The Night of the Hunter (1955).

If you want fast-talking screwball hijinx, hard to go wrong with Bringing Up Baby or The Lady Eve.

Brazil

Moon
In A Lonely Place

They Live By Night
Night and the City
2001

Brazil sounds really good, read about that recently. I sort of enjoyed Moon and I love In A Lonely Place.

dunno if you've seen this but it's def worth a watch - michael clayton
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00sqljd/Michael_Clayton/

michael clayton has the best most ridiculous monologues!

Brazil is amazing. One of my favourites, although it is really really long.

even the 'director's cut' is only 141 mins!

erm, a bit obvious and a bit teenager (sorry), but what do you think of DONNIE DARKO and GUMMO? And MULHOLLAND DRIVE?

You might dig MY WINNIPEG and SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR.

^ both of those movies are all-time awesome

I think you'd like Alphaville if you've never seen it.

Blood Simple
Double Indemnity
Maltese Falcon

The Third Man

I checked out Songs From the Second Floor b/c of it's representation on the 00s film poll and it is INCREDIBLE.

Code Unknown

^^ kind of these three mashed together

Chinatown
Blue Velvet
Holy Mountain

^I gotta see THAT, then.

The Servant
Peeping Tom
Walkabout
Short Cuts
Touch of Evil
Fitzcarraldo

Days of Heaven

Code Unknown

^^ kind of these three mashed together

Chinatown
Blue Velvet
Holy Mountain

waht

all of the movies on this list that i've seen are awesome, so i'm making a list of the others for future reference

yeah this is a good list - a lot of these are movies I've seen recently or am shortly going to see anyway

Miller's Crossing would seem a good fit too

Could also try:

Gattaca
A Matter of Life and Death
Fargo
The Host

Fully endorse Stalker, if you like sci-fi then the original Solaris would be a good fit too.

Assuming you've seen both 12 Monkeys and 7even

dark star = SOLARIS (1972, Andrei Tarkovsky) - existenial sf
blade runner = THE BROOD (1979, David Cronenberg) - troublesome offspring
chinatown = NIGHT MOVES (1975, Arthur Penn) - american crime
blue velvet = SCORPIO RISING (1964, Kenneth Anger) - s/t by bobby vinton
holy mountain = SUSPIRIA (1977, Dario Argento)- colour/sound as narrative
stardust memories = PERSONA (1966, Ingmar Bergman) - an artist who retreats
badlands = THE HONEYMOON KILLERS (1970, Leonard Kastle) - "my favourite american film" - francois truffaut
the sweet smell of success = SECONDS (1966, John Frankenheimer) - cinematography by james wong howe
the long goodbye = KISS ME DEADLY (1955, Robert Aldrich) - detectives denied

oh I LOVE Blood Simple, possibly my favourite film ever...I saw it at about 2am one night when in the midst of a year of total robotic emotional paralysis due to health probs back in 2006 or so, such a good film. Love Miller's Crossing too.

I didn't like Donnie Darko and for some reason I never watch Mulholland Drive even tho I love any Lynch I have seen, I don't know why but I will at some point.

Michael Clayton I will try, a friend told me I'd like it when it came out.

Loads of other suggestions for stuff that looks good here. With Days Of Heaven, the time it's set in sort of put me off a bit, not sure why, is it totally different from Badlands?

Just about to watch Stalker.

X-post to Ward whoa loads more recommendations, thanks a lot!

Michael Clayton just happens to be currently available on the BBC iPlayer:

http://beta.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00sqljd/Michael_Clayton/

ah the bbc...a great bunch of lads

srsly doubt you wd dislike days of heaven if you like badlands

sweet movie
repo man
empire records
encino man
cool runnings
two lane blacktop

"songs from the 2nd floor" thirded. also, "hana-bi".

srsly doubt you wd dislike days of heaven if you like badlands

― nakhchivan, Monday, June 7, 2010 8:27 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

yeah. if you like badlands, you'll dig days of heaven. it's also one of the best looking films you'll see.

On the Silver Globe

"I AM THE MOTHERFUCKING SHORE PATROL"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1pdy4MFlq4&feature=related

can I add Blood Simple to my list? any films like that?

BTW watched Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters at the weekend....absolutely loved it. Such an amazing film.

Yeah I loved the film, especially the scene at the Tokyo Uni riots but so much else...really glad as I love many of Mishima's novels.

Spent a min or two trying to think of stuff but nothing comes to mind.

I've never read any Mishima...any recommendations? So many amazing quotes in the film.

or I assumed they were quotes from his books...at least

If you liked Blood Simple, add Shallow Grave (Danny Boyle).

Yeah scenes from four of his books are covered and they are his quotes.

Mishima thread here - can we talk about yukio mishima?

I started w/Confessions of a Mask. If you want something short there is Patriotism.

Sun and Steel is a great novella like manifesto thing really.

can I add Blood Simple to my list? any films like that?

Red Rock West, The Last Seduction, Laura, Kiss Me Deadly, The Man Without A Past, Reflections Of Murder, Shoot The Piano Player maybe?

Detour. D.O.A., early Polanski like Cul De Sac and Knife In The Water

"The Last Seduction" is so great.

I'd suggest reading Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and picking what grabs you from in there.

I'm also going out on a limb and suggesting Tears Of The Black Tiger for music/weirdness/fun

Also also - last post here I promise, you should try and find some films by Jean-Pierre Melville, Le Cercle Rouge and Army Of Shadows are good ones to start with.

Confessions of a Mask is great. J-P Melville is also a great rec. If you like him you'd probably also like Clouzot — try The Wages of Fear.

The Wild Bunch - all time classic of beautiful darkness with humor and violence.

minor classics of 70's downers -

Rolling Thunder
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Rollerball

Once Upon A Time In The West - it's not much like your other choices, but is amazing with a great score.

thanks for all these...this thread has been so good, so many things to see.

two slightly tangential recs for you LG

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews31/a%20straight%20time/a%20straight%20time%20PDVD_008.jpg
for Blood Simple, try Straight Time, a 1978 American crime movie, directed by Ulu Grosbard and starring Dustin Hoffman, that also features another all-time great sleazebag performance by M Emmet Walsh. This seems to be quite a hard film to see in the UK, but it's really worth tracking down - its adapted from a novel by Eddie Bunker, and is all abt a small time crook trying to go straight. It's got an all-round great cast - you also get Harry Dean Stanton, Gary Busey, Theresa Russell and Kathy Bates - and has a total 70s American 'new wave' vibe of ennui and alienation, but its also really funny in places. I think the Coen Bros have def checked this film out, and it almost goes w/out saying that Tarantino is a stan for it.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gRWMZ-x-wV0/SaU_2WWYqpI/AAAAAAAAD64/RO4iNobJuuE/s400/Kwaidan2.JPG
for Mishima, give Kwaidan a go - another Japanese language movie told in segments, with a modern classical score and sound design by Toru Takemitsu, made in 1965 and directed by Masaki Kobayashi, adapted from ghost stories written by Lafcadio Hearn. I really do think this might be the most beautifully eerie movie ever made. You can get the full-length version on DVD here in the UK, courtesy of Eureka's peerless Masters of Cinema series.

Kwaidan is amazing, one of my all-time favorites. Kobayashi's Seppuku is also really great.

Maybe Le Dernier Combat/The Last Battle? Luc Besson's first film, basically no dialogue and no budget but a very distinctive visual style influencing everything from 12 Monkeys to Delicatessen.

My favourite music/film combo is Aguirre der Zorn Gottes by Herzog - Fitzcarraldo mentioned upthread is also great but Aguirre is just incredible; both have Popol Vuh on the mic.

And I'll always propose Ang Lee's Lust, Caution when asked for recommendations - my favourite film of recent years.

Dark Star
Bladerunner
Chinatown
Blue Velvet
Holy Mountain
Stardust Memories
Badlands
The Sweet Smell Of Success
The Long Goodbye

a lot of these are by big-name auteurs. you can't go too wrong watching films by john carpenter, terence malick, robert altman, roman polanski/robert towne, 70s/80s woody allen, etc.

i'd go for altman's 'california split' (dl it) and 'mccabe and mrs miller', carpenter's 'assault on precinct 13', 'annie hall'

Glad you liked Mishima, it's my favourite movie :)

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea seems like a good introduction to his writing, it's short and pretty and bleak and has most of his obsessions in place. There's a 70s movie of it with Kris Kristofferson but I've not seen that yet.

Just investigated Mishima- what an amazing story.

I have a book called The Nobility of Failure which is about the reverence given throughout Japanese history to heroic but futile acts. Mishima's life fits right in there.

Yeah had to check out seppukku just cos after reading and wiki has a page detailing history, ritual, notable occurrences. fascinating (in a morbid way i guess but still)

watched "straight time" last night, really liked it too...thanks ward. still working my way through all these recommendations.

reviews as you see them pls

also

Blood Simple
Double Indemnity
Maltese Falcon

― hope this helps (Granny Dainger), Monday, June 7, 2010 3:18 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The Third Man

― rhythm fixated member (chap), Monday, June 7, 2010 3:34 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

prioritise these imo

i haven't seen any of them except blood simple, but that is easily one of my favourite ever films.

i'll organise myself properly and write a bit more about the recommendations i've seen...

i reckon you'd like this....

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070464/plotsummary

recently discovered Aki Kaurismaki's films

Ariel and Shadows in Paradise were both excellent and recommended. sad to find out that Matti Pellonpää is no longer around. what a dude!

have you seen vertigo?

<3 <3 <3 Vertigo

Rear Window first and foremost tbh,

you'll have seen these but serpico, seconds and threads fit in well with this list. marathon man too.

serpico is FANTASTIC but surely everyone's seen it

Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry (1976)

http://nfb.ca/film/volcano

useful thread btw, i've just d/ld honeymoon killers, straight time and night moves. very much looking forward to seeing these (and also three days of the condor)

okay so i've seen some more...and haven't written about others i've seen over last few months, so here are some meagre poorly constructed reviews!

alphaville-i loved this from the first minute...great feel to it, i love the density of mood in this kind of film. also the repeated stuff about circles and circular designs etc was interesting. felt really modern for a film that's as old as it is.

red rock west-enjoyed this, i like the really clear genre tropes of something like this, eg the way they keep ending up in red rock and you know that no easy exit can happen. made me think about liking music with rules like this also...

straight time-i like these sort of films, where criminals are depicted as sort of inscrutable.

solaris-i really liked this but stalker is far better imo. i guess stalker feels more intense if that's possible, and more direct, less convoluted. tho i can't criticise, i was rapt in front of this for the duration.

honeymoon killers-felt a bit like a weird tv movie, but i enjoyed this, what a strange story.

le cercle rouge was amazing......what an exciting film!