Favorite conspiracy/paranoid films

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for awhile i was really into the notion of the 'paranoia' film. of the ones i've tracked down, these are my favorites:

the conversation (francis ford coppola, 1974) is one of my favorite films ever. depalma borrowed many elements from it for blow out which i also enjoyed.
john frankenheimer's paranoia trilogy is amazing and essential - the manchurian candidate (perhaps the cornerstone of all paranoia/conspiracy film?), seven days in may, and seconds
alan j pakula's paranoid trilogy - klute (not really a conspiracy film but pretty damn good), the parallax view and all the president's men. ESPECIALLY parallax view.
winter kills (william richert, 1979) seems horrible at first, but eventually you realize it's a satire on conspiracy films and it's pretty good. i'm not sure which version i've seen. it's just been released on dvd, i think.
i actually enjoyed sydney pollack's three days of the condor.
even oliver stone's JFK i have a soft spot for.

your favorites?

― j fail (cenotaph), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 15:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I ilke it when conspiracies are dealt with in a relaxed manner - "yes, there is a conspiracy, yes, everyone's corrupt, now let's do something about it". Z and The Dancer Upstairs are good examples.

― Frühlingsmute (Wintermute), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 15:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Les Vampires!! Everyone is in league with everyone else! Nobody is who they seem! Danger is always around the corner!

Otherwise, Costa-Gavras owns this thread.

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 15:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Z is another classic i left off my list.
it seems like there was a constant theme of paranoia in a lot of 70's cinema, even films that are not specifically conspiracy-related, like network or nashville. also paranoia in literature like pychon and don delillo seems to be a reoccuring theme.
too bad i was born in 1980! i enjoy paranoia.

― j fail (cenotaph), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 15:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Well Watergate duh. I tend to think that this genre (in its recent American incarnation) is a retreat from real politics, a generally lazy way of addressing the post-Vietnam situation.

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 15:57 (twenty-two years ago)

wait, you mean the genre of recent american paranoia films? which ones are you thinking of?
i'm not really up-to-date with recent conspiracy films - they've never interested me as much, perhaps for the reason you suggested. 70's conspiracy films seemed to reflect on the fears and obsessions of society, tying in directly with watergate and other evil political machinations; nowadays films are seen as more of an escape i guess.

― j fail (cenotaph), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 16:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I suppose The Game is a recent one. Not really political, but...

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 16:03 (twenty-two years ago)

"recent" = post-Watergate

remember I sit around watching films from 1913, so "recent" may have a slightly different meaning for me than for you.

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 16:05 (twenty-two years ago)

enemy of the state (pre-emptive: fuk all u hataz)

― jones (actual), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 16:43 (twenty-two years ago)

i actually wanted to see enemy of the state because gene hackman apparently plays harry caul from the conversation.

i wonder what 1920's conspiracy flicks are like....

― j fail (cenotaph), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 16:50 (twenty-two years ago)

SOYLENT GREEN

― PVC (peeveecee), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 17:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Rosemary's Baby

― PVC (peeveecee), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 17:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I recently watched Z. It's incredible.

― PVC (peeveecee), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 17:30 (twenty-two years ago)

(haha i was just typing out a long thing about how this genre intersects with sf/horror in great ways but pvc said it better)

― jones (actual), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 17:30 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, i guess i tend to favor political conspiracy films over horror ones, but rosemary's baby is a good example.

in a sense the truman show is a total conspiracy/paranoia film though i wouldn't list it with the other above......

― j fail (cenotaph), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 17:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Conspiracy Theory... I liked it. I guess have a soft spot for Richard Donner. He even had some of the movie's action take place in a theater showing Ladyhawke... which is not a conspiracy/paranoia movie, just a movie I used to watch a lot when I was 6.

I thought Lost Highway was pretty paranoid, but in a tripped out, I-had-waaaay-too-much-cough-medicine kinda way.

― The Man they call Dan (The Man they call Dan), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 17:59 (twenty-two years ago)

lamest secret society ever: THE SKULLS (the building w/the gigantic SKULL on it = their top-secret HQ shhh!!)

― jones (actual), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 20:22 (twenty-two years ago)

"Dad I just killed some guy in the ritual room!"

― slutsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 7 May 2003 20:54 (twenty-two years ago)

do Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (both versions) and The Stepford Wives count? Of course they do! Does anybody remember Tribulation 99?

― scott seward, Thursday, 8 May 2003 12:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd say they count--and the '70s version is really one of the great paranoia films of its era (and perhaps OF ALL TIME (said bombastically)).

― slutsky (slutsky), Thursday, 8 May 2003 13:50 (twenty-two years ago)

i've never seen Tribulation 99 - is it worth ordering?

i actually wanted to see the skulls when it came out just cause i'm a secret society nerd, but i never got around to it, and it looked so completely terrible that i figured i'd be better off skipping it. now i think there's a sequel! (perhaps direct-to-video)

someone should make an epic movie version of robert anton wilson's illuminatus! trilogy.

― j fail (cenotaph), Thursday, 8 May 2003 14:12 (twenty-two years ago)

That Egyptian miniseries based on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to thread.

― amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 8 May 2003 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)

That's your favourite?

― slutsky (slutsky), Thursday, 8 May 2003 14:25 (twenty-two years ago)

oy we've got a s*lf-h*ting j*w on our hands

― slutsky (slutsky), Thursday, 8 May 2003 14:25 (twenty-two years ago)

There's so much you don't know about me, Slutsky.

― amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 8 May 2003 14:25 (twenty-two years ago)

j fail -- the Skulls is hi-larious. Rent for a good laugh. Avoid the direct to video sequel at all costs. It's basically a remake with none of the entertainment value of the original.

Trib 99 is okay. Very patched together and stream of consciousness. With an ever present trying just a little too hard voice over. Rent it if you can find it instead of buying. Probably not something you'll wanna watch more than once.

― PVC (peeveecee), Thursday, 8 May 2003 21:10 (twenty-two years ago)

More paranoia than conspiracy:

After Hours
The Tenant

and definitely Orson Welles' adaptation of The Trial. With Anthony Perkins!

― JesseFox (JesseFox), Friday, 9 May 2003 04:32 (twenty-two years ago)

has anyone ever seen executive action or whatever it's called - one of the first jfk assassination films....

― j fail (cenotaph), Friday, 9 May 2003 12:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Marathon Man is another good one. Proper dental care takes on a different meaning after seeing this movie.

I liked Jacob's Ladder quite a bit, but some people seem to slag it for being a Kubrick ripoff. It is a rip, but I still thought it was pretty intense.

The Conversation is a classic. That movie uses sound in an amazing way. The ending is one of my favorites.

― earlnash, Friday, 9 May 2003 13:16 (twenty-two years ago)

How is Jacob's Ladder a Kubrick ripoff? Carnival of Souls and Francis Bacon, yes, but Kubrick...?

― Frühlingsmute (Wintermute), Friday, 9 May 2003 13:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Bruce Conner's Report

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 9 May 2003 14:26 (twenty-two years ago)

"How is Jacob's Ladder a Kubrick ripoff?"

That was a dis that movie critics were putting on that movie when it was just out.

I liked the movie. The sequence with the gurney does seem like something out of Kubrick 101 to me.

Carnival of Souls or Francis Bacon, I am not familar with at all...sorry.

All this list and not any Hitchcock, he did quite a few conspiracy themed movies like "Notorious", "North by Northwest" and "Torn Curtain".

― earlnash, Monday, 12 May 2003 16:27 (twenty-two years ago)

francis bacon invented the blurry head

― jones (actual), Monday, 12 May 2003 17:44 (twenty-two years ago)

"francis bacon invented the blurry head"

Don't know how much his paintings influenced that movie, but his work is pretty wicked. Thanks for the clue, the reference made me curious.

― earlnash, Monday, 12 May 2003 22:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Nowhere Man, the TV series.

― Leee (Leee), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 05:24 (twenty-two years ago)

there is a belgian conspiracy ghost story kind of thing
called Malpertius which features Orson Welles in one of his hammiest cameos. i enjoyed this

and F for Fake of course by the man himself.

Kevin Costner's career is a conspiracy against good taste, too.

― arthur woodlouse (arthur woodlouse), Friday, 16 May 2003 14:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Tribulation 99 rules! The v.o. sounds like it's trying too hard because it is parodying rather exactly that used in scare propaganda of the 1950s. Also see, in an unrelated sort of way, Paris Belongs to Us (Jacques Rivette, 1959).

― Uncle (Methuselah), Saturday, 17 May 2003 04:11 (twenty-two years ago)

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