Home Viewing Suggestions: Obscure or Unknown Films

It's nearly fall and then there's winter and the long nights mean less lawn bowling and more movie watching at home. Since it's an undisputed fact that Tiki Centralites have excellent taste and broad interests, a list of suggestions for great movies that people might not be aware of would be useful for saving hours of browsing time at the rental store. Along with the title a brief explanation of the film and/or a comment as to why it's worth watching would be great.

"Sexy Beast" (2001)
Ben Kingsley puts on a performance that has to be seen to be described.
You have to put the captions on though because the accents are so strong it's hard to decipher.

"Croupier"(1998)
About a guy who is working in a casino...

[ Edited by: susane on 2004-01-20 06:09 ]

Ball of Fire
one of my all time top favorite movies, and i'm not even a Gary Cooper fan, but i became one because of this film.
also starring Barbara Stanwyk, with a amazing supporting cast of classic character actors and a cameo by Gene Krupa.

Once Were Warriors

Incredible film about the struggles of one poor urban Maori family.

Chopper

Humorous film about a real-life Aussie psychopath.

In the Mood for Love

Bittersweet love story with an incredible color palatte and visuals.

[ Edited by: Suburban Hipster on 2003-09-16 06:21 ]

These Brazilian Films will liven up the most dreary winter night.

Black Orpheus, Brazilian, '59, Portuguese with English subtitles. Timeless Bossa Nova soundtrack by Jobim and Luis Bonfa. The Tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice updated and played against the Rio Carnival.

comments: gorgeous cinematography, a magical film.

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Brazilian, '78, Portuguese with English subtitles. After the death of her uninhibited, ne'r-do-well first husband, Dona Flor marries wisely the second time around, but discovers true lust never dies.

Comments: Funny and lively. Sonia Braga went on to become an "exotic sex star for nearly a decade". This female viewer found Jose Wilkner irresistable.

just saw AMERICAN SPLENDOR & loved it.

here's some more ...

:drink:
3 almodovar movies:
TALK TO HER
ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER
LIVE FLESH

& if you like almodovar, check out stuff by another spanish film maker called BIGAS LUNAS.

:drink:
some great british stuff:

WITHNAIL & I (starring Richard E. Grant) is classic!

the tv series PETER KAY'S PHOENIX NIGHTS is hilarious! the first season is out on dvd (at least in the u.k.). the 2nd season is even funnier.

mike leigh's ALL OR NOTHING is great.

:drink:
wim wenders' movies are great too:

WINGS OF DESIRE
PARIS, TEXAS

:drink:
a hilarious french film is MAN BITES DOG, which is about a documentary film crew following around a serial killer, & inevitably ending up abating & abetting the killer.

:drink:
the original japanese version of THE RING scared the sh*t out of me!

:drink:
JESCO WHITE: DANCING OUTLAW is probably the funniest documentary ever!

:drink:
a very exciting action flick is the norwegian(?) flick PATHFINDER.

:drink:
iranian films such as THE COLOR OF PARADISE & THE WIND WILL CARRY US are beautiful, heartfelt & deserve a much larger audience.

:drink:
anthony quinn:
LA STRADA
ZORBA THE GREEK
THE GUNS OF NAVARONE
VIVA ZAPATA

:drink:
& as far as obscure goes, one of my all time favorites is a film called THE CRAZY SAFARI. in this film, an ancient chinese vampire (don't ask) falls out of a plane & lands in the kalahari dessert (don't ask) eventually happening upon a village of kung san bushmen, of which the little fellow from THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY I & II is a member. the ending has that little fellow becoming an avatar of the spirit of bruce lee (don't ask) & beating up an entire army! this is the silliest & one of the most sublime pieces of cinema i've even seen. IF ANYONE EVER FINDS IT IN ENGLISH PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!!

Here's an idea for those long-dark Winter nights - actually do something!

Kill you television!

'Kill Your Television' sounds like the name of an old Charles Bronson film. Instead, I discovered that it is a French compilation of music videos, that includes Nick Cave, Moby, and a bunch others I don't know.

http://www.labels.tm.fr/fr/artiste.asp?artiste=KI101

It actually looks a bit interesting. Thanks for the suggestion Tiki_Bong!

Vern

Gotta echo reccomendations for Sexy Beast and Once Were Warriors. Great stuff.

Also:

Heavenly Creatures - very interesting & powerful true story about two girls growing up in NZ in the 50s. Bad things happen. Directed by pre-Lord Of The Rings Peter Jackson and starring pre-Titanic Kate Winslet.

Velvet Goldmine - Directed by pre-Far From Heaven Todd Haynes and starring Ewan MacGregor, Christian Bale, Toni Collette, and Eddie Izzard- story of the UK glam rock scene of the seventies. Suffers from having to use fake characters as Iggy Pop and David Bowie, and it slows a little in the middle, but it's still great, with a killer soundtrack. Had an Oscar nomination for costuming.

Titus - phenominal adaptation of Titus Andronicus with Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange. If watching it once doesn't blow you away, then watch it again with the director's commentary track on to really get a deeper feel for the visual symbolism and stylistic choices.

more when I think of 'em....

Dominick and Eugene is one of my all time favourite movies that not many people have seen. Ray Loitta and Tom Hulce. Very good. Bring your kleenex.

Sexy Beast is a good call.

Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai
Forrest Whitaker stars.

My favorite beatnik double feature:

Roger Cormans'A BUCKET OF BLOOD (the proto Little Shop Of Horrors)
and BEATGIRL (featuring the John Barry Seven)
both approx 1960

and everyones' favorite Japanese food movie:

TAMPOPO! funnier everytime I see it.

also, if anyone can find a copy of THE COOL ONES starring Roddy MacDowell, let me know. It features the one and only Mrs. Miller, who was mentioned in the "worst song ever" thread.

-Z

There are some great suggestions here. I'll second the recommendation for Wong Kar Wai's "In The Mood For Love" which is a beautiful film -- the cinematography is stunning. His other films "Chungking Express," "Fallen Angels," and "Happy Together" are also worth seeing.

If you like exploitation and drive in movies, I highly recommend the complete ouvre of Doris Wishman.

Start with NUDE ON THE MOON (1962, Color):

Two scientists inherit a large sum of money and decide to take a trip to the moon, where, instead of finding a barren rock landscape they discover a tropical Florida paradise loaded with palm trees and topless women who communicate telepathically. That's right, these topless moon maidens DON'T SPEAK like those pesky Earth women! The scientists do exactly what they are supposed to do: observe (peep) and record (photograph). Doris shot this film at Coral Castle in Miami ( http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/FLHOMcoral.html ).

Next check out the double feature BAD GIRLS GO TO HELL / ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER MAN (1965, BW):

Once the innocence of the "nudie" films wore off, Doris turned to "roughies" which were more violent than "Nudies" but still rather tame compared to today's films. Fortunately, Doris didn't lose her bizarre sense of plotting, her unusual use of cutaways, and of course her overdone melodrama.

Once you've recovered from those, move on to a pair of her biggest successes: DEADLY WEAPONS and DOUBLE AGENT 73, both starring the incomparable Chesty Morgan, 73-32-36, as the poster proclaims! (both in color)

In DEADLY WEAPONS, Chesty plays a woman whose husband is gunned down by mobsters so she is forced to take revenge by hunting them down, seducing them, and smothering them to death in her massive bosom.

I dare you to keep from laughing as Doris attempts to sell what is obviously someone's basement bar as a happening nightclub.

In DOUBLE AGENT 73, the fabulous Ms. Morgan (did I mention she speaks with a think Polish accent?) plays a secret agent with a camera implanted in her left breast. In order to take pictures, she must disrobe and squeeze her boob until we hear the shutter CLICK! Doris kicks the tension up a notch by making the camera a BOMB as well, which will explode if Chesty doesn't take the pictures and get the film back to HQ in 36 hours!

Alas, Ms. Wishman passed away last year, at the age of 83 just after shooting her 25th feature film in her beloved home town of Miami. An original to the end.

Watch them with a big group of friends and you'll have a blast.

[ Edited by: TheMuggler on 2003-09-16 15:57 ]

On 2003-09-16 01:38, SES wrote:
"Croupier"(1998)
About a guy who is working in a casino...

For you lascivious "ER" fans, Alex Kingston gets nekkid in this one.

Stuff I've rented recently that I liked:
Spirited Away
The Kid Stays in the Picture
Sordid Lives
About Schmidt
Love Liza
Baraka (I really should own this)

And, as I always say, you can never go wrong with "Koyaanisqatsi,""Harold and Maude," or "Dr. Strangelove."

--cindy

Russ Meye's cult Classic, "Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill"

Starring Tura Satana, Lori Williams, and Haji. It's an old expoiltation movie about three large breasted go go dancers driving around the desert wreaking havok.

In case the name Tura Satana doesn't ring a bell riught away, she was a huge burlesque star in the good old days. She also used to date Elvis back when he was young and cool. Elvis proposed to her two years befoire he went in the army and she shot him down.

"Koyaanisqatsi" is a good recommendation! I rejoiced when it was finally released on DVD!
You also can't go wrong with some of the lesser discussed Hitchcock films - "Shadow of a Doubt," "Rebecca" and my current favorite "Strangers on a Train." As for cheesy 1950's/60's films you've got to find "Panic in the Year Zero!" from 1962 - starring Ray Milland and Frankie Avalon about a family surviving a nuclear attack by going camping. Quite a gem...in a cheesy kinda way!

[ Edited by: susane on 2004-01-20 06:10 ]

The Woman Chaser

If I could make a movie, this is what it would be like. Actually, mine would suck because nothing ever turns out how you hope it will. But this movie is fantastic. Based on the novel by Charles Willeford, with amazing cinematography in EVERY scene.

-Randy

We like to do "theme" nights. For instance a few weekS ago was blaxploitation night with Superfly, Shaft, Foxy Brown & Coffey (I'm still hot for Pam Grier). I've also been known to curl up with a bottle of cheap scotch and watch Lost Weekend, Days of Wine and Roses and Leaving Las Vegas...this usually acts as a depressant & I have to chase it down with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (one of the few movies that's almost as good as the book). Of course for good old fashioned perversity it's pretty hard to beat a Malcom McDowell one-two punch - Clockwork Orange and Caligula... plenty of lashings of the ol' ultra violence!

I agree with Randy - the Woman Chaser! Great music in it too (hand selected by the wonderful L.A. DJ Senor Amor).

Anything by Jim Jarmusch. Start with Stranger than Paradise. The rest vary from good to great with Mystery Train being one of the greats.

Night Moves, a neo noir from the 70s starring Gene Hackman, which I saw last night at the Parkway Theatre's Noir Festival.

"BOYS NIGHT OUT" w/ Kim Novak, James Garner, Tony Randall 1962

"The V.I.P.'s" (aka Hotel International")w/ Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton. 1963

"Holiday for Lovers" Carol Lynley, Clifton Webb, Jane Wyman. 1959

ARCHANGEL w/Bif Naked 1990

"La Strada" and "Dr. Strangelove" are classics I'd recommend everyone watch at least once. Strangelove also has perhaps my favorite line of dialogue of all time:

"Gentlemen! You can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"

Peter Sellers...ahhh. A wonderful, obscure 60's film with him I just love is "The Party". But "Lolita" is his finest hour. SO creepy. James Mason was never better, and if you like him you should also check out "Georgy Girl", Lynn Redgrave's big star-making flick from '66, I think, and a totally enjoyable 60's London time capsule too.

Also, for Roddy McDowell fans, "Lord Love A Duck" is funny and weird. Likewise, seeing Anthony Perkins twist his "Psycho" typecasting into knots as serial killer Tuesday Weld's hapless boyfriend in "Pretty Poison" is HILARIOUS. Very sick film.

My favorite oddity of all, probably, is "Peeping Tom", a psychokiller film from 1960 directed by Michael Powell, the esteemed co-director of the classic "The Red Shoes". (Actually, I would recommend ANYTHING by Powell and his long-time collaborator, Emeric Pressburger. Their movies are totally of their era--usually wartime and post-war Britain--yet they are totally original, charming, far-out and magically off-kilter.)

Anyway, "Peeping Tom" is very subversive in its study of voyeurism and desire, and most importantly, it has a terrific, queasily disturbing sense of humor. Great performances too. I might add, it's apparently Martin Scorsese's favorite film. At least, he's said so quite often.

On 2003-09-17 12:36, tikivixen wrote:
Peter Sellers...ahhh. A wonderful, obscure 60's film with him I just love is "The Party". But "Lolita" is his finest hour. SO creepy.

My Peter Sellers fave has got to be "The Mouse that Roared" -- it skews the Marshall Plan like "Dr. Strangelove" skewed the Cold War.

Yes! Yes! Peeping Tom! Great movie. Pretty much destroyed Powell's career.

Also- a great double feature would be to watch Nosferatu and Shadow of the Vampire. Nosferatu being the superb silent version of Dracula by FW Murnau and starring Max Schreck as the vampire. Full of creepy images and innovative (for the time) camera work. Shadow of the Vampire is a great story that suggests that Murnau hired Schreck because he actually WAS a vampire. Great performances by Malkovich, Dafoe, and Izzard. The sets and shots are beautifully recreated. Really interesting to watch them back to back.

speaking of peter sellers, i recommend CASINO ROYALE!

[ Edited by: DaneTiki 2009-08-30 19:18 ]

With Halloween on the way, I'd suggest the original version of The Haunting - it's still a rattling good movie.

blue velvet...

[ Edited by: susane on 2004-01-20 06:12 ]

"the Dark Backward" if you can find it.

For bizarre, obscure and virtually unknown, "OUT" (1982)is a must see- aka "Deadly Drifter. It stars a young Peter Coyote and Danny Glover as well as many others that I recognize on a regular basis.
This movie is a brain twister, but the peyote scene alone makes it all worth while.

Other favs are "Down By Law"(Jim Jarmusch) with Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Roberto Benigni,(pee your pants funny) and "Straight To Hell"(Alex Cox) which stars Dick Rude, Joe Strummer(one of my personal heroes), a young and fowl Courtney Love, but even better,, Shane Macgowan and the rest of the Pogues! Oh yeah, and Elvis Costello as the espresso serving butler. Very weird. Very funny.

I like the idea of theme movie nights!

another charming picture that did not get much hoopla when it came out, but is very cute:
Blast from the Past (1999)
Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Sissy Spacek, and you can never go wrong with Christopher Walken.

Ohhhhboy... don't even GET me started.... :wink: I pretty much ONLY watch obscure, weird movies, because I cannot STOMACH the drivel they try to pass as actual filmmaking these days...

Forbidden Zone (with the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo!), The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T, Phantom of the Paradise, City of Lost Children, Xanadu (my personal fave BAD movie), Female Trouble, The Black Lizard, Lady of Burlesque, Metropolis (plus for finding the Giorgio Moroder version), Black Belt Jones, The Abominable Dr. Phibes series, House of Wax, Murders in the Rue Morgue (with Lugosi, House on Haunted Hill (original version ONLY), The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom, What's New Pussycat, The Pinky Lee Show, Matilda, Brides of Dracula....

pant, pant, I'll be back with more...

And yes - PEEPING TOM RULES. Fabulous! Stunning! Twisted!!

http://www.theonion.com/onion3604/doesnt_own_television.html

hee hee!
(frantically ducking rotten tomatoes about to be flung at me)

That is FUNNY.

"Straight to Hell", I second that!

[ Edited by: susane on 2004-01-20 06:29 ]

I don't know how obscure these are, but if you missed them the first time I think they're worth a second look ...

"The Player," Robert Altman's black satire about the Hollywood studio system, starring Tim Robbins:

"Communion." For Christopher Walken fans, ultra-creepy alien abduction movie with the mandatory anal probe:

"Wind." Cheesy post-Dirty Dancing, pre-nosejob Jennifer Grey sailing movie. It's actually kind of fun, if guilty pleasures don't bother you:

On 2003-09-24 15:53, Frenchy Polynesia wrote:
...Forbidden Zone (with the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo!), ...

What about "I Never Promised you a Rose Garden" Also with the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo?

Omigod... An Oingo Boingo sighting that the Oingo Boingo goddess hasn't heard of? Must... go... to... IMDB....

:wink:

We have theme movie nights in our backyard during the summer. Last month we set up the telescope to stargaze at Mars while we watched Mars Attacks & Galaxy Quest. It was outta this world. (sorry) :P

Orlando (1992): For the androgynously adventurous. Based on the Virginia Woolf novel.
Children of the Revolution (1996): What if Stalin had a son? (A dark comedy)

My vote is for Delicatessen...done by same directors as City of Lost Children.

What about a little film called Tiki Archeology, I'm not sure who put it out. :wink: Anyone else heard of it? :wink: I laughed, I cried, this movie has it all!
A must see for all Tiki lover's!

Oh yeah, and the star, he's a hottie... YOWZA!
Johnny Depp can just quit right now!

EraserHead... Everyone should see it at least once! Early David Lynch (Twin Peaks). Simultaneously confusing, funny, strange, great, bad and uncomfortable to watch.
Contains my favorite movie line ever, "...So printin's your business... plumbin's mine! Why, I put every damn pipe in this neighborhood. I've seen this place change from pastures to the hell-whole it is now! People think pipes just grow in their homes...well, they sure as hell don't... Look at my knees!...LOOK AT MY KNEES!.... I'm Bill."

"Bartleby" -- your video store will have to be well-stocked to have this one, but it's worth it. It's a modern update of Herman Melville's weirdly existential office worker who all of a sudden decides to stop working. The modern Bartleby is played by Quentin Glover, and each time he says "I'd rather not" to his increasingly frustrated boss's demands it is strange and hilarious and baffling and mesmerizing.

"Haiku Tunnel" -- came out in 2001, but went under the radar. About yet another office worker, this one struggling with going from "temp" to "perm." Hero is a fat little fuzzy haired guy with such an electric personality he makes you absolutely believe that he, among other things, dumped a totally hot girlfriend. It is just plain out hilarious in an utterly nebbishy sort of way, and the ending is at once sad but so funny I thought I was going to break my chair, I really did.