April 1, 2001
10 Great Films You've Probably Never Seen
Blade Runner
Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Daryl Hannah, Sean Young, Joe Turkel, Joanna Cassidy, Edward James Olmos
Director: Ridley Scott
Moody futuristic, sci-fi noirish thriller, with stunning, visually-dazzling effects and a brooding atmosphere,
about a hard-boiled detective hunting near-human "replicants." Based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric
Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. In a totalitarian, decaying 21st century Los Angeles (2019), a jaded, semi-retired,
Philip Marlowe-style ex-cop (Ford), known as a "blade runner," is forced out of retirement to hunt down and
eliminate four "replicants" (Hannah, Hauer, Cassidy) - genetically engineered super-humanoid robots. On Earth
illegally from an off-world colony where they were used as slave laborers, and with a built-in, shortened life
span of only four years, the androids have mutinied and escaped in order to confront the individual who designed
them (Turkel). Seeing their heroic struggle against an inhuman system, the blade-runner ultimately falls in
love with an android femme fatale (Young).
Academy Award Nominations: Best Art Direction, Best Visual Effects.
Editted from:
www.filmsite.org
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Brazil
Starring: Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Kim Greist
Director: Terry Gilliam
An offbeat, satirical ultra-dark comedy of an oppressive, alternative future, with visually-imaginative
references to Kafka's The Trial, Orwell's 1984 and A Clockwork Orange. Mild-mannered and meek bureaucratic
statistician Sam Lowry (Pryce), a civil servant Everyman works in the regulatory Ministry of Information,
jammed with paperwork and filled with endless pneumatic tubes. When a literal bug is squashed in an office
printer and causes a typographical error which alters an arrest record, it unjustly identifies an innocent
citizen Mr. Buttle as suspected terrorist Harry Tuttle (De Niro). When Lowry investigates the case of mistaken
identity and attempts to unravel it, he sees a dreamlike fantasy girl Jill Layton (Greist) with silver wings in
the clouds. A similar-looking female truck driver inspires him to win her love, but meanwhile, he has become the
subject of study by the totalitarian regime.
Academy Award Nominations: Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction
Editted from:
www.filmsite.org
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Das Boot
Starring: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch, Martin Semmelrogge
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
A harrowing, incredibly intense war movie, Das Boot is based on the real life experiences of
Lothar-Guenther Buchheim on board a submarine in the North Atlantic
during World War II. Perhaps the most striking thing about Das Boot is its simplicity. Working
within the claustrophobic space of an authentically recreated submarine allows Petersen and
director of photography Jost Vacano literally little room to manuver. This results
in a series of painstakingly composed tight frame images of men and metal in close
proximity. Intercut with surprisingly few model shots and special effects sequences,
it is a symphony of the human face; an almost unbearably intimate study of the effects
of long term stress and fatigue upon ordinary men.
Eschewing political analysis in favour of a defiantly humanist interpretation of the war,
Petersen successfully redresses the balance of representation of German characters without
falling prey to generalisation about the right or wrong of the larger conflict.
Prochnow is eager to sink British ships not because he is a fanatical nazi, but because
he is a skilled warrior employed at his profession. The film honours
men in battle and decries their loss not because of what it represents in political terms,
but because, as the film has been at pains to point out, they are still people whose most
dearly held wish is to get back home.
Academy Award Nominations: Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted
Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Film Editing
(Highly) Editted from:
Harvey's Movie Reviews
http://indigo.ie/~obrienh/
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Kissing Jessica Stein
Starring: Jennifer Westfeldt, Heather Juergensen, Scott Cohen, Tovah Feldshuh
Director: Charles Herman-Wurmfeld
The basics are as follows: Indie NYC romcom, w/attitude. Bored bi-curious F places F-seeks-F ad in paper.
Straight F notes lead quote from fave author. She responds out of romantic desperation. Thusly do Helen
Cooper (Heather Juergensen) and Jessica Stein (Jennifer Westfeldt) enter the right situation for the wrong
reasons.
Westfeldt and Juergensen, who also wrote the film, knew they were stepping onto muddy terrain. According to
them, "We did not set out to issue a grand edict about sexual orientation and what determines it. Rather, we
were interested in exploring the notion of a sexual continuum… There is a unique bond that exists between
women in friendship…and, for many of us, the sole way it differs [from a relationship with a lover] is the
absence of sex." They add, "we hope that each character's journey can be perceived as a unique one, rather
than some generalized pronouncement on sexual identity."
Kissing Jessica Stein is a shot of espresso for the tired romantic-comedy genre. Not only does it rework
the formulas, but the resolution is predicated on the characters having learned to know themselves better,
not just on some trite platitude like, "Love is all that matters." Westfeldt and Juergensen's obvious
enthusiasm, clever script, and ingenuous acting make almost every moment of Kissing Jessica Stein a pleasure,
once you're past the opening genre clichés. In the end, the movie has more in common with the best
Woody Allen films of the 70s and 80s (Jessica's neuroses in particular are reminiscent of Annie Hall) than it
does with the Meg Ryan movies of today.
Editted from: Carlo Cavagna
www.aboutfilm.com
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The Manchurian Candidate
Starring: Laurence Harvey, Frank Sinatra, Angela Lansbury, Janet Leigh, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish, John McGiver
Director: John Frankenheimer
Based on Richard Condon's novel, and adapted by George Axelrod. A complex, realistic depiction of brainwashing
in a frightening, satirical psychological thriller. An American platoon fighting in the Korean War is captured
and brainwashed by Communist North Koreans in Manchuria. Upon their return to the US, one of the veterans Major
Bennett Marco (Sinatra) is haunted by recurring nightmares about their frightening incarceration. He slowly
realizes that fellow hero and Congressional Medal of Honor winner Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Harvey), controlled and
manipulated by his spy-agent "Queen of Hearts" ambitious mother (Lansbury) (the wife of right-wing, McCarthyite
demagogue Senator John Iselin (Gregory)), is behind the sinister plot to assassinate political enemies.
Academy Award Nominations: Best Film Editing, Best Supporting Actress--Angela Lansbury.
Editted from:
www.filmsite.org
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Metropolis
Starring: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Frohlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge
Director: Fritz Lang
A stylized, visually-compelling, melodramatic silent film set in the 21st century city of Metropolis - Lang's
German Expressionistic masterpiece helped develop the science-fiction genre. The luxurious, futuristic city of
skyscrapers and bridges is stratified and divided into an upper, elite, privileged class and a subterranean,
nameless, oppressed, ant-like worker/slave class. Freder (Frohlich), the young son of a ruling, aristocratic
capitalist Master John Fredersen (Abel), discovers the miserable life of the proletariat when he notices a
beautiful young woman Maria (Helm) with a group of worker children and pursues her into the squalid,
labyrinthine underground slums. The wistful, Christ-like young woman urges her comrades to peacefully await
their salvation. After discovering their meeting, Freder's father instructs mad scientist Rotwang (Klein-Rogge)
to create an evil robotic Maria look-alike that will manipulate the workers, preach rebellion, and cause their
elimination. The false Maria goes beserk and incites the workers to revolt, causing a cataclysmic flood. Freder
and the real rescued Maria lead the worker children out of danger, and John Fredersen is convinced to reconcile
with the workers - Capital and Labor united in Love.
At present, two versions are available on video. One is the black and white silent original, whereas
the second is a colortinted version set to a rock score by Giorgio Moroder. Although the later
is a better combination than one might imagine, purists may want to stick with the former.
www.filmsite.org
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Once Upon A Time In America
Starring: Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Treat Williams, Jennifer Connelly,
Scott Tyler, Rusty Jacobs
Director: Sergio Leone
Best known as a master of the spaghetti western (A Fistful of Dollars, and The
Good, The Bad, and The Ugly),
Sergio Leone has created an American crime epic for his final masterpiece. Not just
another gangster film, Once Upon a Time in America is an outstanding example of
how impeccable attention to period detail and scenes devoid of dialogue can engross an
audience. At its heart, it is the story of one man's journey through life, and the price
he's paid for the choices he made along the way. That man is Noodles (De Niro), a Jewish
immigrant who the audience follows from his childhood in a New York slum to his elder
years in speakeasies and bank robberies (although not necessarily in that order).
It's easy to see why this film spooked the distribution staff at Warner Bros. Its pace
is languid, its structure labyrinthian, its protagonist supremely anti-heroic, and its
story ambiguous and light on resolution or satisfaction. To the impatient viewer, it
might seem to be a pointless or confusing yawner. But Leone invests his tale with a
wealth of resonant moods and moments if you keep your eyes open and your mind sharp.
The narrative structure itself is worth the price of admission.
(Highly) Editted from:
www.aboutfilm.com
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Raise The Red Lantern
Starring: Gong Li, Ma Jingwu, He Caifei, Cao Cuifen, Jin Shuyuan
Director: Zhang Yimou
No Chinese film had a more startling effect in the west than Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern, which rushed
Gong Li, a star after Red Sorghum and Ju Dou, into the superstar league. Li plays a student in northern China
in the 20s who agrees to become the fourth wife of an ageing clan leader. Only 19, she finds herself confined
to the old man's palatial complex, where his other wives conspire with courtiers and intrigue is permanently in
the air. The red lantern of the title is hung outside the rooms of whichever wife the clan leader presently
favours, and it soon becomes clear that the only way the youngest one can compete is to provide good sex and
feign pregnancy. Her power soon increases, since she is beautiful and not as innocent as we think, but the other
wives' intrigues and her own descent into paranoia lead inevitably to tragedy.
Yimou shot the film so that its rich colours and claustrophobic atmosphere matched the story perfectly, and it
can also be viewed as a parable about the patriarchal, semi-feudal society of late 20th-century China. What's
more, he never shows us the old man, who remains a mysterious non-presence until the end. It is perhaps Yimou's most lavish and stately film, quite unlike his others in style. It is also his most
resonant. You have only to watch Gong Li being prepared for the marital bed to see how well the film captures
the scent of sex, jealousy, and impending disaster.
Academy Award Nominations: Best Foreign Language Film
Editted from Derek Malcolm
film.guardian.co.uk
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Ran
Starring: Tatsya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryu, Mieko Harada, Yoshiko Miyazaki
Director: Akira Kurosawa
The 75-year old Kurosawa turns his attention from the Western to Shakespeare (King Lear with the daughters
turned into sons) in Ran (meaning "fury", "revolt", "madness"). The film is again set in 16th century Japan (during
the civil wars which eventually brought the Tokugawa clan to power and created a nation state in Japan) where
an aging feudal warlord, Hidetora, who has acquired extensive territory through violence and conquest over a
period spanning half a century, abdicates and divides his territory and castles among his three sons (the
eldest son is Taro). He plans to live out his retirement by traveling with his entourage of warriors and
entertainers from castle to castle. The two sons who had shown the most outward display of affection towards
their father quickly turn against him. The youngest son who had rebuked his father for foolishness and
prophesied a war between the ambitious brothers for control of the state, thereby incurring his father's
wrath, is really the one who loves him most. For some reason Shakespeare's tragedies translate very well to
feudal Japan. Kurosawa's battle sequences are some of the best in the history of cinema and yet they do not
detract from or act as a substitute for plot, characterisation and a deep message about loyalty, ambition
and foolishness.
Academy Award Nominations: Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design
Quoted from David Hart
http://chomsky.arts.adelaide.edu.au/person/DHart/
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Tron
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan, Barnard Hughes
Director: Steven Lisberger
With the current rage in video games and home computers, Tron is a timely fantasy. The film revolves
around the premise that a separate universe exists in the software of computers. The story concerns
the life-and-death adventures of a master programmer and video
game champ named Flynn (Bridges), who gets transferred into that alien electronic world and must
discover a way out. The software environment is populated by entities that are the alter egos of
"users" in the real world, including Alan Bradley (Boxleitner) whose program's name is TRON -
mightiest of the electronic warriors - and the unscrupulous Dillinger (Warner), whose surrogate is
the evil Sark.
For the special effects industry, Tron is a breakthrough in that it makes use of two very
exciting new tools for the special effects kit - computer generated imagery
and back-lit, enhanced live-action. Because of this, there seems little doubt that Tron is
destined to take a prominent place in the Hollywood history books, marking the beginning of a new
era, particularly with respect to its computer generated imagery or CGI. While these new
imaging techniques are in some ways rough around the edges, they are the kinds of pioneering
breakthroughs that open up new worlds, and against which subsequent efforts are measured.
Academy Award Nominations: Best Costume Design, Best Sound
Editted from Peter Sorensen
Cinefex April, 1982
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