Re: Guaporense's certified greats
 

Judging by that picture, and the last one, Eraserhead looks like the kind of film that would probably make me go insane.

Re: Guaporense's certified greats
 

Eraserhead is a dark comedy at its core.

Re: Guaporense's certified greats
 

Well, at least you've got The Lives Of Others on here. :)

Re: Guaporense's certified greats
 

Eraserhead is brilliant. Completely insane. And darkly comedic.

Re: Guaporense's certified greats
 

It will take some time until a drop another movie there, In four months and many viewings before I managed to watch those six movies, I expect it will take a few weeks to add another movie there.

Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica), 1948

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi.../20/Ladri3.jpg

Vittorio De Sica's neorealist masterpiece is one of the best examples of minimalist elegance. One of the movies that not only earn a full rating but also define the meaning of a movie.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0cUKP3O7Lb...600/bike+2.jpg

Emotionally crushing, this movie may lack the subtlety of Tokyo Story instead working as a sledgehammer.

http://www.organicmechanic.org/scratch/ladri1.jpg

I noticed the great influence of Italian neorealism on Ghibli's anime movies, specially the most realistic ones. Grave of the Fireflies, for instance, is very, very similar to Bicycle Thieves.Though Bicycle Thieves isn't as tragic as Grave of the Fireflies, it packs emotional power of the same order of magnitude.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZzJu5HFJzD...cleThieves.jpg

The soundtrack is also great, very tragic in tone. While the black and white cinematography is top of the line, specially in the restored version that I have watched.

http://elladrondebicicletas.files.wo...e-thieves2.png

Also, given it's simplicity, this is a very accessible movie. The British Film Institute even put this film into their list of the top 10 greatest films for children under 14.

Sandy vagina much? Did you not see the prior three films he covered?

All films here are those that I watched recently which I though deserved a .

I re-watched Howl's Moving Castle again recently and I though it deserves a , so I put it into this thread.

There are 3 movies here which I had already put into my top 100 favorites: Tokyo Story, Howl's Moving Castle & The Lives of Others. That's because I re-watched these movies the last week.

Bite me.

My point is that he already has a 50 Best Animations Thread and a reviews thread specifically for Studio Ghibli Films, both of which feature Howl's Moving Castle. Not to mention the various other individual posts in other threads. If he really wants us to know about the movies he loves, he ought to quit writing up the same movies over and over again and feature only the ones he hasn't already mentioned ad nauseum.

And my point is one film out of 6-7 that bugs you doesn't give you the authority to hijack the thread with moaning. You don't like Guaporense, we get it. We REALLY DO.

Anyhoozen, Gua, have you seen any other de Sica films? He's a pretty dreary guy but has a couple comedies worth checking out.

I made a suggestion. You're the one that hijacked the thread by responding to a post that was directed at Guaporense, not at you.

Re: Guaporense's certified greats
 

Bicycle Thieves is very good although I've seen it only once and I remember it being very depressing.

Re: Guaporense's certified greats
 

Bicycle Thieves is a very depressing movie. But one that I enjoyed quite a bit. I was impressed by the use of non professional actors.

Re: Guaporense's certified greats
 

The actors used in bicycle thieves were from the same social class that they were trying to portray, which gave the performances a great deal of authenticity.

Bicycle Thieves was the first movie from him that I have watched. I certainly plan to watch his others.

I know it was a brilliant move!

Re: Guaporense's certified greats
 

Thanks for your rating and recommendation of The Lives of Others. Although I've known about this film, I'd never got around to watching it till now.

I agree it's an excellent movie, one which portrays the tragic human toll that occurs under totalitarian regimes. Not the obvious brutality, but the destruction that eats away inside people - their hearts, their spirits, their creativity. It is set in East Germany, but the same story could well have been told in any number of countries at various times.

It is a subtle, honest movie, and in no way melodramatic. It builds its tempo slowly but surely, till it hits with the force of any great thriller. And like any insightful portrayal of these kinds of situations, it blurs the lines between good and evil.

Be sure to check out Umberto D. I think both movies are great, but Umbero D. is one of my personal favorites.

Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal (Kazuhiro Furuhashi), 1999

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...al_Blu-ray.jpg

This is an direct to video 120 minutes anime film divided into four 30 minute acts. It is a strong candidate for the best movie ever released direct to video (given that nothing else that I have watched in my life that was released direct to video I would rate remotely near a ).

It a samurai movie, rather similar in spirited to Kurosawa's Samurai epics, but this one is in fact better than most Kurosawa samurai films, such as Yiojimbo and Sanjuro. It is easily the best samurai anime film that I have watched, being vastly superior to other stuff like Ninja Scroll and Sword of the Stranger and easily stands among the best action movies ever made.

The only thing that bugged me a little was the extreme exaggeration of some of the action sequences where a 50 kg kid is shown tearing to pieces dozens of men. But besides that minor problem (which is also a problem that afflicts almost any action movie), this direct to video movie is nearly perfect so I though it deserves to be included here.