Obscure film recommendations?

I'm trying to find some lesser known films that might be interesting, cult films and indie films, stuff like that.

Any recommendations for me?

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"Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." - Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park.

When you are getting in this area it's hard to know what others would perceive as little known. All the movies I can think of that I stumbled on and thought were good have all developed cult reputations so may not be obscure anymore. Some have even been remade, but always disastrously.

I'll go with God Told Me To, badly reviewed when it came out and I only recently saw it because it lapsed into the public domain and I picked it up on a dollar DVD. Normal people are committing horrible murders and when they're asked why they did it reply."God told me to." To say anything more would be giving too much away, but an outstanding performance by Tony Lo Bianco and even the often annoying Sandy Dennis on her best behavior and the unusual story makes this very watchable.

Not made in America.

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"Loves them? They need them, like they need the air."

Just to throw out a few titles:

Dramas
Boy A
You can count on me
Secretary
Hard candy
The look-out
The spitfire grill

Martial arts
Chocolate

Art house
Goodbye, Dragon Inn / Ming-Ling

Foreign Rom-Com
Show me Love / Moodyson
My Sassy Girl / Kwak

I'd also recommend "God Told Me To" and also agree that one person's 'obscure' is another persons meat & drink. With this in mind, here's a few you might like.

Suspiria
The Long Good Friday
Man Bites Dog
Valerie's Week Of Wonders
Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Aguirre, Wrath of God (or any of Werner Herzog's 'biggies')
Alice In The Cities
Wings Of Desire
Blood Feast
The Last Hunter
Wild Zero
Versus
Hedwig And The Angry Inch
What Have You Done To Solange?
Punishment Park
The Killer (1989)
The Straight Story
Death Race 2000
Chopper
The Three Colours Trilogy
La Reine Margot
Les Diabolique
Rush (1991)
Seven Samurai (or pretty much anything Kurosawa)
Jean de Florette/Manon Des Sources
Wages of Sin
Cache aka Hidden
36
Elisa (1995)
La Haine
The Girl on The Bridge
Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1
The Double Life Of Veronique
Brotherhood Of The Wolf
The Big Blue
Slacker (1991)
Suburbia (1983)
Class Of '84 (1982)
Peeping Tom
Romanzo Criminale (2005)
The Business (2005)
Looking For Eric (Most Ken Loach is worth a look)
This Is England
Joyeux Noel (2005)
The League Of Gentlemen (1960)
Zulu
The Hill (1965)

I'll stop now, as I really don't know how 'obscure' obscure needs to be for you. Anway, with a bit of luck, there'll be a few things on there for you. Also, if you don't already, start watching documentaries. They don't get a lot of coverage, so most of them are probably obscure unless you're looking for them.

A little known and pretty obsure film I checked out recently was After Alice (Eye of the Killer if you're in the U.S.) It's a detective mystery starring Kiefer Sutherland with a fine script.

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Honeykid, most of those are either old or foreign. Kurosawa is far from obscure. Yes. Any and all Tsai. He's a wonderful director. Every one of his films is a win. 'Goodbye, Dragon Inn' is him at the peak of his form. His best is either 'What Time Is It There', 'The Wayward Cloud', or 'Goodbye, Dragon Inn'. I'll let you decide.

If you like intelligent sci-fi you could do a lot worse than checking out Phase IV directed by Saul Bass (who was best known at the time for designing film title sequences - including Hitchcock's Psycho). The story revolves around a couple of scientists studying super intelligent ants in a hi-tech desert lab. It's largely overlooked and very underrated in my opinion; with some exquisite macro-photography of said ants, and an enchantingly weird Zen-like atmosphere. I'd say this fits perfectly into that 'interesting cult' category you referred to.

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Oh man, that sounds awesome.

Wow.. sounds like my kind of movie..

Thanks UF!

I know that, which is why I said it depends on what you call "obscure". Also, JQ asked for "lesser known films that might be interesting, cult films and indie films, stuff like that" and asked for recommendations. I'm pretty sure I covered the criteria.

I'm not sure if these 2 picks count as obscure enough for you or not. What I have found thouugh, is films that came out originally on VHS (pre-teh total switch to DVD), unless they are part of a series, or feature an Actor of signifigance (either then or now), they sort of get lost in the crowd.

I looked for this forever on DVD, I believe it was released to cash in on the Success of Walk the Line, as a young Reese Witherspoon is featured.

Its a small film that touches on the Celebrity Culture and how perverse it really has become. Keep in mind this came out 6 years prior to the Tv Show Survivor which really spurred the reality tv phenomenon.
S.F.W. (1994)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111048/


On a side note, When the Truman show first came out, the premise was a bit much to swallow. Today, I wouldn't be shocked if their casting for it as we speak.

weird huh.

The other one I would reccomend is similar in theme, this one concens a Reality game show of the future.
Series 7: The Contenders (2001)




The movie plays like an extended TV show. It was made originally as Satire of teh COPS tv show that was inexplicably popular blended with Stephen Kings "the running man"

&feature=related

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"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo.

I just remebered this one.

I'd second Series 7: The Contenders. It's quite an interesting film. The Truman Show, you won't be surprised to learn, I thought was hugely overrated. Just as the bloody film gets interesting, it ends.

&feature=related

/\ I love that film...

If you like Keifer Sutherland as an actor, you may enjoy Crazy Moon (1987) a Canadian feature he made before Stand by Me and Lost Boys Vaulted him to recognition beyond Donalds kid.

He plays an eccentric rich kid that falls for a deaf girl. Its a sweet, if quirky coming of age tale totally removed from the "bad boy" flicks that made him famous.

I'll definitely have to watch some of these - I get what you're saying about 'obscure' now, films like 'This is England' and 'Boy A' are always on TV in the UK, so they're probably less known in the US.

If you want a good British horror, try 'Eden Lake'.

All non English spoken films could be classed as obscure to someone who doesn't take an active interest in films. I lent Let The Right One In to someone a while back and they talked about it like it was something from Mars instead of Sweden.

Kurosawa might be far from obscure to the people on this board but I bet if you went out in the street and stopped a 100 people more than 90% wouldn't know who he was.

Also you have to make allowances for people whose curiousity in films is just starting, you have to begin your interest somewhere so a list like Honeykids which covers old and new is a great place to start. If you watched every film on that list you'd have the beginnings of film knowledge

Phase IV is fantastic. Very different, very atmospheric, smart. Really creeped me out too.