Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is such a sweeping epic - it blew my mind every time I watched the first part of it as a kid (it aired relatively late so I never could stay late enough to finish it) - I think I finally got to finish it a couple of years later and it was very good
Se7en is a really good serious A-movie killer thriller - not too many of that kind apart from Memories of a Murder and a couple others (most killer flicks are B-grade - nothing wrong with that - just sayin'). Been a long time but I still remember the finale. Solid stuff!
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King did show up, indeed, so the first one will be super high - crazy! I remember liking the King best because I loved the epic battle at the end. Well, it's good.
Psycho along with Vertigo are probably Hitch's best films but personally, the silent The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog is my favorite of his. Anyway, I only watched Psycho once. Could use a rewatch. I remember frowning upon the in-your-face explanation at the end but that final smirk of Norman Bates almost justifies it. Also, Psycho is tied with Antonioni's L'Avventura as the first film to have a protagonist vanish in the middle of the film and never appear again. I'm pretty sure there's an earlier film like that but these two are generally thought to be first, and hell, L'Avventura was really hated and booed at Cannes for among others that fact. Antonioni's approach is perhaps even more radical than Hitchcock's because we never know what happened to Monica Vitti as opposed to the very obvious fate of Janet Leigh's character.
Seven Samurai is a total masterpiece and one of the first Japanese films I have ever watched if not the actual first one (or maybe it was Rashomon?). It's not my favorite Kurosawa - that would be Red Beard, but it's probably the best one to get started with. Kurosawa's direction is absolutely phenomenal, from his blocking to his handling of the story, to his handling of the characters. I already loved it the first time I watched it but a rewatch only solidified it as a masterwork for me. However, looking at the works of Kurosawa only knowing Seven Samurai is just as dangerous as looking at the entirety of Japanese cinema only knowing Kurosawa. People often come out thinking every single Japanese film has screaming Mifune-like types (Kurosawa was inspired by Noh theatre and it's even more apparent in Throne of Blood) or other similarly ridiculous thoughts. All I can say is you shouldn't limit yourself to just Seven Samurai or just Kurosawa. Japan is the single most powerful country when it comes to cinema and the number of masterpieces and talented directors to come from that country beats even the cinematic powers of France and the USA.
Stalker is a film I watched twice, the second time with my mom. I remember having a long discussion with her about the film and how this "ugly, indecipherable film" changed to one of her all-time favorites. She rewatched it since then (alone) and still loves it. I almost made my mom a Tarkovsky fan. Almost because she either disliked or was cold toward his other films. Mirror is my favorite Tarkovsky but Stalker is probably his best to start with (many people say Ivan's Childhood is best as your first Tarkovsky but I just don't think it makes you ready for what's to come later). Stalker we know now is the second version of the film. The first version's negatives all got destroyed in rather mysterious circumstances. Also, the grounds they shoot at, in Estonia, were radioactive, which led to deaths of actor Anatoly Solonitsyn and Tarkovsky himself.
Se7en is a really good serious A-movie killer thriller - not too many of that kind apart from Memories of a Murder and a couple others (most killer flicks are B-grade - nothing wrong with that - just sayin'). Been a long time but I still remember the finale. Solid stuff!
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King did show up, indeed, so the first one will be super high - crazy! I remember liking the King best because I loved the epic battle at the end. Well, it's good.
Psycho along with Vertigo are probably Hitch's best films but personally, the silent The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog is my favorite of his. Anyway, I only watched Psycho once. Could use a rewatch. I remember frowning upon the in-your-face explanation at the end but that final smirk of Norman Bates almost justifies it. Also, Psycho is tied with Antonioni's L'Avventura as the first film to have a protagonist vanish in the middle of the film and never appear again. I'm pretty sure there's an earlier film like that but these two are generally thought to be first, and hell, L'Avventura was really hated and booed at Cannes for among others that fact. Antonioni's approach is perhaps even more radical than Hitchcock's because we never know what happened to Monica Vitti as opposed to the very obvious fate of Janet Leigh's character.
Seven Samurai is a total masterpiece and one of the first Japanese films I have ever watched if not the actual first one (or maybe it was Rashomon?). It's not my favorite Kurosawa - that would be Red Beard, but it's probably the best one to get started with. Kurosawa's direction is absolutely phenomenal, from his blocking to his handling of the story, to his handling of the characters. I already loved it the first time I watched it but a rewatch only solidified it as a masterwork for me. However, looking at the works of Kurosawa only knowing Seven Samurai is just as dangerous as looking at the entirety of Japanese cinema only knowing Kurosawa. People often come out thinking every single Japanese film has screaming Mifune-like types (Kurosawa was inspired by Noh theatre and it's even more apparent in Throne of Blood) or other similarly ridiculous thoughts. All I can say is you shouldn't limit yourself to just Seven Samurai or just Kurosawa. Japan is the single most powerful country when it comes to cinema and the number of masterpieces and talented directors to come from that country beats even the cinematic powers of France and the USA.
Stalker is a film I watched twice, the second time with my mom. I remember having a long discussion with her about the film and how this "ugly, indecipherable film" changed to one of her all-time favorites. She rewatched it since then (alone) and still loves it. I almost made my mom a Tarkovsky fan. Almost because she either disliked or was cold toward his other films. Mirror is my favorite Tarkovsky but Stalker is probably his best to start with (many people say Ivan's Childhood is best as your first Tarkovsky but I just don't think it makes you ready for what's to come later). Stalker we know now is the second version of the film. The first version's negatives all got destroyed in rather mysterious circumstances. Also, the grounds they shoot at, in Estonia, were radioactive, which led to deaths of actor Anatoly Solonitsyn and Tarkovsky himself.
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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.
Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.