ITT GA wants your film recommendations

[LL!]

GA loses so many points for knocking The Fifth Element and then going on and liking The American. Kindly, GTFO, sir.

Though, I do agree about Pierrot Le Fou.

[GA!]

My Neighbour Totoro is absolutely magnificent, and about as a perfect a "kids' movie" as I have ever seen. I'm glad you liked it so much.

I would like to nominate Aguirre, The Wrath Of God by Werner Herzog.

Seen it! Rating: ★★★★★. But I might watch it again, just because.

What I love about My Neighbour Totoro is the confident storytelling. They established a mesmerising atmosphere from the first frame, therefore they didn't feel the need to wedge in an antagonist or some form of narrative-changing event. If the film was just Totoro reacting to raindrops falling on his umbrella for ninety minutes, I would have been as captivated.

GA loses so many points for knocking The Fifth Element and then going on and liking The American. Kindly, GTFO, sir.

Though, I do agree about Pierrot Le Fou.

Here's the interesting thing about The Fifth Element, it's as every bit as campy as Batman & Robin (released in the same year), yet the general consensus is "Fifth Element, YAY! Batman, BOO!" I'm guessing putting rubber nipples on a much loved superhero is a greater crime than Chris Tucker being Chris Tucker.

And from a rough guess looking at his filmography, Pierrot Le Fou is the moment Godard goes up his own arse forever as the film right before, Alphaville, isn't that bad.

[Skummy]

What I love about My Neighbour Totoro is the confident storytelling. They established a mesmerising atmosphere from the first frame, therefore they didn't feel the need to wedge in an antagonist or some form of narrative-changing event. If the film was just Totoro reacting to raindrops falling on his umbrella for ninety minutes, I would have been as captivated.

Oh, absolutely. Particularly as a kids' film, the fact that there's no antagonist, no villain to speak of, it's just about a fun adventure that may or may not be in a child's imagination, but is no less real for it, is wonderful. The only possible reason I would find to not recommend it as a kids' film would be the mother's illness, but even that is dealt with so sensitively that it's just not the issue it might have been. Nothing is heavy-handed, and it just has a brilliant sense of wonder to it all, that's present in a lot of Ghibli movies, but never quite through the eyes of a child as perfectly as Totoro.

[Jimmy]

Pierrot Le Fou was my first Godard film, but I'm a big fan. I think it's beautiful to look at as well as being very compelling and interesting. I totally get that it's quite pretentious, but it was my introduction into that kind of film and I dug it.

I'm glad you like Le Samourai, it'd probably make my top ten. Can't justify it, just thought it was excellent and so fucking cool.

Might move Aguiree up on my watch list and now will add Tetsuo.

[SRN]

GA (and Jimmy when he's watched Tetsuo: The Iron Man), now go watch Tetsuo II: Body Hammer.

[livid]

Sunshine - ★★1/2 (I want to revisit this. I remember being very disappointed by the sudden shift in the middle.)

I imagine that trips a lot of people up as it's easy to how that could be hit or miss for some people.The acting and the score did it for me though.

[GA!]

What I love about My Neighbour Totoro is the confident storytelling. They established a mesmerising atmosphere from the first frame, therefore they didn't feel the need to wedge in an antagonist or some form of narrative-changing event. If the film was just Totoro reacting to raindrops falling on his umbrella for ninety minutes, I would have been as captivated.

Oh, absolutely. Particularly as a kids' film, the fact that there's no antagonist, no villain to speak of, it's just about a fun adventure that may or may not be in a child's imagination, but is no less real for it, is wonderful. The only possible reason I would find to not recommend it as a kids' film would be the mother's illness, but even that is dealt with so sensitively that it's just not the issue it might have been. Nothing is heavy-handed, and it just has a brilliant sense of wonder to it all, that's present in a lot of Ghibli movies, but never quite through the eyes of a child as perfectly as Totoro.

Better spoiler tag this bit:

I liked how they handled the mother's illness. I expected her to die at some point because the conventions call for it, so in my mind I was thinking: "Is she going to die now? Or what about... NOW?" The girls being away from their mother is trumatic enough for them without doing the 'easy' thing of killing their mother off.

I'd certainly show this to my child (god forbid I should ever have children) because of its pure imagination and wonderment. Besides, it's far less heavy than 90% of Disney's classic output.

[Skummy]

On the Disney comparison, I'd say that it's massively more appropriate for children than the vast majority of Disney movies. As I said, there's no villain, and I can't think of any Disney movie that fits that description - and, normally, the villains in Disney movies are accompanied by quite scary, nightmarish imagery. The only scary thing in Totoro is the mother's illness and absence, which is much more grounded in terms a child can understand. And that's before you even get into the morals of most "classic" Disney movies, which I'd be hard pressed to try and explain to any child...

[livid]

Oh yeah, add Snow Angels as another recommendation. I completely forgot that existed for awhile. Sam Rockwell is awesome, per usual.

[Blue Rosler]

Space Jam

[Jimmy]

There should be no one on this board who hasn't seen Space Jam.

[Damian WayLNKe]

Night of the Lepus

[MDK]

La Haine. Awesome French film with Vincent Cassell and that bloke from Three Kings.

Oh! What a Lovely War! My all time favourite film. More stars than a galaxy.

Two off the top of my head

[Hobo]

The Birth of a Nation!

[Blue Rosler]

If you want foreign films: Central Station, Maria Llena de Gracia, and Favela Rising (documentary)

[Skummy]

The City Of Lost Children.

[reyrey619]

One of my favorites that not enough people have seen, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

[livid]

Those are terrible people then.

[KONGO]

You should watch Wise Blood. Stars Brad Dourif (one of my personal favorites) as a street preacher, off-kilter Southern gothic feel. Just a weird movie. I love it, need to read the book.

[GA!]

By the way, I took a 12 day break (!) from watching films. I will get back to the film recommendation list next week.

But keep the suggestions coming!