Movies of a more arthouse/Black skivvy wanker type of genre

If I remember correctly this is not the only reason to see that particular film with Eva Green

Donā€™t remember anything of that kind.

PS Of course I do.

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Akira is boringā€¦story about half an hour too long.

Wash your mouth outā€¦it is too long though.

The opposite of long is La riviĆØre du hibou, which is a short film based on a short story by Ambrose Bierce called An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. I saw it as a short supporting some other film about 40 years ago, and it knocked me out at the time and Iā€™ve thought of it often ever since, although I couldnā€™t even remember the name until I tracked it down this morning. Itā€™s in black and white and thereā€™s virtually no dialogue; I wonā€™t recount the story because it would have to contain a huge spoiler, but if anyoneā€™s read the story they wonā€™t have forgotten it. Itā€™s on IMDB with a user rating of 8.2; I donā€™t think itā€™s on Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic but thereā€™s a little article in Wikipedia. The actual story is compelling, but what has really stuck in my mind is a sequence in which a young man is advancing towards a farmhouse, while the front door of the farmhouse is opening and a young woman is coming through the door to meet him. Itā€™s short; the young man never gets any closer to the farmhouse and the young woman never comes through the door; and the sequence is repeated several times at intervals throughout the film. I think itā€™s the closest reflection of what a dream is actually like that Iā€™ve ever seen on film. The film is unbearably sad; thereā€™s an immensely powerful message about the tragedy of war.

According to Wikipedia it was shown as an episode of the Twilight Zone in 1964, but I saw it in the cinema. I saw it with my wife (who may not have been my wife at that stage) and she remembers it as vividly as I do. I donā€™t know if itā€™s available anywhere, but if it is it would be well worth getting hold of it.

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Youā€™re welcome :slight_smile:

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Interesting experience watching the movie so kindly found by Deckham. It wasnā€™t at all as I remembered it and the repeated sequence of the woman not quite coming through the door was not part of it. And yet Iā€™m pretty sure it is the same film: there are enough similarities and enough parts that my memory could have twisted over the years to convince me of that. And yet my memory was so clear.

As I said above, the movie was shown on the Twilight Zone, and that version, complete with Rod Serlingā€™s Introduction, is on YouTube. There is absolutely no way that it would be shown today on free-to-air TV.

I see itā€™s up for Best Movie at some European festivals, and Best Foreign Films at the Golden Globes tomorrow.

Iā€™ll just look at the GG to see Rachel Brosnahan, Alex Borstein, Tony Shalhoub and The Marvelous Mrs M dominate the TV comedy awards.

Alfonso CuarĆ³n got Best Director (domestic and imported), and the film got Best Foreign Film.

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i would rate it in the worst 50. I saw it many years ago and thought it was pretentious rubbish.

Pretty good list.

Glad they have Ceylan in there. Modern great.

Surprised to see that Fritz Langs M is not included and how can you have a list European films without Godard.

Yeah, interesting for both itā€™s admissions and omissions. I get what theyā€™re trying to do though, and there are more than a few I didnā€™t know of thatā€™ve piqued my interest.

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Dreadful list if it excludes The Bicycle Thieves and The Children of Paradise.

Iā€™ve hardly seen any of these. Talk to Her was very good, but Iā€™d rate a couple of other AlmodĆ³vars ahead of it.

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I have only seen one of these movies ā€˜Nosferatuā€™ and I have heard of ā€˜I Vitelloniā€™, (my mother loves this movie) and know the actor Alberto Sordi. He was in a lot of Italian movies and a couple of English movies.

Knew how to make you laugh and cry (sometimes at the same time).

Will have to track down and watch a few of these movies.

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Yep, strange list to say the very least.

Quite a few notable movies and Directors left off it.

This is the listā€™s justification from the article:

Itā€™s worth stating at the outset that this isnā€™t intended as some form of competitive countdown. We are not claiming our selection to be a list of the ā€œbestā€ European films ever made. Nor is it an attempt to create a critical canon that singles out the finest achievements in Euro-cinema. On the contrary, this is a personal selection made by five Observer film writers (Simran Hans, Wendy Ide, Guy Lodge, Jonathan Romney and myself) highlighting movies that we consider to be important, or affecting, or innovative ā€“ films that have struck a chord. Together, they give a flavour of the dazzling breadth of European cinema, offering a tiny snapshot of a vast cinematic landscape.

Weā€™ve tried to make the list as diverse as possible, both in terms of where and when they were made, and in the stories that they tell. These titles cover a century of cinema, with the earliest dating back to 1922, while our most recent choice comes from 2017. Some hail from countries, such as Russia and Turkey, that are only partially in Europe, yet all represent a facet of what we consider to be European cinema ā€“ whatever that may be.

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If thatā€™s the case, how they left off the two I mentioned is a mystery.

One made showing the desolation and despair of honest people in Rome after the war, and the other a sweeping epic made while the Germans occupied France.

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I blame Guy Lodge.

What a sh!!t name

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Nobody hates a film list like you though Noonan :rofl: