Exploring Directors: Need Movie recommendations

[esanthosh]

After spending the last few months staying off movies due to the power shortage, there's some semblance of normalcy. The climate is better, power exists for most of the day thanks to wind power generation. Before it gets ugly again (likely by October), I want to make the best use of my evenings and weekends to watch some good movies.

I usually try to keep my watch list built loosely around a common theme. I have been following www.hifivision.com/movies/9174-cinemas-greatest-classics.html thread for a long time now. But, in a compressed time frame, it is slightly difficult, if not impossible for a beginner like me to cover all those directors and movies. I thought it would be better if I start from something I know a little bit about and move on from there i.e., Start with directors I am a little familiar with (having watched at least one of their films), try to collect a selection of their best films and watch them in chronological order. Instead of my usual method of starting with movies with the higher IMDB ratings, I thought it'd be better to ask people here to give their recommendations.

Would not mind adding more directors to this list because I am sure that good directors are aplenty and I am not even aware of a handful of them.


This is where my plan stands currently.......

Andrei Tarkovsky - Completed, but would love to revisit The Mirror and Andrei Rublev towards the end.

Bela Tarr - Damnation to Werckmeister Harmonies done. Will get back to Man from London and Turin Horse perhaps towards the end of the run coupled with Tarkovsky revisit.

Carl Dreyer - Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampyr. Have - Day of Wrath and Ordet. Any other movies I should add?

Federico Fellini: Have watched 8. Will revisit that film again along with Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, La Strada, Amarcord. Anything else I should watch?

Franois Truffaut: Have watched 400 Blows. Have Shoot the Piano player. What else?

Irritu, Alejandro Gonzlez: Liked Amores Perros very much. 21 Grams and Babel are next on the list. Should I watch Biutiful too?

Jean-Pierre Melville : Will watch Le Samourai and then decide.

Krzysztof Kieslowski: Have watched the Three colors trilogy. At some point of time, would love to get my hands on Dekalog. Any other movies?

Lars von Trier: Apart from Dogville and Anti-christ, which movies?

Luis Buuel: Interested due to Un Chien Andalou. Have - Belle de Jour, Viridiana, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Exterminating Angel, Young and the Damned. Any others I should be interested in?

Masaki Kobayashi - Human Condition, Harakiri. Have - Kwaidan, Samurai Rebellion.

Michelangelo Antonioni: Anything besides L'Avventura and Blow-up?

Michael Haneke: Liked both Cach and Funny Games. Would catch up with The Piano Teacher and White Ribbon. What else?

F. W. Murnau: One of my favorite directors of the silent era due to Nosferatu and Sunrise. Liked Faust somewhat, but not to the extent of the other two. What else should I watch?

Pedro Almodvar: Liked All about my mother. Have Talk to her. What else?

Robert Altman: Other than Gosford Park?

Satayajit Ray: Apart from the Apu trilogy, which films should I collect?

Terrence Malick: Have started with Badlands. Plan to complete his films chronologically.

Woody Allen: Have watched Annie Hall long back. Have Crimes and Misdemeanors and Manhattan. Anything else to get?

Yasujir Ozu: Have heard about Tokyo Story for a long time, but never got around to watching any of his movies. Which movies would you recommend apart from the obvious Tokyo Story?

 

[hydra]

Jean-Pierre Melville : Will watch Le Samourai and then decide.

Bob le Flambeur, The Army of Darkness and Le Cercle Rouge. Leon Morin, Priest is unlike all his other movies, but it is very good.

Krzysztof Kieslowski: Have watched the Three colors trilogy. At some point of time, would love to get my hands on Dekalog. Any other movies?

Dekalog is a must! Then there's La Double Vie de Veronique (Which I like more than the Trois Couleurs movies. And not just because there'a a lot more of Irene Jacob sighhhh....).

Lars von Trier: Apart from Dogville and Anti-christ, which movies?

Dancer in the Dark, Breaking The Waves and the recent Melancholia.

Michelangelo Antonioni: Anything besides L'Avventura and Blow-up?

The Passenger (There's a really awesome long take in the end with a fixed cam that tells a story that sums up the movie) and l'Eclisse. There's Zabriskie Point, but that is an acquired taste.

Pedro Almodvar: Liked All about my mother. Have Talk to her. What else?

Get all of his. Esp. Volver, Bad Education, Broken Embraces and Carne Tremula. Women on the Edge of Nervous breakdown is also pretty nice, but not typical Almodovar.

Robert Altman: Other than Gosford Park?

Nashville and Short Cuts

Woody Allen: Have watched Annie Hall long back. Have Crimes and Misdemeanors and Manhattan. Anything else to get?

His movies are love-them-or-hate-them IMO. Best to try them all and decide heh heh. Match Point and Cassandra's Dream are NOT typical Allen, but I liked them a lot. Midnight in Paris is truly magical. Vicki Christina Barcelona is also uh, watchable. Small Time Crooks is fun.

You should try Aki Kaurismaki's and Jim Jarmuschs's movies. Contemporary, really enjoyable, fun, and oddly enough, quite spiritual in their messages!

Henri-Georges Clouzot's Wages of Fear, Les Diaboliques and Le Corbeau are really good.

I also enjoy Louis Malle's movies. I particularly liked Elevator to the Gallows and Au Revoir Les Enfants.

I know you prefer real oldies, but you should also try Sidney Lumet's movies (particularly Network).

John Cassavetes is another (somewhat) contemporary director I like.

 

[esanthosh]

Thanks! I will add all of them to my watch list.

Of that list,

I have watched Les Diaboliques and Wages of Fear. I liked WoF a touch more. Even with the film's age and the simple plot, I was at the edge of the sofa many times during the film. The first 40-50 mins was disconnected from the rest of the movie, but without it, the contrast in characters between the town environment and the road trip would not have been apparent. The ending did not sit well with me though!

Oh! I did watch the Network. I loved some of the dialogues . I also liked 12 Angry Men. Dog Day Afternoon was ok, but I don't remember loving it. Any other Lumet films?

For John Cassavetes, I do have A Woman under Influence due to my habit of collecting movies that have many checks in iCheckMovies . Any others?

For Kaurismaki and Jarmusch, would these be OK?

AK: Man without a Past, La Havre, I hired a Contract killer, Calamari Union

JJ: Down by Law, Night on Earth, Coffee and Cigarettes, Ghost Dog

 

[sivasarjun]

Bunuel-That obscure object of desire
Ray- jhalsaghar,Charulata
Ghatak-Megha taka tara
Kurasawa_Rashamon,Seven samurai
Wajda-The conductor,Ashes and diamonds
Herzog-aguira,Woyzcek
Abbas kiarastami-Where is the friends home,The wind will carry us,Through tha olive trees
De Sica-Bicycle thief,Two women,Umberto D
Godard _Breathless

 

[esanthosh]

Thanks!

Of that list, I have covered Kurosawa and Bergman long back. Those two were my first introduction to the movies outside of Hollywood (Wild Strawberries and Throne of Blood on Zee Studio - probably during the Master Film makers series mentioned here). In 2009, I watched almost all Kurosawa films starting from One Wonderful Sunday (1947) to Dreams with the exception of Quiet Duel, Scandal, The Idiot, Dodesukaden (19/32). Compared to that, I was selective with Bergman (19/64). Perhaps it is due to the sheer number of movies that I still remember both of them fondly even to this day. But since then, I have never spent that much time on any director sadly (except Tarkovsky who scores a 7/8 if one includes Steamroller and the Violin).

I have watched Breathless, Bicycle Thief and Umberto D, Aguirre: Wrath of God but not Two Women or Woyzczek. Will catch the rest of them up

Edit:

Any idea about Robert Bresson? Much like most of my recent 'discoveries', I found A Man Escaped from iCheckMovies lists sorting by # of official top lists. Then during one of my 'can't-sleep-so-need-something-to-kill-time' google searches, found this thread where Bresson is bunched with Tarkovsky for "medium-slow paced film". May be I should try A Man Escaped and based on that could see Pickpocket, Au Hasard Blathazar and Diary of a Country Priest.

In the same way, I stumbled upon the name of Roberto Rosellini. I figure Roberto Rosellini's war trilogy of Rome:Open City, Paisan and Germany:Year Zero may be interesting.

 

[ajay124]

esantosh

Pick#1: Andrei Rublev. I guess you have already watched it.

Pick #2: The Dairy of a Country Priest/Robert Bresson

This film is based on a novel by Georges Bernanos. Both Bernanos and Bresson were devout catholics and The Dairy Of A Country Priest is imbued with their faith and belief. Belief is something which comes very hard to me. I am a doubter who only believes in the Socratic dictum "The unexamined life is not worth living." I doubt if this examination will ever declare a result, but the pursuit of knowledge seems to be the only motivation which can make life bearable.

I have not read the book but I presume that an auteur par excellence like Bresson, would probably have taken artistic liberties and made the film to reflect his personal vision, rather than that of Bernanos. What attracted me to the film was not the strong element of faith but the even stronger element of the suffering of the young priest. Suffering is an integral part of our existence. But the country priest suffers much more than the parishioners of Ambricourt. His simple child like nature reminded me of Alyosha Karamazov from Dostoyevsky's remarkable novel The Brothers Karamazov. He suffers because he is a noble soul who expects the same nobility from the good people who dwell in Ambricourt. But most of them, all of them(?), are leading petty, tyrannical and meaningless lives. The priest survives on a meagre diet of bread and cheap wine because he is unable to eat anything else. Later on in the film he discovers that his physical suffering is caused by stomach cancer.

Bresson's film is essential viewing for both the believers and the doubters. There is enough material in the film to make it worth watching a dozen times. I first happened to see it during a French film festival in the 90's. Since then I have been watching it at least once or twice every year. Watching it for the art of Bresson and even more for the art-less-ness of the lead actor Claude Laydu. Bresson believed in casting non professional actors. I remember reading that before an actual audition he used to interview actors on the phone. He believed that a disembodied voice on the phone was more revealing than a face to face meeting.

(I shamelessly borrowed Bresson's technique for my catering business. My first, and in most cases final, opinion about my clients was formed during the first telephone call when I had not even met them. By listening to their voice I normally could decide the menu and ambience which they would like and the amount of cash they would be willing to part with. The irony of using the purity of Bresson's cinema for petty monetary reasons!)

Dairy Of A Country Priest was Claude Laydu's first film. Personally I consider it to be the greatest performance ever shot on film. Perhaps only a non professional, first time actor can emote with such child like candor and purity. I find it very interesting to compare Claude Laydu's performance with those by great actors like Max Von Sydow, Tatsuya Nakadai, Gerard Depardieu, Marlon Brando and Naseeruddin Shah. Their strong persona talent and knowledge of acting always emerges from the character they are playing. But Claude Laydu in his first film is an 'innocent', a 'virgin', a clear mountain lake which reflects only the soul of the country priest.

 

[charanbee]

Woody Allen - Bullets over broadway, Whatever Works - both MUST watch movies by Allen

 

[technobhatt]

Pedro Almodvar: Liked All about my mother. Have Talk to her. What else?

Have watched "The Skin I Live In" few days ago. One of the best thriller of recent time.

 

[hydra]

...
I have watched Les Diaboliques and Wages of Fear. I liked WoF a touch more. ...

Wages of Fear is among my favourite movies!

For John Cassavetes, I do have A Woman under Influence due to my habit of collecting movies that have many checks in iCheckMovies . Any others?

The Assassination of a Chinese Bookie, Husbands, Love Streams, Opening Night, Gloria and Minnie & Moskovitz

For Kaurismaki and Jarmusch, would these be OK?

AK: Man without a Past, La Havre, I hired a Contract killer, Calamari Union

JJ: Down by Law, Night on Earth, Coffee and Cigarettes, Ghost Dog

All of Aki Kaurismaki is good. You really can't go wrong with any of his movies. I've seen a lot of his movies, and the only one I didn't like is Calamari Union. The ones I liked the most are The Man without a Past, I Hired a Contract Killer, Drifting Clouds, Lights in the Dusk, La vie de Boheme, The Match Factory Girl and Juha. Take Care of your scarf Tatiana and Leningrad Cowboys go America come next. Le Havre was all right, but not 100% typical Kaurismaki.

Down by Law, Mystery Train and Stranger than Paradise are my favourite Jarmusch movies. The Limits of Control was a novelty. Ghost Dog... was well, just ok (felt too much like a rip off of Le Samourai). Dead Man is a mindbender: Approach with caution. Broken Flowers was nothing special. I'm yet to watch Night on Earth and Coffee and Cigarettes.

You've not mentioned any of Wong Kar Wai. But I think you have watched his main 5, right? (In the Mood for love, Chungking Express, 2046, Days of Being Wild & Happy Together)

I forgot to mention Vittorio de Sica, but you have mentioned Bicycle Thieves in your last post.

BTW thanks for a really nice list in your OP. Lots of stuff in there that I have to catch up with myself

 

[coaltrain]

off the cuff, a few of my personal favourites:

kieslowski - dekalog(must watch), double life of veronique
godard - breathless, band of outsiders, pierrot le fou, alphaville, vivre sa vie
tarkovsky - stalker, ivan's childhood
jean-pierre jeunet - delicatessen, city of lost children
wim wenders - wings of desire
luc besson - the big blue, angel-a, leon
tarsem - the fall
bunuel - belle de jour
seijun suzuki - branded to kill
jules dassin - rififi
louis malle - elevator to the gallows(amazing soundtrack by miles davis)
kubrick - 2001 a space odyssey(my all time favourite. blew my mind at 13 when i first saw it!)

 

[esanthosh]

Thanks a lot Ajay. I have pushed Bresson to the top of my watch list now

You've not mentioned any of Wong Kar Wai. But I think you have watched his main 5, right? (In the Mood for love, Chungking Express, 2046, Days of Being Wild & Happy Together)

I have watched three of them barring 2046 and Happy Together. I liked In the Mood for Love the most due to the combination of color, music and cinematography at times feeling like a poetry in motion. I also have a couple of Kim Ki-Duk movies lined up as well.

But, sometimes, I feel bad about watching movies from European, Asian directors, but not much from Indian directors. I know less about Ray's films than I know about Tarkovsky. There are lot of recent good Tamil films I wish to watch, but never get around to. May be next year!

off the cuff, a few of my personal favourites

Thanks!

Of this, I have covered Tarkovsky and Kubrick already as well as Breathless, Leon: The Professional and The Fall. I will add the rest to my watch list.

I liked two facts about The Fall - the visuals (including choice of backgrounds) and the fact that the story was made up as the film went along + was not your normal disney tale where everybody-lives-happily-ever-after + the characters were 'played' by the people the kid sees in real life. But, it wasn't my kind of film - something I cherished long after I saw it. I would like to watch it's original Yo Ho Ho sometime though!

 

[soulforged]

If you are in for some well-directed, feelgood movies, try Majid Majidi's movies especially Children of Heaven and Color of Paradise

Also Ingmar Bergman, especially Wild Strawberries and Autumn Sonata

...And Giuseppe Tornatore...would recommend Cinema Paradiso...must watch movie

 

[hydra]

^^ Yes, easantosh, if you haven't tried the Iranian Directors, you should do so. Majid Majdi, Abbas Kiarostami and Sameera Makhmalbaf.

I started on Iranian cinema just recently, but I loved nearly everything I've watched so far.

There are also some Turkish movies by Cagan Irmak and Fatih Akin that I enjoyed very much.

I've watched only two Kim Ki-Duk movies yet, but I liked them very much.

 

[longshanks]

Paul Thomas Anderson
Punch-Drunk Love
Magnolia

Coen brothers.
Fargo
The Big Lebowski
O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Darren Aronofsky
The Fountain
Pi
Requiem for a Dream

Terrence Malick
The New World
The Tree of Life

Atom Egoyan
The Sweet Hereafter

Andrew Dominik
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Francis Ford Coppola
Apocalypse Now

Jacques Audiard
Un prophte
Sur mes lvres

Louis Malle
Au revoir les enfants
Le souffle au coeur
Damage
My Dinner with Andre

Alejandro Amenbar
Mar adentro

Julian Schnabel
Le scaphandre et le papillon

Alfonso Cuarn
Y Tu Mam Tambin

Gaspar No
Irreversible

Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano

Intouchables

Stanley genius Kubrick
Eyes Wide Shut
The Shining
Barry Lyndon
Lolita
guess some one already suggested 2001: A Space Odyssey.

These are some of the movies i liked,some better than the other.I liked them for different reasons,there were a couple of more movies which came to my mind but i saw that it already had been suggested in this thread.

There are a many greatest movie lists in the internet which has all kinds of movie from all regions,i tried my best to watch them but i liked only a very few.

 

[technobhatt]

Stanley genius Kubrick
Eyes Wide Shut
The Shining
Barry Lyndon
Lolita
guess some one already suggested 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Just add 3 more movies if you haven't watched them

- Full Metal Jackat : I guarantee you'll love the first half of this movie, excellent dialogues !!

- Paths Of Glory : A Kubrick Classic, one of the best War Movie !!

- Clockwork Orange : An X-Rated science fiction movie.

 

[longshanks]

I've seen all of Kubrick's work,what i listed are my personal favorites.

 

[esanthosh]

I started on Iranian cinema just recently, but I loved nearly everything I've watched so far. There are also some Turkish movies by Cagan Irmak and Fatih Akin that I enjoyed very much.

I've watched only two Kim Ki-Duk movies yet, but I liked them very much.

I liked both Spring, Summer... and 3-Iron. Bad Guy was not bad either, but Time was not in the same league, though the basic premise of the film was interesting. I like the way main characters talk very less.

As for Iranian / Middle Eastern films, I have only watched The Separation so far. I probably watched a small portion of The White Balloon when it was on some TV Channel. But that's about it. So, guess it's high time I start watching a few more.

Paul Thomas Anderson
Punch-Drunk Love

Coen brothers.
O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Terrence Malick
The New World
The Tree of Life

Atom Egoyan
The Sweet Hereafter

Andrew Dominik
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Jacques Audiard
Un prophte
Sur mes lvres

Louis Malle
Au revoir les enfants
Le souffle au coeur
Damage
My Dinner with Andre

Alejandro Amenbar
Mar adentro

Julian Schnabel
Le scaphandre et le papillon

Alfonso Cuarn
Y Tu Mam Tambin

A good list. I have edited out the movies I have watched out off the list. Some of them like Y Tu Mam Tambin are on my hit list, but I have reserved them for later once I am through with the current big list. What I am trying to do is cover only those directors that I am prepared to watch at least 2-3 films of (or in the case of some, finish what I've already started).

I must have made it clear. I have already covered the usual suspects like Kubrick, Aronofsky, Coppola, Nolan, Fincher, Lynch etc.,

 

[technobhatt]

How about 'David Lean' ?

I have watched 3 of his movies so far :-

The Bridge On The River Kwai : I liked this movie the best
The Lawrence of Arabia : lengthy movie with full of substance
A Passage to India : Not so adorable

Have another movie on the list - "Doctor Zhivago"

 

[esanthosh]

Yep! David Lean and Martin Scorsese are also among the 'usual suspects'

I am yet to watch Doctor Zhivago or Brief Encounter, but I like both Lawrence of Arabia and Bridge on the River Kwai. I did not like Passage to India either.

Actually, there's a lot more to cover on the Hollywood / English movie side of movies. A few I haven't watched yet are..

1. Doctor Zhivago (David Lean)
2. Brief Encounter (David Lean)
3. Flags of our Fathers (Clint Eastwood)
4. Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood)
5. The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola)
6. A Face In the Crowd (Elia Kazan)
7. Amadeus (Milos Forman)
8. Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler)
9. Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder)

and so on... But, if I keep adding them, it would take a year more to even form a list leave alone watching everything in it. I felt that these odd movies left out can be watched any time as part of a regular schedule i.e., when I am back to chasing useless, petty virtual awards at iCheckMovies

 

[theredcommando]

How about well known and mainstream, still very different bollywood directors(in case you haven't watched any of this)

Vishal Bharadvaj

1. Omkara
2. Makadi
3. Maqbool

and Anurag Kashyap

1. Gulaal
2. Paanch
3. No smoking
4. Black Friday

I have watched some of the movies mentioned earlier. For example,
Roshoman was good and Bicycle Thief, Colors of Paradise, Children of Heaven, Amores Perros were excellent.

However something like Winter Light by Ingmar Bergman was in all honesty, boring. It did not offer anything. Comparatively Anurag Kashyap and Vishal Bhardvaj movies were entertaining and at the same time excellent.

Some information about where to find these movies would also help. Is torrent the only place where they are available? Can it be ordered online?