Films to see before you live (42 titles)
Waiter! Waiter! There's a film in my head!
83% from 13 members
The Piano Teacher
An utterly gutting study of human misery - this film is the reason I started therapy. I don't know if that's a good recommendation.
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The Piano Teacher
on DVD
(2001)
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Annie Girardot, Benoit Magimel
Director: Michael Haneke
Certificate:
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Erika (Isabelle Huppert) teaches classical piano in a cold and often abrasive style. Approaching middle age, Erika lives with her doting mother (Annie Girardot) and still sleeps in the same bed with her. Erika's social life consists of occasionally sneaking away to a peep show where she secretly ..read more »
57%
from 6,089 members
Funny Games
Watch it only once; unless you're psychologically disturbed you won't want to watch it again anyway. This might alter your perception of cinema for ever.
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Funny Games
on DVD
(1997)
Starring: Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Muhe, Frank Giering
Director: Michael Haneke
Certificate:
A powerfully graphic film (even though no violence is ever shown on the screen itself) about an Austrian family who goes on a country vacation and become the victims of two cold-blooded psychopaths who are out to torture them with their "funny games." Haneke's point, that fictional violence is as ..read more »
67%
from 4,130 members
The Shining
Come and play with us Danny - for ever and ever and EVER.... Rivers of blood sweep the furniture aside in one of the most terrifying films ever made. Nothing - NOTHING is more frightening than menstruation.
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The Shining
on DVD
(1980)
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Certificate:
Opening with spectacular aerial shots of a beautiful, mountainous landscape, Stanley Kubrick's horror classic THE SHINING, based on Stephen King's best-selling novel, sucks the viewer into his frightening tale with quiet, relaxing visuals - but the ominous soundtrack warns that all is not right at ..read more »
75%
from 48,630 members
2001 - A Space Odyssey
It's got monkeys, spaceships, a big black slab, AND Rigsby out of Rising Damp. Known for being spaced-out and trippy - but the first time I saw it I sh** myself. Genius.
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2001 - A Space Odyssey
on DVD
(1968)
Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Certificate:
A four-million-year-old black monolith is discovered on the moon, and the government sends a team of scientists on a fact-finding mission while hiding the truth from the public. Later, another team is sent to Jupiter in a ship controlled by the perfect HAL 9000 computer to further investigate the ..read more »
68%
from 28,743 members
Doctor Strangelove
One of the most consistently funny comedies ever made. Most comedies have poor endings because the jokes have to be abandoned to tie up the storyline. Here the storyline IS the joke, so it just keeps getting funnier. Peter Sellers - there is nothing he can't do; situation; sight gags; one liners; character; he's a master of all.
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Doctor Strangelove
on DVD
(1963)
Starring: George C. Scott, Peter Sellers, Sterling Hayden
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Certificate:
DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB is the cold war masterpiece by Stanley Kubrick. Based on the novel RED ALERT by Peter George, the film is set at the height of the tensions between Russia and the United States, when all it would take to destroy the world was one ..read more »
74%
from 23,687 members
Mirror
Beauty fairly drips off the screen as Tarkovsky tries to see himself. Be his mirror.
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Mirror
on DVD
(1974)
Starring: Margarita Terekhova, Ignat Daniltsev, Larisa Tarkovskaya
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Certificate:
With THE MIRROR, legendary Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky crafts perhaps his most profound and compelling film. What started off for Tarkovsky as a planned series of interviews with his own mother evolved into a lyrical and complex circular meditation on love, loyalty, memory, and history. Time ..read more »
68%
from 2,137 members
The Double Life Of Veronique
How tragic Kieslowski died at only 54. Unbelievably gorgeous.
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The Double Life Of Veronique
on DVD
(1991)
Starring: Irene Jacob, Philippe Volter
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Certificate:
Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, creator of the masterful THREE COLORS TRILOGY, presents this enigmatic, philosophical drama about duality in the modern world. Veronika (Irene Jacob), a young Polish woman, embraces each aspect of her life with zeal. She has many friendships, sexual and ..read more »
65%
from 5,341 members
La Strada
Monumental, solid story telling, with passages of the visionary flair that was to come in Fellini's later films. A big healthy main course of a film - shame on you if you want pudding after this.
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La Strada
on DVD
(1954)
Starring: Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina, Richard Basehart
Director: Federico Fellini
Certificate:
Gelsomina, a half-witted peasant girl, is hired by Zampano, a travelling street entertainer doing a strong-man act, who pays her mother 10,000 lire as part of the deal...
75%
from 1,745 member
La Dolce Vita
Sit back, glue your jaw to the floor, and watch as Fellini takes us on a journey into the hellish depths of early post-modern culture and, actually, doesn't mind it that much because some of it's not that bad and you can always get pissed anyway. It's 1960 and God is officially dead so arrive late and wear the biggest shades your face shape will allow.
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La Dolce Vita
on DVD
(1960)
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Lex Barker
Director: Federico Fellini
Certificate:
A journalist becomes involved with the high society individuals that his paper maligns. Italian dialogue with subtitles.
61%
from 9,252 members
Fellinis 8.1/2
OK - I've made a film that says all there is to say about the modern world (La Dolce Vita) and it was a masterpiece. I know - I'll make a film about me making a masterpiece. Hey! - it's another masterpiece! Champagne!
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Fellinis 8.1/2
on DVD
(1962)
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimee
Director: Federico Fellini
Certificate:
Federico Fellini's Oscar-nominated 8 1/2 is a masterpiece of storytelling and cinema. The most autobiographical of Fellini's films, the plot of which concerns a 43-year-old film director who is having a midlife crisis, it is a career benchmark for this magnificent Italian New Wave director. ..read more »
65%
from 5,179 members
Average rating for this collection:
83% from 13 members
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