The Sublime on Celluloid (65 titles)
Images of remarkable beauty, extra-ordinary composition or startling impact. Not a list of the greatest movies of all time, more a compendium of mind-boggling filmscapes. In no particular order.
86.4% from 128 members
Mirror
The obvious first choice. Yawn: what a platitudinal and predictable bore, I know.
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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
Werckmeister Harmonies / Damnation
Tarkovsky, but with a better sense of rhythm and a much, much darker heart...
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Werckmeister Harmonies / Damnation
on DVD
(2001)
Starring: Peter Fitz, Janos Derzsi, Hanna Schygulla
Director: Bela Tarr
Certificate:
A 2-DVD set containing Hungarian director Bela Tarr's tour de force WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES alongside 2000's DAMNATION. In a nameless, frozen, Eastern European village cloaked in fog, Janos (Lars Rudolph) choreographs three grizzly drunks in a pantomime of the earth circling the sun and the moon ..
72%
from 474 members
Cries And Whispers
Bergman's use of light, colour and atmospheric tembre stagger
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Cries And Whispers
on DVD
(1972)
Starring: Ingrid Thulin, Kari Sylwan, Harriet Andersson
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Certificate:
Ingmar Bergman's acclaimed drama, which deals with the fractured relationships between three sisters, is set in a vast turn-of-the-century manor house where unidentified voices are continually whispering and mingle with a dying woman's cries of pain. Karin and Maria (played by Ingrid Thulin and Liv ..read more »
68%
from 2,032 members
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Could this be the greatest movie of all time? Nothing but the pure logic of images, the most outstanding female performance ever captured on celluloid AND a cameo from Antonin Artaud for those who care about such things. Wow.
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The Passion of Joan of Arc
(1928)
Starring: Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, Andre Berley
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Certificate:
The sufferings of the martyr, Jeanne D'Arc (1412-1431) during her imprisonment.
84%
from 131 members
2001 - A Space Odyssey
Who would have thought Richard Strauss and waltzing space ships would combine so gracefully? This man, obviously...oh and a profound (neo-Nietzschean) message to boot. Can one ask more of a movie?
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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 28,750 members
Mother Joan Of The Angels
Claustrophobic camera work and unforgettable images in this masterpiece that is still not widely enough viewed.
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Mother Joan Of The Angels
on DVD
(1962)
Starring: Lucyna Winnicka, Mieczyslaw Voit, Anna Ciepielewska
Director: Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Certificate:
Set in the 17th century. A convent in a small town is being visited by high-ranking Catholic official trying to exorcise the nun supposedly posessed by demons.
65%
from 259 members
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter And Spring
Utilising fixed shots, repetition, symbolism, ritual and an imagistic and narrative aesthetic that relies upon a deceptively understated simplicity, this mesmerising allegory of the life cycle manages to capture, vissually and narratively, the ascetic beauty of buddhism and the natural world. Stunning.
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Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter And Spring
on DVD
(2004)
Starring: Yeong-su Oh, Ki-duk Kim, Kim Ki-Duk
Director: Kim Ki-Duk, Ki-Duk Kim, Ki-duk Kim
Certificate:
A young boy lives in a small floating temple on a beautiful lake, together with an elderly master who teaches him the ways of the Buddha. Years later the boy, now a young man, experiences his sexual awakening with a girl who has come to the temple to be healed by the master. The youth runs away to ..read more »
73%
from 6,049 members
Amelie
Not exactly 'sublime', but gorgeously photographed and just generally adorable.
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Amelie
on DVD
(2001)
Starring: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Yolande Moreau
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Certificate:
Amelie Poulain (Audrey Tautou) is a young woman who glides through the streets of Paris as quietly as a mouse. With wide eyes and a tiny grin, she sees the world in a magical light, discovering minor miracles every day. A shy and reserved person whose favorite moments are spent alone skimming ..read more »
77%
from 63,140 members
Trilogy - The Weeping Meadow
Another member of the Tarkovsky school of cinema, this film is hard work but more than repays visually. I actually would have chosen another of his movies, but they're simply not available in the UK. Mutter.
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Trilogy - The Weeping Meadow
on DVD
(2004)
Starring: Alexandra Aidini, Nikos Poursadinis, Giorgos Armenis
Director: Theo Angelopoulos
Certificate:
The Weeping Meadow is the first part in a celluloid trilogy that spans a wide-ranging historical panorama. In 1919, as Greek refugees flee Odessa and the invading Red Army for their homeland, the story of the forbidden love affair between a beautiful young Eleni and Alexis begins. After giving ..read more »
60%
from 706 members
Faust
Seems to operate on the level of the collective unconscious: upon viewing, you are struck with the feeling that you are seeing things you have already encountered in your dreams
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Faust
on DVD
(1926)
Starring: Emil Jannings, Gosta Ekman, Camilla Horn
Director: F.W. Murnau
Certificate:
F.W. Murnau's FAUST stars the inimitable Emil Jannings as Mephistopheles, to whom the hapless and aging Faust sells his soul for renewed youth, as well as wealth and power. Based on Goethe's interpretation of the age-old legend, Murnau merely uses the story as a starting point for an incredibly ..read more »
71%
from 771 members
Average rating for this collection:
86.4% from 128 members
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