What is one movie you think most people should see? Maybe not your favorite film, or what you think is the best film ever, but a film that is accessible to a wide range of folks and which is an experience they would enjoy and benefit from?
Mine is a rather populist choice, but it has elements which appeal to almost everyone (humor, romance, mystery, the unexpected). It’s…
Amélie
What’s yours?
I don’t know if there is such a thing as a perfect film, but this comes damn close.
I don’t know how accessible In The Mood For Love Is. Even Kevin Murphy grumbled in his movie-goer memoirs that he wanted a different resolution for it. (Some would say there was no real resolution at all, and they’re probably irritated at how long it took things to not wrap up.)
I still like it, though. Even not knowing whether it really would have universal appeal. I guess my criteria for a must-see film is that it conveys some sensation or emotion that other media just can’t do as well. So it’s my pick.
I think I’ve met four people who have ever seen this movie: High Strung. It stars Steve Oedekerk as a very cynical children’s book writer and has some cool supporting small roles with Fred Willard, Thomas F. Wilson, Denise Crosby and Jani Lane. Oh, and an uncredited small role with a young Jim Carrey playing Death. It’s a strange little movie that borders on being either really funny or really annoying! I recommend it for folks looking for something different. (if you can find it)
Brazil somehow becomes more relevant with each passing year.
I suggest the documentary Jodorowski’s Dune. It’s the story of an ultimately failed adaptation of the novel yet managed to influence almost all the sci fi movies that came after it. You need not be a fan of Jodorowski or the Dune books. If you have watched any popular science fiction made in the last 40-ish years you have seen elements of this epic that never was.
I am so in love with this movie. Good call.
Hmmmm … what do I think just about everyone here would enjoy? Got it! Who doesn’t love seeing a familiar voice actually come out of someone’s head?
I Know That Voice is a spectacular documentary about voice actors and their craft.
Kind Hearts and Coronets. Plays out like something Oscar Wilde might have written if he had gotten really dark. It’s about a guy who murders a family of British bluebloods (all of whom are portrayed by Alec Guinness) to claim a ducal title.
Harriet The Spy
The Exorcist, of course!
Tied with Black Christmas starring Olivia Hussey.
And Blue Velvet.
Faces of Death is a must-see. Just kidding about that last one, really. It’s stupid.
Not my usual fare but it was recommended I watch it by someone else for whom it wasn’t their usual fare; fortunately managed to watch it unspoiled.
“Yeah, that voice came out of me — what of it?”
The Princess Bride. It has everything.
Triumph of the Will? I mean, most people wouldn’t enjoy it, but it sure would benefit people to see. As well as Birth of a Nation. And a number of US produced WWII propaganda films, or things like Gabriel Over The White House, where (shall we call them) dubious ideas of beneficent totalitarian governments are promulgated from unexpected sources.
Actually Metropolis would fall into that category and is a more interesting film.
I don’t usually do “should”, but if a “should” is possible for movie viewing than it should (heh) be something that presents a challenging idea. Like Paradise Now, with its justification of suicide bombing.
But if we want most people to find it watchable, I’d say something like Friendly Persuasion, where a community of Quakers finds their religious beliefs tested by modern life (in 1862) and then severely tested by the encroaching Civil War.
Side Note: When making Green Inferno, Eli Roth wanted to employ a genuine native tribe and he had some guys bring out a generator and screen in order to explain to them what a movie was, since they had never seen one before. The people who made the selection brought out Cannibal Holocaust—which apparently they loved, and really fired them up for being in Roth’s homage to Deodato’s notorious exploitation flick.
So I think a lot depends on whom you’re showing something to. Heh.
Munchausen is the best.
I wonder what the right age is to see Munchausen? Because it’s ostensibly a children’s story, but I tried showing it to my (then) 10-year-old and she just couldn’t get into it.
Then again, she couldn’t get into Time Bandits either and I loved it when I was her age.
Along a number of wavelengths - as a comedy movie, as a foreign language film, as a black-and-white motion picture, as escapist entertainment - I always have to champion Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday.
If we’re talking documentary filmmaking, I have to throw out a nod for Kedi, which follows the lives of stray cats in Istanbul. It’s utterly engrossing.
