Films you haven't seen and should - a list by jacobmounter Sci fi that makes you go hmmm... | SnagFilms Life - short film by Artavazd Peleshian Poetic essay about the beginning of life from labor pains and birth and about its symbolic meaning. Life is about a birth, consisting mainly of views of a young woman’s face in the throes of labour, her heaving body in its hospital room seen as a changing landscape. Two shifts take place: the child is born and the camera shows us this new life; then, in a final shot that re-orders the entire film in retrospect (like the final shot of Pelechian’s earlier portrait of peasant life, The Seasons), we see mother and child, faces side-by-side perhaps a year later, mirrors of one another save for the difference in age. The filmmaker works with his images as if they were a musical score. Around a central theme, he orchestrates variations and modulations that create an impression of a flood of private images arriving from beyond the frame. Pelechian is making a name for himself as a montage filmmaker who tends to inscribe in his works the movement of the world and history.
12 Early Short Films By Famous Hollywood Directors By Scott Meslow If last weekend's number one movie, Mama — in which two adopted children are beset by a malevolent creature they call Mama — sounds familiar, it may be because you first encountered the film in its original three-minute short form when it was released in 2008. (Watch the original short version of Mama below.) 1. As an NYU film student, Martin Scorsese made a series of well-received short films — including The Big Shave, a darkly satirical indictment of the Vietnam War — but the most accessible is this briskly paced short, which tells the story of a man who becomes obsessed with a picture on his wall. 2. David Lynch's unsettling style, a trademark of his mature work, first made its appearance in a number of early short films — but none more so than Six Men Getting Sick, which is more or less what it sounds like. 3. Like David Lynch, Tim Burton seems to have emerged as a filmmaker fully formed in his early work. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
20 Great Documentaries To Watch on Netflix Instant (2012) Last year, we looked at 20 Great Documentaries to Watch on Netflix Instant, but as the movie service is constantly updating its offerings, we decided to update the list with 20 different documentaries that are available now. A handful of documentaries from last year’s list are still available as well: Restrepo, God Grew Tired of Us, Client 9, Exit Through the Gift Shop, The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia, No End In Sight and No Direction Home. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. The Best Films on Netflix (Top 250 listed first) - a list by Slizmo The 30 Best Films of the Decade We’re all in that humanistic mode of evaluating our lives – coming up on the end of the year and the last time a zero will be the third digit on our calendars. We’re all (from Variety to Cat Fancy) also waxing expert on what films were the best of the best of the best of the past ten years. Which is why there is an unnavigable sea of opinion polluting the internet right now. Neil and I thought, ‘If everyone else is doing it, why can’t we? You may ask (since I’m forcing you to rhetorically), “How can giving your opinion be better than everyone else’s tepid version of an almost-arbitrary-seeming list?” I’m glad you asked. Neil and I anticipated this task back in October and began planning what would become far too much work for two people who essentially sit around watching Animal House all day. The algorithm, which we’ve nicknamed Simon, spat out just over 300 films, reducing our master list by 90%. After 6 cutting sessions and over 4 hours of arguing, we’d chopped the list down to 60.
The Stories Behind Hollywood Studio Logos You see these opening logos every time you go to the movies, but have you ever wondered who is the boy on the moon in the DreamWorks logo? Or which mountain inspired the Paramount logo? Or who was the Columbia Torch Lady? Let's find out: 1. In 1994, director Steven Spielberg, Disney studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, and record producer David Geffen (yes, they make the initial SKG on the bottom of the logo) got together to found a new studio called DreamWorks. Spielberg wanted the logo for DreamWorks to be reminiscent of Hollywood's golden age. Hunt also sent along an alternative version of the logo, which included a young boy on a crescent moon, fishing. The DreamWorks logo that you see in the movies was made at ILM from paintings by Robert Hunt, in collaboration with Kaleidoscope Films (designers of the original storyboards), Dave Carson (director), and Clint Goldman (producer) at ILM. Photo courtesy of Robert Hunt - Thanks for the neat story, Robert! 2. 4. 5. Warner Bros. Warner Bros.
10 Foreign Movies Every Guy Should See We’re not quite sure why, but when we think of foreign movies we immediately think of French romance flicks. Pass. This is dumb since there are a ton of solid foreign movies for dudes. In fact, if you don’t mind a bit of reading with your movie watching, there are some kickass foreign films you really need to see. Here are 10 to get you started. 1. You’ve probably seen some pretty great American style gang movies, but you’ve never seen a gang movie with the grittiness of City of God. 2. Some great movies have used prison as the main backdrop for the film (see: Shawshank Redemption), but few have utilized it and taken advantage of it like A Prophet. 3. Okay, technically this is three movies, but they’re all equally awesome so forgive us. 4. Why this movie works better in black & white, we couldn’t tell you, all we know is it does and it’s awesome. 5. Another film starring Vincent Cassel on the list (who you might also know from Black Swan), and another winner. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Watch Free Documentaries Online | Documentary Heaven 1957 was the best-ever year for movies (and other surprising insights from IMDb) Big data can answer a lot of big debates … like which episode of “Seinfeld” was the funniest. (Columbia TriStar Television Photo/Reuters) Want to know which episode of “Seinfeld” was the greatest? Curious which year produced the best films? At one point in time, these types of esoteric queries fell firmly in the realm of bar debates and bickering critics. But thanks to IMDb — that massive compendium of cinematic trivia and ratings — we can at last quantify things like, say, the best move made in 1985. This brilliant and vindicating insight comes courtesy Reddit, where “monoglot,” an enterprising user in the /r/movies forum, parsed tens of thousands of movie reviews to assemble a list of the movies that got the most perfect reviews for every year between 1894 and the present. The highest-rated movies, in this case, aren’t always the most-acclaimed ones. This isn’t the only interesting project to pull from IMDb data in recent weeks. And what about “Seinfeld,” you ask?
Into the White a Stark Tale of Enemy-Friendship Movie Review, Christian Reviews and Ratings DVD Release Date: June 25, 2013 Theatrical Release Date: April 12, 2013 (limited) & OnDemand Rating: R (for some language, and wartime violence) Genre: WWII drama Run Time: 1 hr., 40 min. Director: Petter Naess Cast: Florian Lukas, David Kross, Rupert Grint, Stig Henrik Hoff, Lachlan Nieboer What is it that makes fellow inhabitants of Planet Earth enemies with one another? It's an age-old question, one that actually had me harkening back to the 1985 Dennis Quaid-Lou Gossett film Enemy Mine, and one which director Petter Naess (Elling) does absolutely nothing new with in Into the White. Based on true events, Into the White (titled Cross of Honour in Europe) takes place in late April 1940, at the front end of World War II, in the snowy Norwegian wilderness. The cabin is uninhabited. All the archetypes are present, and they are fun to consider. All of them soon realize, however, that when lives are on the line, politics matter little.
100 Best Comedy Movies - Film Here's the 100 best comedy movies as chosen by more than 200 people whose job it is to make you laugh. We spoke to dozens of comedy writers, comedy directors, comic actors and stand-up comedians – including Dan Aykroyd, Richard Curtis, Edgar Wright, Kim Noble, Stephen Merchant, Jo Brand and many, many more – and asked them to share with us their favourite comedy films of all time. Can you guess which film emerged as the number one choice? UPDATE: Tell us the comedy movie you think should have made the list and we'll print the best ten in a future issue of Time Out magazine. Make your suggestions on our messageboards. By Tom Huddleston, David Jenkins, Adam Lee Davies, Derek Adams, Edward Lawrenson, Wally Hammond, Ben Walters, Gabriel Tate and Phil Harrison
25 Spectacular Movies You (Probably) Haven’t Seen Midnight in Paris Woody Allen’s latest places starving writer Owen Wilson in Paris with his fiancée, Rachel McAdams. Searching for inspiration for his incomplete novel, Owen begins taking strolls around the city at night where he discovers an unexpected group of people. I wish I could be more specific, but it would ruin the surprise. Know that it is brilliant, witty and full of mystique. 92% on Rotten Tomatoes (RT). Let the Right One In The best vampire movie ever made in my opinion. Watch Let the Right One In for FREE on Amazon Instant Video The Man From Earth Holy &#%@ this film’s plot is fascinating! Garden State This is my absolute favorite film. Waking Life It’s impossible for you to grasp Waking Life without actually watching it, but I’ll do my best to explain it. Watch Waking Life for FREE on Amazon Instant Video Closer This film is a rather dark, yet comedic story about the twisted relationships between Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Clive Owen and Julia Roberts. Sin Nombre Snatch The Descent