Obscure film recommendations

[otk]

Is it not the case that 'obscure' films, a bit like Northern Soul music, are obscure because they never made it at the box office, due to them being a bit pants (or undanceable in the case of NS)? If they were that good, they would have raked it in in cinemas, non?

 

[fork me]

 

[fork me]

 

[Seagull on the wing]

If you like film noir black and white...there is no better film than 'Chase a Crooked Shadow' 1958...starring Richard Todd,Anne Baxter,Herbert Lom..the best story I've seen in any film..saw it when originally released but had to get a copy from America...superb surprise ending,good music...Classic.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Stalker - Tarkovsky's masterpiece.

In fact, anything by Tarkovsky, including Solaris which was the main influence for Kubrick's 2001.

 

[Acker79]

Is it not the case that 'obscure' films, a bit like Northern Soul music, are obscure because they never made it at the box office, due to them being a bit pants (or undanceable in the case of NS)? If they were that good, they would have raked it in in cinemas, non?

Not necessarily.

There are factors with finding distributors, which is often harder for independent films than with studio offerings (as most studios have a distribution wing or partner).
Success at the cinema can be affected by so much: advertising, scheduling (both when in the year and how many showings/what time showings, how long they stay in cinemas), screen numbers, competition.
In combination of those, the factor can be how many cinemas the distributors can get the film shown at.
Sometimes films that bomb in one region will be straight to video in another where it would be considered a great film (e.g. a film may bomb in america because the ameicans don't get the englishness of it, had it been released here it might well have been a hit but because of it's failure in the US they don't bother risking it here).
Sometimes it's one person's opinion of a film that dictates whether it will be released in cinemas or not, and that person just happens to be wrong
Sometimes it's that the film has a narrow audience range. A film about Lewis Dunk might be one of the best in the world, but it isn't likely to be a huge cinematic hit because the audience isn't there.
Some people will give a film a miss because of its genre, or the way it looks in trailers, and so miss out on a film they would otherwise like, despite it being in a genre they don't.

 

[pauli cee]

Oldboy ....... The twist at the end beats all twists at the end.
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (3rd in the trilogy) Peodo revenge movie
Versus .....Time travel , samurais , zombies , gangsters , guns .......very very OTT very violent
Hero -Jet Li ....Immense epic medieval Chinese film
Rec....... Spanish horror , zombie , virus
Any John Woo pre Hollywood movie ....Hard Boiled ... Killer ... Bullet in the Head
Dark Water (Japanese version ) really creepy.

you missed out "Ichi, the killer", same director as oldboys i think, proper classsic!

 

[otk]

Stalker - Tarkovsky's masterpiece.

In fact, anything by Tarkovsky, including Solaris which was the main influence for Kubrick's 2001.

Would that be Solaris (1972), and 2001: a Space Odessy (1968)

 

[pauli cee]

also, if you like it a bit weird, would recommend "feed",
quite sick actually......

 

[dexter]

perfume , story of a murderer , what a film

 

[Doc Lynam]

Stalker - Tarkovsky's masterpiece.

In fact, anything by Tarkovsky, including Solaris which was the main influence for Kubrick's 2001.

Very good

 

[bnfrnkln]

another vote for 'old boy' from me, looked around the room when i showed it to a few friends and everyone was open mouthed gawping at the screen.

 

[Tony Towner's Fridge]

French film from 2010 called MicMacs

Funny as farouk!

TNBA

TTF

 

[Brightonfan1983]

Old Boy - dark Korean film. to tell you what it's about would be to tell you too much. just watch it.

I quite liked that. There's something about Asian cinema that's an acquired taste I feel.

The Machinist.

Ace film, touch of the Jacob's Ladder about it for some reason.

The Coen Brothers' most overlooked work, Miller's Crossing, is sufficiently mainstream to appeal to most people but way too little known for such a piece of filmmaking brilliance, particularly when far inferior work of theirs is much better known.

Seems like people fall into two camps - old Cohen or new Cohen. I'm definitely new.

perhaps not so obscure but 2 very good thrillers

the town

Watched that the other night and was taken aback at how thriling it was, really!

[video=youtube;j66i6Ey_IAQ]
Glory
Amazing film from 1989. Morgan Freeman,Denzel Washington, Matthew Brodrick.

Really really good. The late 80s and early 90s turned out some good good films.

perfume , story of a murderer , what a film

This.

And I'll end with, again on these pages, saying Funny Games, in the original German.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Is it not the case that 'obscure' films, a bit like Northern Soul music, are obscure because they never made it at the box office, due to them being a bit pants (or undanceable in the case of NS)? If they were that good, they would have raked it in in cinemas, non?

There are films that don't necessarily do well at the cinema but given time and word of mouth can become sucessful. Take the Shawshank redemption for example, it did poorly at the cimena and only after it was watched by people buying it cheaply from the bargain bins in video stores and then recommending it to others did its popularity finally take off and it then went on to become the highest ranked film on IMD's top 250 films (as voted for by users of the site)

When i started this thread i was thinking more of films that were less well known and hadn't received all the Hollywood style hype before their release that a lot of very ordinary films get (such as best new film of the year so far - on a film released on the 1st week of January) so films that people may have found by completely by chance and watched or brought cheaply thinking it would be crap but end up really liking it and would recommend them to others who may not have seen them

 

[Bold Seagull]

Would that be Solaris (1972), and 2001: a Space Odessy (1968)

Perhaps it was the other way round? That is a misconception I've held for 15 years then!

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

Once were Warriors...

Dark and violent

Once Were Warriors is a 1994 film based on New Zealand author Alan Duff's bestselling 1990 first novel. The film tells the story of an urban Māori family, the Hekes, and their problems with poverty, alcoholism and domestic violence, mostly brought on by family patriarch Jake.

 

[otk]

Perhaps it was the other way round? That is a misconception I've held for 15 years then!

Dates as quoted in Halliwell's Film Guide...

As with the then Space Race between USA and Russia, there was also a Space (Film) Race

 

[Billy Whizzkid]

Just to add weight to too earlier recommendations - Mesrine and The Secret in Their Eyes. Both foreign. Both absolutely compelling.

 

[SULLY COULDNT SHOOT]

Just about anything from Preston Sturges...