Gail—

If you don't mind subtitles (or you're able to speak Korean) I'd recommend OldBoy. Hmmm. Just noticed your comment nixing excessive violence. No to that, then. Shame. Great film.

How's about The Motorcycle Diaries? You can't beat a bit of Castro. In all seriousness, I was utterly enchanted by it. The end, in particular, is a cinematic master-work.

If you're after laugh, try Sideways. Buy some wine to watch it with. Or The Big Lebowski or The Royal Tenenbaums. If you're after something quite other than a laugh, try Donnie Darko.

[This message has been edited by Mike Todd (edited August 09, 2008).]

Howdy Gail,

I second Quincy's Withnail suggestion (thanks, Quincy, haven't seen it in years and must now run out and rent).

A few others (in order from lightest to heaviest):

Kinky Boots (it’s about a shoe factory and (but?) very funny)
Allegro Non Troppo (blows Disney out of the water)
How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer
Peter’s Friends (very ‘80s but lots of good performances)


Any that you strongly recommend in return?

B.

Ha! I was going to say Batman the Dark Knight and The X-Files: I Want to Believe, but forget it now!

dwl

Gail, if you haven't seen Lina Wertmüller's Mimi Metallurgico move mountains to see it. But make sure it has subtitles and isn't dubbed.
It's a satire on the real nature of the southern Italian male as well as a nice tilt at the mechanism which controlled most events in Italy of the period.

A terrific cast. It's OTT as it should be.


I forgot to say it's very, very funny.
----
A marvellous Japanese film is TAMPOPO
Incredibly funny.
______
I saw THE RULING CLASS many decades ago but I suspect it has lasted because of the cast.

IT HAS! Watch this scene!

[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited August 09, 2008).]

I'll leave most of the dark stuff to others, but for comedies I love the original The Producers, Love and Death, Heaven Can Wait, Animal House, The Graduate, Nuns on the Run, the first half of Stripes (until they go to Europe), Dave (Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver, not Eddie Murphy) and Little Miss Sunshine. I don't know how to label it, but I adore Shakespeare in Love. Last year's In Bruges was also hard to characterize, but except for one brief excruciating scene, it was really interesting and inventive. My wife and I saw Body Heat when it first came out and all the cast was obscure, and that was a terrific movie. I also love Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven and Mystic River (except when the women try to do real Boston accents--the men made a better choice going for generic Northeast urban).

I was less impressed with The Dark Knight than others, but it did generally hold my interest and have amazing special effects. There are movies worse than Ishtar, such as most Woody Allen movies after Manhattan.

I love two music docu's by Scorsese: The Last Waltz (the Band) and Shine a Light (the Stones)--in the latter you can almost hear their skeletal bones clatter!

Oh, and Cinema Paradiso.

View on,
Ralph

Now I do remember one artsy enough really recommend: The Madeline Sisters, an Irish movie about the instituitions that existed in Ireland for girls who got preganant out of wedlock--like the one that is the setting of James Joyce's story, "Clay." Very moving, informative, and well-filmed.

dwl

No, tell me about it.

Thanks, people, I knew you'd come through.

Special thanks for the foreign movies. I love Italian movies, and the two that we own (Nights of Cabiria and Big Deal on Madonna Street)we've watched again & again...but Mimi Metallica is new to me & sounds great.

Keep 'em coming, if you have more to suggest.

While I was searching I found this!!
When you have some leisure do watch this tremendous icon of its time.

THE BED SITTING-ROOM with a cast of major English actors and comedians.
Not to be missed.

I didn't make it clear. The link I have supplied shows the entire film. It's very strange.

Donna in particular should watch it. It isn't too far from her poem in The Deep End but it's a surrealistic extrapolation.

[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited August 10, 2008).]