Caradavin on 2/9/2013 at 23:40

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Okay, I'm gonna list a movie I just watched and absolutely loved. I have never seen it before - "How to Marry a Millionaire." I wondered after that if the only community I've ever felt at home in might have others who enjoy older movies?

So, this thread is about what older movie you have watched recently. To be fair, I think the cutoff should be 1980, so the movie has to be in the years before 1980.

Nicker on 3/9/2013 at 01:17

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I'd suggest the divide at 1977 and Star Wars, not be cause it is superior narrative to Alien by any means, but because of the special effects.

Prior to Star Wars, SFX were offered with the tacit agreement that they were an aid to imagination, not an attempt to simulate an alternate reality. You could easily tell where the reality ended and the scale models, the blue-screen or stop action animation began.

By today's standards the Star Wars sfx are pretty lame but at the time I remember thinking, "As of this moment I will never be able to automatically trust the veracity of what I see on film again."

I just got a boxed set of old Chaplin films. Made me think, perhaps aspiring screen writers and directors should be required to produce one short feature film, without dialogue, before being graduated from film school.


Ditto for re-qualifying professionals who pour hundreds of millions into a pile of unremitting shite, coughprometheuscough.

Gryzemuis on 3/9/2013 at 01:24

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1986 as a cutoff point ? What's so special about Aliens ? I liked the movie, maybe even more than Alien. But if we're gonna talk cutoff points, then Alien (1979) would be better. 1980 seems fine to me.


For me it started in 1984-1985. I watched two movies that changed my ideas about film. Most movies that I had seen until then were either:
a) Violent boring crap with guns, explosions and car chases. I haven't watched one of those in 2 decades.
b) Boring hippy crap.
c) Love stories. Almost all movies seemed to be about love. Once you seen one, you've seen them all.

Then I saw these two movies, a few weeks apart.

Eraserhead
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074486/)
1977

Stalker
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079944/)
1979

I loved watching those 2 movies. After watching them full concentration, I still didn't know what I had seen ! Something intriguing, fascinating. They were about something. Not about cars or love or guns. But what they were about exactly, I still don't know. :)

Two real old movies. I saw them probably a decade later.
When I was young, Paul Newman was a movie hero. Like Brad Pitt today. I never understood why. Until I saw The Hustler. My favorite movie of all time. Have you ever heard of Rita Hayworth ? But you have no idea who she was ? Watch Gilda. You won't forget.

The Hustler
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054997/)
1961

Gilda
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038559/)
1946

Another movie that blew my mind. Not sure it really is a movie. Werner Herzog (the director) is a hero. He's still making movies, btw. (If you want to see a real movie by Herzog, with a story and everything, watch Stroszek).

Auch Zwergen haben klein angefangen (Even Dwarfs Started Small)
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065436/)
1970

And to make Dethtoll happy, a movie from between 1980 and 1986.
Although I doubt anyone on this forum has not seen it yet.
When I was 20, I dyed my hair stark white, just to look like Roy Batty. (It didn't work).

Blade Runner
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/)
1982

Rumble Fish
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086216/)
1983

I made a list of my favorite movies a while ago. So this post was mostly cut&paste.
6 Out of my top 10 were old movies. And most were black & white too.
(The post-1986 ones were: Man Bites Dog, Down By Law, Memento, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Old Boy and True Romance & Reservoir Dogs).

henke on 3/9/2013 at 05:43

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NO YOU GUYS we need to make the cutoff point be 1995! We need to make it 1995 so I can mention that I watched Strange Days for the first time last week and I really liked it! :U

Briareos H on 3/9/2013 at 08:47

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A few French films that I love and that I happened to rewatch recently. The first two especially are must-see films:

- (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052893/) Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)
A French-Japanese love drama dealing with loss and oblivion, echoing personal experiences with the destruction and rebuilding of Hiroshima after the atom bomb. The cinematography and narration are exquisite, with innovative techniques characteristic of the French new wave and an excellent screenplay by Marguerite Duras.

- (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056119/) La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)
A sci-fi short (about half an hour) about time travel relying heavily on atmosphere, off-screen narration and still images. I won't try to describe why (vain effort in a few words) but this short feature is hugely important for what science-fiction cinema would become -- and not simply the fact that it directly inspired 12 Monkeys.

- (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073864/) Le Vieux Fusil (Robert Enrico, 1975)
French-German but, again, an historically significant film for French cinema. It deals with the uncompromising vengeance of a single man after a village massacre by the nazis during the end of WW2 (the massacre of Oradour-sur-Glane). A rare example of a brutal revenge film receiving the à la française treatment in a time when only American filmmakers were doing anything with the genre (Death Wish had just come out), sporting excellent direction, actors, pacing and music.

I'd also recommend a few old soviet movies that are just wonderful to watch ((http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073179/) Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром!/The Irony of Fate, (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060584/) Кавказская пленница, или Новые приключения Шурика/Kidnapping, Caucasian Style for the comedies ; and for the more serious ones: (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091251/) Иди и смотри/Come and See, (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071411/) Дерсу Узала/Dersu Uzala by Kurosawa), but they're best introduced by a native who can tell you exactly why they are so characteristic of the era, explaining parts of the dialogue that play on words or some situations that are so iconic.