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Further to my list from a few months ago, I've been watching movies like mad and now have some more additions to the list of great movies which have fallen through the cracks and deserve to be better known:
Fallen Idol (1948) - Carol Reed made this movie between Odd Man Out and The Third Man, in what must have been the most creative three year stretch of any director in the history of film. Fallen Idol makes Hitchcock look like an amateur in the way it creates and maintains suspense. The story is about a young boy who idolizes the butler employed by the embassy in which he lives with his parents. When there is a death in the embassy, the boy starts piecing together the puzzle using his imprecise knowledge of the adult world.
To Be Or Not To Be (1942) - Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. I can't believe I had never seen this movie before. If you like Chaplin's The Great Dictator, or just having a laugh at Nazis, then you'll love this fast-paced screwball comedy.
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1965) - Directed by Martin Ritt and starring Richard Burton. A good, solid paranoid Cold War thriller based on the novel by John le Carre.
Underground (1928) - A silent film from Anthony Asquith, this thriller is set in the London Underground. I think this movie is every bit as good as those of F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang. It's a bit like a silent version of Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, but with more heart.
Casque d'Or (1952) - by Jacques Becker. This is a dreamy, trippy melodrama. It reminded me of a modern Children Of Paradise. Great-looking Blu-Ray.
Thief (1981) - Michael Mann's first movie. I have to confess I don't like a lot of his recent work, but this movie is a real gem. It's a modern film noir that looks like something the French would have done in the 1950s (a la Rififi), but with a lot more colour. Fantastic Blu-Ray from Criterion.
Classe Tous Risque, aka The Big Risk (1960) - Claude Sautet's first movie. A really solid Gallic noir gangster movie.
Late Spring (1949) - Yasujiro Ozu's masterpiece. I'm ashamed to say I only just saw this movie. I know, I know, shame on me. Anyway, it's an exquisite yet simple story, beautifully told, about a widower and his adult daughter who live together - he thinks she should marry, but she doesn't. That's all there is to it.
Charulata (1964) - Directed by Satyajit Ray. Of all Ray's many movies, he considered this one his favourite. It's easy to see why. It's the story of a well-to-do housewife in 1890s Calcutta who tries to break free of the physical and moral shackles which constrain her. Like many of Ray's movies, the story is not about what is shown, but that which is unstated and hidden. The Criterion Blu-Ray gives us one of the best restorations I've ever seen.
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) - A film from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Although I love The Archers' other films, I hadn't seen this one before. It's an unashamed flag-waver from WWII, but it is elevated to greatness by its heart and sense of humour. Winston Churchill saw the movie on release and hated it because of its portrayal of a German officer as a decent person, which obviously was not good for the war effort. I rate this movie up there with The Red Shoes. It was shot on 3-strip Technicolor, and the Criterion restoration on Blu-Ray is flawless.
Naked Island (1960) - Directed by Kaneto Shindo. This is a wordless story about a family of farmers on a remote Japanese island, set to the rhythms of the seasons. It obviously influenced the recent Turin Horse (by Bela Tarr), but Naked Island is far less brutal.
The Damned (1948) - Directed by Rene Clement. A French doctor is kidnapped by the group of Nazi sympathizers who try sailing a submarine to South America. They intend killing him when they no longer need his services. Not quite up to Hitchcock levels, it's nevertheless a good solid WWII suspense movie.
La Poison (1951) - A comedy from Sacha Guitry. Only the French can make a comedy about an old married couple trying to kill each other.
A Field In England (2013) - Directed by Ben Wheatley. This is Wheatley's follow-up to his 2011 weird-a-thon movie Kill List. AFIE is the story of a group of soldiers fighting in the English civil war who get lost in a field. Eating some magic mushrooms doesn't do much for their sense of direction, nor does running into a man who's trying to find some buried treasure in the same field. Be warned, this is a seriously weird movie.
Punishment Park (1971) - An independent movie from Peter Watkins, shot on 16mm. This is an intense agitprop movie about dissidents during the Vietnam war era, who are given the choice of lengthy imprisonment or undergoing an endurance test called 'Punishment Park.' This movie was refused distribution when it was made, but is now remarkably prescient.
Duffer (1971) - A film by Joseph Despins and William Dumaresq. If you think Eraserhead is not weird enough, then check out this movie. I think David Lynch must have been influenced by this movie. It defies description, so I won't bother trying to say what it's about.
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