Paul's Favourites
The 7th Arts's highest level of achievement can be judged alongside great literature, great music, and great painting, with many filmmakers creating enduring masterpieces.
The list of film titles below may not all be enduring masterpieces, but I have however, fond lingering memories of all of them. They all fit the criteria of what I feel films can or should do, to not only be well crafted, but also to entertain, inform, enlighten and more often than not, take the viewer down roads less travelled...
Can only hope you also will discover or rediscover some viewing pleasures among my all-time favourites' listed below.
Come and See (1985)
8.2/10
Director: Elem Klimov
Starring: Alexei Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Vladas Bagdonas
The thoroughly mesmerising chronicle of the initiation of a young teen (impressively played by Alexei Kravchenko) into the horror and insanity of war,... Read more
Citizen Kane (1941)
8.4/10
Director: Orson Welles
Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane
Generally regarded as the greatest and most influential films of all time; Orson Welles directorial debut (he was only 25!) is the story of newspaper... Read more
Eraserhead (1977)
7.4/10
Director: David Lynch
Starring: Allen Joseph, Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Laurel Near
Inspired by his time spent living in Philadelphia, David Lynch's nightmarish cult odyssey follows a high-haired young man living in a run-down apartme... Read more
Brazil (1985)
8/10
Director: Terry Gilliam
Starring: Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Bob Hos...
Terry Gilliam's acclaimed, surrealistic nightmare vision of a 'perfect' future where technology reigns supreme. Spectacular set design, this wildly vi... Read more
Network (1976)
8.1/10
Director: Sidney Lumet
Starring: William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Ned Beatty
A savage satire written by Paddy Chayefsky, looking at the powers behind television programming. Even more compelling and relevant today than when it... Read more
Blue Velvet (1986)
7.8/10
Director: David Lynch
Starring: Laura Dern, Dennis Hopper, Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dean Stockwell
The most talked about film of the '80s, David Lynch's controversial, surreal mystery is set amid the manicured lawns of small town America where a wor... Read more
Dancer in the Dark (2000)
8/10
Director: Lars von Trier
Starring: Bjork, Catherine Deneuve, Joel Grey, David Morse
Winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival, Lars Von Trier's brilliant film inspires adulation and scorn. This neo-musical is set in an earl... Read more
Being There (1979)
8/10
Director: Hal Ashby
Starring: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Warden, Melvyn Douglas, Richard Dysart, Ri...
Peter Sellers gives the performance of his career as Chance, a middle-aged gardener who's led a sheltered life and whose thoughts and behaviour are to... Read more
La Strada ( The Road ) (1954)
8.1/10
Director: Federico Fellini
Starring: Giulietta Masina, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart
AKA 'The Road'. Fellini's Oscar-winning study of a brutish carnival strongman (Anthony Quinn) who uses a simple minded girl (Giulietta Masina) to serv... Read more
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A Clockwork Orange (1971)
8.3/10
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Miriam Karlin, Patrick Magee, Malcolm McDowell, Adrienne Corri
Stanley Kubrick's dark, dazzling, ironic tale of an ultra-violent future filled with marauding gangs, decaying cities and bizarre technologies. Follow... Read more