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.
Betty Blue (1986)
7.4/10
Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix
Starring: Beatrice Dalle, Gerard Darmon, Jean-Hugues Anglade
Jean-Jacques Beineix has restored 62 minutes to his romantic masterpiece ('Version Integrale') expanding the adventures of Betty and Zorg. There are s... Read more
Betty Blue (Blu-ray) (1986)
7.4/10
Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix
Starring: Beatrice Dalle, Gerard Darmon, Jean-Hugues Anglade
Jean-Jacques Beineix has restored 62 minutes to his romantic masterpiece ('Version Integrale') expanding the adventures of Betty and Zorg. There are s... Read more
Beyond Rangoon (1995)
6.6/10
Director: John Boorman
Starring: Patricia Arquette, Frances McDormand, Spalding Gray
An extraordinary, brilliantly executed, not-to-be-missed story of a young American doctor who, tormented by her past, travels to Burma with her sister... Read more
Billy Budd (1962)
7.9/10
Director: Peter Ustinov
Starring: Peter Ustinov, Terence Stamp, Robert Ryan, Melvyn Douglas, David McCallum
Herman Melville's classic sea story receives a superb treatment with Peter Ustinov behind the lens. In his first film, Terence Stamp is Billy Budd, an... Read more
Black Robe (1991)
7.1/10
Director: Bruce Beresford
Starring: Lothaire Bluteau, August Schellenberg
In the turbulent 17th century, Jesuit priest Father Laforgue travels to Quebec to convert the Indian tribes. Cultures clash, romances flourish and the... Read more
Blow-up (1966)
7.6/10
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Starring: Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, David Hemmings
Michelangelo Antonioni's close-up of Swinging Sixties London. David Hemmings plays a master photographer who explores the city twenty-four hours a day... 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
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
Breaking the Waves (1996)
7.9/10
Director: Lars von Trier
Starring: Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgard, Katrin Cartlidge, Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier
The extraordinary story of a young, simple-minded, God-fearing Scottish woman who willingly takes on lovers in the belief that it will cure her paraly... Read more
Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)
7.1/10
Director: Christophe Gans
Starring: Samuel Le Bihan, Mark Dacascos, Vincent Cassel, Emilie Dequenne, Monica Bellucci...
This international box office hit from France is a real genre-buster, mixing up elements of period piece costume drama, horror films, melodrama, swash... Read more