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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.

Burden of Dreams (1982)

8/10
Director: Les Blank
Starring: Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski, Mick Jagger

A fascinating and chilling account of the making of Werner Herzog's 'Fitzcarraldo', a project beset by a series of disasters while shooting in the jun... Read more

Cabaret (1972)

7.8/10
Director: Bob Fosse
Starring: Michael York, Marisa Berenson, Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey, Helmut Griem

Winner of 8 Oscars, including Best Director (Bob Fosse), Best Actress (Lisa Minnelli) and Best Supporting Actor (Joel Grey) and widely regarded as one... Read more

Cabeza De Vaca (1993)

7/10
Director: Nicolas Echevarria
Starring: Juan Diego, Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Roberto Sosa

A visually spellbinding biography of the Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, the sole survivor of a 16th century Spanish shipwreck off the co... 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

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

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

8.1/10
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Starring: Dennis Hopper, George Kennedy, Strother Martin, Paul Newman, Harry Dean Stanton

A taut honest drama greatly aided by Stuart Rosenberg's direction and a marvellously controlled and artful performance by Paul Newman as a gutsy priso... Read more

Crash (1996)

6.4/10
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Rosanna Arquette, Deborah Kara Unger

James Spader, Holly Hunter and Rosanna Arquette are a motley assortment of car crash survivors seeking more and more perverse thrills to communicate,... Read more

Cutter's Way (1981)

6.9/10
Director: Ivan Passer
Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Heard, Lisa Eichhorn, Nina Van Pallandt, Stephen Elliott

One of the most original American films of the last decade. Alex Cutter (John Heard) is the Vietnam veteran disfigured in the war. When his best frien... 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

December Bride (1990)

6.5/10
Director: Thaddeus O'Sullivan
Starring: Saskia Reeves, Donal McCann, Ciaran Hinds

Set at the close of the nineteenth century on Ireland's north-east coast this brooding drama charts the fortunes of three single-minded individuals wh... Read more