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.
In the Soup (1992)
7.1/10
Director: Alexandre Rockwell
Starring: Jennifer Beals, Steve Buscemi, Seymour Cassel, Will Patton, Carol Kane, Stanley...
A wonderfully bizarre comedy about a naive, ambitious writer (Steve Buscemi) who's penned a 500 page screenplay, and the eccentric flim-flam man (Seym... Read more
Jesus Of Montreal (1989)
7.5/10
Director: Denys Arcand
Starring: Catherine Wilkening, Lothaire Bluteau
The marvellous, emotional and humourous story of modern day hypocrisy, as experienced by a group of actors who stage a radical interpretation of the l... Read more
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
8/10
Director: Charles Laughton
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish
Robert Mitchum gives one of his best performances as Harry Powell, a psychotic self-styled preacher who is after the stolen money of a hanged man. Set... Read more
The Holy Mountain (1973)
7.9/10
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Starring: Alejandro Jodorowsky
After "El Topo" and with the production assistance of John Lennon and ABKCO Films and the desire to become "the Cecil B. De Mille of the underground",... Read more
El Topo (1971)
7.5/10
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Starring: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Brontis Jodorowsky
Aka "The Mole." "I ask of film what most North Americans' ask of psychedelic drugs" said Writer, Director and star Alexandro Jodorowsky of this stunni... Read more
Koyaanisqatsi (1982)
8.3/10
Director: Godfrey Reggio
The title is a Hopi Indian word meaning "life out of balance", an apt summation of this mesmerizing collection of wonders both natural and man-made. S... Read more
The Weeping Camel ( aka The Story of the Weeping Camel ) (2003)
7.5/10
Director: Byambasuren Davaa, Luigi Falorni
Starring: Janchiv Ayurzana, Chimed Ohin, Amgaabazar Gonson, Zeveljamz Nyam
This moving documentary chronicles a family of nomadic shepherds' desperate attempts to save the life of a baby camel. Born snow white, the young colt... Read more
Jean de Florette (1986)
8.1/10
Director: Claude Berri
Starring: Yves Montand, Gerard Depardieu, Daniel Auteuil
A marvelous tale of greed and intolerance from the novel by Marcel Pagnol about a city hunchback who inherits a valuable piece of property in rural Fr... Read more
King Kong (1933)
7.9/10
Director: Ernest B Schoedsack, Merian C Cooper
Starring: Robert Armstrong, Fay Wray, Bruce Cabot
He is billed as "the eighth wonder of the world" and, in the sixty years since the movie's release, animator Willis O'Brien's awesome creature has all... Read more
The Game (1997)
7.8/10
Director: David Fincher
Starring: Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, James Rebhorn, Deborah Kara Unger, Peter Donat, Carr...
David Fincher's suspenseful follow-up to the magnificent 'Seven' deals with an investment banker (Michael Douglas) who has everything he could ever wa... Read more