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.
Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981)
7.4/10
Director: John Badham
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, John Cassavetes, Christine Lahti
Richard Dreyfuss is phenomenal as a sculptor who is left a quadriplegic after a car accident and decides that he wants to be allowed to die, a choice... Read more
Wise Blood (1979)
7.2/10
Director: John Huston
Starring: Brad Dourif, Harry Dean Stanton, Ned Beatty, Dan Shor
An unlikely religious leader (Brad Dourif) recruits a ragtag band of followers for his Church of Christ Without Christ in order to expose the hypocris... Read more
Winter Kills (1979)
6.3/10
Director: William Richert
Starring: Richard Boone, Jeff Bridges, Sterling Hayden, John Huston, Anthony Perkins, Eliz...
A rare example of a film so wild, so utterly rambunctious and so bursting with invention that it defies description. Based on the novel by Richard Con... Read more
The Stunt Man (1979)
7.2/10
Director: Richard Rush
Starring: Peter O'Toole, Steve Railsback, Barbara Hershey
A fugitive stumbles onto a movie set where he accidentally causes death of their ace stunt man. The director offers to hide him from the police - if h... 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
The Silent Partner (1978)
7.5/10
Director: Daryl Duke
Starring: Elliott Gould, Christopher Plummer, Susannah York, John Candy
Elliot Gould, Christopher Plummer and Suzannah York star in this terrifying thriller that pits a mild-mannered bank clerk against an evil and sadistic... 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
Allegro Non Troppo (1976)
7.5/10
Director: Bruno Bozzetto
Starring: Maurizio Nichetti, Marialuisa Giovannini
Bozzetto's cult feature-length parody of Walt Disney's classic 'Fantasia' is both a send-up and an imaginative and beautiful film in its own right. "A... Read more
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
6.7/10
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Starring: David Bowie, Rip Torn, Candy Clark, Buck Henry
Nicolas Roeg's stylish classic stars David Bowie as a cosmic visitor to the planet, overwhelmed by capitalist society, human technology and earthly lo... 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