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.
Adam's Apples (2005)
7.8/10
Director: Anders Thomas Jensen
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Ulrich Thomsen
A wickedly dark comedy about an overly-optimistic preacher with a penchant for taking in lost causes to help around his remote church who finds his ro... Read more
Joyeux Noel (2005)
7.8/10
Director: Christian Carion
Starring: Diane Kruger, Benno Furmann, Guillaume Canet, Daniel Bruhl, Gary Lewis
This Oscar-nominated film tells the true story of troops whose lives were changed on Christmas Eve of 1914 as they put down their weapons and celebrat... Read more
The Machinist (2004)
7.7/10
Director: Brad Anderson
Starring: Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, John Sharian, Michae...
Trevor (Christian Bale) hasn't slept in a year. The shocking deterioration of his physical and mental health makes every waking moment an unrelenting... 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
The Saddest Music in the World (2003)
7.2/10
Director: Guy Maddin
Starring: Isabella Rossellini, Mark McKinney, Maria de Medeiros, David Fox
Director Guy Maddin's works are like a window to an alternate film universe - this unforgettable feverish whirligig of a movie is the closest the cul... Read more
Osama (2003)
7.4/10
Director: Siddiq Barmak
Starring: Marina Golbahari, Arif Herati, Zubaida Sahar
The first feature film from post-Taliban Afghanistan, this award-winning drama is set during the radical Islamic regime's rule. With women forbidden t... Read more
The Dreamers (2003)
7.2/10
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Starring: Michael Pitt, Eva Green, Louis Garrel, Robin Renucci, Anna Chancellor
Aka "Les Innocents". Director Bernardo Bertolucci's provocative, sensual drama centers on American exchange student Matthew (Michael Pitt) who befrien... Read more
House of Sand and Fog (2003)
7.6/10
Director: Vadim Perelman
Starring: Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, Ron Eldard, Frances Fisher, Kim Dickens
Devastating adaptation of the Andre Dubus III novel focuses on the property battle between Iranian emigrant Ben Kingsley and recovering addict Jennife... Read more
The Cuckoo (2002)
7.9/10
Director: Alexandr Rogozhkin
Starring: Anni-Christiina Juuso, Ville Haapasalo, Viktor Bychkov
Aka "Kukushka". Highly-praised and upbeat anti-war drama in which two men from opposing armies - a Finnish sniper and a Russian Captain find themselve... Read more
As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me (2001)
7.4/10
Director: Hardy Martins
Starring: Bernhard Bettermann, Michael Mendl, Irina Pantaeva
Captured while fighting in World War II, German soldier Clemens Forell (Bernhard Bettermann) escapes the hell of his confinement in a Siberian labor c... Read more