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.
Intacto (2001)
6.9/10
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Starring: Leonardo Sbaraglia, Eusebio Poncela, Monica Lopez, Antonio Dechent, Max von Sydo...
Offbeat psychological thriller centers on an enigmatic Holocaust survivor (Max Von Sydow) who uses his ability to control the luck of those around him... Read more
Samsara (2001)
7.8/10
Director: Pan Nalin
Starring: Christy Chung, Shawn Ku
Indian born filmmaker Pan Nalin makes his directorial debut with this sensual, elegant look at sex and spirituality. Tashi (Shawn Ku) is a brilliant y... 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
Mulholland Drive (2001)
8/10
Director: David Lynch
Starring: Justin Theroux, Naomi Watts, Ann Miller, Laura Harring, Robert Forster, Dan Heda...
David Lynch pulls out all the stops, upends all expectations, and, well, goes all Lynchian in this maniacal, mind-bending mix of Hollywood satire, fil... Read more
Kandahar (2001)
6.8/10
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Starring: Nelofer Pazira, Hassan Tantai, Sadou Teymouri, Hoyatala Hakimi
Nafas, a young Afghan journalist now living in Canada recieves a desperate letter from her sister in Afghanistan who intends to kill herself at the ne... Read more
O Brother, Where Art Thou? ( Blu-ray ) (2000)
7.8/10
Director: Joel Coen
Starring: George Clooney, Charles Durning, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, Jennifer Jason Leig...
A wonderful, whimsical graft of Homer's "The Odyssey" telling the tale of three chain gang escapees in 1930s Mississippi. George Clooney is the slick... Read more
Songcatcher (2000)
7.2/10
Director: Maggie Greenwald
Starring: Janet McTeer, Aidan Quinn, Jane Adams, Pat Carroll
A film about a woman whose drive to pursue the things she believes in leads her on an unexpected path to self-discovery. It is 1907, and musicologist... Read more
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
8.3/10
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Jared Leto, Marlon Wayans, Jennifer Connelly, Ellen Burstyn
As powerful an anti-drug statement as it is a drama, director Aronofsky's ('Pi') visually hypnotic film graphically tracks the downward spiral of four... Read more
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
7.8/10
Director: Joel Coen
Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh, George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Charles D...
A wonderful, whimsical graft of Homer's "The Odyssey" telling the tale of three chain gang escapees in 1930s Mississippi. George Clooney is the slick... Read more
Small Time Crooks (2000)
6.7/10
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Hugh Grant, Jon Lovitz, Michael Rapaport, Tracey Ullman, Woody Allen, Elaine May
Woody Allen directs and stars in this wonderful comedy playing a career petty thief who hatches a scheme to buy a cookie store with wife Tracey Ullman... Read more