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.
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
7.9/10
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Winona Ryder, Vincent Price, Johnny Depp, Dianne Wiest, Alan Arkin
He's got a sad, white face, a wild haircut, and shears at the ends of his arms. He's Edward Scissorhands (Johnny Depp), creation of a mad scientist, w... 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
Romuald and Juliette (1989)
Director: Coline Serreau
Starring: Daniel Auteuil, Firmine Richard, Pierre Vernier
Aka 'Mama, There's a Man in Your Bed'. Romuald (Daniel Auteuil) is the big-shot head of a yoghurt factory whose indifference to his buxom, black clean... Read more
Santa Sangre (1989)
7.7/10
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Starring: Axel Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra, Guy Stockwell
Unforgettable imagery is used to tell the story of two circus performers, an armless woman and her insane son who acts as his mother's hands. Jodorows... Read more
Heat and Sunlight (1988)
5.3/10
Director: Rob Nilsson
Starring: Rob Nilsson, Don Bajema, Consuelo Faust
This powerful and disturbingly honest film documents the final hours of a love affair between a photographer and his exotic dancer girlfriend. Made by... Read more
Babette's Feast (1987)
7.8/10
Director: Gabriel Axel
Starring: Stephane Audran, Jean-Philippe Lafont, Jarl Kulle
Awarded the Best Foreign Language film of 1987 by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Stephane Audran is Babette, an exiled French cook-... Read more
House of Games (1987)
7.3/10
Director: David Mamet
Starring: Lindsay Crouse, Joe Mantegna, Mike Nussbaum
Playright David Mamet's directorial film debut is this superbly crafted story about an uptight psychiatrist (Lindsay Crouse) who goes thrill-seeking w... Read more
Bagdad Cafe (1987)
7.5/10
Director: Percy Adlon
Starring: Marianne Sagebrecht, CCH Pounder, Jack Palance
This enchanting and affectionate fable unveils, in a series of wonderful vignettes, the developing friendship between several oddball characters. Mari... Read more
Anguish (1987)
6.7/10
Director: Bigas Luna
Starring: Zelda Rubinstein, Talia Paul, Michael Lerner
An original, imaginative, not to be missed thriller/horror that begins as a straightforward psycho film and then turns in on itself, as a mad-killer i... Read more
Aria (1987)
5.8/10
Director: Bruce Beresford, Charles Sturridge, Derek Jarman, Franc Roddam, Jean-Luc Godard, Julien Temple, Ken Russell, Nicolas Roeg, Robert Altman, Bill Bryden
Starring: John Hurt, Theresa Russell, Buck Henry, Beverly D'Angelo, Anita Morris, Bridget...
Ten different directors select a different aria and have free rein to do anything that they want. The world of opera meets the medium of film with a w... Read more