Impactive Films

[Dori]

What films have altered/broadened your views on, or appreciation of, life or the human experience?

I'll go first:

This Girl's Life (2003)
Closer (2004)
Match Point (2005)
Bella (2006)
The Air I Breathe (2007)

(I recommend all of these. If you're offended by the porn industry, forget the first one.)

[DanielBenoit]

Oh man, great idea! Ingmar Bergman's films have without a doubt impacted me most, existentially and spiritually. I usually consider Bergman, along with Kierkegaard and Dostoyevsky to have effected my religous view of the world the most. Kubrick as well, has made me more pessimistic. So bascially all of their films count. These are not the only films that will effect you philosophically, they are merely the ones that have effected me. For example, Breaking the Waves will surely effect you more than Harvey, but there's still that personal effect which comes out philosophically later in life.

Through a Glass Darkly - Ingmar Bergman
Winter Light - Ingmar Bergman
8 1/2 - Federico Fellini
La Dolce Vita - Federico Fellini
Harvey - Henry Koster
The Bicycle Thief - Vittorio De Sica
Apocolaypse Now - Francis Ford Coppla
L'Avventura - Michelangelo Antonini
2001: A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick
A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick
Annie Hall - Woody Allen
Shoah - Claude Lanzmann
The Last Tempation of Christ - Martin Scorsese
Taxi Driver - Martin Scorsese
Werkmeister Harmonies - Bela Tarr
Monster - Patty Jenkins
Fitzcarraldo - Werner Herzog
Elephant -Gus van Sant

(And just as an irrelevant add-in, Scorsese's The Aviator drew me into a lifelong passion for jazz, just as Singing in the Rain is greatly responsible for my obsession with the 1920's)


I too reccomend every one of these, but as top conteders, Shoah will CHANGE you, it's a very hard but mind-altering experience. So is 8 1/2 and 2001 but in different ways.

[Dinkleberry2010]

ignore

[DanielBenoit]

La Strada - Federico Fellini

Broken Blossoms - D.W. Griffith

Nosferatu - F.W. Murnau

Schindler's List - Stephen Spielberg

[Dinkleberry2010]

La Strada - Federico Fellini

The Deer Hunter - Michael Cimino

Schindler's List - Stephen Spielberg

Charly - Ralph Nelson

Broken Blossoms - D.W. Griffith

[pjjrfan1]

Citizen Kane
Inherit the Wind with Spencer Tracey
Los Olvidados
2001 A space odyssey
Three Days of the Condor
apocolyspe now
The Godfather I and II
Taxi Driver
Ran
Josie Wales
The Color purple
Tender Mercies
Mystic river
and of course The Wizard Of Oz. Which gave birth to my fascination with movies and fantasy and letting go.

[DanielBenoit]

Every single one of Lars von Trier's films have impacted me in some dark and depressing way. A filmmaker of unprecedented power.

Also, I shame myself for not mentioning more Werner Herzog. Aguirre, The Wrath of God effected me to the very core of my being, its final shot is the most haunting in all of cinema. His equally great Stroszeck probably takes second place. Somehow he is able to effect you in a very odd, surreal and undramatic way. The penguin incident in Encounters at the End of the World stuck in my mind for a longer time than any other documentary.

[Mathor]

As Good As It Gets - James L Brooks
Taxi Driver - Martin Scorsese
Good Will Hunting - Gus Van Sant
Do The Right Thing - Spike Lee
Lost In Translation - Sofia Coppola
Breakfast At Tiffanys - Blake Edwards

[OrphanPip]

Every single one of Lars von Trier's films have impacted me in some dark and depressing way. A filmmaker of unprecedented power.

I've only seen Dancer in the Dark, it was very good though.

Some of Gregg Araki's films fascinate me.

It's too hard to name movies that have changed the way I look at life