Cult Film Classics You Love

[wayneklein]

There are a number of them. These films that appeal to us for some strange reason or whose very unusual qualities make it something that doesn't have mass appeal but touches on some inner truth, is bizarrely funny or involving.

Mr. Arkadin-Was Welles making a parody of Kane here? The production suffered from inconsitency (and was rewritten on the fly)and there are at least three versions (not including the one that Welles had wanted to assemble but never got the chance to do). The bits and pieces approach (he shot the film in smaller segments than he had done before to prevent someone else from messing with it as much as possible)was like Hitchcock's approach.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzari Across the 8th Dimension-Peter Weller was born to play this role (although his singing voice leaves a lot to be desired) as the only rock 'n' roll star/brain surgeon/expert in physics and all around adventurer. Inspired the the Doc Savage novels, this film truly was off-the wall but had a marvelous cast.

Doc Savage-George Pal's last film isn't especially great but it has a fun vibe to it and Ron Ely works as the Man of Bronze (even if his hairstyle didn't conform to the goofy look on the pulps).

There are, of course, the Ed Wood movies but there were some extremely talented directors who ended up grinding out movies at the poverty row studios in the 40's and 50's. The best was Edgar Ulmer who started out early on directing the top notch "The Black Cat" with Karloff and Lugosi (a very strange horror film far ahead of its time...it would have fit better probably in the 60's with the main character played by karloff a worshiper of Satan). Ulmer also did "The Man from Planet X" a moody, atmospheric film that made up for in its look for its rather modest budget and production design. The best of the set sfor the film were recycled from "Joan of Arc" which featured Ingrid Bergman.

"Bluebeard" with John Carradine was another notable film by Ulmer.


He also directed "Detour" an early film noir where Ulmer actually had so small a budget to work with that they used his own car for the film!

Later Ulmer made "The Transparent Man" and "Beyond the Time Barrier" two low-budget sci-fi films that are far from classics but have something in them for everyone to love.

Any other unknown or little known films and directors you'd care to nominate for this list?

[Tim S]

How unknown or unappreciated does it have to be to achieve cult status?

These are some that hardly anyone I know has ever heard of, but I love:

Near Dark
The Company of Wolves
Heavenly Creatures
Red Rock West

Those came to mind immediately. Cult? I dunno...

[Hawkman]

Local Hero!!!! :righton:

[Joe Sixpaque]

Local Hero!!!! :righton:

That's a GREAT movie - I enjoy it more each time I watch it.

Although totally different, I also love Albert Brooks' "Modern Romance". I use so many lines and expressions from that movie, on an almost daily basis.

[wayneklein]

How unknown or unappreciated does it have to be to achieve cult status?

These are some that hardly anyone I know has ever heard of, but I love:

Near Dark
The Company of Wolves
Heavenly Creatures
Red Rock West

Those came to mind immediately. Cult? I dunno...

Yeah all of these fit the critiera and all of them are GREAT movies. I'm happy to see someone else who loves Red Rock West and Heavenly Creatures. The other films have gotten notice over the years but these two seem like they were quickly forgotten. I really really like Neil Jordan's "Mona Lisa" as well. Michael Caine is brilliantly evil and Bob Hoskins brilliant.

[wayneklein]

Just about any Albert Brooks movie is great I also like the one where he hits the road in his RV with his wife...can't remember the name. Whatever happened to director Bill Forsthye who directed "Local Hero"?

[PaulT]

Eraserhead - David Lynch

love Buckaroo Bansai as well
Rocky Horror Picture Show for a good midnight movie

[phish]

clerks
hurly burly

[Jackson]

The Big Lebowski
Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia
Ravenous
The Girl Slaves Of Morgana LeFay
The Living Dead Girl
Cemetery Man ''aka'' Delamorte Delamorte

[bhazen]

One might sense a trend here...:D

Alphaville (1965); a near-perfect example of the French New Wave, Godard's genius is making a future film noir in the present day (well, 1965). Anna Karina (swoon). Lots of fun with editing, and sound design.

The 10th Victim (1965); Marcello Mastroiani and Ursula Andress chew the scenery in this Italian futurist romantic farce, about a game of lethal hunt-and-be-hunted. Some great locations, and wacky sequences that surely inspired Mike Myers. My fave: a house with a gigantic oscillating eye in the wall.

Modesty Blaise (1966); Monica Vitti and Dirk Bogarde. More modness to inspire Myers; an effete villain (Bogarde) and a luscious heroine in leather catsuit (Vitti) camp it up on a Mediterranean island. Too Pop for words.

Blow Up (1966); the classic New Wave item with David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave and (for a moment) the Yardbirds! All about seeing, this Antonioni piece was reportedly based on the emerging class of hip art/fashion photographers like David Bailey and Richard Avedon. Takes place in London at the moment "Swinging London" becomes psychedelic.

Alice In Wonderland (1966); a b&w BBC production, with Peter Sellers, Wilfred Brambell (very clean), Peter Cook (as the Mad Hatter!), Leo McKern etc. A magical re-imagining of the Lewis Carroll book, shot during the hot summer of 1966 as a Victorian Gothic garden party. On location in the English countryside, sitar music adds to the druggy ambience, and you can just sense Revolver being recorded at the exact same time.

Here's one I don't have on DVD or tape (not for lack of looking; it's too obscure I fear): Duffy (1967); James Coburn plays a hip ex-criminal living in Tangiers, lured back for one more heist by a pair of bored rich siblings (James Fox, John Alderton) who want to pull a fast one on square daddy (James Mason). Much intrigue on yachts and the Riviera. Susannah York decorates the proceedings. Very much a psychedelic heist flick.

[axnyslie]

Dawn of the Dead
Evil Dead
Carnival of Souls
The Elephant Man
They Live
Faster Pussycat
Braindead
Reanimator
Cannibal Ferox
Spider Baby
Hells Angels on Wheels

[lasvidfil]

Switchblade Sisters-1975-Chicks with knives fighting each other and another gang. Horrible script with even worse acting. Not to mention all the 70's styles. But it is a must see!! Worth a rental to laugh at how bad it is.

Used Cars- "Look out Marshall Lucky, It's High Prices!"
Kurt Russell commentary on the DVD is just as funny as the movie

Donnie Darko-Still don't get it but i love it.

[beavis]

Let's not forget Tod Browning's "Freaks" (1932)....once seen, never forgotten!

Oh, and Lugosi in "White Zombie" and "Murders in the Rue Morgue"....great line from "Murders": "She has bad blood!"

[El Bacho]

Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls
Rock 'n' Roll High School
Zoolander
The Man With Two Brains

"Doc Savage" has to be watched with the French dub: the distributor intentionally gave Savage a noticeable lisp, to take advantage of the otherwise unintentional comic dimension of the movie. As the translation tried to include as many S as humanly possible, Savage's big speech turns into a laugh riot.

Concerning Edgar Ulmer, his journey from studios to Poverty Row is well documented. Kids, never have an affair with somebody who's married to the studio boss's nephew.

[sedandelivery]

Blue Velvet
Videodrome

[Macman]

American Splendor.

[John Cantrell]

Being There - Peter Sellers in a stellar performance, IMHO

[Chris R]

Eraserhead - David Lynch

love Buckaroo Bansai as well
Rocky Horror Picture Show for a good midnight movie
:thumbsup: Rocky Horror Picture Show is playing this weekend at midnight, Plaza Theatre (http://www.theplaza.ca/) (one of 3 arthouse cinemas in Calgary).

Eraserhead - I've seen this movie theatrically about 50 times. Back in the day (late 1970s) there were 2 arthouse cinemas in Winnipeg. One of them the Festival Cinema was running Eraserhead Fridays and Saturdays at midnight. Canadian film producer (Vinyl (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120454/)) Greg Klimkew (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0460283/) managed the theatre. I knew Greg well in those days. He used to let me in for free. :) Also occassionally Greg would start the proceedings at 11pm with a local punk rock band such as Popular Mechanix or the Ruggedy Annes open up before the movie. Ah, the good old days. :) I finally purchased Eraserhead on DVD just the other day.

The famous picture of actor Jack Nance as Henry was my first choice for an avatar back in 2002, but quickly noticed that Bob Campbell aka ZIPGUN99 was already using it and still is 5 years later. :sigh:



[i]El Topo (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067866/) - Nice to see this film finally on DVD after all these years. I still have the original soundtrack on vinyl, U.S. Apple Records.

Diva (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082269/) - Wish they'd put out a decent remastered DVD with bonus material. Would have been good timing last year, as 2006 was the film's 25th anniversary. Current DVD isn't any different than the original VHS tape which I own, or the laserdisc version, which I have a dub of.

The DVD must be OOP now. I see it used at Amazon. com (http://www.amazon.com/Diva-Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric-Andr%C3%A9i/dp/B000059PPB) starting at $95. U.S.

37°2 le matin (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090563/) aka Betty Blue (1986) - The 3 hour director's cut was finally released in North America a couple years ago on DVD. I've had an Australian region 4 copy for several years. I couldn't wait. For me this is one of those perfect French movies. The acting Jean-Hugues Anglade, Béatrice Dalle, Gérard Darmon, Vincent Lindon, the direction Jean-Jacques Beineix, the original music Gabriel Yared, and the screenplay co-written by the director along with the novel's author Philippe Djian, all top notch, IMHO.

BTW, Beineix also directed Diva.

[Chris R]

Film posters for the original and English title.

[Tim S]

Eraserhead - I've seen this movie theatrically about 50 times.

I can appreciate this on an intellectual level - it's creative and well-done, but I can't say I enjoyed it. It certainly wins my "weirdest movie I've ever seen award." Like watching some other guy's personal nightmare put to film.

37°2 le matin aka Betty Blue (1986)

Seems we have really different tastes! This whole film seemed like an excuse to show as much nudity and sex as possible - which I'm not opposed to, mind you - just don't put it out there, throw in some melodrama and try and tell me it's an "art film."

[andy749]

Barfly
Johnny Handsome
The Human Monster (Dark Eyes of London)
The Hand of Death
The Lady in White
Ed Wood
Gun Crazy

[PaulT]

I almost forgot:

Repo Man - don't look in the trunk :)
gotta love Harry Dean Stanton

[levi]

Ghost World
The Year of Living Dangerously
The Usual Suspects
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Jeff

[johnnyyen]

Werckmeister Harmonies
Theorem
Inland Empire
Performance
Crash (Cronenberg)
Solaris (Tarkovsky)
Ai No Corrida
Tetsuo
Audition
Weekend

[pigmode]

Do we know what constitutes a cult film, as opposed to a film that either bombed, is lessor known, or perhaps did not recieve much recognition? (don't answer that.)

A BOY AND HIS DOG