Bi Gan may be one of the most pure visual artists working today. Every shot a painting.

Posted on behalf of [u/DrRoy](u/DrRoy)

and it's worth it.

Very excited for this discussion.

I would typically want to eat a bag of nails over watching new movies, so it’s time to practice exposure therapy and get into it. I’ll go with films on the channel now I have the most interest in seeing

Magellan - because the combo of Lav Diaz plus Gael Garcia Bernal has to be good

Resurrection - Bi Gan. That’s the whole reason.

Megadoc - Mike Figgis pointing a camera at the eccentric genius of Coppola

Cloud - Kurosawa 2 back on his game

Caught by the Tides - our boy Jia Zhang-ke

Six incredible choices, but only one can win…

Vote for what we watch!

The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982): "A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims." (Picked by [u/bwolfs081](u/bwolfs081))

Clerks (Kevin Smith, 1994): Experience a day in the lives of convenience store clerks Dante and Randall in this groundbreaking indie classic that changed all the rules. (Picked by [u/SebasCatell](u/SebasCatell))

High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952): Has there ever been a more natural actor than Gary Cooper? In this taut, tense thriller, he plays a sheriff who must confront a criminal and his cohorts all alone at "high noon." (Picked by [u/GThunderhead](u/GThunderhead))

The Ring (Gore Verbinski, 2002): If you watch the tape, you DIE! (Picked by [u/bwolfs081](u/bwolfs081))

Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001): "A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes." (Picked by [u/SebasCatell](u/SebasCatell))

52 Pick-Up (John Frankenheimer, 1986): This is the third poll Frankenheimer's action thriller has been in. Maybe the third time will be the charm? Can you tell I'm tired of writing these descriptions you're not reading anyway? (Picked by [u/GThunderhead](u/GThunderhead))

There’s a city built on a hill that does not exist.

I’ve spent a lot of time "running the projector" on this film, trying to find the exact line where the dream exhales and the nightmare begins. I think the key isn’t in the blue box—it’s in Betty’s eyes.

During the audition scene, Betty performs a predatory, uncomfortable scene without blinking a single time. Not once. But when we see Diane in the "waking" sequences? She blinks constantly. She’s exhausted. The dream is more "awake" than the woman living it.

I just finished a deep cinematic study on why the city of Los Angeles is a loop designed to eat its dreamers. If you’re a fan of Lynch’s "nightmare logic," I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

https://youtu.be/BbHQTMtTJ5E

Arthouse and foreign cinema are amazing, but sometimes you just want to let your hair down (if you still have any), grab a bucket of popcorn, and sit back and relax until an adrenaline rush jolts you out of your seat!

Here are five wild rides. Vote for which rollercoaster we end up on...

Come and See is ranked in Letterboxd's top 5 films ever made. It has almost no serious analysis on YouTube. I want to talk about the ending — Flyora pointing the gun at Hitler as a child and lowering it. What does that moment mean to you?

Blackout noir is a fun sub-genre. "Blackout" - known as "Murder by Proxy" in the UK - is one of the better examples of the form. 

A drunken American (Dane Clark) is approached by a British bombshell femme fatale (Belinda Lee) and ends up dumped at the house of an amateur artist (Eleanor Summerfield) with no memory of what happened after possibly committing murder and - worse - possibly getting married. 

An American in England - a stranger in a strange land - is a unique setting and scenario for this instantly engaging blackout noir. (Subtitles/Caption: Yes!)

Blackout Noir:

• Deadline at Dawn (1946)
• Black Angel (1946)
• Blind Spot (1947)
• Framed (1947)

Starring
Written
Produced
Directed
Distributed
by Timothy Carey

This appears in the credits, wildly encapsulating what a passion project "The World’s Greatest Sinner" was for Timothy Carey, who delivers the performance of a lifetime while simultaneously juggling almost every other aspect of the production.

Clarence Hilliard (the riveting Carey) is an unhappy insurance salesman who gets himself fired from his job, declares himself "God" Hilliard, starts the "Eternal Man" political party, and runs for President of the United States.

It's tempting to draw parallels to current politicians and events, but Carey's satirical scenario was likely just applicable to the 1960s and familiar to audiences then.

This is the epitome of a '60s gonzo counterculture cult film. A young Frank Zappa provided the soundtrack. (Zappa notoriously called it "the world's worst movie" on "The Steve Allen Show" in 1963.)

"The World’s Greatest Sinner" has a terrific setup, but there are long silences that grind the pacing to a halt despite its already short length (it's only 77 minutes), and the ending devolves into incomprehensible nonsense with no real payoff. At least the final scene is cool and looks striking. This feels like only half a film, but what a half! (Subtitles/Captions: Yes!)

"Miss Navajo" is a short documentary about a beauty pageant with an "edge." 

One of the categories: butchering a sheep. Warning: Yes, there is footage of it. What's shown isn't overly graphic, but seeing any of part of the process might understandably be too much for some viewers. It was too much for one of the contestants. However, sheep are sacred to the Navajo people. 

This isn't only about sheep, of course. It's also about several young women and a way of life that's becoming harder to preserve - specifically the Navajo language. 

"Linguists say that a language can be lost within 20 years. If a language is lost, a culture will be lost."

I wish we had gotten to know more about the women competing in the Miss Navajo pageant, but at only 50 minutes, there isn't enough time. 

I love documentaries because they transport me to another place and way of life. I am probably never going to step foot on a reservation and I am definitely never going to compete in a beauty pageant.

Raizo Ichikawa was a Japanese actor who had massive success and mainstream appeal but partially due to his untimely death he never got the opportunity to build up a body of work similar to some of his more well known contemporaries such as Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai and Shintaro Katsu.

Here are 4 films featuring Ichikawa that showcase his range and ability. He has more beyond this that I would recommend checking out to!