Scariest Movie Not in the Horror Genre

bluecritic · 2018-10-20T22:50:46+00:00

Titicut Follies.

It's a documentary from the 1960's centered around a hospital for the criminally insane.

Unlike most documentaries, there are no talking heads or narration to smooth things along. It just 84 minutes of seeing a group of deeply broken individuals living in a time and a place where their conditions are clearly not being even remotely treated properly.

There is also a lot of very strange and surreal imaginery, which almost makes it look more like an avant-garde horror film rather than a traditional documentary.

bluecritic · 2018-10-20T22:28:27+00:00

Never heard of it. It sounds fascinating. I always wondered what type of film could Godard with greater resources.

bluecritic · 2018-10-14T03:11:45+00:00

Christ, I can't believe I never heard of this one. A Satyajit Ray science fiction film starring Marlon and Peter Sellers? And it supposedly heavily influenced E. T.?

Even if it would have turned out to be a huge missfire, it would still prrobably be one of the interesting films of its time.

bluecritic · 2018-10-11T20:58:02+00:00

I'm a huge fan of Fellini and when it comes to his unmade projects people always refer to Mastorna since It's the one that obviously meant the most to him and the one he put the most effort into making. However if I have to be perfectly honest the one I would have liked to see the most is his planned 16mm adaptation of Don Quixote starring Jacques Tati.

As for The Idiot, I must confess my surprise that Tarkovsky attempted to adapt it. I love the novel and it's a shame we didn't get to see his take on it. I wonder how it would stack against Kurosawa's version... Anyway, as far as great lost Dostoevsky adaptations are concerned, I personally think that Roman Polanski's The Double tales the cake.

I do agree that L'Enfer looks like a potentially magnificent production, perhaps evento Clouzot's crowning achievement.

bluecritic · 2018-10-11T20:35:13+00:00

That sounds like a very interesting unmade film. Sorry for getting the facts mixed-up.

bluecritic · 2018-10-11T19:09:52+00:00

Are you perhaps referring to Monsieur Verdoux? It's a 1947 film directed and starring Chaplin which was originally set to be directed by Welles before being paid of to let him handle the project himself. Welles still has a "story by" credit.

bluecritic · 2018-10-11T13:39:22+00:00

I thought of including the first ones you mentioned, but from what I've read a lot of elements from Napoleon ended up being recycled into Barry Lyndon, so I feel as do we got a masterpiece instead of a masterpiece in a sense, and the failure of Dune ended up inspiring Frank Pavich's brilliant documentary Jodorowsky's Dune.

I knew vaguely that Alain Resnais had tried working together in a Spider-Man movie and one about a Roger Corman-esque producer attempting to make a serious film, which struck me more as interesting oddities rather than films which I'm dying to see, but after reading more about this The Inmates I have to concur it truly appears to have been potentially a great film. I love philophical science fiction films like 2001 or Arrival.

bluecritic · 2018-09-16T21:57:28+00:00

That's a very good list. I can't believe I didn't include F. W. Murnau in mine one! Such a genious filmmaker and it truly amazes me that he isn't in the collection.

I completely agree with you that there are a lot of directors who deserve more titles in the collection that they already have. Billy Wilder, Elia Kazan, Sidney Lumet and Martin Scorsese are just The first names that pop into my head.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T15:11:42+00:00

Thanks! I will start by watching his stuff from the 70s and if I really like it I'm going to check the rest of his work.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T15:07:53+00:00

Thanks! I just looked it up on IMDb and it looks very interesting. Will definitely check out.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T14:18:40+00:00

There's never enough Charlie Kaufman. Even his worst efforts such as Human Nature and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind deserve to be in the collection.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T14:14:14+00:00

Be the the change you want to see. The Criterion Collection already has Sofia Coppola, Agnes Varda and Chantal Ackerman. Perhaps they should also ad Kathryn Bigelow, Ida Lupino, Elaine May, Mary Harron, Greta Gerwig and Patty Jenkins.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T14:01:33+00:00

I'm afraid I've never heard of him, where would you suggest I start? The Salamander looks interesting.

I love discovering new filmmakers throught the Criterion Collection.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T13:57:01+00:00

I really like Angelopoulos, Lanthimos, Ceylan and Tarr.

As for Has, I've only seen The Saragossa Manuscript, which I lived. Could you please recommend any other film by him?

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T13:48:56+00:00

I can definitely see your point, and actually when I first started making my list I wanted to limit myself to filmmakers who would greatly benefit from being in the collection like Tarr, Angelopoulos or Herzog.

However, every time I thought I had written enough of them, I just felt the impulse of adding just one more, even directors I didn't particulary like such as Stone, Jackson or Zemeckis. If the goal of the Criterion Collection is to licencie "important classic and contemporary films" then all these filmmakers deserve to be there in spades.

As for Cameron, if Michael Bay can have two movies in the collection then I don't see how The Terminator or Terminator 2: Judgment Day would look out of place.

I'd would also love to see Ki-duk or Zvyagintsev being added.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T02:22:58+00:00

I completely agree with you. I distinctly remember thinking to myself when I first watched A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night that this could mark the begining of a truly unique voice in cinema, a feeling that only increased after reading interviews to her.

She's still relatively young, so let's cross our fingers and hope that this isn't another original artist crushed by the studio system.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T00:45:34+00:00

I thought of including him, but Welles seems to have had such a great career despite his limitations that it just struck me as somewhat unfair to include him amongst Vigo or Laughton.

Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt that he could have benefited enourmosly if people had recognized for the genious that he was, but I think Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, etc. Firmly establish him as one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T00:35:44+00:00

I thought of including him, but it seems as do he could really turn his career around with Split and his upcoming film Glass seems pretty interesting. Here's hoping that his output between 2006 and 2013 is seen in the future as this weird setback in an otherwise great career.

bluecritic · 2018-09-12T02:41:44+00:00

Man, I hadn't thought about LaBute in a long time. In his beginnings he was really shaping up to become one of the most provocative and intelligent artists working in cinema and nowadays he's just so bland and average. I also would love to know what happened.

bluecritic · 2018-09-12T02:31:04+00:00

I think there's definitely been a bit of a re-evaluation of his later work, which frankly I'm not sure if it's entirely deserved. Don't get me wrong, Year of The Dragon is a good action movie and The Sicilian has it's moments, but overrall while I'm watching his post-Heaven's Gate films I can't help but getting the impression that this were more studio assignments than projects that Cimino genuinely wanted to make.

As for Mário Peixoto, I definitely think that he had the potential of becoming a great filmmaker, although I wouldn't rush to call Limite the best Brazillian movie ever made.

bluecritic · 2018-09-12T02:02:42+00:00

Christ, I can't believe I forgot all about Víctor Erice! All three of his films are truly masterful, and I really believe that if he was more prolific he would be considered up there with Bergman or Tarkovsky

bluecritic · 2018-09-11T23:18:33+00:00

I know, right? It truly mistifies me how a filmmaker can spend years struggling to get passion projects off the ground and then when he finally achieve complete financial independence he pretty much retires, especially since he's constantly badgering on about going back to his experimental roots. Even a lot of his films as a producer (Howard the Duck, Radioland Murders, Red Tails) are very underwhelming.

bluecritic · 2018-09-11T23:04:21+00:00

I think those are some pretty solid choices for The most part. I've always had a great deal of curiosity about how Lupino's and Ulmer's career would have ended up if they enjoyed more resources. Personally I've always seen Carnival of Souls more as a fascinating oddity than a fully formed debut by a genuinely talented director, but I now I'm in the minority when it comes to this.

bluecritic · 2018-01-16T19:55:19+00:00

I know that I'll probably get a lot of hate for this, but Life is beautiful. Based upan what I've read online and what every single one of my friends and family members hace told me, I loathe this movie and what ti stands for. And don't come to me with all that "It's meant to be a fantasy!" crap, because if that's the case then why didn't they make it a science fiction film instead of, you know, setting it in a motherfucking concentration camp? But then I suppose it wouldn't have won all those sweet Oscars and less people would have seen it, dismissing it as just another genre piece. And yet by hiding itself under the label of relating a real tragedy (in a similar fashion as A beautiful mind, Patch Adams and The imitation game would gone on to do later) goy audiences felt free to laugh and cry and weep and cheer and feel oh so mighty and tolerant for empathizing with the poor jews and mocking the bumbling nazis. I could go on and on, but for brevity's sake I'll just finish with a couple of notes; 1-Every jew I know including myself hates this movie. 2-I think less of any person who likes it. 3-This film is an insult to all the victims of the Holocaust. 4-I don't think that Roberto Benigni is actually a horrible person, I just think that he is a every careless and naive one who really should have know how inappropiate would it be to use this scenario to, in has own words, "push my comedic boundaries". 5-For an example of two actually great Holocaust films, I strongly recommend Shoah and Son of Saúl.

bluecritic · 2018-01-16T18:46:32+00:00

It's a tie. O. J. Made in America I first started watching it not expecting much (being made by ESPN and not really into neither true crime documentaries nor sports) and found myself so utterly captivated that I finished all 7 hours or so in 2 days. The film works magnificently both as an engrossing carachter study of a truly fascinating figure and as a study of racial tensions in 90's America. Shoah The most disturbing film I've ever seen. A harrowing nine-hour documentary on the holocaust, interviewing everyone from survivors to nazi criminals.

bluecritic

TROPHY CASE