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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Cinema Obscura

22:59 / 24.12.04

Big up those reasonably obscure but brilliant movies that you've kept squirreled away in your hearts for far too long. In short share the joy.
(not quite hyperbole)
From time to time I come across a movie/book/painting that I become for a time obssessed with some wonderous hidden treasure. It has sometimes been mentioned that IRL I sometimes foist these mini-obssessions on the uninterested quick and fast, and yes while I hold aloft these terrific gems gently pleading "If there is one thing of solid significance I can impart to you throughout the course of our relationship it is this. Gaze in wonder at its magnificance!" my enthusiasm has been snubbed, what I thought to be diamond mistaken for cheap glass.
In any case a thread to foist your mini-obssessions on others.
Some of mine would include in listy order.
The Apartment,
Bringing Up Baby,
The Haunting,
Marnie,
The Parent Trap (original),
Return of the Living Dead 3,
Series 7 the Contenders,
The Brady Bunch Movie,
Cemetary Man.
Far From Heaven.
My own Private Idaho.

Regrettable Juvenilia

18:38 / 25.12.04

None of these films are obscure, are they? Be honest. They're just not.

Merry Christmas!

18:50 / 25.12.04

Well although I can see your point, I did mention that obscure can be a relatively relative term... and if you'd like an excuse other than that I was quite drunk when I posted this.
But the point being big up your favourite movies whose genius
goes for the most part goes unnoticed and should get some recognition.
If you think the topic heading is misleading be my guest to change although lets try not get bogged down in semantics.

18:51 / 25.12.04

Oh and merry Christmas.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:09 / 25.12.04

Not obscure in the slightest, but often overlooked (which is what I get the impression you meant- I could well be wrong, though) is White Men Can't Jump. One of my top ten favourite films ever. And it's about basketball. A sport which, like all sports, I have absolutely no interest in.

But I love that film.

"I'm goin' back to my car. Get my OTHER gun. Shoot EVERYBODY'S ass."

14:35 / 26.12.04

Yes! That is more in line with what I was thinking! Ta.

To big up the Haunting (1963), its just an incredibly unnerving movie. I first came across it during a bout of insomnia a few years ago while channel flicking at about 3 am, (which is the best possible way to discover a movie like this in my view) I can't say it any better than what this guy said on amazon.
"Certain to remain one of the greatest haunted-house movies ever made, Robert Wise's The Haunting (1963) is antithetical to all the gory horror films of subsequent decades, because its considerable frights remain implicitly rooted in the viewer's sensitivity to abject fear."
and later,
"The genius of The Haunting lies in the restraint of Wise and screenwriter Nelson Gidding, who elicit almost all of the film's mounting terror from the psychology of its characters--particularly Eleanor, whose grip on sanity grows increasingly tenuous. The presence of lurking spirits relies heavily on the power of suggestion (likewise the cautious handling of Theodora's attraction to Eleanor) and the film's use of sound is more terrifying than anything Wise could have shown with his camera."
Which was why the big cgi remake was such a terrible idea really, although the casting of Lilli Taylor, Catherine Zeta Jones and Owen Wilson was pretty inspired.

Linky

17:40 / 26.12.04

I am so glad that Peter Jackson and his team of committed and enthusiastic filmmakers were honoured with eleven Oscars at last year’s ceremony.