20 Great Movies That Break The Rules of Cinema
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Thank you 'Linus Tolliday'
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20 titles
- DirectorDziga VertovStarsMikhail KaufmanElizaveta SvilovaA man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.This film breaks the rules of conventional cinema by barely qualifying as a film; rather, it is life in 1929 Russia, distilled on celluloid.
- DirectorJoachim TrierStarsAnders Danielsen LieHans Olav BrennerIngrid OlavaOne day in the life of Anders, a young recovering drug addict, who takes a brief leave from his treatment center to interview for a job and catch up with old friends in Oslo.The film is bleak, though insightful and profound.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsLamberto MaggioraniEnzo StaiolaLianella CarellIn post-war Italy, a working-class man's bicycle is stolen, endangering his efforts to find work. He and his son set out to find it.The now heralded classic was a groundbreaking cinematic endeavour upon its release.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJeanne MoreauOskar WernerHenri SerreDecades of a love triangle concerning two friends and an impulsive woman.The film was sexually transgressive at the time, challenging and changing cinema forever
- DirectorAtom EgoyanStarsIan HolmSarah PolleyCaerthan BanksA bus crash in a small town brings a lawyer to defend the families, but he discovers everything isn't what it seems.The reverse-chronological structure of the film is seamless and so natural that it is near unnoticeable.
- DirectorJohn WatersStarsDivineTab HunterEdith MasseyA suburban housewife's world falls apart when she finds that her pornographer husband is serially unfaithful to her, her daughter is pregnant, and her son is suspected of being the foot-fetishist who's been breaking local women's feet.Real, honest emotions in the most artificial of worlds.
- DirectorYorgos LanthimosStarsChristos StergioglouMichele ValleyAngeliki PapouliaA controlling, manipulative father locks his three adult offsprings in a state of perpetual childhood by keeping them prisoner within the sprawling family compound.The harbinger of a Greek New Wave of sorts
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsAnatoliy SolonitsynIvan LapikovNikolay GrinkoThe life, times and afflictions of the fifteenth-century Russian iconographer St. Andrei Rublev.The film is not structured by story or characters, but rather by the oscillating mood portrayed onscreen.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsAnne WiazemskyWalter GreenFrançois LafargeThe story of a mistreated donkey and the people around him. A study on saintliness and a sister piece to Bresson's Mouchette.On top of being unremittingly captivating, the film has also gone down in history as one of the bleakest and most depressing films ever made.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsGaston ModotLya LysCaridad de LaberdesqueA surrealist tale of a man and a woman who are passionately in love with each other, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted by their families, the Church, and bourgeois society.Other than creating surrealism in filmmaking, was also ahead of its time in sexuality, being deemed outrageous and offensive
- DirectorChantal AkermanStarsDelphine SeyrigJan DecorteHenri StorckA lonely widowed housewife does her daily chores, takes care of her apartment where she lives with her teenage son, and turns the occasional trick to make ends meet. However, something happens that changes her safe routine.There is no non-diegetic music, no action sequences, no overt emotional revelations, and no twist ending. The camera favours static shots, sparse dialogue, and a muted colour palette. This is a film almost totally separate from the world of cinema.
- DirectorGodfrey ReggioStarsEdward AsnerPat BenatarJerry BrownA collection of expertly photographed phenomena with no conventional plot. The footage focuses on the relationship between nature, humanity, and technology.Skies and waves filling the screen juxtaposed with industrial images and the devastating effects of man’s interference with nature.
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsMasayuki MoriMachiko KyôKinuyo TanakaA tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.Using popular motifs of Japanese cinema, such as a focus on spiritual importance, elements of fantasy, and resounding moral messages, “Ugetsu Monogatari” typified Japanese life and tradition like no other before.
- DirectorAgnès VardaStarsSandrine BonnaireMacha MérilStéphane FreissA young woman's body is found frozen in a ditch. Through flashbacks and interviews, we see the events that led to her inevitable death.The perspective shift of the narrative is an original idea never explored to the level of effectiveness of “Vagabond”, before nor since.
- DirectorPaul Thomas AndersonStarsJoaquin PhoenixJosh BrolinOwen WilsonIn 1970, drug-fueled Los Angeles private investigator Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend.Paul Thomas Anderson’s most recent, most inaccessible and most misunderstood film to date
- DirectorGuy DebordStarsGuy DebordLeonid BrezhnevFidel CastroGuy Debord's cinematic analysis of consumer society based on his influential book "La société du spectacle" (1967).Made intentionally difficult to imbibe for audiences in order to provoke discussion and active participation with the film.
- DirectorAleksey GermanStarsLeonid YarmolnikAleksandr ChutkoYuriy TsuriloIn the distant future, a space traveler from Earth breaks a special law and interferes with the history of another, Medieval-like planet.An ominous film, and bizarre due to its slow moving pace, lapsing between perspectives and stylistic shifts as the characters develop and the plot progresses.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsKarolina GruszkaKrzysztof MajchrzakGrace ZabriskieAs an actress begins to adopt the persona of her character in a film, her world becomes nightmarish and surreal.“Mulholland Drive” (2001), was a confounding effort to many, though “Inland Empire” makes even that seem conventional.
- DirectorStan BrakhageStarsStan BrakhageJane WodeningThe first part of Dog Star Man (1964), an experimental film wherein a man climbs a mountain along with his dog.Dog Star Man (film series) (1961-1964): The five short films are devoid of a plot, rather exhibiting a surreal compilation of images, scenes and ideas.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsBibi AnderssonLiv UllmannMargaretha KrookA nurse is put in charge of a mute actress and finds that their personae are melding together.One of the most original films ever made, and one of the most imitated, referenced and parodied