Must see films.

[Efrogwr]

Rogerzilla nominated 2001 A Space Oddyssey.
I saw the Cinerama version, which was spectacular with a capital F. I've tried to watch it in other formats, but they were disappointing.
Are there any Cinerama cinems left?

Bradford: https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/cinema

--*--*--*--

"Made on a stupidly low budget" mention upthread reminds me:
Clerks

Thank you very much.

[fd3]

The Ladykillers (original)

(That you needed to specify the original is disturbing)
And, yes, mystery train

[hubner]

Went the Day Well (1942)

British film made during WW2 but actually set in the future after the war, but almost all of the film is told in one continuous flashback about a group of German soldiers taking over a sleepy typical English village during the war.

The Eagle Has Landed (1976), has a somewhat similar plot.

[hubner]

Off the top of my head, Important Cultural References™ from the days before subtitles that I've made barakta watch over the years...

The Right Stuff
Airplane!
Spaceballs The Movie
The Great Escape
The Italian Job
Tremors
Die Hard
Towering Inferno
Ferris Bueller's Day Off


Works in progress:

Blazing Saddles
Full Metal Jacket^[1]
Gremlins
Rififi
Every Which Way But Loose
The Poseidon Adventure


_{[1] It wouldn't be on the list, except that thanks to her ex her only knowledge of the film is the woman-offering-a-blowjob scene, which gives completely the wrong impression and therefore needs correcting.}

Is that an ironic, so bad it's good choice?

And I'm a Clint Eastwood fan!

[Mr Larrington]

Rogerzilla nominated 2001 A Space Oddyssey.
I saw the Cinerama version, which was spectacular with a capital F. I've tried to watch it in other formats, but they were disappointing.
Are there any Cinerama cinems left?

Bradford: https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/cinema

--*--*--*--

"Made on a stupidly low budget" mention upthread reminds me:
Clerks

Which in turn reminds me:

Dogma

[Kim]

Off the top of my head, Important Cultural References™ from the days before subtitles that I've made barakta watch over the years...

The Right Stuff
Airplane!
Spaceballs The Movie
The Great Escape
The Italian Job
Tremors
Die Hard
Towering Inferno
Ferris Bueller's Day Off


Works in progress:

Blazing Saddles
Full Metal Jacket^[1]
Gremlins
Rififi
Every Which Way But Loose
The Poseidon Adventure


_{[1] It wouldn't be on the list, except that thanks to her ex her only knowledge of the film is the woman-offering-a-blowjob scene, which gives completely the wrong impression and therefore needs correcting.}

Is that an ironic, so bad it's good choice?

Being good is in no way a requirement for Important Cultural Reference™ status.  Merely that it's useful to have seen them to understand what people are going on about, which is a common barakta problem when it comes to anything that was old-hat in the pre-DVD^[1] era.

Which reminds me, The Princess Bride should be on there.


(If I wanted to make a list of films I actually liked, it would look very different.)



_{[1] She missed out on Ceefax, because reasons.}

[rafletcher]

Thinking of low budget but excellemt films "That Sinking Feeling", Bill Forsyth's first.

In a completely different vein, Jseph Losey's "King & Country" for a different view of WW1.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Off the top of my head, Important Cultural References™ from the days before subtitles that I've made barakta watch over the years...

The Right Stuff
Airplane!
Spaceballs The Movie
The Great Escape
The Italian Job
Tremors
Die Hard
Towering Inferno
Ferris Bueller's Day Off


Works in progress:

Blazing Saddles
Full Metal Jacket^[1]
Gremlins
Rififi
Every Which Way But Loose
The Poseidon Adventure


_{[1] It wouldn't be on the list, except that thanks to her ex her only knowledge of the film is the woman-offering-a-blowjob scene, which gives completely the wrong impression and therefore needs correcting.}

Is that an ironic, so bad it's good choice?

Being good is in no way a requirement for Important Cultural Reference™ status.  Merely that it's useful to have seen them to understand what people are going on about, which is a common barakta problem when it comes to anything that was old-hat in the pre-DVD^[1] era.

Which reminds me, The Princess Bride should be on there.


(If I wanted to make a list of films I actually liked, it would look very different.)



_{[1] She missed out on Ceefax, because reasons.}

Jaws
Some Like It Hot

"you are going to need a bigger list"

[Cudzoziemiec]

The Wizard of Oz

[Legs]

Ones that I don't think have been mentioned yet:

La Vita è Bella (1997)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Rain Man (1988)

[Cudzoziemiec]

Ladri di Bicicletti

[Steph]

Loads of stuff on there for me, particularly the French stuff, such as the two Pagnol films (jean/Manon) and Longue Dimanche de Fiancailles (VL Engagement). I would another Jean-Baptiste Rossi ('Sebastian Japrisot') adaptation [excuse lack of accents] L'Ete Meurtrier (One Deadly Summer)

Alien and Aliens are shoo-ins, along with Carpenter's 'The Thing', but I would add the original Creature Feature from which Aliens drew some crucial scenes, 'Them'. Amazing child acting in the opening, and one of L Nimoy's first outings.

I would add Schindler's List as a film I never want to see again, and not because it is a bad one, and 'The Cruel Sea' to pair up with 'Ice Cold'

Oh: and Princess Bride.

[De Sisti]

Must-see films:

Dr Strangelove

[toontra]

A few not mentioned:

“Ace in the Hole” - Wilder
“Theorem” - Pasolini
“Short Cuts” - Altman
“Goodfellas” - Scorsese
“I Know Where I’m Going” - P&P

[CAMRAMan]

Grosse Point Blank - great soundtrack
Dr Strangelove
Three Colours Blue, White & Red - in that order
The Double Life of Veronique
Babette's Feast
The Witness - not to be confused with a Harrison Ford fillum, this ones about the futility of communism in Hungary as satire.
Leningrad Cowboys Go America - bone dry Finnish humour.

[Robh]

Leningrad Cowboys Go America - bone dry Finnish humour.

Oh yes, definitely!

[rafletcher]

That brought to mind "The Cuckoo"

[Paul]

L&H;
Sons of the Desert
Towed in a Hole
County Hospital
(and others)

The Usual Suspects
The Grand Budapest Hotel
For a Few Dollars More
The last 20 minutes of Home Alone
The Magnificent Seven
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Paper Moon
Buch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Midnight Run
Lawrence of Arabia
Delicatessen
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
Reservoir Dogs
Grave of the Fireflies

[citoyen]

The Ladykillers (original)

(That you needed to specify the original is disturbing)

I note that when PeterM said:

Pretty much all the Coen Bros stuff

...there were a couple of notable omissions from his list. Presumably deliberate. (He should have mentioned The Hudsucker Proxy though.)

[citoyen]

Not sure what made me think of this just now, but it's a definite for the list...

Jan Svankmajer's Alice

It's the only film adaptation of Lewis Carroll that comes anywhere close to capturing the true horror of Wonderland. And while I'm thinking of Carroll-inspired films, Jabberwocky is OK but if we're going to have a Gilliam on the list, it surely has to be...

Time Bandits

[Deano]

Summer of Soul. There may be a better concert movie out there, but I've not seen it.

[rogerzilla]

Since Peter Greenaway has been mentioned,

Drowning By Numbers

It's probably his most accessible and, as usual, is incredible to look at.

[Hot Flatus]

There's loads really  I'm very fond of much of the output of the US in the late 60s and 70s. The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy etc.

Seems like a period of introspection, before the triumphalist era of the late 80s and 90s.

[rafletcher]

Talking to my collagues in Minnesota they reminded my of Fargo, and that led to 3 Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri.

others - Pans Labyrinth, The Devils Backbone, Amores Perros, No Country for Old Men, Mulholland Drive, Crash, 21 Grams, City of God, City of Men

[Peter]

Summer of Soul. There may be a better concert movie out there, but I've not seen it.

Deliberately didn't put that in, to see if it would flush you out!  Colleague at work asked if I'd seen it the other day.  Huge brownie point!