Lesser known film recommendations.

[Milo]

Withnail and I fantastic film.

 

[goo_mason]

I love that film. Also A very Long Engagement, which is a fairly popular French war/romantic movie. R-Point too - another South Korean war flick but with a bit of an unusual angle. I like war movies...

Have you tried these war-based films ?

9th Company - Russian conscripts' experiences in Afghanistan; based on a true story
Indigenes (Days Of Glory) - French Algerian soldiers in WW2

 

[Dave5N]

Withnail and I fantastic film.

Pure shite. And that irritating South African chappy is one of the worlds most annoying men.

If you haven't seen The Third Man, you should do so without delay.

 

[rich p]

City of God - but I don't know if it's well known or not. I dont get out much

 

[Milo]

good film that.

 

[Abitrary]

Static. An absolute darkly hilarious classic:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090069/

"A quirky, out-of-of place worker at a crucifix factory in the Bible Belt invents a device he claims can show pictures of Heaven"

They used to show stuff lots of left field late night on channel 4, what happened???? That's mostly what channel 4 was good for

 

[laurence]

second Static.

from around that time - Miracle Mile.
also, Diner, Unbelievable Truth, Big Easy, Trust, Simple Men (great slow dance sequence featuring Sonic Youth's 'Kool Thing'), Delicatessen, Wild Targets, the Haidresser's Husband and Il Postino.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

These are mostly films that I think are pretty normal and mainstream, in fact I even teach some of them... am I pretentious?

 

[Kirstie]

These are mostly films that I think are pretty normal and mainstream, in fact I even teach some of them... am I pretentious?

Was that a rhetorical question?

 

[Twenty Inch]

Anything with Takeshi Kitano.

Sonatine, Brother, Zatoichi. Smashing stuff.

 

[Dave Davenport]

Tampopo- Sex, noodles and general Japanese weirdness. What's not to like.

Not very obscure but whatched Pan's Labyrinth on film 4 again the other night, great film.

 

[Maz]

The Empire Strikes Backyard

You'd have to be into Star Wars to fully appreciate it, though.

 

[simonali]

These are mostly films that I think are pretty normal and mainstream, in fact I even teach some of them... am I pretentious?

I've heard of quite a few of them and I'd definitely not describe myself as some sort of art house film buff, but they're hardly Spider-Man 2 are they?

 

[Tom87]

There's been some great recommendations so far.

Anyway, it'd help if you gave more examples of the sort of thing you like, but going from Harold and Maude alone, I can recommend;

Wes Anderson - the earlier the better - Bottle Rocket and especially Rushmore, which I found very similar to Harold and Maude - always uses great soundtracks

Also try Hal Ashby's other films. They're not as quirky as Harold and Maude but The Last Detail is a masterpiece and Bound for Glory is good. Oh yeah and Being There, which is more left-field too.

More great American films from the 70s:

Anything Altman - The Long Goodbye, A Wedding, McCabe and Mrs Miller (great soundtrack too), California Split - Brewster McCloud - similar film with Bud Cort and extremely quirky, obviously a big influence on Magnolia.

-Punishment Park
-Two-Lane Blacktop

 

[Disgruntled Goat]

Battle for Algiers http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058946/

Wages of Fear http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046268/

Must see films both.