Seven Samurai...I er, *breaks down* I never watched it! I make a tradition of ditching everytime it's being shown cause it's so loooong - with no intermission. My butt would go numb. /confession

Let's see...Birth of a Nation is excruciating unless you're into film history. The Bicycle Thief and 8 1/2 are spifftastic. Greed is one of the best movies I've ever seen, and it's not even complete. Erich Von Stroheim (the director) wound up filming  @ 8 hours worth of movie, and then had a friend pare it down to 3. But he and the studio had some kind of grudge thing going on, and one of the execs had it cut to an hour and a half and burned the rest of the film so that it can never be seen in it's intended form. *cries bitter tears*

Any films? Or silent era films?

I saw Birth of a Nation in 11th grade American History.  We all got a chuckle out of the Endless Ride of the KKK, and were sadly amused at the white guys in blackface.

The Birth of a Nation is a major milestone in the development of the medium film. Griffith essentially came up with the language we´re used to today, employing close ups, pans, travellings etc for the first time.
For entertainment value check out his Way Down East with it´s breathtaking finale on the frozen river and of course Lillian Gish.

A few recommendations in no particular order:

Anything by Kurosawa especially Stray Dog, Rashomon, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress and High and Low.

Other classic japanese directors worth checking out are Ozu and Mizoguchi

Buster Keaton, both the short film and the ten feature films especially Our Hospitality, The Navigator, Sherlock Jr, The General and Steamboat Bill Jr.
Skip Chaplin, Keaton is the true master.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger especially The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and Powell´s Peeping Tom.

Anything by Jean Renoir, the greatest director who ever lived.

Carl Dreyer´s Vampyr

Roma, Citta Aperta by Rossellini

Truffaut´s 400 Blows, L´enfant sauvage, Jules et Jim and La chambre verte

more french cinema: Pepe le Moko, Le jour se leve, Quai des brume and other 1930s stuff by directors like Rene Clair, Julien Duvivier and Marcel Carné

Jean Pierre Melville, especially Armee des ombres, Le deuxieme souffle, Le cercle rouge

Touch of Evil by Orson Welles

Ingmar Bergman is a must too. Some of his pre 1960 films are actually comedies. Some of those made after 1960 are very very bleak indeed.
If you can find it check out Kvinnors Väntan. The scene with Gunnar Björnstrand end Eva Dahlbeck getting stuck in an elevator beats every Hollywood screwball comedy hands down.

John Ford´s The Searchers and Howard Hawks Rio Bravo

D.O.A. by Rudolph Mate

"I want to report a murder."
"Who was murdered?"
"I was."

and last but not least some german movies that most likely are impossible to find:
Unter den Brücken and Grosse Freiheit Nr 7, both by Helmut Käutner

To Continue -

Broken Blossoms
the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Gold Rush
The Battleship Potmekin
The Grand Illusion
The African Queen
All About Eve
Bonnie and Clyde
Any and all Alfred Hitchcock
Richard III
The Three Musketeers
The Four Musketeers (both versions with Michael York and Oliver Reed and Raquel Welch)
Singing in the Rain
Chinatown
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
sunset boulevard
the quiet man
camilla
some like it hot
doctor zhivago
deliverance
badlands
amadeus
any and all David Lynch

That's all I could find that Massey has. That database is hard to navigate btw. }:(

Wow, thanks guys. I'll try to see as many as possible.

(btw, Bandit, yes, yes it is a bad interface. I should have recommended searching by title, as that seems to be the best way to get it to work.)

Crayon Mini-Rant #1

I need to learn to speak spanish.

now, now....you can't leave us with a rant like that and not tell us your name. *grin*

Plus I'm afraid if I reveal my name then when I come to get your first born you can banish me. I hate when that happens.

You say that now. But someday you'll meet the right man and you'll *want* to settle down and pop out babies! Uh, I think I just channeled my grandmother.

Dear Rumpelstiltskin,

I just want to say that your name is cool.  You could try and find another name but you could never find another name that would be as perfect for you.  I mean, your parents must have lovingly pondered for months to find the most special name that they could for their precious little bundle of joy.  And to have a name so unique that hardly anyone else has heard of it or can even pronounce it is even cooler!  I mean, you could have been called Janet, Jane, Jean, Joan or Agnes or something.  Dorcas is the worst girl's name I've ever heard of.  So things aren't so bad. 

Yours sincerely
Generic Agony Aunt

PS - I have your name on file, in case you ever harbour malicious thoughts against my first-born.

Bandit wrote:

Or did I already knew you knew?

[calmly] Yes [/calmly]

Hmm and for the record, Damon didn't tell me, I guessed - I'm nosy like that.  He only confirmed (unintentionally, I might add) that my guess was accurate.  So don't hurt him too much!

[ May 31, 2003: Message edited by: JustCharlotte ]

Bandit, I still don't know your name. But I'll trade you for it ... how about a photo of Paragon?

:)