Listmania!
Pretentious Movies That You Might Be Able To Sit Through
Les Choses SecretsLes Choses Secrets
Buy new: £5.97 / Used from: £3.99
Increadibly explicit near porn film with proper plot & characters. Few fleeting moments of pretentiousness. Imagine the lesbian scene (content & impact) in Mulholland Dr, but every five minutes.
Death In A French Garden [1986]Death In A French Garden [1986]
Buy new: £8.97 / Used from: £12.99
Quick brisk pace and there was just a small dollop of French existential emptiness. Has a proper plot and is part of a distinct genre (erotic thriller). Enjoyable and remarkably free of pretension.
L'Appartement [1995]L'Appartement [1995]
Buy new: £5.49 / Used from: £5.40
An extended game (like a Greenaway film with humour) of keeping several spinning plates in the air at once as two plots play out in tandem, affecting each other but never becoming known to each other.
Apocalypse Now [1979]Apocalypse Now [1979]
Buy new: £3.98 / Used from: £2.29
Like 2001 it's more of an experience than a proper film. Bits are excellent, parts are dull. When it works it's great. Many memorable scenes during the first 100 mins. Pretentiously bombastic.
Mulholland Drive - Special Edition [2001]Mulholland Drive - Special Edition [2001]
Buy new: £4.91 / Used from: £4.99
One of the few David Lynch movies that doesn't move at a crawl. Very good until they go to the nightclub 2 hours in. Then it becomes a load of random nonsense. Would be great if it had a real ending.
1, 2, 3 Trilogy [2007]1, 2, 3 Trilogy [2007]
Buy new: £24.63 / Used from: £10.99
One section of life plays out three times but as a different genre.Good gimmick but under-used.All three films are OK but comedy isn't amusing, drama isn't gripping & all are overlong by about 1/2 hr.
Black Book [2006]Black Book [2006]
Buy new: £5.98 / Used from: £3.90
Not a single bit of pretentiousness. Lurid exploitation cinema with a budget, historical setting & subtitles. Has a veneer of false respectability. A mainstream art film.
The Fourth Man [1983]The Fourth Man [1983]
Buy new: £8.97 / Used from: £7.15
Pulpy, sexually graphic film with arty camera work. Like an art house version of Basic Instinct (by same director). Seems pretentious on the surface but under the slow pacing is pure trash.
Three Colours TrilogyThree Colours Trilogy
Buy new: £18.47
Blue is dull & self importantly slow.White is pointless but mildly interesting with weak humour & a meandering plot.Red is conventional but too impressed with itself.All watchable,slightly pretentious
Novo [2005]Novo [2005]
Buy new: £5.10 / Used from: £3.09
Starts really good as it's explicit and charming. Second half turns into a disappointingly typical enigmatic, navel gazing French film. Also there is no explicit material in the second half.
L'Homme Du Train [2003]L'Homme Du Train [2003]
Buy new: £5.97 / Used from: £5.48
Not a lot happens (about two men who envy each others lives) and it has a pointless ending. I enjoyed it as I didn't fidget and it had a short running time. It was insubstantial but unpretentious.
Luis Bunuel collection [1965]Luis Bunuel collection [1965]
Buy new: £30.34 / Used from: £32.26
Films by a great surrealist director. Too silly to be pretentious. Most of the humour is genuinely funny. Some great movies in this box set.
The Piano Teacher [2001]The Piano Teacher [2001]
Buy new: £5.10 / Used from: £4.95
Slow, boring, pretentious and audience unfriendly. Long takes, stiff camera work & extended classical music interludes. No fun. Avoid.
The Pornographer [2001]The Pornographer [2001]
Buy new: £5.97 / Used from: £5.99
Loaded to the gills with French existential emptiness. Things start then never get resolved, at least not on screen. This is the ultimate cliche of French cinema. Pretentious & inconclusive. Avoid.
Le Gout Des Autres [2000]Le Gout Des Autres [2000]
Buy new: £3.98 / Used from: £3.50
Decent drama. Slightly aimless but harmless.
The Draughtsman's Contract [1982]The Draughtsman's Contract [1982]
Buy new: £12.02
Weird period movie. Simple mystery story told in an obscure way. Very wordy & mannered.Camerawork stiff & static with minimal editing. Not fun but worth seeing. Great upbeat music (also worth buying).
The Cook Thief, His Wife And Her Lover [1989]The Cook Thief, His Wife And Her Lover [1989]
Buy new: £3.45 / Used from: £3.40
Very funny offensive dialogue. Some great acting. Interesting rigid film structure that keeps repeating. Striking visuals & ideas. Slightly boring but worth watching.Sadly has some opera singing in it
8.1/2 Women [1999]8.1/2 Women [1999]
Buy new: £3.98 / Used from: £3.95
The world’s most meaningless film. I have no idea what it’s about or why I should care. Young lead actor is so awful he turns the film into a painful viewing experience.
Fellini's 8 1/2 [1962]Fellini's 8 1/2 [1962]
Buy new: £12.59 / Used from: £10.00
Boring. Very boring. A classic to some but it's really boring. La Dolce Vita is also increadibly boring.
Knife In The Water [1962]Knife In The Water [1962]
Buy new: £16.99 / Used from: £8.99
Strange eerie movie about 2 men & a woman on a boat.Nothing seems to be happening but it rivets your attention as macho power games play out for her attention.Polanski film that even rivals Chinatown.
The Double Life Of Veronique [1991]The Double Life Of Veronique [1991]
Buy new: £7.52
What it has for a story is a bunch of wispy, pointless incidences that fail to make any impact separately or when combined with the rest of the "narrative". A true post-content movie. Painfully awful.
Blow Up [1966]Blow Up [1966]
Buy new: £5.09 / Used from: £2.99
Slow atmospheric murder mystery without a detailed ending. Reputation is that it's confusing & boring. I understand it without any problem & if you adapt to it's slow pace then it is very enjoyable.
Anna M [2007]Anna M [2007]
Buy new: £6.39
Subdued & matter of fact in its depiction of a mentally ill and obsessive woman who stalks a doctor. Briskly paced & unpretentious once it gets going.