Student Book World - Movies that blew me away, Part 1

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Movies that blew me away, Part 1

	The Conformist [DVD] [1970] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] Buy used from: £29.00 Criminally unavailable in the UK on DVD. One of the most beautifully photographed films of all time & a great political thriller. Dominique Sanda and Stefania Sandrelli don't hurt the eye either.
	Le Samourai (region 2) Glacially cool study of a contract-killer creating an alibi and a cop determined to break it. Also unavailable in UK!
	The Night Of The Hunter [DVD] [1955] Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £3.75 Like "The Wizard of Oz", if you first see this as a child it will stay with you forever. The scene where the children escape down-river in the boat is as magical as Cinema gets.
	The Conversation [DVD] [1974] Buy new: £3.98 / Used from: £2.98 "He'd kill us if he had the chance". 'Nuff said. Gene Hackman's finest hour and the best thing Harrison Ford's ever been in.
	Rosemary's Baby [1968] [DVD] Buy new: £4.78 / Used from: £3.19 No one does urban paranoia better than Polanski and he's at his best here. Perhaps the most perfectly cast film of all time. "He has his father's eyes". "Guy's eyes are normal!"
	A Matter Of Life And Death [DVD] [1946] Buy new: £8.98 / Used from: £3.50 Beautiful fantasy actually commissioned to improve Anglo-American relations during WWII. My favourite film of all time; an amazing relic of when British Cinema rivalled the world's best.
	The Long Goodbye [DVD] [1973] Buy new: £4.18 / Used from: £1.40 Raymond Chandler's great detective yarn updated by Robert Altman for the cynical '70s. Elliott Gould's best performance and Mark Rydell manages to be hilarious and terrifying at the same time.
	Crimes And Misdemeanors [DVD] [1990] Buy new: £4.88 / Used from: £2.48 Very pessimistic but not without its funny scenes. Woody shows us it's the wicked who prosper while the good guys get trampled on. My DVD = certificate 18; surely not, BBFC!
	Meet Me In St. Louis [DVD] [1944] Buy new: £6.79 / Used from: £8.00 Despite the absence of dance sequences and the general feeling that some scenes, eg the trolley scene, are there just to accommodate a song, still the greatest musical.
	Halloween (25th Anniversary Edition) [DVD] Buy used from: £2.27 Simply the leanest and best horror movie there is. I've seen this countless times and the shocks still work. I'd rather John Carpenter made a 'return to form' than any other director.
	Performance [DVD] [1970] Buy new: £3.98 / Used from: £3.00 Dazzling, hallucinogenic British gangster movie. Way ahead of its time and still fresh as a daisy. Would have won a Best Film Editing Oscar in an ideal world.
	Heaven's Gate [DVD] [1981] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] Buy used from: £9.81 The film which finished United Artists! I'd still watch this over "The Deer Hunter" every time. Christopher Walken's first appearance is wonderfully cinematic and the whole thing is beautifully shot.
	Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (Limited Edition, Includes Theatrical Version) [DVD] [1977] Buy new: £9.08 / Used from: £3.49 Forget the extended title! "A New Hope", my @ss! This is where it begins and ends for me, i.e. Darth Vader is nobody's dad, just an evil, wheezing git!
	Charley Varrick [DVD] [1973] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] Buy used from: £12.00 Another title deserving a Reg. 2 release. A rare serious turn by Matthau as a small-time bank-robber who unwittingly robs the mafia and must outsmart a hitman pursuing him. Fiendishly clever.
	Dead Ringers [DVD] [1989] Buy new: £3.38 / Used from: £1.99 Shocking but moving horror from David Cronenberg. Superb performance(s) by Jeremy Irons as identical twin gynaecologists who share everything but become separated by a woman.
	Deep Red [DVD] [1975] [US Import] Buy used from: £5.79 Argento's finest 2 hours. Gorgeous grisly style, fantastic soundtrack by Goblin and even room for some romantic comedy!
	Marnie [DVD] [1964] Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £1.98 Deeply flawed yet mesmerising Hitchcock classic. This and "The Birds" really need remastering and releasing in their proper aspect ratios.
	Don't Look Now [DVD] [1973] Buy used from: £3.98 Thinking-person's horror & Nicolas Roeg's best film. As with "Marnie" (above), Roeg generally bleaches his film's palette of the colour red, thus creating a shocking impact when it is used.
	The Parallax View - Paramount Originals (includes Limited Edition reproduction film poster) [DVD] [1974] Buy new: £9.79 / Used from: £3.99 Excellent post-Watergate conspiracy thriller with Beatty as an investigative journalist seeking the Big Story, unaware he is being manipulated. Probably Pakula's best.
	Peeping Tom - Special Edition [DVD] [1959] Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £4.49 Still-shocking British serial killer flick which was so vilified on release that it effectively destroyed the career of its creator, the greatest of all British directors, Michael Powell.
	Kes [DVD] [1969] Buy new: £4.88 / Used from: £4.50 By turns very funny and devastatingly tragic, yet also uplifting in its portrayal of a lad striving for freedom and beauty against a drab, industrial backdrop. Excellent amateur ensemble acting.
	The Man Who Would Be King [DVD] [1975] Buy used from: £2.78 Up there with the best of either star's work. Highly entertaining adventure, at times amusing but never flinching from the savagery of the time and place. Caine & Connery's obvious chemistry's a treat
	The Wicker Man (2 DVD + CD Collector's Edition) [1973] Buy used from: £23.50 A genuinely intelligent horror movie, brilliantly scripted by Anthony Shaffer. The ending is a knock-out and - a couple of unintentionally funny moments aside - the film's rightly a classic.
	Unfaithfully Yours [DVD] [1948] Buy used from: £6.89 A pretty dark comedy from the great Preston Sturges about a conductor (Rex Harrison) who imagines his wife (Linda Darnell) is having an affair and fantasizes how best to resolve the problem.
	Miller's Crossing [1990] [DVD] [1991] Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £0.78 Gabriel Byrne's perfect in the best Irish-American gangster movie there is. The Coen's threaten to spill over into fantasy at any moment but manage to move, amuse, bewilder and bedazzle us here.