frankie's - 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die List

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A truly literate and sophisticated film spectacle by perhaps the greatest of all film artists, this Oscar nominated masterpiece by Federico Fellini, the director of such world-renowned classics, as 'La Dolce Vita', 'La Strada' and '8 ½', is a fabulous trip into a totally decadent civilization

delivering a brilliant visual fantasy unlike anything you have seen. Step into the bawdy, erotic and titillating world of Rome during the days of Emperor Nero, Where two completing teachers play tricks on each other while vying for the same lover's charms, Paralleling the self-indulgence of modern society, these Roman citizens pursue their own gratification above all else, resulting in both intense pleasure and enormous despair, displayed in visually seductive scenes that are both shocking, unprecedented and brilliantly stunning.

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In a northern Greek city in the 1960's, a leading opposition politician is attacked on the street while his party is holding a rally and later dies in hospital.

The dead man's left of center party was against any type of foreign intervention in national affairs and was seen by the right wing party in power as a threat to national security. The cover-up begins almost immediately with the police claiming that the dead man was struck by a drunk driver. A prosecutor is assigned to the case and he meticulously interviews everyone involved, slowly gathering evidence that shows the extent to which the assassination was potted by senior policemen and right-wing extremists. Getting appropriate actions from the State proves to be something else entirely.

The story begins in Rome, 1938. Marcello (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a young fascist who takes on the job of assassinating his former professor who has fled to Paris. With his girlfriend (Stefania Sandrelli) in tow he meets the professor and his young wife (Dominique Sanda)...

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Written by Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Terry Southern, Fonda produced the low-budget production whilst Hopper took on Directing duties, receiving an award at Cannes for his first work.

Since its release, Easy Rider has been regarded as a symbol of free-spirited reaction against society, and even for those too young to remember its original release, it maintains its status as a classic film which characterises the attitude of a decade. Now, after 30 years, Easy Rider has been remastered and is presented here in High Definition with both clearer picture and sound quality.

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Filmed at the height of the Vietnam War, director Emile de Antonio's unabashedly subjective documentary blasts American involvement in the conflict, with startling and disturbing images adding emotional intensity to this scathing critique.

Through news footage and interviews with military figures, journalists and politicians, the provocative filmmaker traces modern Southeast Asian history and makes an argument for Vietnamese self-determination.

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By any standard, director Sam Peckinpah's film The Wild Bunch, a powerful tale of hangdog desperadoes bound by a code of honour, rates as one of the all-time greatest Westerns, perhaps one of the greatest of all films.

This original Director's Cut restores it to a complete, pristine condition unseen since its July 1969 theatrical debut. The image is letterboxed, the color renewed, the stereo soundtrack remixed and reintegrated - all to blood-and-thunder effect. Watch William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan and more great stars saddle up for the roles of a lifetime.
This video also features the home video debut of The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage, the Academy Award nominated 1996 documentary by Paul Seydor and Nick Redman. It includes long-unseen footage of the on-set shooting, and reminiscences by principals connected with the film.

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Widely regarded as Tarkovsky's finest film, 'Andrei Rublev' charts the life of the great icon painter through a turbulent period of 15th Century Russian history, a period marked by endless fighting between rival Princes and Tatar invastions.

Made on an epic scale, it does not flinch from portraying the savagery of the time, from which, almost inexplicably, the serenity of Rublev's art arose. The great set-pieces - the sack of Vladimir, the casting of the bell, the pagan ceremonies of St. John's night and the Russian crucifixion are tours-de-force of visceral film-making.

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Stephane Audran plays a lonely schoolteacher who develops an inexplicable draw toward an ex-army butcher who may or may not be a serial killer plaguing a small town.

Drawing on Hitchcockian themes of exchanged guilt and shared secrets, Chabrol constructs an extraordinary relationship between the two characters that marries unspoken self-awareness with constant suspense over the unresolved nature of their bond.

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Sergei Paradjanov's celebrated, dreamlike masterpiece paints an astonishing portrait of the 18th century Armenian poet Sayat Nova, the 'King of Song'. Paradjanov's aim was not a conventional biography but a cinematic expression of his work, resulting in an extraordinary visual poem.

Key moments in his subject's life are illustrated through a series of exquisitely orchestrated tableaux filled with rich colour and stunning iconography, each scene a celluloid painting alive with stylised movement. One of cinema's most revered and beautiful films, The Colour of Pomegranates is a unique and rewarding experience that haunts the memory long after viewing.

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British filmmaking showed much of its potential in this marvellous production chronicling the boyhood experiences of Billy (David Bradley), whose expectations lead no further than following his father into the pits when he reaches manhood.

Everything changes when he finds Kes, an injured Kestrel, whom he nurses and cherishes back to health. Their relationship becomes symbolic of a doomed attempt to escape the drudgery of the industrial North.

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Set in Toledo in the early 1930s, Bunuel regular Fernando Rey stars as Don Lope, an aging figure of respectability who becomes the guardian of Tristana (Catherine Deneuve), a young woman with whom he is soon completely smitten.

Finally accepting Don Lope's proposal of marriage after having her tumorous leg amputated, Tristana chooses a passionless union rather than be subject to the harsh realities of society that refuses to change to the needs of women.

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Although a brilliant, classical pianist from an intellectual, well-to-do family - Robert Dupea (Jack Nicholson) has made a career out of running from job to job and woman to woman.

Presently working in an oil field, Dupea spends most of his free time downing beers, playing poker and being noncommittal with his sexy but witless girlfriend Rayette (Karen Black). But when he is summoned to his father's deathbed, Dupea returns home with Rayette, where he meets and falls for a sophisticated woman. Now caught between his conflicting lifestyles, the gifted but troubled Dupea must face issues that will change his life forever.

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With 'El Topo', Alejandro Jodorowsky gave birth to the countercultural phenomenon of the Midnight Movie and carved out a place in history as one of cinema's most unique and visionary filmmakers, impressing John Lennon and Yoko Ono so much that they enthusiastically endorsed the film at one of its

first New York screenings. Part Luis Bunuel, part Sergio Leone, this bizarre, ultra-violent Western features a brutal, black-clad gunslinger who, accompanied by his young son, sets off on a murderous mission to challenge four zen masters of gun-fighting. When his mission is complete he then goes on a quest for peace and personal redemption, but finds that death is never far away.

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The Academy Award - winning "Woodstock" by wide consensus the best concert film ever made, has never looked or sounded better than in this director-approved edition with its sights restored and its sounds revitalixed.

Best of all, 40 minutes of previously unseen footage has been incorporated into the film by director Michael Wadleigh. Seen in its ground-breaking widescreen multi-image format, it's a once-in-a-lifetime celebration that captured its era like no other movie before or since.

Newly employed at a run-down London swimming baths, Mike (John Moulder-Brown) obsesses after his sassy and self-assured co-worker (Jane Asher) whilst collecting tips for the 'special services' he is expected to perform for clients (including Diana Dors).