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

Show moreShow less

Cliff Stern (Woody Allen) is an idealistic filmmaker…until he is offered a lucrative job shooting a flattering profile of a pompous TV producer (Alan Alda).

Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau) is the pillar of his community…until he learns that his ex-mistress (Anjelica Huston) plans to expose his financial and extramarital misdeeds. As Cliff chooses between integrity and selling out, and Judah decides between the counsel of his Rabbi (Sam Waterson) and the murderous advice of his mobster brother (Jerry Orbach), each man must examine his own morality, and make an irrevocable decision - that will change everyone's lives forever.

The Cook serves up gourmet masterpieces in a beautiful restaurant. The thief holds his tyrannical court in the restaurant, terrorising all around him. His wife has a dangerous and illicit passion. Her lover is having the riskiest affair of his life.

Show moreShow less

One of the most controversial issues in America today - drugs - forms the centre of Drugstore Cowboy, a powerful story of a Junkie's life of crime and redemption in the 1970s. Despite today's outcry against the dangers of drugs, the world of the dope addict remains shrouded in mystery.

A painstakingly authentic depiction of the life of drug addicts, Drugstore Cowboy tells the shattering tale of the destructive force of narcotics and reveals an inspiring example of human resilience, hope and survival against the odds.

Show moreShow less

Based on the story of Christy Brown, this highly acclaimed film depicts his struggle for a normal life. Born with cerebral palsy into a poor, working-class Irish family, Christy was able only to control movement in his left foot and to speak in guttural sounds.

With the help of his strong-willed and dedicated family and his own sheer courage and determination, Christy not only learns to grapple with life's simple physical tasks and complex psychological pains, but he also develops into a brilliant painter, poet and author.

A literal landmark in modern Actioa-Cinema, Woo unfolds his story about the bond between a moral assassin and an amoral policeman with incredible skill and precision, whilst still managing to overwhelm his audience with some of the most incredible action-sequences ever committed to film.

This powerful portrait of urban racial tension sparked controversy everywhere it played while earning popular and critical praise. The hottest day of the year and an explosive day in the life of Bedford - Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The community will never be the same again.

Show moreShow less

In 1989, Michael Moore triumphantly burst upon the American moviemaking scene with Roger & Me, a hilarious, penetrating forerunner of the independent film movement. Moore doggedly and hilariously tried to do what every working stiff dreams of: talk to the man at the top.

His efforts to meet General Motors Chairman Roger Smith and persuade him to visit Flint, Michigan, frame a film that uses humour to devastating effect. Roger & Me champions people over profits and slyly lampoons corporate America as it shows how the Flint folks cope with economic setbacks.

Show moreShow less

The heart-stopping story of the first black regiment to fight for the North in the American Civil War, "Glory" stars Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes and Morgan Freeman.

Broderick and Elqes are the idealistic young Bostonians who led the regiment; Freeman is the inspirational sergeant who unites the troops; and Denzel Washington, in an Oscar-winning performance is the runaway slave who embodies the indomitable spirit of the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts. Despised by the South, distrusted by the North, the 54th overcame seemingly insurmountable odds in their fight to join the war for freedom. Underpaid and ill-equipped, facing certain death at the hands of the Confederacy, the 54th rose to every challenge; their courage, skill and sacrifice paying the way for the Union's ultimate victory.

Show moreShow less

In the old days it was called hypochondria, or black melancholia. Now, apparently, it's termed the Asthenic Syndrome. Whatever it is, Nikolai (Sergei Popov), a teacher of epic indifferent pupils, has got it, and it's not much fun.

Worse yet, quite a few other people, even an entire society, seem to be afflicted with the same problem writ extremely large...After a funeral, Natasha (Olga Antonova) is angry with everyone alive, quits her job and pisses off people in the street...

Show moreShow less

With smoldering sensuality and biting humor, the surprising relationship between the three title subjects is revealed in sex, lies, and videotape, the most-talked about erotic comedy of the decade.

James Spader (TV's "Blacklist", Crash) ran away with the Best Actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his brilliantly understated and seductive performance as Graham, a long-lost college friend who drifts back into town and into the lives of John, a self-involved philanderer, his angelic wife Ann, and her saucy sister Cynthia. One by one, each is drawn into the very "personal project" Graham is working on, leaving the relationships between them forever transformed. A monumental debut effort from first-time feature director Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich), this comic original includes riveting performances from Peter Gallagher (American Beauty), Andie MacDowell (Michael) and Laura San Giacomo (TV's "Just Shoot Me").

Show moreShow less

It's graduation and Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) has only one ambition - to date Diane Court (lone Skye). She's beautiful, she's intelligent and to everyone's amazement, she actually agrees to go out with Lloyd.

At first just "friends with potential", Lloyd and Diane quickly develop into something more. But when Diane's overprotective father convinces her to end the relationship, a brokenhearted Lloyd vows to try anything, do anything and say anything to win her back.

When a beautiful, college-bound girl, disturbingly preoccupied with the threat of nuclear destruction, falls in love with a handsome ex-con who is rumoured to have murdered the father of his high school sweetheart many years ago, the pair embark on a tempestuous affair.

Show moreShow less

The film tells the story of a family embroiled in the tragic "White Terror" that was wrought on the Taiwanese people by the Kuomintang government (KMT) after their arrival from mainland China in the late 1940s, during which thousands of Taiwanese were rounded up, shot, and/or sent to prison.

The film was the first to deal openly with the KMT's authoritarian misdeeds after its 1945 turnover of Taiwan from Japan, and the first to depict the 228 Incident of 1947, in which thousands of people were massacred.

Show moreShow less

Two young men, Dah (Isaach De Bankolé) from Benin and Jocelyn (Alex Descas) from the Caribbean decide to work together as a team that organizes illegal cockfights in order to gain quick cash. Dah is responsible for the financial transactions while Jocelyn trains the animals.

Jocelyn has a special attachment to one of the champion roosters he has named 'No Fear, No Die'. 'No Fear, No Die', like all roosters, is eventually defeated causing Jocelyn to begin to lose interest in cockfighting. Dah and Jocelyn have a third partner, Pierre (Jean Claude Brialy) who owns the space where the cockfights take place. Pierre has a pre-existing relationship with Jocelyn, having known both him and his mother before he immigrated to France. However he constantly haggles with the two men over money and insists that the cockfights become more violent urging the men to use razor blades and steel spurs instead of small horns on the roosters. After one particular fight Pierre also insinuates that he slept with Jocelyn's mother. Disgusted, Jocelyn takes to drinking and becomes more and more despondent, developing an obsession with Pierre's wife Toni (Solveig Dommartin) and naming one of the roosters after her. One night he gets drunk and releases the roosters from their cages. Afterwards Jocelyn and Dah learn that Pierre has begun locking them in and insists on using steel spurs on the roosters that night. Enraged, Jocelyn breaks out and flees to Paris where Dah manages to track him down and convinces him to return to the cockfighting ring for one final night. At the final fight Toni asks Jocelyn to take her with him after the fight when he and Dah leave, but he refuses. Meanwhile, Pierre organizes a fight between Toni's namesake rooster and one brought in by his gypsy business partners. Unable to watch his rooster die, Jocelyn jumps into the ring and rescues his bird, but is stabbed by Michel, Pierre's son and Toni's lover, before he can flee. Dah prepares and cleans his body before being arrested, along with Tony, Michel and other members of the cockfighting ring. After his release he quickly packs up his few possessions and finally leaves.

Show moreShow less

Did European aristocrat Claus von Bulow (Jeremy Irons) try to murder his wife Sunny (Glenn Close) at their luxurious Newport mansion in 1980? Tabloids of the day had their opinions.

"You have one thing in your favour," defense attorney Alan Dershowitz (Ron silver) told von Bulow, "Everybody hates you."