frankie's - 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die List
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Harry Block (Woody Allen) is a well regarded novelist whose tendency to thinly veil his own experiences in his work and his fondness for pills and prostitutes, has left him with three ex-wives that hate him. At the same time as he is about to be honored for his writing by the college that expelled him, he is faced with writers block and losing his beautiful latest flame to a romantic rival author. The critically acclaimed masterpiece that has had everybody talking, - Director:
- Woody Allen
- Cast:
- Woody Allen, Joe Buck, Richard Benjamin
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Arriving in a small town after a tragic accident, a lawyer visits each member of the community to offer hope and promise financial compensation. But as he delves deeper into their grief he discovers layer upon layer of mystery and tragedy and soon finds himself face to face with his own inner demons... - Director:
- Atom Egoyan
- Cast:
- Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, Caerthan Banks
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The unforgettable original version of acclaimed filmmaker Michael Haneke's classic exploration of screen violence is an uncompromising, sometimes uncomfortable, but never less than compelling experience. Arriving at their remote lakeside holiday home, a middle class family are alarmed by the unexpected arrival of two young men who soon begin to subject them to a twisted and horrifying ordeal of terror. With characteristic mastery, Haneke turns the conventions of the thriller genre upside down and, directly challenges the expectations of his audience, forcing viewers to question the complacency with which they receive images of casual violence in contemporary cinema. - Director:
- Michael Haneke
- Cast:
- Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Mühe, Arno Frisch
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Taste of Cherry (1997)Ta'm e guilass
The first Iranian film to win the Palme d'Or, this austere, emotionally complex drama by the great Abbas Kiarostami follows the enigmatic Mr. Badii (Homayoun Ershadi) as he drives around the hilly outskirts of Tehran looking for someone who will agree to bury him after he commits suicide, a taboo under Islam. Extended conversations with three passengers (a soldier, a seminarian, and a taxidermist) elicit different views on mortality and individual choice. Operating at once as a closely observed, realistic story and a fable populated by archetypal figures, Taste of Cherry challenges the viewer to consider what often goes unexamined in everyday life. - Director:
- Abbas Kiarostami
- Cast:
- Homayoun Ershadi, Abdolrahman Bagheri, Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari
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Open Your Eyes (1997)Abre Los Ojos
Open Your Eyes is an intriguing mix of fantasy and horror, exploring the collision between dreams and reality. Central to the film is a remarkable performance by the sexy, Spanish enchantress Penelope Cruz, star of Volver and Vanilla Sky, which was the Hollywood remake of 'Open Your Eyes', starring Cruz alongside Tom Cruise. Fate has always smiled on Cesar (Eduardo Noriega) until now. The night he meets his ideal woman, Sofia (Cruz), he is confronted by Nuria, a woman infatuated with him to the point of obsession. Insane with jealousy, Nuria crashes her car, killing herself and horribly disfiguring Cesar. After the fateful crash, reality, dreams, memory and madness blend together. Cesar awakens in a psychiatric prison, undergoing evaluation for a murder he can't quite remember. As he slowly begins to piece together a past of mistaken identities and betrayals, Cesar learns that sometimes you can't wake up from a nightmare, even if you do Open Your Eyes. - Director:
- Alejandro Amenábar
- Cast:
- Eduardo Noriega, Penélope Cruz, Chete Lera
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Alexandra Sokurov's extraordinarily lyrical film is a beautiful and tender exploration of the deep affection between an dying mother and her devoted adult son. Set in a hauntingly beautiful landscape with Sokurov's camera transform into stunning cinematic canvases, the pair recall happier times as the dutiful son lovingly nurses his ailing mother in her final hours. The first part in a proposed trilogy about familial bonds that continues with the captivating 'Father and Son', 'Mother and Son' is an emotional and poetic masterpiece of unique vision. - Director:
- Aleksandr Sokurov
- Cast:
- Aleksei Ananishnov, Gudrun Geyer
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Rose (Kate Winslet) is a young upper-class woman suffocating under the thumb of her arrogant fiance. Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) is the free-spirited artist who opens Rose's eyes and steals her heart. When the ship collides with an iceberg in the frigid North Atlantic, the young lovers' journey is transformed into a breathtaking race for survival. - Director:
- James Cameron
- Cast:
- Leonardo DiCaprio, Chuck Riley, Kate Winslet
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A strange man known only as the "metal fetishist", who seems to have an insane compulsion to stick scrap metal into his body, is hit and possibly killed by a Japanese "salaryman", out for a drive with his girlfriend. The salaryman then notices that he is being slowly overtaken by some kind of disease that is turning his body into scrap metal, and that his nemesis is not in fact dead but is somehow masterminding and guiding his rage and frustration-fueled transformation. - Director:
- Shin'ya Tsukamoto
- Cast:
- Kei Fujiwara, Tomorowo Taguchi, Nobu Kanaoka
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Festen (1998)Celebration
To celebrate his 60th birthday, family patriarch Helge Klingelfeldt throws a lavish dinner party for all his friends and family. After years of tense estrangement Helge is particularly anxious that his three children, Christian, Michael and Helene support the party's festive mood by parading an impression of a happy and loving family. However, th eldest son's speech serves only to expose a secret that descends the celebration into a tragic and heartbreaking night that will never be forgotten. - Director:
- Thomas Vinterberg
- Cast:
- Ulrich Thomsen, Henning Moritzen, Thomas Bo Larsen
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Seen through the eyes of a squad of American soldiers, the story begins with World War II's historic D-Day invasion, then moves beyond the beach as the men embark on a dangerous special mission. Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) must take his men behind enemy lines to find Private James Ryan, whose three brothers have been killed in combat. Faced with impossible odds, the men question their orders. Why are eight men risking their lives to save just one? Surrounded by the brutal realities of war, each man searches for his own answer - and the strength to triumph over an uncertain future with honour, decency and courage. - Director:
- Steven Spielberg
- Cast:
- Tom Hanks, John de Lancie, Matt Damon
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fter serving a five year sentence for a crime he didn't commit, a bitter, violence-prone Billy Brown (Vincent Gallo) is released from prison. Billy is hell-bent on convincing his dysfunctional parents that he is leading a respectable life and has spent the last five years doing top-secret CIA work. To back up his story, he impulsively kidnaps Layla (Christina Ricci) and forces her to pose as his girlfriend. Bizarrely, Layla takes to the role with a great enthusiasm, and remains alongside Billy as he tries to impress his parents and take revenge on those he blames for his prison term. Layla's understanding of the comical grimness of Billy's life leads him to explore new levels of redemption, acceptance and ultimately... love. - Director:
- Vincent Gallo
- Cast:
- Vincent Gallo, Christina Ricci, Ben Gazzara
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"Rushmore" is the story of a gifted, rebellious teenager named Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), a 10th grader at elite Rushmore Academy. Editor of the School Newspaper, Captain or President of innumerable clubs and societies, Max is also one of the worst students in school, and the threat of expulsion hangs permanently over his head. Max's world is rocked when he falls for elegant 1st grade teacher Miss Cross (Olivia Williams), and he plans to erect an aquarium in her honour - then finds himself competing for her affections with his friend, steel tycoon Mr. Blume (Bill Murray), the wealthy father of two of his classmates... - Director:
- Wes Anderson
- Cast:
- Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams
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Run Lola Run (1998)Lola Rennt / Lola Runs
Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), who works as a small-time courier for a big-time gangster, is in huge trouble. He has accidentally left the cash from a mob deal on the subway, and he has only twenty minutes to deliver the 100,000 marks to his unforgiving boss. Desperate, he calls his girlfriend, Lola (Franka Potente), the only person who can rescue him from certain death. As the seconds tick away and the tiniest choices become life altering, Lola must try to reach Manni before the line between fate and fortune begins to blur. One story told from three different perspectives, 'Run Lola Run' is a veritable maze of intriguing plot twists and heart-stopping suspense in a high-octane thrill ride about one woman's desperate attempt to save her lover. - Director:
- Tom Tykwer
- Cast:
- Franka Potente, Hans Paetsch, Moritz Bleibtreu
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The Idiots (1998)Idioterne / Dogma 2: 'The Idiots'
"The Idiots" is about a group of people who confront the conventions of middle-class society by exploring their 'inner idiot'. Liberated by fully experiencing their excessive feelings, aggression and primitive egotistical sexuality, members of the group must also deal with the aftermath of their idiocy. - Director:
- Lars Von Trier
- Cast:
- Lars Von Trier, Bodil Jørgensen, Jens Albinus
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In his stunning debut feature film, Aronofsky tells the story of Maximillian Cohen's (Sean Gullette) obsession with numbers and his theory that they hold the key to the answers of the universe. His work causes him agonising migraines and his former teacher Sol (Mark Margolis) advises him to take a break from trying to discover patterns in the stock market. When Max's super computer crashes after spitting out a 216-digit number, Max initially dismisses it, until the prediction comes true, and he realises that the number which he consigned to the trash could be the key he has been searching for. - Director:
- Darren Aronofsky
- Cast:
- Sean Gullette, Scott Franklin, Mark Margolis
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