105 great obscure films
Little-seen films worth seeking IMHO
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105 titles
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsEmil JanningsEvelyn BrentWilliam PowellA former Imperial Russian general and cousin of the Czar ends up in Hollywood as an extra in a movie directed by a former revolutionary.
- DirectorKen RussellStarsRobert PowellGeorgina HaleLee MontagueComposer Gustav Mahler's (Robert Powell) life, told in a series of flashbacks as he and his wife (Georgina Hale) discuss their failing marriage during a train journey.
- DirectorLee Chang-dongStarsYun Jeong-hieLee Da-witKim Hee-raA sixty-something woman, faced with the discovery of a heinous family crime and in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, finds strength and purpose when she enrolls in a poetry class.
- DirectorXiaogang FengStarsDaoming ChenChen LiYi LuThe epic story of a family separated as a result of the Great Tangshan Earthquake of 1976.
- DirectorPeter BrookStarsPatrick MageeClifford RoseGlenda JacksonIn an insane asylum, Marquis de Sade directs Jean Paul Marat's last days through a theater play. The actors are the patients.
- DirectorLouis Clyde StoumenStarsMarlene DietrichAdolf HitlerThe rise and fall of Nazi Germany in part through the use of classical allegory.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsJean-Claude BrialyAdolfo CeliMichel PiccoliA series of surreal sequences that critique morality and society in a stream of consciousness style.
- DirectorBertrand BlierStarsGérard DepardieuBernard BlierJean CarmetAlphonse lives in an empty building. Empty but for one neighbour, the police captain Morvandieu. When the man who have killed Alphonse's wife appears, the three men will be thrown in a serie of event in a surrealist world.
- DirectorFred SchepisiStarsTommy LewisFreddy ReynoldsAngela Punch McGregorAfter suffering racist abuse throughout his life - which intensifies following his marriage to a white woman - a half-Aboriginal farmhand finds himself driven to murder.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsDonald PleasenceFrançoise DorléacLionel StanderIn search of help, two wounded gangsters on the run find refuge in the secluded castle of a feeble man and his wife; however, under the point of a gun, nothing is what it seems.
- DirectorPeter MedakStarsAlan BatesJanet SuzmanPeter BowlesA couple uses extremely black comedy to survive taking care of a daughter who is nearly completely brain-dead. They take turns doing the daughter's voice and stare into the eyes of death and emotional trauma with a humor that hides their pain.
- DirectorIrving ReisJohn HubleyStarsRex HarrisonLilli PalmerAdapted from the prize-winning Broadway play that featured two people and a four-poster bed, in which the couple enacts their marriage, from 1897, until he dies some time after she has died from cancer. It is a love that endured wars, another woman and the death of their favorite son.
- DirectorJean NegulescoStarsPeter LorreSydney GreenstreetGeraldine FitzgeraldThree strangers, each dealing with a serious problem, share a sweepstakes ticket which they wished upon together before a Chinese idol.
- DirectorEttore ScolaStarsNino ManfrediVittorio GassmanStefania SandrelliThree partisans bound by a strong friendship return home after the war, but the clash with everyday reality puts a strain on their bond.
- DirectorDonald ShebibStarsDoug McGrathPaul BradleyJayne EastwoodTwo friends leave the picturesque yet rural province of Nova Scotia for the nightlife and culture of Toronto. They soon end up wistful and nostalgic about Nova Scotia though after finding out that Toronto isn't as fun as they'd hoped.
- DirectorPeter HallStarsCyril CusackIan HolmPaul RogersIn a dreary North London flat, the site of perpetual psychological warfare, a philosophy professor visits his family after a nine-year absence, and introduces the four men, father, uncle, and two brothers, to his wife.
- DirectorJohn SchlesingerStarsAlan BatesJune RitchieThora HirdAfter his girlfriend's pregnancy forces him to marry her, a young man must adjust to his new life and contend with his domineering mother-in-law.
- DirectorDaniel MannStarsBrock PetersMelba MooreRaymond St. JacquesBrock Peters (To Kill a Mockingbird) is Stephen Kumalo, a black South African minister searching the unfamiliar back alleys and shantytowns of Johannesburg for his son, Absalom.
- DirectorRoberto GavaldónStarsIgnacio López TarsoPina PellicerEnrique LuceroPoor and hungry peasant Macario wishes to have a good meal for All Saint's Day. After his wife cooks him a turkey he has three apparitions: The Devil, God, and the Death.
- DirectorMike NewellStarsJack ThompsonCarol BurnsDenis LillDuring World War 2, a farmer in New Zealand murders seven people, and the police, along with local Maori trackers, hunt him in the bush country.
- DirectorVictoria MuddStarsMartin SheenBuffy Sainte-MarieBurgess MeredithDocumentary chronicling the government relocation of 10,000 Navajo Indians in Arizona.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsLoretta YoungFranchot ToneRicardo CortezAn abused orphan sinks into a life of crime.
- DirectorClaude JutraStarsJacques GagnonLyne ChampagneJean DuceppeSet in cold rural Quebec at Christmas time, we follow the coming of age of a young boy and the life of his family which owns the town's general store and undertaking business.
- DirectorJean EustacheStarsBernadette LafontJean-Pierre LéaudFrançoise LebrunThe chauvinist Alexandre balances relationships with several women in the post-1968 intellectual scene of Paris.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsMaria SchellMarcello MastroianniJean MaraisA humble clerk courts a woman who awaits her lover's return night after night.
- DirectorVictor SjöströmStarsLon ChaneyNorma ShearerJohn GilbertA bitter clown endeavors to rescue the young woman he loves from the lecherous count who once betrayed him.
- DirectorMario CamusStarsAlfredo LandaTerele PávezBelén BallesterosSpain, 1960s. The family of poor farmers work hard in the countryside for the rich landowners who exploit them.
- DirectorAndrzej MunkStarsEdward DziewonskiBarbara PolomskaIgnacy MachowskiTwo sketches covering episodes from the World War II. In the first novel, "Scherzo alla polacca", a shrewd son, trying to preserve his skin, ultimately becomes a hero and finds a reason for fighting. He initially tries to avoid underground training to avoid the Warsaw uprising. His drunkenness, disregard for safety and cowardice when sober stated with humorous effect come out as something sane in the world gone mad. His will to survive is more acceptable than any desire for heroic death. The second novel, "Ostinato lugubre", details a hopeless attempt at escape from a prison camp by a man who can no longer stand the confinement and idiocy of the professional soldiers trying to keep up the military preneses in prison. Nevertheless, his escape boosts the morale of his fellow prisoners, while the "escapee" lies hidden from Germans and comrades alike."
- DirectorSidney FranklinStarsJohn BarrymoreDiana WynyardFrank MorganAn archduke who had been banished from Austria returns to Vienna for a reunion of his old fellow aristocrats and meets up with the former love of his life, who is now married to a psychoanalyst.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsGabriella PallottaSteve CochranAlida ValliA man wanders aimlessly away from his town, away from the woman he loves, emotionally and socially inactive.
- DirectorJerzy SkolimowskiStarsJane AsherJohn Moulder-BrownKarl Michael Vogler15-year-old dropout Mike takes a job at Newford Baths, where inappropriate sexual behaviour abounds, and becomes obsessed with his coworker Susan.
- DirectorMarcel CarnéStarsJean GabinJacqueline LaurentArlettyAfter committing a murder, a man locks himself in his apartment and recollects the events that led him to the killing.
- DirectorKen LoachStarsCrissy RockVladimir VegaSandie LavelleMaggie, an unmarried mother of four children by four different men who abused her, leaves her kids home alone one night. A fire injures them and child services takes custody. Maggie fails to regain custody of her children.
- DirectorMárta MészárosStarsZsuzsa CzinkócziÁgnes CsereAnna PolonyHaving lost her parents to Stalin's purges, a girl returns from Soviet Union to her native Hungary to live with her Stalinist aunt.
- DirectorJoseph LoseyStarsRuggero RaimondiJohn MacurdyEdda MoserMozart's opera in lush sets: Don Giovanni, the infamous womanizer, kills Donna Anna's father. He is then chased by Donna Anna's fiancé, Don Ottavio, as well as Donna Elvira, one of his former conquests. But the real threat lies elsewhere.
- DirectorTomás Gutiérrez AleaJuan Carlos TabíoStarsJorge PerugorríaVladimir CruzMirta IbarraStory of two men who are opposites: one gay, the other straight; one a fierce communist, the other a fierce individualist; one suspicious, the other accepting; and how they come to love each other.
- DirectorJean RenoirIrving PichelStarsWalter BrennanWalter HustonAnne BaxterAttempting to find his lost dog in a vast Georgia swamp, Ben Ragan stumbles upon wanted murderer Tom Keefer who convinces Ben he was framed for the murder by the real killer.
- DirectorShirley ClarkeStarsWilliam RedfieldWarren FinnertyGarry GoodrowA director tries to film a group of junkies in Leach's room while they are waiting for Cowboy to bring their heroin connection.
- DirectorDelbert MannStarsTommy Lee JonesSusan BlakelyChad LoweOn the morning of April 19, 1775, the American Revolution began with the "shot heard 'round the world".
- DirectorErnst LubitschJohn M. StahlStarsRamon NovarroNorma ShearerJean HersholtA cloistered, overprotected Austrian prince falls in love with a down-to-earth barmaid in this "Viennese fairy tale."
- DirectorPaul CoxStarsSheila FloranceGosia DobrowolskaNorman KayeUplifting and intimate look at the last days of an elderly cancer victim. The film is even more relevant as it was written specifically for the lead actress, Sheila Florance, who was in fact dying of cancer as she created what is essentially a self-portrait.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsGong LiWen JiangRujun TengWhen a leprous winery owner in 1930s China dies a few days after his arranged marriage, his young widow is forced to run the winery to make a living while contending with bandits, her drunkard lover, and the invading Japanese army.
- DirectorClaude Autant-LaraStarsMicheline PresleGérard PhilipeDenise GreyDuring World War I, the star-crossed affair of an underage French student with a woman engaged to a soldier.
- DirectorJan NemecStarsLadislav JánskyAntonín KumberaIlse BischofovaTwo Jewish boys escape from a train transporting them from one concentration camp to another. The film goes beyond the themes of war and anti-Nazism and concerns itself with man's struggle to preserve human dignity.
- DirectorKidlat TahimikStarsKidlat TahimikMang FelyDolores SantamariaA Filipino jeepney driver (Kidlat Tahimik) who idolizes America's space program comes to reject the rapid encroachment of technology.
- DirectorMargarethe von TrottaStarsJutta LampeBarbara SukowaRüdiger VoglerTwo sisters both fight for women's rights. Juliane is a journalist and Marianne a terrorist. When Marianne is jailed, Juliane feels obligated to help her despite their differing views on how to live.
- DirectorPierre SchoendoerfferStarsJean RochefortClaude RichJacques PerrinA dying mariner, full of regret, is looking for his longtime colleague somewhere on the high seas.
- DirectorCharles FrendStarsJack HawkinsDonald SindenJohn StrattonThe World War II adventures of a British convoy escort ship and its officers.
- DirectorJim McBrideStarsL.M. Kit CarsonEileen DietzLouise LevineA young filmmaker decides to make a movie of his life.
- DirectorNicolás EchevarríaStarsJuan DiegoDaniel Giménez CachoRoberto SosaA handful of survivors from a disastrous 1528 Spanish expedition to Florida journey across the coast until they reach Mexico.
- DirectorNikita MikhalkovStarsBademaBayaertuVladimir GostyukhinA curious friendship develops between Gombo, a young Mongolian shepherd living with his wife and family in a hut, deep in the wilderness of the steppes, and Sergei, a Russian worker whose truck breaks down not far from Gombo's hut.
- DirectorVolker SchlöndorffStarsBruno GanzHanna SchygullaJean CarmetA German journalist, escaping from broken marriage, goes to Lebanon to cover the civil war. Soon, he realizes that he can't handle the truth.
- DirectorPeter WatkinsStarsGeir WestbyGro FraasKerstii AllumThis biopic of Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch focuses on the influences that shaped his art, his devastating affair with a married woman that will haunt him for the rest of his life
- DirectorTomás Gutiérrez AleaStarsNelson VillagraSilvano ReyLuis Alberto GarcíaA pious plantation owner attempts to teach Christianity to 12 of his slaves by inviting them to participate in a reenactment of the Last Supper.
- DirectorMikhail KalatozovStarsSergio CorrieriSalvador WoodJosé GallardoFour vignettes about the lives of the Cuban people set during the pre-revolutionary era.
- DirectorReinhard HauffStarsBruno GanzAngela WinklerHans Christian BlechDuring a police raid on a youth center, the biogeneticist Hoffmann is shot in the head. When he awakes from a coma, he can't remember anyting. The police accuse him of being a terrorist.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsClara CalamaiMassimo GirottiDhia CristianiGino, a drifter, begins an affair with inn-owner Giovanna, and they plan to get rid of her older husband.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneYûzô KayamaTsutomu YamazakiIn 19th-century Japan, a rough-tempered yet charitable town doctor trains a young intern.
- DirectorMira NairStarsShafiq SyedAnjaanAmrit PatelYoung Krishna struggles to survive among the drug dealers, pimps, and prostitutes in the back alleys and gutters of India.
- DirectorWojciech HasStarsZbigniew CybulskiIga CembrzynskaElzbieta CzyzewskaUpon finding a book that relates his grandfather's story, an officer ventures through Spain meeting a wide array of characters, most of whom have a story of their own to tell.
- DirectorEttore ScolaStarsSophia LorenMarcello MastroianniJohn VernonTwo neighbors, a persecuted journalist and a resigned housewife, meet during Hitler's visit to Italy in May 1938.
- DirectorPedro AlmodóvarStarsCarmen MauraGonzalo SuárezLuis HostalotThe vicissitudes of Gloria, a neurotic housewife, and her family's peculiar characters.
- DirectorLucian PintilieStarsMaia MorgensternRazvan VasilescuVictor RebengiucA description of Romania before Ceausescu's downfall, through the story of Nela. Daughter of a former colonel of the Securitate, the romanian political police. She refused to become as her sister, an agent of this Securitate, and lives with her father. After he died, she leaves Bucarest, and ends up in a little town, where she meets Mitica, a surgeon, another herself, laughing of everything.
- DirectorEttore ScolaStarsÉtienne GuichardRégis BouquetFrancesco De RosaDance moves, music and fashion mark the passage of time inside a Paris dance hall, throughout fifty years of history.
- DirectorJoan ChenStarsXiaolu LiLopsangZheng QianYoung teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
- DirectorJan TroellStarsMax von SydowGhita NørbyAnette HoffNorwegian Nobel Laureate Knut Hamsun's controversial support for the Nazi regime during World War II and its consequences for the Hamsun family after the war.
- DirectorPeter GreenawayStarsAnthony HigginsJanet SuzmanAnne-Louise LambertA young artist is commissioned by the wife of a wealthy landowner to make a series of drawings of the estate while her husband is away.
- DirectorLexy LovellMichael UysStarsC.R. 'Tiny' BolandCharley BullRene ChampionRiding the Rails offers a visionary perspective on the presumed romanticism of the road and cautionary legacy of the Great Depression. From 'middle class gentility to scrabble-ass poor,' the undiscriminating Great Depression forced 4,000,000 Americans away from their homes and onto the tracks in search of food and lodging. Of this number, a disturbing 250,000 of the transients were children. The filmmakers relay the experiences and painful recollections of these now-elderly survivors of the rails. Forced to travel more by economic necessity than the spirit of adventure, the film's subjects dispel romantic myths of a hobo existence and its corresponding veneer of freedom. Riding the Rails recounts the hoboes' trade secrets for survival and accounts of dank miseries, loneliness, imprisonment, death, and dispossession. Sixty years later, the filmmakers transport their subjects back to the tracks, where the surging impact of sound and movement resuscitates memories of a shattered adolescence and devastating rite of passage.
- DirectorAlison MacleanStarsBilly CrudupRobert Michael KellyTorben BrooksA young man, often high on drugs and alcohol, careens through life and makes his way toward recovery and redemption.
- DirectorShôhei ImamuraStarsKoji YakushoMisa ShimizuMitsuko BaishôA businessman kills his adulterous wife and is sent to prison. After the release, he opens a barbershop and meets new people, talking almost to no one except an eel he befriended while in prison.
- DirectorAbel GanceStarsHarry BaurAnnie DucauxJany HoltLyrical biography of the classical composer, depicted as a romantical hero, an accursed artist.
- DirectorRoko BelicStarsRichard FeynmanB.B. KingKongar-ol OndarSan Francisco bluesman and composer, Paul Peña makes a musical pilgrimage to the land of Tuva.
- StarsMichael GambonPatrick MalahideJoanne WhalleyTormented and bedridden by a debilitating disease, a mystery writer relives his detective stories through his imagination and hallucinations.
- DirectorJacques BeckerStarsSimone SignoretSerge ReggianiClaude DauphinThree gangsters and an ex-con carpenter all fall for the same beautiful golden-haired woman in Belle Époque France.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsMinzhi WeiHuike ZhangZhenda Tian13-year old Wei Minzhi is the new substitute teacher of a mountain village school. She is told not to lose any of her pupils under any circumstances.
- DirectorAnthony MannStarsDennis O'KeefeClaire TrevorMarsha HuntJoe Sullivan (Dennis O'Keefe) has taken the rap for Rick (Raymond Burr), who double-crosses him with a flawed escape plan and other means intended to get rid of him.
- DirectorJacques DemyStarsCatherine DeneuveJean MaraisJacques PerrinA fairy godmother helps a princess disguise and flee the kingdom so she won't have to marry the king who happens to be her father.
- DirectorHarold PinterStarsAlan BatesJessica TandyRichard O'CallaghanAn English professor finds his life crumbling around him.
- DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsDebbie DoebereinerOmar CowanDustin James AshleySet against the backdrop of a decaying Midwestern town, a murder becomes the focal point of three people who work in a doll factory.
- DirectorJean DelannoyStarsMadeleine SologneJean MaraisJean MuratThis is a retelling of Tristan and Isolde, set in 1940s France. The script was written by Jean Cocteau.
- DirectorMichael PowellEmeric PressburgerStarsEric PortmanSheila SimDennis PriceThree modern-day pilgrims investigate a bizarre crime in a small town while on their way to Canterbury.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneTakashi ShimuraMinoru ChiakiAn aging Japanese industrialist becomes so fearful of nuclear war that it begins to take a toll on his life and family.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsSophia LorenMarcello MastroianniLyudmila SavelevaAn Italian woman conducts a desperate search for her husband, a soldier considered missing in action in Russia during WWII.
- DirectorAndrzej MunkStarsKazimierz OpalinskiZygmunt MaciejewskiZygmunt ZintelIn 1950, at night, a passenger train kills a man on the tracks. He is Orzechowski, an engineer since 1914. An inquiry immediately follows. Testimony takes the form of flashbacks. Tuszka, the station master, believes Orzechowski was a saboteur; at least one on the inquiry panel agrees. Zapora, the young engineer on the train that hit Orzechowski, gives more complicated testimony about the dead man - stiff-necked, proud, imperious, critical of Zapora and other younger workers. The signalman at the crossing where Orzechowski died also testifies. Can the panel arrive at the truth in a world where workers unite, inferior coal is a badge of honor, and the old order is suspect?
- DirectorScott GallowayBrent PiersonStarsPearl FryarA Man Named Pearl tells the inspiring story of self-taught topiary artist Pearl Fryar. It offers a message that speaks to respect for both self and others, and shows what one person can achieve when he allows himself to share the full expression of his humanity.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsCharles FarrellMary DuncanDavid TorrenceA Chicago waitress falls in love with a Minnesota farmer, and decides to face a life in the country.
- DirectorOlivier AssayasStarsJuliette BinocheCharles BerlingJérémie RenierTwo brothers and a sister witness the disappearance of their childhood memories when they must relinquish the family belongings to ensure their deceased mother's succession.
- DirectorShôhei ImamuraStarsShôichi OzawaSumiko SakamotoKeiko SagawaWhile avoiding the mob and local authorities, a world-weary pornographer finds being a family man the most difficult as he wrestles with his own desires and afflictions.
- DirectorShôhei ImamuraStarsMasumi HarukawaKô NishimuraShigeru TsuyuguchiA housewife living under her tyrannical husband has her life stressfully turned upside down after getting raped by a burglar.
- DirectorMark HartleyStarsPhillip AdamsGlory AnnenChristine AmorThe story of the Australian exploitation genre cinema of 1970s and 80s.
- DirectorTom HooperStarsLee BoardmanJim BroadbentTam Dean BurnA portrait of Lord Longford, a tireless British campaigner whose controversial beliefs often resulted in furious political debate and personal conflict.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsLoretta YoungRichard BarthelmessAline MacMahonA veteran fights drug addiction to make his way in the business world.
- DirectorYôji YamadaStarsMasatoshi NagaseTakako MatsuHidetaka YoshiokaA 19th Century samurai, held in low esteem due to an action by his late father, must resolve his history with a maid and with his close friend.
- DirectorMasahiro ShinodaStarsShima IwashitaYoshio HaradaTomoko NaraokaA blind traveling musician is abused and oppressed while she tours the country, even though the modern world imposes changes on people's behavior.
- DirectorFrantisek VlácilStarsJosef KemrMagda VásáryováNada HejnaA grim portrayal of the shift from Paganism to Christianity in medieval central Europe - as a young virgin promised to God is kidnapped and raped by a marauder who her religious father seeks to kill in return.
- DirectorAndrés WoodStarsFrancisco AcuñaJuan AlfaroOrlando AlfaroA portrait of famed Chilean singer and folklorist Violeta Parra, filled with her musical work, her memories, her loves, and her hopes.
- DirectorFelix van GroeningenStarsVeerle BaetensJohan HeldenberghNell CattrysseElise and Didier fall in love at first sight, in spite of their differences. He talks, she listens. He's a romantic atheist, she's a religious realist. When their daughter becomes seriously ill, their love is put on trial.
- DirectorBeth AalaMike MyersStarsShep GordonSylvester StalloneMichael DouglasThe life and career of the legendary Hollywood insider, Shep Gordon.
- DirectorShirley ClarkeStarsRony ClantonCarl LeeYolanda RodríguezA look at the horrors of Harlem ghetto slum life filled with drugs, violence, human misery, and a sense of despair due to the racial prejudices of American society.
- DirectorPaul WeitzStarsLily TomlinJulia GarnerMarcia Gay HardenA teenager facing an unplanned pregnancy seeks help from her acerbic grandmother, a woman who is long estranged from her daughter.