[Closed] Films that 'stay with you'

Star Wars episode 4 in 1977. I was 5.

I clearly remember coming out of the cinema feeling like the top of my head had erupted with new ideas and new horizons. I don't think I expressed it like that at the time though. Probably just wanted a pee and an ice cream.

Donnie Darko

Clever, tragic and yet weirdly uplifting
And the Gyllenhall siblings arguing over the dinner table.

2001

so many inventive shots with no CGI and stunning choreography of models and movement to music.

Downfall

Just brilliantly shot and acted.

In fact I could go on all night. So many great films over the decades. Best let someone else have a go.

I was 9 and went in with my Grandma who didn't enjoy it at all but explained it was a Western in Space which I didn't understand until many years later. I was a bit young for 2001 but do remember the robots in Silent Running.

Downfall is a good shout. As a student of military history this really brought it to life. It's kind of lost its power with all the derivative memes on that one scene.

"Under The Skin" got to me, it left me feeling uneasy, confused, conflicted for days and it continues to unsettle me whenever I watch it and the musical score by Mica Levi just compounds my unease whenever I listen to it. One of my fav films of all time though

"Moon" with Sam Rockwell was another belter of a film that I can watch time n' time again

Dead Man's Shoes.

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Going way back but, the original Jurassic Park- I was pretty young but this scene... Sense of wonder- nailed it.

Stating with "Dead Man's Shoes" theme, Tyrannosaur is amazingly brutal, romantic and surprising. Well worth a watch.

That's Star Wars NorthWind for us of a certain age 😉 You look at that and think 'that looks so damn real, did I miss something?' - halcyon days before Michael Bay...

No country for old men. Just brutal.

Fantastic Planet. Freaked me out for weeks when I saw it over forty years ago and still dream about it on occasions.

Whiplash is brilliant. One of the best films I've seen recently.

A film i often go back to is Once.
I like the music and the "what if" storyline. Great film.

Come and see - Watch it, you'll see.
Dead Man's Shoes - Reminded me of people I grew up with (sans violence).
Martyrs - Some things can never be unseen.
Suspiria - So much colour.
Dr. Srangelove - The hillarious stupidity of it all, too real to be funny.

Good shout on Donnie Darko, I was captivated it from the the first minute ( pre-dawn cycling scene) and it never lets up.

So many films have gotten under my skin (for good or ill) couldn't list all so off top of head: Highlights (and lowlights) in no order:

- Cannibal Holocaust
- Taxi Driver
- The Tenant
- 'Oh Whistle And I'll Come To You' (w/Michael Horden)
- Cinema Paradiso
- Blue Velvet
- L'Enfer
- The Shining
- The Pianist *EDIT 'Schindler's List' (always confuse them)
- The Witch
- The Piano
- Walkabout
- Picnic at Hanging Rock
- Malena
- Tyrannosaur
- Kes
- The Night Porter
- Ken Park (just don't)
- The Haunting (b/w)
- Gummo
- Freaks
- Cat People (Simone Simone)

The Thin Red Line - end scene with the palm tree sapling growing in the sand, surrounded by shallow water - an island. With the melanesian choir music in the background.

Schindlers List - for obvious reasons.

The scariest films are the ones about actual events and human beings.

This is England

How could I forget - 'Dogtooth'. wtfffff!??

I swear, a simple read of The Plot will 'stay with you'! [url] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogtooth_(film) [/url]

Thought Lynch's Inland Empire was stunning - a level of ambition just miles above anything you'd typically see.

Didn't go to the cinema for years after that - coincided with having kids so you don't have the time, but it felt like an appropriate place to pause.

Last Exit to Brooklyn.

I'd read the book. I knew the story, it still left me depressed for days. Powerful, if not fun, movie.

Yeah, Martyrs is one: brutal does not cover it.

Shawshank Redemption: it has everything (I'm not arguing over this one)

The Wicker Man (original): That ending!

Last House on the Left (original): As per Martyrs.

Se7en: Dark, twisted, thought provoking.

Nikita the original French one not the Hollywood remake.
Pulp fiction.

The Deer Hunter

Locke
Whiplash
A Very Long Engagement
Big Fish
Good Will Hunting
Little Miss Sunshine
28 Days Later (A few days after watching this I opened up the subway on the train station at 4am-creepy place anyway with headphones on and a bloke ran past me and I shouted 'jesus f***ing christ' at the top of my voice)
To Kill a Mockingbird
12 Angry Men
It's a Wonderful Life

Withnail and I, not a day goes past with out at least one quote being used in everyday conversation.

Seven.

👿

I can't think of the word for it, but Changeling is pretty err... Insightful.

When I first saw the original Matrix in the cinema I wanted to slide under the seat and pop back up when it started again. I still love it now.

Blade Runner the original version with the voice over.

Apocalypse Now

The Wild Bunch Peckinpah at his bonkers best and the feeling of time running out and being left behind.

No Country for Old Men

Heat always look out for the huge shots of cities that is a Mann trademark, the ending always annoys me though.

A Life Less Ordinary a great fun story with a happy ending Holly Hunter is great.

Headhunters great Norwegian film

Quantum of Solace I like it even though it gets a savaging from critics

How to train your Dragon, just great fun

Jaws

Close Encounters

The Abyss

Loads more I can't think of right now.

Dead Man's Shoes

The main reason that I find Paddy Considine quite sinister. In the same way that I'll never be able to watch Cillian Murphy in anything where he's not a dead eyed sociopath after Peaky Blinders without being troubled by him.

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I watched Star Wars and then years later watched Blade Runner, and thought; "that's what the world Han Solo inhabits would really be like" In the same vein Alien introduced the idea that "space" was just another place that shit would happen in for the people that lived there , not a shiny future full of optimistic possibility

There will be Blood.

The ending still shocks even though I know it's coming.

The Shawshank Redemption - there's always hope

Black Fish - a film that explores the majesty of animals and the hideousness of man

12 Years a Slave - I stopped myself using the phrase the evilness of man above but can't think of any other word than that for this film. The evilness of some people's actions anyway

The Impostor - About as black as it gets which is why it's so brilliant

In the name of the father. End

Indiana Jones - probably Temple of Doom as it was pretty disturbing for an eight-year-old, but loved it anyway. The chase with the mine carts looks a bit dated now...

Top Gun - they had the sound turned up to 11 in the cinema I saw it in. The seats were actually rattling when the jets were taking off from the aircraft carrier at the beginning.

And these ones left a mark:

No Country for Old Men
The Shining
The Road
28 Days Later

Once were warriors.

I would have said the Road but as I'd read the book beforehand, it's difficult to separate the two. The film is good, but the book is devastating.

I'd also have to add American Werewolf in London as it was the first horror film I'd ever seen, when I was around 10.

Blade Runner, as others have said. For many reasons, not least of which are the visuals and the Roy Batty ending.

Two Lane Blacktop

Schindlers List.

I'll never forget watching that at the cinema.

A few good ones already mentioned. To add to those would be Wolf Creek, but not in a good way. It's the only film that has properly freaked me out. Its about 12 years since I watched and I still can't bring myself to watch it again. I remember shouting at the TV, "get the **** out of there, no don't go back, what the **** are you doing". Financially there's not much chance of me going to Australia but as long as I can remember Wolf Creek there's no chance of it happening.

Apocalypto.

Well if nothing else, this thread has given me some new films to watch. And some to avoid 😉

The Bicycle Thieves
High Noon
Deliverance
Cuckoo's Nest
Once were warriors
City of God
Withnail
Shooters

2 pages in and no one has said Debbie Does Dallas. Frankly I find it hard to believe it's been left to me to lower the tone.

Blade Runner. First film I saw that made me realise cinema was more than just noise and movement.

Star Wars. Just blew my seven year old mind.

Trainspotting. Another film that further opened my eyes to what film might be. Turned me into a huge Danny Boyle fan (like Pigface up there I'm one of the few that think A Life Less Ordinary is a great film).

Moulin Rouge. A film I should have hated (musical, kitsch, Nicole Kidman), but it glitterbombed its way into my head.

Pulp Fiction. Messed with my head in loads of ways (although I actually think Jackie Brown is a much better film it doesn't have the same impact or staying power).

Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Like no other film I've ever seen. Mental.

Loads of others too, with the common thread that I tend to love films (and directors) that love cinema and play games with it.

The Untouchables.

Great cinematography in the train station with the pram rolling down the stairs in slow motion. Brutal and uplifting.

And don't forget Busy Malone and a young Jodie Foster and reward to being 12 years old.

[i]no one has said Debbie Does Dallas[/i]
Maybe cos I'm the only one who's actually seen it 😉

Loads for me, including -
[b]Blue Velvet[/b] - Mr. Hopper's performance
[b]The Warriors[/b] - First 'X' film I saw and I shook with excitement all the way through
[b]Un Chien Andalou[/b] - was the support film to The Warriors. Most bonkers thing I'd ever seen
[b]Eraserhead[/b] - couldnt work out if I loved or hated it
[b]Near Dark[/b] - Just pushed all my buttons. Amazed that no-one's tried to **** it up with a cheesy remake
[b]Miami Blues[/b] - was a favourite book, so when Fred Ward and Alec Baldwin perfectly realised the 2 main characters, it blew me away. Still my favourite film just for their performances.
[b]Thunderbolt & Lightfoot[/b] - similar reasons to the last one. A brilliant interpretation of a brilliant book with perfect performances from Clint and Jeff.
and honorable mentions to the only 2 films ever to make me cry: Awakenings and The Lovely Bones. Not great films, but both had moments that hit me.

oh there's more - The Shining, Deliverance, Southern Comfort (soundtrack), Dead Man (soundtrack and atmosphere), True Romance (Most of it but mostly the James Gandolfini/Patricia Arquette scene). Stop!

Shawshank Redemption - can start watching it at any point. One of the few films to guarantee a tear (Brooks)

Amelie - Had never seen a film like it, I was at a fairly low point in my life and a girl was involved. It made me feel so much better and still does

Empire Strikes Back - I was very little and my mind was blown

Manon des Source - When the guy sews her ribbon into his chest. Watching the film with my dad when i was fairly young and we ended up discussing the psycology behind it

American Beauty - It made me want to know what happened to the pair of them after.

ET, but oddly my two strongest memories from that film were:

1. The huge pizza the family had for dinner at the start, of which I was just in complete awe
2. The very long lead on their phone which meant you didn't have to stay within 30cm of the phone to have a conversation

Both images I can still recall now, but not much else...

Se7en - saw it in a dark Manchester cinema when it was on release - knew nothing about it - still influences how I see things from music to photography and beyond

'On the subway today, a man came up to me to start a conversation. He made small talk, a lonely man talking about the weather and other things. I tried to be pleasant and accommodating, but my head hurt from his banality. I almost didn't notice it had happened, but I suddenly threw up all over him. He was not pleased, and I couldn't stop laughing. '

'Honestly, have you ever seen anything like this? '

La Haine - blew my tiny teenage mind

Pi - ditto

Apocalypse Now - made me realize that I'm usually more interested in the cinematography than anything else

Irreversible - horrible film. 12 years later I'm still angry about how much I hated it. So it definitely stayed with me!

The Wicker Man (all time favourite)
They Live
Falling Down
Repo Man

Oh, Harold and Maude . Made me reassess my attitude to what love is supposed to be as opposed to what Hollywood tells you it is.

Into The Wild.

Freddy Got Fingered.

a few up there to watch again

usual suspectss:
Taxi Driver - first "real" film I saw
Apocolypse Now
The Deerhunter

instead of Debbie does Dallas I'd go for The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Koyaanisqatsi with its Phillip Glass score

Plenty - an underated Meryl Streep film (same year as Out of Africa) with a great haunting scene looking out across the golden french countryside at the end of the 2nd world war

The Limey. Terrance Stamp's outrageous accent aside, I like the way the footage of him as a young man is used. And the creeping realisation at the end that everything's his fault is really nicely done.

Youth. Not the whole film, but Rachel Weiss' reaction in the background when Michael Caine explains why he won't perform for the queen sent a shiver down my spine.

There Will Be Blood
I thought Daniel Day Lewis couldn't top Bill the Butcher in terms of terrifying antihero, but Daniel Plainview is probably the best portrayed character I've ever seen.

Batteries not included...
There are many superb family movies from the 80s but this takes the biscuit for me. It's a fairly generic story, but the combination of the music, the special effects that somehow look more real than today's CGI efforts, and the wonderful cast somehow just place it above others.

Stand By Me

With the exception of the finding the dead body bit, few films capture the lost magic of my youth quite like that.

American History X - I can still 'feel' that stamp on the head 😯

Brilliantly acted, probably EN's best performance.

Being a not very original bloke....

+1 for The Star wars opening sequence, Southampton Gaumont, 1977

the first 10 minutes of Saving Private Ryan

+1 Shindlers list

the swirling bag and leaves scene in American Beauty

the last scene from the usual suspects

the opening sequence of an English patient

Betty Blue / 37 degrees le Matin

Saw it in about 93, watched it at least once every year since, still captivating.

[b]Platoon[/b]. I was 16, and still thought that going to war would be an adventure for a young man. Oliver Stone persuaded me otherwise.

If you have the time, watch the making of documentary. It gave me a whole new level of respect for O.S.

[b]Requiem For A Dream[/b]. Some films I can watch over and over again. That film I could only ever watch once.

[b]La Haine[/b]. I saw it in the cinema Paris whilst still at University, so the same age as the characters in the story. Outside the cinema were armed Police, and there had been riots and bombs causing chaos and panic. You could feel the tension in the city [i]because[/i] of that film. Very powerful.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/03/la-haine-film-sequel-20-years-on-france

[b]The Shining[/b]. "Come and play with us Danny" No thanks 😯 Still freaks me out now.

Have yet to watch [b]The Witch[/b], but think it will stay with me for a while too

[b]Schindlers List[/b] Goes withoput saying, or needing to explain why. I've never sat in a cinema so full of people, and yet so quiet. Think it changed everyone in the whole room.

Fun Fact though, he turned in the film to get a final credit, so he could finish off his degree 34 years after he dropped out 😀 http://articles.latimes.com/2002/may/31/local/me-graduate31

Have yet to watch The Witch, but think it will stay with me for a while too

The film as a whole, probably not. But you'll never look at goats in the same way.

Lots up there I would include plus

The lady vanishes/the 39 steps Hitchcock.....great films and take me back to being a kid with 1/4 of chocolate limes

Some like it hot.....roared with laughter first time I saw and still do

Cyrano de Bergerac,...GerardD read the book then saw the film loved it brilliant

Cathy come home,.......made to watch by a teacher on a wet day, grim and nothing has changed......same teacher made us watch and read Kes(

So many more

Lots of No country for old men references. One of my favourites, particularly the end.

Jacob's ladder is another of my favourites, haunting.

Touching the void will stay with me too.

Touching the void will stay with me too.

Good call. I was an hour into watching that, and I looked down to realise I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat. Couldn't bear to watch what was gong to happen next.

The Lives of Others.

In many ways, a re-telling of 1984 (and set in the same year) it's an immensely moving film - watching admirable human qualities systematically crushed by State apparatus, yet in the end there is a justice of sorts.

If you want a film to stay with you, watch "Son of Saul". I have seen it twice, I think I need to stop now.

Another film I can't get out of my head is "I've Heard the Mermaids Singing" but for very different reasons.

Under the Skin (like marmite, you love it or hate it)
2001: A Space Odyssey
Never Let Me Go (about growing humans for spare parts)
The Big Blue
Wicker Man (original)
Silent Running
Gattaca
Once Were Warriors
Close Encounters

Ah, Cyrano de Bergerac. Not just the film, which is wonderful, but even the Anthony Burgess subtitles are a masterclass.

The Lives of Others... In many ways, a re-telling of 1984

Both stories are descriptive of enantiodromia, but the latter is hardly a re-telling. '1984' is an abstract description of totalitarian rule seen through the eyes of humanity; 'TLoO' is merely set in a (literal) State of Communist/totalitarian rule.

I'd give another mention for Dogtooth, also The Lobster from the same director.
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Stalker
Being There

Irreversible - horrible film.

One of the best films I've ever seen. Never want to watch it again though.

The Serbian film. Why I watched it I don't know but out of some form of morbid curiosity I did. Half way through I got paranoid that by downloading something so vile I was now on a government register of some sort...

Zombieland - just because I had no expectations, didn't know anything about it and it was ace!

Into the Wild

Frances Ha - best film ever which had me thinking about it for weeks after!

Skin Deep. Raye Hollitt and the cock fighting scene. Both unforgettable.

Platoon.
The Way
The Dark Knight trilogy are great
Lord of The Rings trilogy, locations are just epic, and it was sympathetic to the original.

Betty Blue - just amazingly brilliant and incredible music also. I still want her as my girlfriend.

Cuckoo's Nest

The Crash Reel

The Wicker Man (original) - scariest scene ever made by a long way

Vanilla Sky (the TC one)

'1984' is an abstract description of totalitarian rule seen through the eyes of humanity; 'TLoO' is merely set in a (literal) State of Communist/totalitarian rule.

Of course there are differences, but both examine the effect of totalitarian rule, and its reaction to the people who oppose it.

Alien - saw it at the cinema before all the hooha and came out wringing with sweat after all the tension.

The Killing Fields - Incredible story and cinematography

Schindler's List - I couldn't speak for about 30 minutes after coming out of the cinema. The ending with the actual survivors putting stones on the graves still brings me to tears.

Oh, I just thought I would add Lord of the Rings. Memorable for the fact that I don't think I have ever seen so many people walk out of a film before the end (I did too).

The Serbian film. Why I watched it I don't know but out of some form of morbid curiosity I did. Half way through I got paranoid that by downloading something so vile I was now on a government register of some sort...

Yeah, the only film I really, truly regret downloading, just way too messed up, no artistic value but there are about 5 scenes I will never forget. Grim.