And there it went. A pity, it was nice yesterday having some normal talk despite disagreeing. I hope when you cool off you'll look back at this and realise I did nothing to warrant your meltdown and insults. You, on the other hand, immediately went ad personam, because of something as small as a joke in a movie thread.

Anyway, I won't prolong this. Sorry for derailing, Matewis. Have I known how this would go I would not have engaged him in conversation here at all.

Hmm ok I'll try that thanks :) But I can't help to think that I would enjoy the film so much more not knowing beforehand what 'Rosebud' means :P

Unfortunately, it'n inevitable that we'll get some movies,especially the well known, often-discussed ones spoiled for us before we ever see them. I still haven't seen, and perhaps never will see, Usual Suspects because of that.

Some stories have become so well known to everyone, even fi they never saw/read them, that we tend to forget they were even supposed to surprise in the first place. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde has become pretty much pointless now that the very title has become a well known phrase meaning what in the book is the final reveal.

I'd say that one's worth seeing despite knowing the spoiler(s). Many of these old movies are, actually.

And I probably will eventually get to it. I guess I kinda hope that maybe in a year or five my generally poor memory might for once be a good thing and I'll forget the spoiler :D

Hi Breja

the film of which you talk is a concept.

I do not know what your tastes are, but if you do not mind black and white and can handle subtitles, you should watch Rashomon.

I certainly don't mind black and white nor subtitles, but japanese/asian cinema... really their art in any genre is just not my thing. Music, paitings, drawings, movies, animation, architecture - you name it, it all does nothing for me. It's like I'm on an entirely different mental frequency than the japanese people. It' entirely subjective and I don't mean to say it's all bad. Just that It doesn't speak to me, it's not for me.

No worries. It is a shame though as this defined that style.

Each to his own, I have similar reservations about styles that do not fit well with me.

Zjeraar has previously posted a good list well worth checking, but my taste will not accommodate Come and See (1985, Elem Klimov)for example

Lol I didn't even realize that I knew a spoiler for 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' :P Thankfully I'm less concerned with book spoilers in general. There are tons of great ones that I want to read that I know almost nothing about, and the only book spoilers that I can think of comes from movies based on the books.

Zjeraar has also recommended Wages of fear which I can certainly highly recommend.

An excellent film and I have had drunken arguments before about whether the lead was Humphtey Bogart.

Regardless, an excellent watch if you can get a hold of it.

An odd thing to argue about, since Bogart isn't even in the movie...

I periodically take a wander thru old hitchcock films such as Rear Window, The Birds, North by Northwest, Psycho. Also love me some katherine hepburn movies, my fav is The African Queen, Bringing Up Baby, or for laughs the Thin Man series with Myrna loy and Powell or Some Like it Hot. The Graduate, To Kill A mockingbird, The Bride of Frankenstein etc are all old friends. To me those are oldies, but now I feel super ancient you youngins are calling ET and Back to Future oldies... where has the time gone. fercrissakes Alien is over 30 now.


Recently got Wages of Fear on my to do list but have yet to see it, I also want to take a stroll thru the spaghetti westerns like good bad and ugly, its been decades since Ive seen them. grumble alert, its so obnoxious to find classics using netflix or amazon, the menus are so obtuse, pushing in weird lists like 'romantic comedies on water during the full moon with beer' or because you watched Shane how bout this list of extremely random movies that have nothing to do with it

I have seen bits and pieces of Solaris previously, so unfortunately I'm not going in completely blind, atmosphere wise. But I am looking forward to it, you just turned my curiosity level up to 11* :)
(*obligatory This is Spinal Tap reference)

Generally, I've postponed watching movies from Tarkovsky, Kurosawa and Bergman... until recently, because I don't think that I would be able to appreciate them fully in my younger days.

I have that same problem with most of Eastern European cinema (excluding animated movies - those are great), which is strange because, theoretically, that culture should be rather close to that of my region. Maybe i'ts because of too many similarities, or wrong selection of movies, or I was exposed to them when I was too young, but I can't remember more than five or so East. Europe movies, that clicked with me.

What would you recommend as "must see" movies from Polish cinema?

You know, the funny thing is I'm not all that fond of Polish cinema either :D I actually have not seen a lot of our most important classics, like most movie by Andrzej Wajda. Of course there are some polish movies I like a lot, even love, but on the whole most of it often doesn's click with me either, as you put it.

Still, there are some that I can definately recommend (I have no idea about their availabilty abroad though)

Potop/The Deluge our best, and perhaps the only truly successfull attempt at a sweeping war epic. But epic it truly is. It's got everything, war, huge battles, adventure, duels, politics and betrayal and a charming rogue with one hell of a character arc as the main character. If you decide to watch, be careful to get the original 315 minute cut. Yeah, it's super long but it's worth it. There recently was a new cut released that is almost 1/2 shorter, but I really think it's just a huge mistake.

Dzień świra/Day of the Wacko- honestly, I'm not sure if anyone outside of Poland can truly get this movie it's full of things I think particular to our country, but it is definately one of our best and most true, however twisted and cartoonish it may seem. I think everyone had a day like this, maybe more than one, when nothing seems to go right, all the little things that annoy you seem so much bigger than usual. It's darkly funny, hilarious sometimes, but also carries a lot of deeper reflection about life, the things we regret, the things we thin we regret and the like.

Jeszcze tylko ten las/Just beyond this forest - a very tragic (as you'd expect of anything to do with World War II and the holocaust), but beautiful and heartfelt movie about a woman trying to save a young Jewish girl and the relationship between them.

Cud Purymowy/Purim Miracle it was a TV movie, so I very much doubt you could find it, I'm not even sure if I could get it here, but I feel obliged to mention it, I liked it so much. It's about an anti-Semite family that learns they have Jewish ancestors, and in fact they will receive a huge inheritance after a jewish relative who died, but only if they embrace the jewish heritage. It really is a superbly clever little movie, that manages to tackle important issues we Poles often would rather ignore in smart, entertaining and hopeful way.