Amph 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die: Now Disc. "Heat" (1995)

"The Last Seduction" (1994)

USA 110 m

Director: John Dahl

Producer: Jonathan Shestack

Screenplay: Steve Barancik

Photography: Jeff Jur

Music: Joseph Vitarelli

Cast: Linda Fiorentino, Peter Berg, Bill Pullman

Femme fatale in person. The plot is a bit silly, especially at the end, but Fiorentino makes the trip worth while.

 

"Pulp Fiction" (1994)

USA 154 m

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Producer: Lawrence Bender

Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, James Avary

Photography: Andrezj Sekula

Music: A cast of 1000's

Cast: Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Eric Stoltz, Uma Thurman

 

"The Shawshank Redemption" (1994)

USA 142 m

Director: Frank Darabont

Producer: Niki Marvin

Screenplay: Frank Darabont, from the story by Stephen King

Photography: Roger Deakins

Music: Doris Fisher, Thomas Newman, Allan Roberts

Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman

Not a hit upon release, this has become a cult hit since then. It's not bad, but Darabont is frankly no hell as a director--or as a writer. He doesn't *think* cinematically, at least at this point. (I hated "The Majestic", which reminded me of a modern version of Capracorn). He's lucky in his leads in this case.

 

The leads make Shawshank Redemption. Worth seeing at least once. Same for Pulp Fiction.

 

Pulp Fiction is energetic and gripping. Shawshank Redemption is undeniably moving. I'd call them both essentials.

 

Quiz Show was the best BP nom in 94. Yep.

I had to analyse Shawshank in school and haven't touched it since. It's a very entertaining film, and probably the nicest prison ever to be honest, but it's not a very rich film. I thought Darabont improved with The Green Mile, which at least left some things to implication and has a more solid supporting cast. The Majestic is a real stinker, though.

 

It's mainly interesting how King's short stories have turned out to be vastly better movies than his novels have. That said, Shawshank is a great film.

 

I do not disagree with this assessment. That Forrest Gump win was probably up there with the 1941 awards for biggest load of crap.

I really didn't care for Shawshank, I find it to be pretty overrated, but still, probably one of those films folks ought to see, and its position here is warranted.

 

Am I remembering all those gang rapes of the main character incorrectly?

 

Plus doesn't Norway have that one really swanky facility that more conservative elements accuse of being a hotel for convicts?

 

Oh sure, there's all that, but the atmosphere of the place and Darabont's whole approach makes it seem comparatively dandy. On the flipside, you have Frankenheimer's approach in Birdman of Alcatraz, which is perhaps literally nicer, but the way it is shot and constructed makes you feel the space and the constraint and how unremittingly awful that experience would be.

 

"The Wild Reeds" (1994)

France 110 m

Director: Andre Techine

Producer: Alain Sarde

Screenplay: Andre Techine et al.

Photography: Jeanne Lapoire

Music: N/A

Cast: Elodie Bouchez, Gael Morel

An account of French youth coming of age at the end of the Algerian war.

 

"Chunking Express" (1994)

Hong Kong 97 m

Director: Kaw-Wai Wong

Producer: Yi-kan Chan

Screenplay: Kaw-Wai Wong

Photography: Christopher Doyle, Wai Kueng Lai

Music: Frankie Chan, Roel A. Garcia

Cast: Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung

 

Oh yes. Superb film. Infectious would be a good word. I haven't seen another film by Wong to match it, although I haven't seen what is widely accepted as his masterpiece so who knows?

 

Yeah, I, too, love this film.

 

When I first saw it I didn't care for it. However I kept thinking about it for days afterwards so I went back and watched it again. I realized how wrong I was and I've loved it ever since. Hard to believe that this was made when Wong Kar-Wai was feeling uninspired during the shooting of "Ashes of Time." He shot this while the production was taking a break.

 

"Crumb" (1994)

USA 119 min.

Director: Terry Zwigoff

Producer: David Lynch et al.

Screenplay: N/A

Photography: Maryse Alberti

Music: David Boeddinghaus

Cast: Robert Crumb, Aline Kominsky, Charles Crumb, Mason Crumb, Dana Crumb

A documentary about comic artist R. Crumb and his equally talented and crazy brothers.

 

"Satantango" (1994)

Hungary/Germany/Switzerland 450 min.

Director: Bela Tarr

Producer: Ruth Waldburger et al.

Screenplay: Bela Tarr

Photography: Gabor Medvigy

Music: Mihaly Vig

Cast: Mihaly Vig et al

A seven hour black comedy about a failed farm collective. Yes, really.

 

I stumbled across this on IMDB and I keep meaning to see it sometime, just for a laugh. I mean, how bizarre does this sound?

 

"Through the Olive Trees" (1994)

France/Iran 103 min.

Director: Abbas Kiarostami

Producer: Abbas Kiarostami

Screenplay: Abbas Kiarostami

Photography: Hossein Djafarian, Farhad Saba

Music: N/A

Cast: Mohamad Ali Keshawarz, Farhad Kheradmand

The third in a trilogy, this is a comedy.

 

Everyone should see all of Kiarostami's work before they die. I prefer Close-Up, though.

 

"Heavenly Creatures" (1994)

GB/Germany/NZ 99m

Director: Peter Jackson

Producer: Jim Booth

Screenplay: Frances Walsh, Peter Jackson

Photography: Alun Bollinger

Music: Peter Dasent

Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Sarah Peirse

Peter Jackson first made a name for himself for this film, based on a genuine case in New Zealand in 1952 (one of the girls became novelist Anne Perry). Two female misfits conspire to murder the mother of one of them to prevent her from separating them.

 

This is an excellent film, and I don't think Peter Jackson would have ever gotten the chance to make The Lord of the Rings
if it weren't for having this one on his resume. It showed he was ready for "the big time." Before this, he'd mainly done
splatter horror films and those weren't really getting him anywhere.

 

Jackson's only great film, but what a film it is. If that ending doesn't just tear out your heart and rip it to shreds whilst also kicking your brain into a gooey mess with the fact that it happened then you're wired wrong.

It succeeds on such a level that I'll see anything that Jackson does, even if I outright dislike the bulk of his other work, just in the hopes that he can do something like that again.

 

"Dear Diary" (1994)

France/Italy 100 min.

Director: Nanni Moretti

Producer: Nanni Moretti et al.

Screenplay: Nanni Moretti

Photography: Giuseppe Lanci

Music: Nicola Piovani et al.

Cast: Nanni Moretti et al.

This director is described as the Italian Woody Allen.