This topic is for the discussion of any movie that we loved or hated. Feel free to share experiences.

I guess I'll start.

Probably the best movie I have seen in a while has to be Pan's Labyrinth. Guillermo del Toro created an original fairy tale and placed it in 1944 fascist Spain. It truly is a gothic fary tale for adults. Believe me, children will be reduced to tears if they see it. There are some gory moments.

The story begins with a imaginative young girl, Ofelia, traveling with her sick, pregnant mother to live in an old house in the forest with her wicked stepfather, a captain in the war. Wicked doesn't begin to describe him; he is a brutal, sadistic man who only cares about his unborn son. His agenda centers around destroying a rebel uprising in the forest. However, he doesn't realize that his maid, Ofelia's new friend, is a spy for his enemy. In a garden near the house, Ofelia discovers a labyrinth. She explores and, upon reaching the center, discovers a fantastical faun. The faun tells her that she is really a princess from the underworld. In order to return to her family and kingdom, she must complete three tasks before the full moon.

The visuals and soundeffects are gorgeous, and the make-up is phenomenal! The faun has a certain creepiness about him, and, though he is there to help the tale's heroine, he's one of those characters that makes people waver between whether or not to trust him. Probably the most disgusting monster would have to be the Pale Man. It has sagging skin, eats children, and has no eyes in its head. Rather, its eyes are in the palms of its hands.

This move was so beautiful and exciting that it lingered with me long after I left the theater. I've still got that haunting lullabye from the soundtrack stuck in my head. I highly recommend seeing it. It's a shame there aren't more movies like this.

Well one of my all time favorites is the BBC Production of "Pride and Prejudice". It was a t.v. mini series, but it is at least 5 hour movie as far as I am concern.

It is the first production that goes into character development for each character from the Jane Austin book. The only problem with it was I thought Lizzy was much better looking then Jane her elder sister and in the book Jane is the beautiful one. LOL

My other favorite movie is "Steele Magnolias". It makes you laugh and cry. Again the acting in this by those wonderful actresses was great. It is an older movie and I don't know if you have ever seen it. Takes place in the Southern States with Shirly MacLaine, Julie Roberts, Sally Fields and Olympia Dukakis.

I enjoyed many many more. I love going to the movies. :rolleyes:

I am a huge movie person so i think I'll just say a bit about the last thing I saw:

Notes On a Scandal.

Sounds quite odd as a premise, but Judi Dench is so DAMN good, that it's extremely creepy. I would recommend it to anyone, just for her spine-chilling performance as a creepy old stalker :P

Probably my favorite film of all time is Dario Argento's Suspiria:



It's the most beautiful horror film ever made, in my opinion. Over-the-top, gory, but with an absolutely gorgeous and bizzare music score and a really cool heroine (played by Jessica Harper, who some of you might remember played Janet in Richard O'Brien's Shock Treatment. She comes from America to a ballet school in Germany... all kinds of bizzare and horrible things begin occuring, and it is revealed that the school is home to a coven of witches. Dario Argento has said that with this movie he wanted to capture the look of Disney's Snow White, in a live action film. I'm afraid I haven't had the chance to see Pan's Labyrinth yet, but Argento has also described Suspiria as "a fairy tale for adults." I've seen it many times, and will definitely see it many more...

The movie is actually on YouTube, in multiple parts. here's part one:

** Links removed. NO YouTube.
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Watch, and let me know what you think (that's an order.)

Dario Argento (as his name suggests, he's Italian) is definitely my favorite director... He made a loose follow-up to Suspiria called Inferno, and the third and last film in the trilogy, The Third Mother, is coming out this year... I can't wait. Each film focuses on a different witch. I own nearly all his films, and love each and every one...

I finally got around to seeing his version of The Phantom of the Opera, starring Julian Sands and his daughter, Asia Argento. It was very, very strange, but I loved it. Not a good example of Argento's work (it's soooo incredibly different than everything else he's done) but very good nonetheless. But don't expect it to be anything at all like the novel. However his previous film, called simply Opera, is much better, although I do love Phantom as well.


EDIT: Just thought I'd mention that Dario's awesome film Deep Red is being turned into a music in Italy. How I wish I could get over there to see it... :(

I've heard of that movie. Some comments about it have left me undecided about whether to see it or not. For instance, it's supposed to be gory and the Phantom has a "special" relationship with some rats.

I'm not into gory movies (Pan's Labyrinth is probably the only exception). I prefer movies that leave me on the edge of my seat with suspense. That's why Alfred Hitchcock is one of my favorite directors. His movies aren't too bloody, but the carry loads of suspense. I'm really fond of Rear Window, Marnie, Vertigo, To Catch a Thief, and Psycho(my favorite :D ).

On a side note, Hitchcock supposedly made a comment about Dario Argento and his film Profondo Rosso, which was, "This young Italian guy is starting to worry me." :)

What exactly is Deep Red about?

Well, Dario is known by many as "The Italian Hitchcock..." He actually made a film called Do You Like Hitchcock? in tribute to him. I love the films of Hitchcock as well... Though I had never heard that he commented on Dario's work... that's awesome. :D

As for Deep Red, it's actually the English title for Profondo Rosso. This and Suspira are probably Argento's two greatest films. Deep Red (or Profondo Rosso) is what is called a "giallo..." Translated, it literally means "yellow." It comes from a genre of novels that used to be very popular in Italy... basically, violent thrillers/mysteries. They usually came bound in yellow. Argento is probably the king of giallo cinema... He's made many.

Anyway, Deep Red begins as a psychic giving a lecture in Rome sense the presence of a murderer in her audience... Soon after she is murdered, and her dath is witnessed by a musician... He begins a private investigation of who the kilelr is, but keeps being stopped because all possible sources of information keep being murdered as well. And so, he realizes that somehow the killer is able to track him.

I can't really give the rest away, but the twists at the end (there are three big ones) are astounding. Also, I must note that Dario is a supreme visual stylist... He does things with the camer that you'll never see anywhere else.

For example, the scene in Opera (not to be confused with his Phantom.) where a woman is shot through a peep hole... the camer begins inside the gun and follows the blluet straght to the woman's eye... then cut to behind the woman... she is blown backwards and the bullet exits, comes towards us, and the other girl who is sitting in the foreground, misses her, but everything on the table next to her EXPLODES as it hits it....... All of this in done in slow motion. It just has to be seen to be believed.

I've become a horror junkie of late, but Dario's movies are the only ones that have managed to really creep me out... The Exorcist did nothing for me, strangely. I found Deep Red scarier, simply because that film, along with Dario's other giallo are throughly rooted in the possible and in reality. While The Exorcist is a lot of screaming and special effects... A good movie, but......

Anyway, if you like Hitchcock, you'll definitely like Dario Argento. His films are very different, but like Hitchcock, he's a true master of suspense. Just be sure to get the uncut versions of his films on DVD... Phenomena, for example, (a film about a young girl who telepathically communicates with insects) was, in it's original American release, cut by 28 minutes and re-titled "Creepers"........... it was completely idiotic.

Oh, concerning his Phantom: Well, it's very, very bizzare. The Phantom is not deformed, and goes unmasked... And as a baby he was abandoned in the sewers and raised by rats... It's a strange, erotic fairy tale version of the story, unlike anything. Highly original, but with a very confusing, and often non-sensical script. It's not for all tastes, and is certainly very camp in places, but I really enjoyed it.

The first time you watch it, if you do, just don't question too much, and go along with it to the end... I guarantee you'll want to watch it again, as I have many times. It's just very intriguing, completely different than anything Dario's done before or since, and certainly far from his best, but it's interesting and very moving as well... and as always the atmosphere and cinematography is amazing.

As for the Phantom's "special" scene with the rats.... well, it's very, very short, and nothing is shown at all. I was expecting it to be really hideous, but it's not at all. It's portrayed in a bizzarely emotional way that seems to fit strangely well into the rest of the dreamlike atmosphere of the film.

So, I'd reccomend seeing Phantom, just not before you see Suspira and/or Deep Red.


If you need help picking out which editions of Argento's movies to get (there are a lot, some hideously butchered by American film companies, and it can be confusing at first,) Just ask me.

As for gory films... well, I used to be really squeamish, but then I started watching more horror and got over it quickly.

Another of my favorite films is George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, his follow up to Night of the Living Dead... Truly one of the greatest horror movies ever made. It's very gory at the end, with zombies eating people and so on, but it's all very, very cartoonish and over-the-top... so I don't think you'd have to worry about being bothered by it. As the living dead take over the world, a group of people hole up in a shopping mall. It has wonderful characters, and is a really warm and funny movie, but it's also very serious in the way it satirizes American consumerism.

hmmm....can it be from any movie?

Alright, I would have to say, I've always loved the Scarlet Pimpernel with Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymour and Ian Mckellin. (I think I've spelt McKellin wrong) aw well. :) Anyway I've always loved that movie, and I'm willing to watch it again.

Well I have the video to "The Scarlet Pimpernel" starring Jane Seymour, so you know I liked it. :D

Have you seen the BBC productions of "The Scarlet Pimpernel" with Elizabeth McGovern, I think is her name and an English actor, whose name I can't think of right now..... There are about four episodes in the mini series. It's pretty good.

I just saw "American Psycho" starring Mr. Christian Bale. It was okay.

OH! EVEN BETTER!

I recently got CARDED while buying "Unfaithful" (Richard Gere... Diane Lane... some French guy). The cashier didn't believe I was 18.