griggs's - 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die List

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Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is a respected but less-than-perfect surveillance expert who is wracked with self-doubt and carrying a heavy conscience since his work led to the death of two of his subjects.

So when he comes to believe that his latest assignment - eavesdropping on a pair of young lovers - may end in murder, Harry can no longer avoid confronting the moral consequences of his chosen profession.

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Celine (Juliet Berto), a magician, and Julie (Dominique Labourier), a librarian, meet in Montmartre and wind up sharing the same flat, bed, finance, clothes, identity and imagination.

Soon, thanks to a magic sweet, they find themselves spectators, then participants, in a Henry James-inspired 'film-within-the-film' - a melodrama unfolding in a mysterious suburban house with the 'Phantom Ladies Over Paris' (Bulle Ogier and Marie-France Pisier), a sinister man (Barbet Schroeder) and his child.

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A landmark movie in the film noir tradition, Roman Polanski's 'Chinatown' stands as a true screen classic. Jack Nicholson is private eye Jake Gittes, living off the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-war Southern California.

Hired by a beautiful socialite (Faye Dunaway) to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together for one, unforgettable night in...Chinatown.

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Some people will do anything for a million dollars...

even if it means killing anyone who gets in their way! Written and directed by Oscar nominee Sam Peckinpah and starring Academy Award winner Gig Young, Warren Oates, Robert Webber, Kris Kristofferson and the seductively beautiful Isela Vega, 'Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia' is a gritty classic that vibrates with explosive action and nail-biting tension. When a Mexican land baron puts a million dollars on the head of the man who seduced his daughter, two money-hungry men (Young and Webber) recruit a small-town bartender (Oates) to help them do their dirty work. But their tequila-fuelled trek across the desolate Mexican frontier grows more intense, gruesome and bloody with every savage murder they leave in their wake!

Five friends travelling through rural Texas stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. The group soon find themselves picked off, one by one, by a masked madman with a chain saw.

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Cassavetes' most commercially successful feature and a benchmark of American independent cinema, 'A Woman Under the Influence' is a devastating drama starring Gena Rowlands as Mabel Longhetti, a mother of three whose blue collar husband Nick (Peter Falk) toils as a construction worker.

Their simmering differences lead to a series of domestic dramas that eventually culminate in Mabel's nervous breakdown and six-month stay in a psychiatric hospital. Once released, Mabel and Nick must confront their uncertain futures.

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Al Pacino heads the star cast as Michael Corleone, heir to the criminal empire established by his Mafioso father, the late Don Corleone.

The time is mid-1940's: Michael is now in charge of all gambling activities in Nevada, making certain that any and all political or mob enemies are quickly bought off, compromised, or disposed of. Throughout the film, Michael's travels are paralleled with the early experiences of his father, played in flashbacks by Robert DeNiro.

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The world's tallest building is skyscraping testimony to ingenuity and innovation. In the hands of "Master of Disaster", film producer Irwin Allen, it's also the world's tallest matchstick.

An all-star cast gathers for this tall story of lofty dimensions: eight Academy Award nominations and three Oscars. On the night of the building's dedication, fire erupts, trapping people on the upper floors...and igniting multiple tales of heroism and loss involving a firefighter, an architect and others caught in the steel-and-glass inferno. With starpower, pyrotechnics and suspense in abundance, The Towering Inferno sizzled at box offices worldwide.

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Summoned by a will to his late grandfather's castle in Transylvania, young Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) soon discovers the scientist's step-by-step manual explaining how to bring a corpse to life.

Assisted by the hunchback Igor (Marty Feldman) and the curvaceous Inga (Teri Garr), he creates a monster (Peter Boyle) who only wants to be loved.

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A story of conflict, and emotion. A mother (Nirupa Roy), and her two son Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) and Ravi (Shashi Kapoor) make it to Mumbai from a small town. While Vijay work alongside his mother and shares the burden, Ravi goes to school and on to college.

Vijay is all anger and vengeance, while Ravi treads the path of dharma and the rule of law. This is the wall the separates them. This is not a wall built on the shaky foundations of anger, jealousy of envy. It is a wall built on the bedrock of principles of honesty, labour, dignity, and the rule of law. When of her sons breaks the code, the anguished mother, who loves both her sons, has to end does make the choice.

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From the celebrated Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky comes his most autobiographical work and one that is regarded by many as his magnum opus.

Reflecting upon his own childhood and the destiny of the Russian people, 'Mirror' is a sublime expression of memory, imagination, thoughts and dreams intertwined with real life and family relationships. A transcendent, inspired and multilayered masterpiece that continues to grow in stature, 'Mirror' has an exceptional resonance and rewards countless viewings.

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King Arthur and his trusty knights fearlessly travel the length and breadth of the country in search of the mythical Holy Grail.

On their way they have to deal with the sarcastic taunts of the French Knight, the Knights who say 'Ni', Tim the Enchanter and the Terror of the Cave of Caerbannog amongst other things.

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Few filmmakers have enjoyed a decade quite so diverse or quite so prolific as Rainer Werner Fassbinder did during the seventies.

Amid the likes of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and Fear Eats the Soul, it's easy to forget some of the lesser-known and more singular works, two of which are presented here.

Fox and His Friends (1975) is among the director's most personal works and the first to tackle homosexuality in a direct manner. Fassbinder himself plays Fox, a sweet working class soul whose relationship with wealthy industrialist Eugen, he discovers, is based almost wholly on his unexpected lottery win. When his money runs out, so does any affection, with tragic consequences.
Chinese Roulette (1976), set in an isolated house during a weekend break, is like Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None without the murders a tense psychodrama in which infidelities are revealed and families breakdown. At its centre is nouvelle vague icon Anna Karina, a rare outsider alongside the familiar Fassbinder faces.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

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Anne-Marie Stretter (Delphine Seyrig) is the wife of the French ambassador in India in the 1930s. Growing bored with the oppressive lifestyle she leads, she begins to compulsively sleep with other men to alleviate her situation.

The Vice-Consul of Lahore (Michael Lonsdale) fails in his attempts to begin a love affair with her. Her husband knows of her indiscretions, but is tolerant of her promiscuity.