griggs's - 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die List
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On a black and unholy Halloween night years ago, little Michael Myers (Will Sandin) brutally slaughtered his sister in cold blood. But for the last fifteen years, town residents have rested easy, knowing he was safely locked away in a mental hospital - until tonight. Tonight, Michael (Tony Moran) returns to the same quiet neighbourhood to relive his grisly murder again...and again...and again. For this is a night of evil. Tonight is Halloween! - Director:
- John Carpenter
- Cast:
- John Carpenter, Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis
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When Michael (Robert De Niro), Steven (John Savage) and Nick (Christopher Walken) are captured by the Vietcong, they are forced to play Russian Roulette by their brutal captors, who make bets on their survival. The experience of capture leaves them with terrible physical and spiritual wounds, and when Michael returns to Saigon to fulfill an old promise to one of his friends, he makes an unexpected, horrific discovery. Also featuring astonishing performances from Meryl Streep as the woman both Michael and Nick fall in love with, and John Cazale as their unhinged and insecure friend Stan, 'The Deer Hunter' is widely acknowledged as one of cinema's great masterpieces and contains some of the most memorable scenes in film history. - Director:
- Michael Cimino
- Cast:
- Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale
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Nosferatu: The Vampyre (1979)Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht
It is 1850 in the beautiful, perfectly kept town of Wismar. Jonathan Harker (Bruno Ganz) is about to leave on a long journey over the Carpathian Mountains to finalise real estate arrangements with a wealthy nobleman. His wife Lucy (Isabel Adjani) begs him not to go and is troubled by a strong premonition of danger. Despite her warnings, Jonathan arrives four weeks later at a large, gloomy castle. Out of the mist appears a pale wraith-like figure with a shaven head and deep sunken eyes who identifies himself as Count Dracula (Klaus Kinski) The events that transpire slowly convince Harker that he is in the midst of a vampire. What he doesn't know, however, is the magnitude of danger he, his wife and his town are about to experience as victims of the Nosferatu. - Director:
- Werner Herzog
- Cast:
- Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz
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The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)Die Ehe der Maria Braun
Maria and Hermann Braun marry in Germany close to the end of World War II but are shortly separated. Just after being sent to the Russian Front, Hermann is reported missing and, although Maria believes he is still alive, her brother in law, just returned from a POW camp in Russia, confirms his death. Alone, Maria uses her beauty and ambition to prosper in Germany's "economic miracle" of the 1950s. 'The Marriage of Maria Braun' is heartbreaking study of a woman picking herself up from the ruins of her own life, as well as a pointed metaphorical attack on a society determined to forget its past. - Director:
- Rainer Werner Fassbinder
- Cast:
- Hanna Schygulla, Klaus Löwitsch, Ivan Desny
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Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979)Cristo si e fermato a Eboli
The triumph of the human spirit is the theme of Rosi's epic film, in which Carlo Levi is exiled in 1935 by the ruling fascist dictatorship to a poverty-stricken village in the Basilicata region of southern Italy. Levi finds himself in a stark world little changed since the middle ages in which the peasants scratch a meagre living from the land. But as Levi grapples with this new environment, it is the peasants' wisdom, humanity and spirit that help him to cope with his sense of helplessness and isolation. - Director:
- Francesco Rosi
- Cast:
- Gian Maria Volontè, Paolo Bonacelli, Alain Cuny
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A documentary filmmaker (Albert Brooks) enlists a family for a new cinematic and scientific experiment that intends to capture every waking moment of their daily life on film. Out of all the families that are chosen, the ordinary family of the Yeagers of Phoenix, Arizona are chosen. It is a project Brooks confidently announces to a large gathering in the city, even greeting them with a song. Two other doctors are enlisted in order to evaluate the family through the progression of the project. The concept is for the Yeagers and their two children to go about their business at their Phoenix home, work and school as if nothing is different from a typical day, ignoring the fact that men wearing cameras that look like Star Wars helmets are recording every move they make and every word they say. Brooks promises to be as unobtrusive as possible, taking up a separate residence in the neighbourhood and promising not to interfere. Little by little, though, the stress of everyday life is complicated by the presence of the film crew. Brooks also becomes the unwitting object of Mrs. Yeager's attentions... - Director:
- Albert Brooks
- Cast:
- Jennings Lang, Dick Haynes, Albert Brooks
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In the ravaged near future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorising innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang laughs in the face of a police force bent on stopping them. But they underestimate one officer: Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson). And when the bikers brutalise Max's best friend and family, they send him into a mad frenzy that leaves him with only one thing left in the world to live for - revenge! - Director:
- George Miller
- Cast:
- Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne
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Forty-two-year-old Manhattan native Isaac Davis (Allen) has a job he hates, a seventeen-year-old girlfriend (Mariel Hemingway) he doesn't love, and a lesbian ex-wife Jill (Meryl Streep) who's writing a tell-all book about their marriage... and whom he'd like to strangle. But when he meets his best friend's sexy, intellectual mistress, Mary (Diane Keaton), Isaac falls head over heels in lust! Leaving Tracy, bedding Mary and quitting his job are just the beginning of Isaac's quest for romance and fulfillment in a city where sex is as intimate as a handshake - and the gate to true love... is a revolving door. - Director:
- Woody Allen
- Cast:
- Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway
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Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis) is the eldest daughter of an impoverished New South Wales farming family. Bold and determined, Sybylla dreams of succeeding as an acclaimed writer. But in a time of sexist ignorance and bigotry Sybylla has frequent clashes with procrustean conformists. Though it is her love for the dashing Harry Beacham (Sam Neill) that will truly test her desire to succeed as a writer. As events twist and turn, Sybylla is painfully forced to realise the emotional cost of putting her career over love. 'My Brilliant Career' is a delicate parable of one woman's fight for independence, and the sacrifices of the heart that must be made along the way. - Director:
- Gillian Armstrong
- Cast:
- Judy Davis, Sam Neill, Wendy Hughes
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The Tin Drum (1979)Die Blechtrommel
When Oskar Matzerath (the extraordinary David Bennent, just twelve at the time) receives a tin drum for his third birthday, he vows to stop growing there and then - and woe betide anyone who tries to take his beloved drum away from him, as he has a banshee shriek that can shatter glass. As a result, he retains a permanent child's-eye perspective on the rise of Nazism as experienced through petit-bourgeois life in his native Danzig, the 'free city' claimed by both Germany and Poland whose invasion in 1939 helped kick-start World War II. With the help of Luis Bunuel's favourite screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere, director Volker Schlondorff turns Gunter Grass's magical-realist masterpiece into a carnivalesque frenzy of bizarre, grotesque yet unnervingly compelling images as Oskar turns his increasingly jaded eye and caustic tongue on the insane follies of the adult world that he refuses to join. - Director:
- Volker Schlöndorff
- Cast:
- David Bennent, Horst Gentzen, Mario Adorf
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Apocalypse Now (1979)Apocalypse Now Redux / Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier / Apocalypse Now: Final Cut
Francis Ford Coppola's stunning vision of man's heart of darkness revealed through the madness of the Vietnam War. Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) receives orders to seek out a renegade military outpost led by the mysterious Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando). Willard's mission: "Terminate with extreme prejudice". - Director:
- Francis Ford Coppola
- Cast:
- Martin Sheen, Hattie James, Marlon Brando
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Breaking Away (1979)Los muchachos del verano
Four friends graduate from high school and find themselves looking at an uncertain future in small-town America. Dave's passion is cycling and his dream is to compete against the best in the sport, the Italians he idolizes. Despite being disillusioned when he finally races against his heroes, his passion for cycling takes on new meaning when he and his friends face a team from the local college in the town's annual bike race, The Little 500. Looked down on by the students, Dave (Dennis Christopher) faces his greatest challenge yet, one that will test his endurance and spirit to the limit. - Director:
- Peter Yates
- Cast:
- Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern
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When the crew of the space-tug Nostromo answers a distress signal from a desolate planet, they discover a deadly life form that breeds within a human host. And soothe horror begins – a horror which will end the lives of six crew members and alter the life of the seventh forever. Sigourney Weaver stars as Lieutenant Ellen Ripley in one of the most suspenseful and powerful science fiction films of all time. - Director:
- Ridley Scott
- Cast:
- Ian Holm, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt
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In a future world that has been seemingly ravaged by war and poverty there exists a myth of hope among the people - a forbidden place known only as the Zone, the heart of which, if reached, grants one's innermost desires. Two men, a writer and professor, hire someone known as a Stalker; a guide who can navigate the treacherous and confounding path that leads to the centre of the Zone. 'Stalker' was instantly considered one of the most definitive artistic contemplations of human aspiration and the ambition we employ to achieve it. - Director:
- Andrei Tarkovsky
- Cast:
- Alisa Freyndlikh, Sergey Yakovlev, Vladimir Zamanskiy
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After a fateful meeting with a big-time talent agent, Kermit the Frog heads for Hollywood dreaming of show biz. Along the way, Fozzie Bear, the Great Gonzo and the dazzling Miss Piggy join him in hopes of becoming film stars too. But all bets are off when Kermit falls into the clutches of Doc Hopper (Charles Durning), a fast-food mogul seeking to promote his French-fried frog-leg franchise! - Director:
- James Frawley
- Cast:
- Jim Henson, Charles Durning, Austin Pendleton
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