griggs's - Letterboxd Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films List

Show moreShow less

A virtuoso James Stewart plays a small-town Michigan lawyer who takes on a difficult case: the defense of a young army lieutenant (Ben Gazzara) accused of murdering a local tavern owner who he believes raped his wife (Lee Remick).

This gripping envelope-pusher, the most popular film by Hollywood provocateur Otto Preminger, was groundbreaking for the frankness of its discussion of sex - but more than anything else, it is a striking depiction of the power of words. Featuring an outstanding supporting cast - with a young George C. Scott as a fiery prosecutor and the legendary attorney Joseph N. Welch as the judge - and an influential score by Duke Ellington...

Show moreShow less

Following Woman of the Dunes (Suna no onna) in 1964, Hiroshi Teshigahara continued his collaboration with avant-garde novelist/playwright Kobo Abe and experimental composer Toru Takemitsu for 'The Face of Another' (Tanin no kao).

Starring Tatsuya Nakadai (Yojimbo, Kagemusha) as a man "buried alive behind eyes without a face", the film addresses the illusive nature of identity and the agony of its absence. A man (Tatsuya Nakadai) facially disfigured in a laboratory fire persuades his doctor to fashion him a lifelike mask modeled on a complete stranger - totally different from his own face. Shortly after the mask is made, he successfully seduces his own wife (Machiko Kyo) but becomes angry at her falling for a handsome stranger. Worrying about his looks, and the way the mask seems to influence his identity, he begins to question everything.

Desperate to be a star, struggling stand-up comedian Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) enlists the aid of his fanatical friend Masha (Sandra Bernhard) to kidnap talk show host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis). The ransom? A guest spot for Pupkin. The results? Outrageous!

Show moreShow less

The Holdovers follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go.

Eventually he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker (Dominic Sessa) — and with the school's head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam (Da'Vine Joy Randolph).

Show moreShow less

The friendship between two girls is tested to its absolute limits in this utterly compelling drama set in the twilight years of Communist-era Romania. Gabita (Laura Vasiliu), young and naive, is pregnant.

She turns to her more pragmatic room mate Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) for help and a meeting is arranged in a downtown hotel with the shady Mr. Bebe (Vlad Ivanov). Entering a dangerous and illegal underworld where the stakes are high and nothing is as it seems, the girls are set for a life-changing experience that neither will ever forget.

Show moreShow less

Marking a new chapter in the history of one of the world's greatest films, the release of Abel Gance's "Napoleon" is the culmination of a project spanning 50 years.

Digitally restored by the BFI National Archive and Academy Award-winning film historian Kevin Brownlow, this cinematic triumph is available to experience on video for the very first time. Originally conceived by Gance as the first of six films about Napoleon, this five-and-a-half-hour epic features full-scale historical recreations of episodes from his personal and political life, that see Bonaparte overcome fierce rivals and political machinations to seal his imperial destiny. Utilising a number of groundbreaking cinematic techniques, 'Napoleon' is accompanied by Carl Davis' monumental score, and offers one of the most thrilling experiences in the entire the history of film.

Show moreShow less

It is the Cold War. The world stands on the brink of nuclear catastrophe as tensions simmer between the US and the Soviet Union. When a US bomber is accidentally ordered to drop a nuclear bomb on Moscow, it looks as if the fateful decision for all-out war will be taken by both sides.

Having past the point of no return, Colonel Jack Grady (George Clooney) pilots his bomber into Soviet territory, refusing to yield to verbal commands to turn back. The U.S. President (Richard Dreyfuss) and his young interpreter Buck (Noah Wyle) plunge into a crisis of split second decision-making in order to avert disaster.

Show moreShow less

British filmmaking showed much of its potential in this marvellous production chronicling the boyhood experiences of Billy (David Bradley), whose expectations lead no further than following his father into the pits when he reaches manhood.

Everything changes when he finds Kes, an injured Kestrel, whom he nurses and cherishes back to health. Their relationship becomes symbolic of a doomed attempt to escape the drudgery of the industrial North.

Show moreShow less

It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare.

Captain Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) is returning to a loveless marriage; Sergeant Al Stephenson (Fredric March) is a stranger to a family that's grown up without him; and young sailor Homer Parrish (Harold Russell) is tormented by the loss of his hands. Can these three men find the courage to rebuild their world? Or are the best years of their lives a thing of the past?

Show moreShow less

"Raging Bull" is arguably the finest work from the Scorsese and De Niro partnership. De Niro gives and amazing portrayal of a man whose animal side lurks just beneath the surface, ever ready to erupt.

Vivid and unremitting in its uncompromising brutality and honesty, the fight sequences are famed for their realism. Violent throughout, this film is a testament to Scorsese's and De Niro's skills, creating a thoroughly absorbing film about such an unlikable character. Renowned for throwing himself into the roles of his character, De Niro went on a diet to gain fifty pounds during production for the role of the faded star.

Show moreShow less

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, 'Kwaidan' features four nightmarish tales (adapted from Lafcadio Hearn's classic Japanese ghost stories) about mortals caught up in forces beyond their comprehension when the supernatural world intervenes in their lives.

Breathtakingly photographed entirely on hand-painted sets, the film is an abstract wash of luminescent colours from another world.

Show moreShow less

In Tokyo, three homeless people's lives are changed forever when they discover a baby girl in a garbage dump on Christmas Eve. As the New Year fast approaches, these three forgotten members of society band together to solve the mystery of the abandoned child and the fate of her parents.

Along the way, encounters with seemingly unrelated events and people force them to confront their own haunted pasts, as they learn to face their future together.

Show moreShow less

When Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) is sent on a mission to the Solaris Space Station, he is confronted with a skeleton crew who are psychologically unstable due to the presence of what they call "visitors". Kris soon begins to encounter his own visitor - his late wife.

Taunting him with illusory compassion, Kris must choose whether to cling to reality or submit to the planet's gift of a lost love regained.

Show moreShow less

After he saves her from drowning in the bay, Scottie's (James Stewart) interest shifts from business to fascination with the icy, alluring blonde. When tragedy strikes and Madeleine (Kim Novak) dies, Scottie is devastated.

But when he finds another woman remarkably like his lost love, the now obsessed detective must unravel the secrets of the past to find the key to his future.

Show moreShow less

Based on the Anime Phenomenon! Ten days before Christmas, it seems like another ordinary day for the SOS Brigade, Haruhi comes up with another one of her crazy ideas to hold a Christmas party in the club room and have Japanese hotpot for dinner.

However, things get weirder from there when Kyon wakes up the next day to discover a world in which Haruhi doesn't exist and no one, besides Kyon, has any memory of her. How can someone like Haruhi Suzumiya, who's supposed to be the centre of the universe, just vanish?