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

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Music was his passion. Survival was his masterpiece. Based on a true story from the acclaimed Bafta and Academy Award winning director Roman Polanski. They were degraded, they were hoarded up and they were sent to die.

A brave few fought back, but one man would not be beaten, would not be taken and would stay and hide. Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody), a brilliant Polish pianist, a Jew, escapes deportation. Forced to live in the heart of the Warsaw ghetto, he shares the suffering, the humiliation and the struggles, and manages to escape and hide in the ruins of the capital.

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How does an Irish lad without prospects become part of 18th-century nobility? For Barry Lyndon (Ryan O'Neal) the answer is: any way he can! His climb to wealth and privilege is the enthralling focus of this sumptuous Stanley Kubrick version of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel.

For this ravishing, slyly satiric winner of four Academy Awards, Kubrick found inspiration in the works of the era's painters. Costumes and sets were crafted in the era's designs and pioneering lenses were developed to shoot interiors and exteriors in natural light. The result? 'Barry Lyndon' endures as a cutting-edge movie that brings a historical period to vivid screen life like no other film before or since.

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Welcome to a bittersweet world of episodic adventures and strange encounters. Welcome to a sordid, nocturnal world of ruthless, callous boyfriends and stray movie stars looking for seedy kicks.

Welcome to the harsh, unforgiving streets of a crumbling Rome where hope can still prevail and dreams cradle the lost. Welcome to the world of Cabiria, a feisty, loud, outspoken and somewhat naïve prostitute waiting for a miracle, and one of the most unforgettable and endearing characters of European cinema. Eventually remade in Hollywood as 'Sweet Charity', 'Nights of Cabiria' is a often humorous, poignant, unflinching and vivid portrait of one woman's picaresque existence and her perseverance through adversity. Starring Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, as the irrepressible protagonist, 'Nights of Cabiria' marked Fellini's last foray into gritty neo-realism before venturing into the surreal satire and dream logic of 'La Dolce Vita' and 'Eight and a Half'.

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"Dune: Part Two" explores the mythic journey of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) as he unites with Chani (Zendaya) and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family.

Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.

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Inspired by an infamous true story that made headlines in Japan in 1988, this tough yet tender film from writer-director, Hirokazu Koreeda, follows the lives of four children left to fend for themselves by their wayward mother.

Having smuggled her family into a new apartment under the landlord's nose, Keiko (You) puts her 12 year old son Akira (Yûya Yagira) in charge of the youngsters and after a brief period of relative family harmony, disappears. Akira manages as best he can, but limited means and the cramped confines of the apartment force this unorthodox family unit to re-shape their narrow existence to suit their physical and emotional needs.

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Sergio Leone's monumental epic 'Once Upon a Time in the West' ranks among the five or six all-time Western masterpieces. The picture itself is as big as its Monument Valley locations, as grand as its fine, distinguished cast. Henry Fonda plays the blackest character of his long career.

He's Frank, the ruthless, murderous psychopath who suffers conscience pangs after annihilating an entire family. Jason Robards is the half-breed falsely accused of the terrible slaughter. Charles Bronson plays the harmonica playing man who remembers how his brother was savagely tortured.

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Mima Kirigoe (voices of Bridget Hoffman / Junko Iwao) is one third of chart topping girl-pop group, Cham! But she is keen to put the childish career of the pop singer behind her and pursue her dream of becoming an actress.

Her fans are sceptical however, and she quickly discovers that the transition is nowhere near as easy or enjoyable as she'd hoped...After getting a part in a very adult murder mystery drama, her life takes a turn for the sinister. She uncovers a blog detailing her life in intimate detail, and as a real life killer begins to attack the people around her, delusion and reality blend into one and she begins to question her own identity...

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Hong Kong, 1962. Chow (Tony Leung) is a junior newspaper editor with an elusive wife. His new neighbour Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) is a secretary whose husband seems to spend all his time on business trips. They become friends, making the lonely evenings more bearable.

As their relationship develops they make a discovery that changes their lives forever...

When a wealthy widow is found murdered, her married suitor, Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power), is accused of the crime. Vole's only hope for acquittal is the testimony of his wife (Marlene Dietrich)...but his airtight alibi shatters when she reveals some shocking secrets of her own!

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Out of nowhere, a gaunt man in a dark suit and a red baseball cap appears tn the burning heat of the desert between the US and Mexico. Travis (Harry Dean Stanton).

He drinks the last sip from his water bottle, then he moves on, doggedly, into the inhospitable area that the locals call "The Devil's Playground". Travis might seem to be mute and amnesiac, but he's driven by the desire to reconnect with his family.

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Young warrior Ashitaka receives a wound that refuses to heal in a battle with a cursed beast.

Searching for a remedy for the supernatural injury, he leaves his remote village for the forbidding forests of the west, where he finds a human enclave under siege from divine powers: deities of times past, the wolf gods, and San, a wild girl of the forest. Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece depicts the clash between the natural world and its old gods, and the rise of humans and the beginnings of modern civilisation. It shows three elements of the Japanese psyche warring for supremacy in an epic ecological fable of stirring mythic power.

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Red Beard, the last and most ambitious of Kurosawa's collaborations with Toshiro Mifune, marks the end of one of the most remarkable actor-director relationships in the history of cinema. Toshiro Mifune plays a commanding but humane doctor in a rural clinic in late 19th-century Japan.

An idle and socially ambitious intern (Yuzo Kayama) arrives at the clinic and discovers the meaning of responsibility, first to oneself and then to others. This intimate epic - and offbeat social drama - boldly mixes the styles of soap opera and the action movie, and rewards the viewer with a detailed reconstruction of a feudal era, a warmly humanitarian message and a powerhouse performance by Mifune.

This true life story follows the struggles of T.E.Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) in uniting the hostile Arab factions and leading them to victory over the ruling Turkish Empire during the First World War.

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As he faces the end of his life, the poet Alexander (Bruno Ganz) prepares to leave his beloved family home for the last time. Coming across a letter from his late wife, he is overwhelmed by joyful memories and also sadness that he never paused to savour them.

In an effort to reconcile these emotions, Alexander embarks upon a journey in which past and present intertwine as he attempts to retrieve those lost moments of his life.

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Having grown up in a devout Christian family, Yu (Takahiro Nishijima) has always been a well-behaved kid. After his mother dies, his priest father is seduced by a woman who breaks his heart, causing him to torment Yu by forcing him to confess his sins on a daily basis.

Of course, being a fairly normal kid, Yu has no legitimate sins to confess. To appease his increasingly demanding father, Yu is determined to become a true sinner, eventually training to become an expert at sneak upskirt photography. Pornography being the one sin no priest can overlook, Yu gets the attention he's been so desperately seeking from his dad. One day while hanging out with his fellow sinner pals - but dressed like Sasori as punishment for being on the losing end of a bet - Yu meets a beautiful girl named Yoko (Hikari Mitsushima). Their first meeting is a glorious one, beginning with an all-out street brawl and ending with a kiss. There are only two problems: she thinks he's a woman and a devious cult leader named Aya (Sakura Ando) is carefully manipulating both of their lives.