Unseen Cinema

Watching movies is like drinking or fucking or driving cars: Everyone is an expert. But when you hear people talking about movies the chatter seems to stay in a remarkably narrow bandwidth of experience. Scorsese, Eastwood, Speilberg followed by Ridley Scott or Michael Mann or David Lynch. Throw in Almodovar and Michael Leigh and Lars von Trier as the arthouse contingent, and sprinkle a little Truffaut or Bunuel or Godard or Huston for historic spice, and you've got a nice, well-rounded view of cinema.

Except that view is missing the movies which actually move the craft from one theme or era to the next. The substrata of film-making is a place to learn how people are telling the same old stories in new ways, and this site is devised to give you reference to the movies likely to blow Eastwood or Scorsese away if they were honest enough to admit they are still learning. Sometimes we'll drop in a link to a movie that is "major" but misunderstood for a variety of reasons, but mostly we'll stick with the obscure treasures that influence not just the watchers of cinema but the makers. If you were to watch all the movies we list below you'd be astonished at the frustration you'd feel next time somebody starts to explain why a sordid piece of shit like "Mystic River" is "a great movie."

If you haven't seen these movies, you're missing a huge part of cinema: the mass beneath the tip of the iceberg, the bulk which rewards murky exploration with the unexpected treasures of the unseen.


  • Last Life in the Universe (2003) - If I ever get a million dollars, I will give part of it to Chris Doyle, who shot the mesmerizing "Last Life in the Universe." Director Pen-ek Ratanaruang says in the accompanying interview, that a location is every bit as important as the players and the script, and Doyle's camera brings you into the place, which then stays inside you for days after. I will be thinking about being in this hiding place of Pen-ek's and Doyle's for a long time, at least until next Wednesday, by which time my routine and route will have made me numb enough to consider watching something like Nicole Kidman. (Sandie Black)
  • Apocalypto (2006) - Easily the deepest and most realistic in Gibson's canon of trash. He is getting excoriated by the East Coast anthros protecting their bits of academic turf, but the new historians are surprised that this fool might have got it right. So Mel actually works hard to make a good movie, even if he has to dwell like a teenager on trashy Stephen King blood-letting, yet manages to find an appropriate language in the violence of the Mayas to present a very real glimpse of a culture we hardly know: How many movies about the Mayas have ever been made? I think Apocalypto is better than Fast Runner, and more revealing of indigenous culture than Mallick's "New World." Mallick's movie was the best of the year for me. The only movie I can think of off the top of my head which is superior for its indigenous veracity would be "Cabeza de Vaca," which will always be outside Mel's league. Gibson has made a phenomenal, beautiful movie which will make phenomenal bucks and boost his rep even while his bigoted views persist. Funny situation. Only Mel Gibson. (Seanie Blue)
  • The New World (2005) - The review linked here is actually a review written by Mr. Blue, our own movie snob. He rates this movie as one of the best he's ever seen. And already Malick's "New World" is obscure and legendary. the attempt to re-make its indigenous languages, though, has led to fora on lost languages and a unique attempt to re-unite the local people whose ancestors are the subject of the movie. Linguists have slowly been piecing together the languages of the region, and now people can converse again in a lost tongue. Every movie should have such a benefit.
  • Dersu Uzala (1975) - Kurosawa's best movie, far and away. Not a militaristic romp through history, but a tiny story of a wilderness man swallowed by civilization. Kurosawa's first two color films were enormous flops, so he committed suicide in the early '70's. Rather, tried to commit suicide. He survived and became the public fool of Japanese society. Ridiculed, rejected, he had to agree to a Russian production company's terms to get the chance to make "Dersu." And of course it won an Oscar for best foreign movie, and gave him the opportunity to go on and make Ran and his other military masterpieces.
  • Turkish Delight (1974) - Rated X when it came out in 1974, "Delight" stars Rutger Hauer as a punk who discovers love in the nick of time. Directed by Paul Verhoeven, this movie won an Oscar for best foreign movie despite the "X" rating, which would barely get an "R" today. More like PG-13. But this movie is a mind-shattering kicker. You will leave your life as you know it firmly behind you if you risk watching it.
  • Colonel Redl (1984) - Klaus Maria Brandauer made his money off "Out of Africa" and his reputation in "Mephisto" but it's in this gem that the guy shows his astounding ability to portray many sides of a psychological conflict. He plays a secret service chief in Austro-Hungary who finds out the King has decided to off somebody who strikes an exact resemble to himself. How can you be put in charge of your own execution?
  • Cyclo (1995) - Easily one of the best movies ever made. Haunts you for years, and puts you in a Vietnam Hollywood could never imagine, much less portray. Also has the best imagery wedded to a song as a kid eats a goldfish while listening to Radiohead's "I'm a Creep." Superb.
  • Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) - A small piece dashed off by Herzog is turning into a masterpiece. The story of a man whose dream almost kills him, it's a marvel of survival and perseverance almost beyond belief. The source of Herzog's new movie starring Christian Bale, "Rescue Dawn."
  • Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? (1989) - Ravishing and full of "zenamatography," to be sure, and probably full of more religious import than we want to admit, "Bodhi" is a movie bout transformation. Not so much about your own religious identity, but what you are willing to endure to "get" what movies are about. Experience, not drama.
  • Duellists (1977) - When he made this movie, Ridley Scott was a prodigy in advertising. He was smart enough to seek a property with depth, and Conrad is always deep. Made roughly at the same time as Coppola made "Apocalypse," this movie is almost as satisfying and much richer for its depiction of a time we think we know but do not see: the Napoleonic Wars. Even with a horribly miscast Keith Carradine, the movie works, probably because it is Harvey Keitel at his best.