Best Film (cinematic) Aesthetically and by plot

[nikon_sam]

My first choice for both categories would be "What Dreams May Come".

Now a list of a few movies I will watch just because they're on...
The Shawshank Redemption
The Graduate
Looking for Bobby Fisher
Antwone Fisher
One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
Almost Famous
The Breakfast Club
The Big Chill
Breaking Away
The Sting

I've seen The Green Mile and did like it BUT I can't get myself to watch it again...

There are others but I'll stop for now...

 

[nikon_sam]

Just one for me:

'Paris Texas'(1984) ... directed by Wim Wenders ... music by Ry Cooder.

Starring: Natasha Kinski, Harry Dean Stanton and Dean Stockwell.

US cinema doesn't get any better than this IMO. 🙂

You guys have been promoting this one...I'm getting interested...😱

 

[ferider]

Aesthetics: I would have voted "Paris Texas", too, Keith, until I saw Hero (with Jet Lee). Amazing colors.

Nothing beats Pulp Fiction for plot 🙂

 

[nikon_sam]

Oops...forgot...The Summer of '42...
My dad took me to see that one when it came out...I was 11...

 

[Keith]

Aesthetics: I would have voted "Paris Texas", too, Keith, until I saw Hero (with Jet Lee). Amazing colors.

Nothing beats Pulp Fiction for plot 🙂

I've never been able to get past those stunning desert scenes caressed by Ry Cooder's amazing soundtrack ... and 'Travis' was Harry Dean Stanton's finest moment for me. (though he's never been less than brilliant IMO)


... total Ry Cooder geek here I confess! 😱

 

[paulfish4570]

i'm glad someone mentioned hero. very david lean-esque ...

 

[paulfish4570]

ain't a thang wrong with pitching ry cooder ...

 

[NickTrop]

Colors? Aesthetics? Cinematography? Surrealism? - Mario Bava...

 

[Keith]

Actually one movie that really knocked my socks off when I got it out from the art house section of the video store one night was Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis'(1927)

Just an amazing film for an old silent ... from memory I watched it three times over that weekend! 😛

 

[arpinum]

Pulp Fiction and Dr Zhivago, or Dr Zhivago and Pulp Fiction, either way.
Pulp Fiction had some amazing film stock, like technicolor without the harsh lighting.

 

[Nate Butler]

Metropolis is an amazing film regardless of age. 🙂

 

[kevin m]

i have to nominate jean cocteau's la belle et le bete (beauty and the beast).

Good one. I like his "Orpheus" very much, too. Death as a woman with Harley-riding goons as her henchmen is a nice touch. And the mercury mirror is still a cool effect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCYcWpMDWLQ&NR=1&feature=fvwp

 

[Particular]

Fitzcarraldo, Woyzeck and Kasper Hauser are all great!
But I would also suggest "M" in the restored version 6 x 6 (square movie !!!!)
G

Wow, I didn't know about square. That is an awesome movie (even as a rectangle).

Not sure these compete with 'M', but I will nominate 'Mon Oncle' by Jaques Tati for the look, and 'Time of the gypsies' by emir Kustorica for the insane plot.

 

[MichaelW]

The following for both aesthetics & story
"Touch Of Evil" 1958 Orson Welles
"The Conformist" 1970 Bernardo Bertolucci

 

[peterm1]

On all of these counts, I am particularly fond of a 2008 film named "Elegy" starring Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz.

The plot is a love story between an aging Professor of literature and a female student. I find it wonderfully touching and beautiful although some (a few) differ and hate the whole premise. In general I think those folk simply lack the sophisitcation to "get it"

Aethetically the film is wonderful. The sound track is superb and the story told poetically. Great stuff. As one reviewer says "What impressed me about this movie is that it dares to be slow, dark, almost meditative."

It is an adult film (not in the sense of sexual content although there is some of this) - but rather the story is uncompromisingly adult in tone. None of your Hollywood B.S. with this one. This is not to say its hard to watch. I have found it beautiful and lyrical. And needless to say, Penelope looks superb.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974554/combined

BTW in the film the male character played by Kingsley is a dedicated user of Leica R film cameras which for me adds a small something for the likes of you and I.

 

[efirmage]

Anything by Akira Kurosawa. Notably Seven Samurai and High and Low. Amazing films, outstanding cinematography.

 

[rbiemer]

Aesthetics: "Le Samurai"
Plot (and damned good aesthetics too, I think): "The Man Who Would Be King"

Rob

 

[pinafore2]

I allways liked the plot of: "Where the eagles dare" !

 

[FrozenInTime]

Just watched the 1929 Howard Hughes film Hell's Angels.
Terrible plot .. but the special effect and camera work of the dogfighting in the clouds and blowing up of the amo dump were the best I've ever seen.

Perhaps it's because there no special effects - they really knew how to fly those planes and were really blowing things up - on a grand scale 😀

 

[valdas]

My choice:
Aesthetics: any film by Terrence Malick ("Days of heaven", "Thin Red Line"), Northfork by Polish brothers, and definitely "Il buono, il brutto, il cativo" by Sergio Leone...

Plot? Lots of good movies, first that comes to my mind: "Usual suspects"