PdA's Anti-Canon, 2018 Edition
A ranked Top 300 list of my favorite films that are relatively little seen.
Also available on letterboxd:
https://letterboxd.com/systematicer/list/pdas-anti-canon-2018-edition/
You may notice that the two lists are a bit different from each other, with the letterboxd list including some films that aren't in IMDb's database at this time and vice versa. Since I had to do double the work anyway instead of having one "original" list and filling up the other list with place holders I decided to do it that way. Overall there are 13 titles that are exclusive to each list.
This list has become an annual tradition of mine; here are the links to the previous editions:
2017: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls025056739/
2016: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls063998873/
2015: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls079727709/
2014: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls077590099/
2013: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls056860412/
Also available on letterboxd:
https://letterboxd.com/systematicer/list/pdas-anti-canon-2018-edition/
You may notice that the two lists are a bit different from each other, with the letterboxd list including some films that aren't in IMDb's database at this time and vice versa. Since I had to do double the work anyway instead of having one "original" list and filling up the other list with place holders I decided to do it that way. Overall there are 13 titles that are exclusive to each list.
This list has become an annual tradition of mine; here are the links to the previous editions:
2017: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls025056739/
2016: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls063998873/
2015: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls079727709/
2014: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls077590099/
2013: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls056860412/
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- DirectorRobert E. FultonStarsRobert GardnerA short film which presents us footage of students making and discussing their work alongside figures like Gardner, theorist Rudolf Arnheim, artist Stan Vanderbeek, filmmaker Stan Brakhage, and graphic designer Toshi Katayama.
- DirectorPeter MettlerStarsJustine BellinskyGovindaPeter MettlerA filmmaker's inquiry into transcendence becomes a three-hour trip across countries and cultures, interconnecting people, places and times. From Toronto, the scene of his childhood, Peter Mettler sets out on a journey that includes evangelism at the airport strip, demolition in Las Vegas, tracings in the Nevada desert, chemistry and street life in Switzerland, and the coexistence of technology and divinity in contemporary India. Everywhere along the way, the same themes are to be found: thrill-seeking, luck, destiny, belief, expanding perception, the craving for security in an uncertain world. Fact joins with fantasy; the search for meaning and the search for ecstasy begin to merge.
- DirectorTrinh T. Minh-haStarsBarbara ChristianTrinh T. Minh-haLinda PeckhamExplores the rhythm and ritual life in the rural environment of six West African countries: Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, and Senegal.
- DirectorR. Bruce ElderStarsAnna PafomowHenry JesionkaR. Bruce ElderA montage provides a meditation on opposing extremes and the inevitability of destruction.
- DirectorBirgit HeinWilhelm HeinA black and white experimental short film directed by Birgit Hein and Wilhelm Hein.
- DirectorJang Sun-wooStarsWon Mi-kyungOh Tae-kyungKim Hye SunSeon-jae, a teenage boy mourns the death of his father, and begins a quest to find his mother who abandoned him as a baby. He encounters many people on the way who quote Buddhist precepts: an eccentric monk, a girl who grows up into a young woman, a prison inmate, a foul-mouthed doctor and the young son of a hard drinking astronomer. Each of them tell the boy to seek someone to help him find the truth and his mother.
- DirectorRobert E. FultonA dialogue with the Tibetan culture captured through photography.
- DirectorBen HechtCharles MacArthurStarsNoël CowardJulie HaydonStanley RidgesA ruthless, cynical, hated publisher is killed in a plane crash, doomed to be a restless spirit for being unloved. A heavenly power gives him a month on Earth to find one person to shed a tear for him before his fate is sealed.
- DirectorKeiichi HaraStarsKazato TomizawaTakahiro YokokawaNaoki TanakaA boy befriends an orphaned water spirit, or Kappa, he found dried up and buried in a riverbank. He and his family help the creature adjust to life in the modern world.
- StarsGottfried JohnWolfrid LierAnita BucherThe young toolmaker Jochen fights with his colleagues to a performance bonus. He gets to know the girl Marion. For both, it is love at first sight.
- DirectorA.J. KardarStarsKhan Ataur RahmanTripti MitraKazi KhaliqBased on he daily lives of the fishermen of East Bengal.
- DirectorJohn GuillerminStarsMelvyn DouglasPatricia GozziDean StockwellAgnes, a lonely teenage girl, and her father befriend an escaped convict, named Joseph, who arrives at their farm in Brittany, France. When Joseph develops an attraction to Agnes, her father threatens to break up the union.
- DirectorPeter MettlerStarsPeter MettlerFreya BlekmanRichie HawtinExplores our perception of time.
- DirectorHans-Jürgen SyberbergStarsHeinz SchubertPeter KernHellmut LangeDirector Hans-Jurgen Syberberg examines the rise and fall of the Third Reich in this brooding seven-hour masterpiece, which incorporates puppetry, rear-screen projection, and a Wagnerian score into a singular epic vision. Syberberg, who grew up under Nazi tyranny, ruminates on good and evil and the rest of humanity's complicity in the horrors of the holocaust.
- DirectorWenhua LiStarsZhenqing GuoSuya WangXiying WenSet in the "cultural revolution" period of China, a college of labor is set up in a mountain area of Jiangxi Province. Long Guozheng, a veteran cadre of Chinese People's Anti-Japanese Military and Political College, is sent to the new college as secretary and headmaster. He has to try his best to lead the college on the right track.
- DirectorKaige ChenStarsZhongyuan LiuLei HuangQing XuA blind man's master told him that after he has broken 1000 strings on his Banjo, he can open the Banjo to get a script for his eyes. After 60 years he broke the 1000th string...
- DirectorLeighton PierceA 12 section film that invites viewers into a more visceral and less verbally analytical state of mind.
- DirectorArmando Robles GodoyStarsJulio AlemánSandra RivaRaúl MartinA young couple forsakes their urban existence for life in the exciting but dangerous Peruvian jungle.
- DirectorGuy DebordStarsGuy DebordLeonid BrezhnevFidel CastroGuy Debord's cinematic analysis of consumer society based on his influential book "La société du spectacle" (1967).
- DirectorHelena TrestíkováHelena Trestikova is the author of 10 episodes from the series Women on the Brink of the New Millennium, intimate portraits of both successful women and women on the social periphery. The tragic story of a girl named Katka who believes that joy and happiness can be applied through a hypodermic needle. All she is left with is despair. We first meet Katka at a rehab clinic in Nemcice, still full of optimism and faith in a drug-free future. The film tries to draw attention to the drug problem from a somewhat different point of view.
- DirectorCesare CanevariStarsLou CastelCorrado PaniAntonio SalinesA gang of outlaws find themselves in conflict with a mysterious, boomerang-wielding drifter and a widower who arrive in the ghost town they have holed up in.
- DirectorLee GarmesBen HechtCharles MacArthurStarsClaude RainsMargoWhitney BourneProminent lawyer shoots unfaithful girlfriend during quarrel, has to establish alibi.
- DirectorGordon ParksStarsRon LeibmanDavid SelbySheila FrazierThe true story of two New York City cops. Greenberg & Hantz fought the system, became detectives and were known on the streets as "Batman & Robin".
- DirectorGuy GillesStarsDanièle DelormeNathalie DelonPatrick PennYoung man Francois Nole works in a Bank. Often skips a walk, and one day he never comes to work. He goes to bed and refuses stand. Francois is a heroin addict, who has lost the joy of life. Nothing could bring him back from the darkness and despair no mother, no friends, no holidays, no love. One day, he suddenly changes,it becomes cheerful and calm...
- DirectorNikolaus GeyrhalterDuring the year 2000 Geyrhalter and his teams travelled to a different destination each month, looking for places untouched by the millennium hysteria. Locations include Niger, Finland, Micronesia, Australia, China, Siberia or Greenland.
