What are your fav “Off Hollywood” films

The Dude abides.

It figures that many audiophiles are also film buffs. I love to see a director as brilliant and underrated as Atom Egoyan getting his props here. "The Sweet Hereafter" is stunning. I think "Exotica" is just as good, and perhaps more challenging. As for Lynch, although I love him, I couldn't get into "Inland Empire" either. On the other hand, I like "Mulholland Drive" as much as any movie I've seen in the last twenty years. Just a mind blowing movie.

How about a couple of great older "out of Hollywood" films? "Night of the Hunter" and "Out of the Past," both starring the great Robert Mitchum, turned out to be very influential, but still were far from typical Hollywood fare in their day. "Night of the Hunter" is especially original, and maintains its eerie surrealism fifty years later.

And then, just to keep the list going, here are a handful of nominations chosen absolutely at random.

Picnic At Hanging Rock
You Can Count On Me
Five Easy Pieces
Half Nelson
Away From Her
Red Rock West
Music Of Chance
Happiness
Heavenly Creatures
The Whale and the Squid
In The Company Of Men
My Dinner With Andre
House Of Games
Election

By the way, now that the Coens have won Oscars for best director, screenplay, and picture, can they still be considered "outside of Hollywood"?

Walter - Some brilliant pics in there that I hadn't thought of and unusual to boot. I'm going to have to check out the very few that I have not seen (I think there are only two: Election and Away from Her) - Man, I didn't think anyone else bothered with "Music of Chance" which I thought was just brilliant and thought provoking in an Egoyan (read slow and quiet) kind of way. I loved that film...how could I have forgotten!

If you liked Whale and Squid, check out "The Savages" recently released on DVD - another all-time favorite actor in that one; Phillip Seymore Hoffman!!! For more great diverse rolls with him check out "Punch Drunk Love" (small roll - but so brilliantly played - worth it for that one single scene in the matress store), "Flawless" with Deniro, and "Boogie Nights". "Capote" of course, but there's Hollywood written all over that. And back to Whale and Squid - the same director did "Margot at the Wedding" with Jack Black, not as good as W&S, but worth watching if you liked the first.

I held back mentioning “Out of the Past” but am glad Albert did. Mitchum always has been a big deal for me. With an immense filmography to his credit, I especially liked The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Eldorado, and Five Card Stud, just to name a few. I’ll look into finding ”The Hunter” next.

Other’s RM did which are timeless contain, Cape Fear, (it’s better than the Deniro remake), Thunder Road, Home from the Hill, and The Yakuza..

Mitchum also did a movie whose name escapes me wherein he is in the Navy and his ship goes down during WW II and he finds himself on an island with a nun… and doesn’t want to return to active duty.

On that same shipwrecked premise, Nick Nolte made what I believe is one of if not his best role, in “Farewell To The King”. A similarly set yet far more intricate and violent film.

As for Bogie, To Have and Have Not, Sahara, and The Harder They Fall were and still are among my Favs… The Big Sleep, one Mitchum redid as well, is a worthwhile view. Anyone remember Bogie in a film with the Dead End (Bowery boys) Kids? Naturally, The Harder They Fall is a super film as well. I didn’t care for Key Largo quite as much as many others have seem to though. The Maltese Falcon & African Queen are I feel his best efforts… along with Have and Have Not.

Of so many remarkable actors and actresses, I’ve yet to find a Deniro Flick I couldn’t stand to watch yet. Two films many aren’t aware of are, “A Bronx Tale, & Stardust ” the former is definitely worth seeking out, the latter is a humorous fantasy that’s well put together and RD has a minor but integral role nearing the end of the flick. Check it out, I think you will be glad you did… and likely quite suprized at the role he is cast into.

From an actor known for his comedic efforts, “The House of D” puts Robin Williams in perhaps his best non comedic role as an emotionally & mentally challenged man. The pic shows the growing up process of two people, himself and his best friend. Everyone I loan this DVD out to likes it a lot.

Speaking of ‘Rock’ movies… Bad Day At Black Rock stands out as one I recently got, along with “Red Rock West” an interesting fast paced thrill ride of poor circumstances becoming much worse, and fast. Nick Cage & Dennis Hopper. Great flick.

“Hollow Point” is a star studded action comedy worth seeing, starring .Donald Southerland, John Lithgow, and the bad pony tail wearing sensei, from the Karate Kid films. Another darkly quirky comedy is one with Joe Peshy, “Eight Heads In a Duffle Bag”.

Anyone here a fan of Hitchcock?

Hitchcock, Mitcum, Bogart...all classics, but mostly not what I'd consider "off Hollywood" though certainly they are immortals. Love Hitchcock though - you mentioned Rope, which I think is one of his more innovative films - "Rear Window" and "North by Northwest" would be two other favorites, but that's big-time Hollywood IMO.

There's a whole other category that fits in that mold that few have mentioned: Documentaries! There are some truly wonderful documentaries that have been made entirely outside of the Hollywood machine. Top of my list would be:

Crumb
I Like Killing Flies (I mentioned that one already)
Grey Gardens
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (anything by Errol Morris for that matter)
Deliver us From Evil
Lake of Fire
Why We Fight
Who Killed the Electric Car

A couple of other films that popped to mind, albeit some of these are Hollywood efforts -

Being John Malkovich
Adaptation
American Beauty
10 Items or Less
Broken Flowers
Basquiat (brilliant performance by Jeffrey Wright)

What about films so bizarre that they are rendered tolerable only by the hard-core, and even then test the limits. I can think of one in particular, which I wonder if anyone else here as seen. Named by Time Magazine as one of the most important films of the 20th century:

Begotten - this film makes "Eraserhead" and "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" seem like Saturday morning children's cartoons.

A very strange and beautiful film that I CAN recomend, however: Jan Svankmejer's gorgeous animated film called "Alice" (based upon Alice in Wonderland)