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moviemill · 3 years

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The She Beast (1966)

A newlywed English tourist and an eccentric Transylvanian Count must work together when the former's beautiful wife is made the bodily host of a horrific witch.

Marked as comedy/horror/thriller... we’ll see how that pans out.

Purportedly in color, but we have such a godawful print of it that it’s VERY desaturated.

we open with a dude in a cave reading a soggy phonebook and then it goes to a funeral? and then immediately it is a Witch Hunt. a Literal Witch Hunt

It does not feel like a real movie!

man in cave reads us the story of witch murder and then we zoop back to the present, presumably to see the results of the murdered witch’s dick cursing.

and then its just a lot of trying to find a hotel and a room and -

“DO YOU KNOW THE DRACULAS” which is my new favourite line.

THEY SERVE GARLIC WITH THE TEA THEY’RE USED TO DEAL WITH VAMPIRES AROUND HERE

COUNT VAN HELSING WHOSE FAMILY EXORCISED THE DRACULAS

there are no vampires left in transylvania

THIS ISNT EVEN A VAMPIRE MOVIE?

THE GOVERNMENT OUTLAWED BLACK MAGIC, OF COURSE

and then they do sum fuk at night and the hotel owner who is named GROPER is peeping on them and then our LEADING MAN BEATS HIM TO DEATH? Oh, not quite. But lord.

‘id divorce a man immediately for being afraid of garlic’ @gwenfrankenstien

It talks almost a half hour to get to the car lake crash that is, i believe, the inciting action for the plot.

There’s a truck driver. He looks like communist Mario according to at least two viewers.

We are all calling the truck driver Mario now.

Anyway the truck driver brings Leading Man back to the hotel and then some stuff happens and THERES A WITCH BODY IN A BED and everyons’s ALARMED and Von Helsing interrogates the Leading Man.

von helsing appears to live in a cave because the government took his castle. damn communists.

vanhelsing stole leading man’s keys so he can’t leave this movie for a better one leave his wacky old man tales

and then leading man - whose name is philip! just fucking books it and runs away from cave von helsing.

It took almost 45 minutes to learn Leading Man’s name.

The soundtrack in this movie occasionally just does its own weird-ass thing.

We have not seen the witch do any witch things yet.

Von Helsing makes the terrible, terrible choice of waking up the witch. This is where everything goes wrong.

sexual assault warning at about 47 minutes in. Groper, unfortunately, lives up to his name.

and then someone gets killed after the lady escapes groper? i have no idea what happened there. I Blinked.

And then groper leaves the corpse in the road to get run over as a coverup but that fails because the truck swerves.

WHERE is the WITCH.

road corpse guy was not dead and was also philip i cannot keep the events of this movie STRAIGHT!

AND THEN THE WITCH FIGHTS GROPER AND AT SOME POINT A HAMMER AND SICKLE GET TOSSED ON THE FLOOR AND THEY JUST. ITS SOVIET

entire chat lost it

there’s a cockfight and they just bop the chickens together before it starts and then they throw them at each other but they dont even look like roosters just standard white hens. the cockfight takes place almost entirely offscreen and we just see an occasionally disgruntled chickenflap. it is the most hilariously weak attempt at pretending there is animal violence happening.

There’s still very little witch but she harasses a teenager for a bit while the chicken stuff is going down.

At about 58 minutes there’s a second long shot of one chicken standing over a maybe dead chicken? i’d say animal gore/death warning but it’s brief and grainy so its.

Anyway the kid choked out the witch. and they dragged her back to the hotel? and stuff her in a coffin.

The witch killed groper he was MARKED FOR HER VENGANCE.

This movie is like. anti-communism wrapped in a goofy witch story.

things just went off the rails again!

then the communist police take the witch and - since she looks dead they’ll autopsy her and GOOD NEWS, THAT WILL KILL THE WITCH? except bad news? because that will kill veronica?

‘this is a fucking comedy’ @villainpunk

AND THEN COUNT AND LEADING MAN GO GRAND THEFT AUTO AND STEAL THE POLICE CAR WITH THE WITCH IN IT AND THE POLICE STEAL THE COUNT’S CAR TO CHASE THEM

THERES A CAR CHASE SEQUENCE AND THEY SPED UP THE FILM I THINK AND ITS PLAYING COMEDIC MUSIC AND ???

this sudden turn to comedy movie is VERY JARRING??

at seven minutes until the end i have NO IDEA WHAT THE HAP IS FUCKENING and - they want to kill the communist cops now, this is no longer a comedy.

at this point, anything could happen.

AND THEN THE WITCH WAKES UP AND FIGHTS THE COPS AND THE COUNT TRIES TO CHOKE HER OUT AND THEN HE STABS SOME POLICEMENT IN THE ASS WITH A TRANQUILIZER AND TRANQS THE WITCH AND NOW THEY’RE DOING? SOMETHING ELSE? WITH THE WITCH?

AND THEN THEY BRING THE WITCH BACK TO THE LAKE THEY MURDERED HER IN AND THEY DROWN THE WITCH IN THE LAKE WHILE SHE SCREECHES AND DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS AND THEN THE WITCH DISSOLVES MAYBE AND LEADING MAN’S WIFE IS BACK AND OK AND THEY KISS AND THE COUNT DRIVES THEM AWAY FROM THE LAKE WHILE THEY ALL COMPLAIN ABOUT THE PLACE except the wife who’s like I’LL BE BACK and then the movie’s over.

rating: what?? out of Witch?? on the beetsometer. it kept swinging from Mildly A Movie to What On Earth and wow. what even was that last chunk

emoji of the movie: jeeguscreegus.emoji

[Watch it on Youtube!] [Watch it on Dailymotion!]

#The She Beast #legends of horror #barbara steele #john karlsen #ian ogilvy #movie with link

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curly-q-reviews · 5 years

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FLIX FROM THE NET

Bird Box, 2018 (dir. Susanne Bier)

SPOILER WARNING THERE WILL BE SPOILERS DONT READ IF U HAVENT SEEN IT YET AND WANT TO

[TW: SUICIDE, MURDER, VIOLENCE, BLOOD, GORE]

well fuck its been a while!! happy new year y’all hope u had a Fun and Safe time!!! i for one was at a party where we started playing Shrek at exactly 10:39 PM to see if Smash Mouth’s hit song I’m a Believer started playing right at midnight and to my utter disbelief and elation it did!!! move over times square ball drop a new arbitrary way of celebrating the start of a new calendar year is here and it involves a large green monster with a scottish accent who really loves his onions (#me am i right ladies)

WELL ANYWAY heres a fun new series ive been thinking of starting cause ya girl watches a lot of netflix movies and has many opinions about them. i think i’ll do a separate post about the whole Netflix Original Film trend in general and how its changed the film industry at a later date but since i just watched the above movie not too long ago i wanted to get all my thoughts out there right fuckin now!!

netflix is without a doubt the OG king of streaming services, they were really the first to get the ball rolling and then dozens of other companies scrambled to latch onto this money train while it was rolling on the tracks full steam (or should i say.... stream EL;KGHS;EKFSH; please end me) ahead. it started out as a rental subscription service where u could pick out three movies at a time to rent and then they were sent to u in the mail (like blockbuster but now you never have to leave your house ever again to get that sweet sweet rental content). and then the decision was made to actually start online streaming, no physical DVD’s required! ISNT TECHNOLOGY GREAT

well whoooo boy this shit swept the nation, people couldnt get enough of such a convenient and relatively affordable service and netflix started really raking in the dough. and at some point they got rich enough to say “hey fuck it!!! lets make our own movies baby!!!!” and here we are now with Netflix Original Movies and TV Shows, which means a new player has entered the movie game in a very novel and innovative way. why pay money for a movie ticket and leave your house to go to a theater when cool new movies are being released on a subscription service u already own to watch movies you already know and enjoy? and then u can sit butt-ass naked in ur bedroom alone stuffing ur face with cheese puffs like an insatiable cheddar beast and see something new and fun and interesting

ok so. Bird Box. here we have a movie based off of a book (so i guess this also counts as a Book Movies review but I DIGRESS) starring hollywood powerhouse sandra bullock, featuring Supreme Lesbian Overlord Sarah Paulson and Resident Crazy Old Man John Malkovich, directed by a relatively unknown but competent female filmmaker Susanne Bier (who also directed Things We Lost in the Fire in 2007, a moving drama starring Halle Berry). this one definitely has a lot of proimse compared to what netflix has offered so far in terms of their original movies (im gonna get into Dumplin’ at a later date cause jesus christ what a mess) and i went in with pretty high expectations

did it deliver??? well uuhhhh yeah sort of i guess!! we got some pretty strong performances from our leading lady bullock who really does deliver it every time, a few strong supporting roles like newcomer Trevante Rhodes of Moonlight fame (his energy on screen is just so compelling and soothing), not overly obnoxious child actors which is really all u can ask for, and overall a solid story.

now heres where i gotta say that i couldnt help comparing this film to another movie of its kind, directed by the notorious M. Night Shyamalan. y’all remember The Happening? cause i remember The Happening. i remember that it was total shit and that the twist was that it was the fucking plants making everyone kill themselves. the PLANTS. and i also remember mark wahlbergs dumb-ass confused face that he used in every single shot no matter the context, im AMAZED i remember zoe deschanel in this movie cause she may as well have been one of the killer plants with how little she emoted, and i remember mark wahlberg yelling at a fake office ficus and apparently i was supposed to be scared while watching this clusterfuck.

the way that this movie was described to me by friends who had seen it before me was basically that Bird Box is a slightly better The Happening, and no truer words have ever been spoken. we basically have the same premise going on here: unknown force is causing people to off themselves, our lead(s) have to try and find a way to escape this unknown force without even knowing what it really is, and theres some sort of “sanctuary” they gotta try and get to (which is a common plot point in really all apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic films). now whereas The Happening’s rules for this scenario make entirely no fucking sense (how in the fuck are u supposed to be able to out-run WIND???), Bird Box has some rules for dealing with this Unknown Thing that make slightly more sense. when u open ur eyes while outside, the chance of the Thing making u kill urself in some horrific way is extremely high, so wear a blindfold when ur outside and keep all windows covered when ur inside. makes sense! thats something i can believe and get behind which makes me more immersed in the story!

unfortunately like The Happening there are still some little things that kinda dont make much sense and take u out of it. apparently some people when they see this unknown entity dont wanna die, but instead find it absolutely beautiful, which makes them want to make everyone else look at it to see how beautiful it is. and its insinuated that these people are mentally ill or have some sort of psychiatric issue. i get that this adds more stakes to the situation and ups the ante, but it doesnt really sit well with me that once again, mentally ill people are the villains in a horror-type story. and i also dont really understand why theyd then wanna go around and make other people see the thing?? unless the thing has them in a mind-control state or something and is making them do its bidding but that seems kind of a weird thing for an all-powerful evil formless entity to do.

and that leads me to the next issue i have with Bird Box. if ur gonna have an apocalyptic scenario where people do something as serious as kill themselves due to an unknown cause, it almost seems a little cliche and cheesy to have it be some sort of mythical celestial god-like or demon-like entity thats doing the damage. i actually really liked where The Happening was going with its source of all the chaos being something naturally made, like the Earth deploying some sort of self-preservation mechanism or something. the idea of that to me is actually loads more frightening than some invisible boogeyman that u cant look at. and then Shamalamadingdong had to go and make it stupid by saying that it was fucking plants trying to kill people by releasing pheromones or some shit. like why cant we have the best of both of these?? something naturally-occuring that maybe has even happened before in the planets history (maybe it wasnt a meteor that killed off the dinosaurs after all??), that isnt FUCKING PLANTS, and that doesnt do cheesy shit like make ur eyes turn grey and bloodshot and like whisper to u telling u to take ur blindfold off (i swear that happens multiple times it was pretty silly)

thats another thing, this movie’s tone is all over the place. there are some moments where a more light-hearted tone is needed to break up the tension, for sure, but it almost as if the writing and dialogue werent really taking this serious of a story as seriously as they should have. weirdly placed jokes are all over the place, there were some moments where the dialogue made me cringe cause it was so awkward. bullock’s character gets to have some good breakdown moments which help bring the tone to the level of somberness and despair it should be at, but all the other supporting characters dont really get the same space to process whats happening to them, so it kinda comes off like they arent really affected by, say, their wife throwing herself into a burning car right in front of their very eyes.

overall i’d still say this is a worthwhile watch, especially considering its a netflix movie. if you’ve ever wanted to see a not-as-horrible version of The Happening that has some deeper metaphorical stuff going on about motherhood and family and shit than this is for you. the production value is overall pretty solid (though when it comes to cinematography i actually prefer The Happening from an artistic standpoint) and sandra bullock knocks it out of the park. go check it out if this seems like something thats up ur alley!!

ok bye for now hopefully it doesnt take me six months to write another review but we’ll see!! my brain is a mystery and time is an illusion HAPPY 20-BI-TEEN Y’ALL

#curly q reviews #bird box #netflix #book movies #flix from the net #the happening #m night shyamalan #sandra bullock #sarah paulson #john malkovich #trevante rhodes #horror #thriller #movies #films #netflix original movies

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idealistic-imaginings · 7 years

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idealistic-imaginings BTS Fic Rec (Summer 2017)

If I’m gonna reblog fics, I’m gonna do it right. In an organized and set fashion. And sure I’m a complete no one, but these fics deserve love and attention because they’re all beautiful in their own way. And hey if this fic rec catches at least one persons eye, then I’ll be satisfied.

You’re gonna see a lot of the same authors...possibly their whole masterlist.

Once again I am a no one, but I’ve actually decided to do an endless series of fic recs because they’re constantly gonna be new stories to find and share. Some fic recs could be seasonal (as in I discovered them in that season, THIS), Memorable (these fics are ones that have strongly affected me and as it says are memorable), YouNeedaCheckIt (Chaptered stories, I’m keeping up with) and masterlist (a list of fics I’ve fell in love with in particular, in a persons masterlist, or several people’s. Basically gonna tell you who I stalked.)

I also just started reblogging (August2017) fics so theres a ton of hidden jewels I’ve read, but lost. Or haven’t read yet.

Ah Summer, the warmest season of the year. In the northern hemisphere it is linked to vacations, the end of school, and fun. Fun in the sun. For me it’s a time to finally take a break from school and relax. Hang out with friends, family and it is filled with opportunities to read fanfics. So with that heres my Summer fic rec... (there’s lowkey way more fics I’ve read this summer but those will go in SEVERAL other lists)

Kim Seokjin:

Show me by @floralseokjin (Seokjin x Reader)

W|C: 14,138 AU: College Genre: smut, fluff, little angst Summary: your friend Jin has a proposition for you that you can’t seem to refuse, no matter how hard you try.

Great Romances of the 21st Century by @floralseokjin (Seokjin x Reader)

W|C: 12,799 AU: Highschool Genre: drama, fluff, smut, comedy Summary: in which you must tutor the most arrogant and pretentious jerk that ever existed, who can’t seem to concentrate on anything other than football, working out and girls… but then something changes and you find yourself thinking – maybe Kim Seokjin isn’t so bad after all?

Regret by @hskswife (Seokjin x Reader)

W|C: 473 Genre: Angst Summary: I miss you, I really do.

Home Is Wherever You Are by @hijoonie (Seokjin x Reader)

W|C: 3,600 AU: Military Genre: angst, fluff Summary: Kim Seokjin believes he can face any and all things with dignity and strength - prides himself in his resilience and armoured heart. He is a brave man, through and through. The only fear he has is the inability to find his way back into your arms, which in turn would mean he has lost his way home. Because home is wherever you are.

Min Yoongi: lol why is there no Yoongi. Don’t worry Yoongi is one of my three main biases (umm my bad). See it was originally Taehyung, but then that faithful day came 150309 (did I seriously fall in love with him on his birthday) in this video , I don’t know how or why, but there was some sort of shift and I saw Min Yoongi in a different light (there weren’t any english subs even). And then I slowly fell in love with Min Yoongi, for all his layers and personas. For his tsundere complex and love for armys, his ability to say what he feels but at the same time not say anything at all. Especially his passion for music and hard working mindset, even though it makes us worry a lot about him. He’s chillaxed and easy-going and isn’t afraid to stray from the crowd, he’s comfortable and confident with who he is, but there’s so much more to him under the surface. And I really admire that about him. Also for being my spirit animal ey.

But trust me he’ll be in a whole bunch of other fic recs. Trust me, it’s just bad timing, In fact I started reblogging fics more then halfway through August. And it’s either I’ve saved those Yoongi fics to read later on. They’re a chaptered fic that hasn’t been updated in a while. Or they’re meant to be on another list.

Anyway you may be wondering who that third man is, well he’s up next. You see I don’t know how this man swerved and wiggled and danced his way into my heart. I guess it slowly happened over the course of a semester and the summertime, until finally he officially sticked. The golden hyung (who I lowkey think will kill it on broadway), a man of many talents, the happy virus, our hope, our angel. But also an amazing brother (and mother) to his BTS members, who carries such a passion for his art. In fact he’s fighting Yoongi for 1st place. As you can see from the total difference between the amount of fics I’m recing of his. (I’m sorry Taehyung)

Jung Hoseok:

Journeys Which Are Long Gone by @strawberrymarshmallowstories (Hoseok x Reader

AU: Magic Genre: Mystery Summary: Your days pass as usual, customers to meet, life to be risked with getting trapped in unknown realms. Just, the usual

Bones by @floralseokjin (Hoseok x Reader, Yoongi x Reader)

Chapters: 5 AU: College Genre: angst, smut, friends with benefits, fluff Summary: you were broken from a past relationship, and Hoseok wanted to fix you, but what price was he willing to pay? Would he end up worse off, or would you realise in time, that your best friend was the one…?

It’s Alright Honey by @strawberrymarshmallowstories (Hoseok x Reader)

Chapters: 4/? AU: Normal life Genre: Angst Summary: There had always been something underlying burning between you two, something that you never had a chance to explore as one of you had always been in a relationship. You played around with each other a lot, teasing, inviting, but always stopped when this innocent game was in danger to turn serious.

Dressed Like A Daydream by @dat-town (Hoseok x Reader)

W|C: 10,354 AU: Royalty, Cinderella Genre: adventure, fluff, romance, humour Prompt: Cinderella did not come to the party to enjoy it, but is instead an assassin tasked to kill the prince. (cr.) / I snuck into the castle to kill you, but wow you’re good with a sword, and I quite like your eyes Summary: When the Crown Princess’ best friend agrees to go to the ball instead of her, to kill Prince Hoseok and save her from an arranged marriage, that’s definitely not how she planned this.

Part of Your World by @guksthighs (Hoseok x Reader)

Chapters: 5 AU: Mermaid/Siren!Hoseok Genre: Fantasy, Angst, Fluff Request: AU where he is a merman and he tries to get you to go and live in the sea with him thanks Excerpt: ‘never trust a mermaid because they could be a siren in disguise’

Waiting For Him by @strawberrymarshmallowstories (Hoseok x Reader)

W|C: 880 Genre: slice of life, fluff Summary: When rainy evenings make you feel alone

First Meeting by @strawberrymarshmallowstories (Hoseok x Reader)

W|C: 1,360 Genre: Fluff Summary: You knew nothing about him, and he knew nothing about you. But in that moment you knew enough. His name was Hoseok.

Early Fluffy Mornings by @strawberrymarshmallowstories (Hoseok x Reader)

W|C: 1K Genre: Pure Fluff Summary: Early mornings with Hoseok were the best.

Kim Namjoon:

Mission Bad Boy by @oppamansae (Namjoon x Reader)

Chapters: 6/? AU: Highschool Genre: Angst, Humour Plot: What if you could win 100,000 Won by giving someone a makeover? But here’s the catch – you have 6 months to turn a nerdy, anti-social male into the school’s biggest heartthrob.

Park Jimin:

Young and Beautiful by @hayjeon (Jimin x Reader)

W|C: 12.6K AU: Great Gatsby Genre: angst, mentions of smut/murder, slight fluff Summary: “For a moment, all of earth and heaven held its breath as they witnessed a man who’d loved so fiercely, so unconditionally and thoroughly that he challenged god. Maybe once, the world had stood at this place, compelled into a trance at the single man who had dared to live so passionately to the greatest of human potential that one could ever comprehend nor desire to understand, faced with the man who’d dared to dream as magnificently as Park Jimin did.

Bitter Aftertaste by @hskswife (Jimin x Reader)

W|C: 689 Genre/Warning: Angst, Cheating Summary: Your love was like coffee. It had a bitter aftertaste

Kim Taehyung:

The Beautiful Creature Living In This House by @lthyl (Taehyung x Reader)

Chapters: prologue + 3/? GENRE: Horror / Angst RATED T: for mentions of esoterism, blood, death, and mature themes SYNOPSIS: It’s a rainy night when you end up getting lost in the woods and then it’s a silent night when, luckily, safety comes in a form of a strange house and a tempting man. Somehow you feel no danger with him, but, really, shouldn’t you, when the old rooms hold such a mystery and his eyes such a dark gravity?

Xeno by @oppamansae (Taehyung x Reader, Jungkook x reader)

Chapters: prologue + 8/? AU: Furturistic, Idol!JK, Scientist! Reader Genre: Fluff, Angst Plot: The best part about being an assistant in a lab was watching all new inventions come to life, although sometimes some of them fail, leaving them away in a storage room, never to be bothered with; free for the taking.

The T-Shirt Thief by @jungblue (Taehyung x Reader)

W|C: 9,812 AU: Idol Genre: fluff, smut Description: In the midst of your loneliness due to Taehyung’s absence, you decide that you need a distraction, which somehow manifests itself as going over to his apartment and stealing a t-shirt or two… or three… Request: being in a relationship with taehyung, and stealing all of his t-shirts while he’s busy with bts’ latest comeback + smut

Jeon Jungkook:

The Blue Princess and Her Red Rose by @cutaepatootie (Jungkook x Reader)

W|C: 34.8k AU: Prince!JK,Princess!Reader Genre: Angst, Fluff & Smut Summary: After all, he was her red rose, while she was just another one of the many blue roses that grew in the dying gardens of Greyria.

Portrait by @guksthighs (Jungkook x Reader)

W|C: 1.1k AU: College, Photography Genre: fluff Summary : You choose Jeongguk to work with for a project or is it because you have a crush on him? Request: oumaimafngr said: Hey, I love ur blog so much, and if requests are open I hope you’d make scenario of jk at college and he found out that his current crush is his childhood best friend thank you so much for writing great scenarios ❤❤

Untitled by @floralseokjin (Jungkook x Reader)

W|C: 1,679 Genre: angst Listen To: untitled // gdragon

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topsolarpanels · 7 years

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50 documentaries you need to see

Ten of the best nonfiction film-makers today choose their own favourites, from serial murderer tales to meta pranks.

Joshua Oppenheimer

The Texan directors feature debut, The Act of Killing ( 2012 ), and its follow-up, The Look of Silence ( 2014 ), explore the consequences of the carnages in Indonesia. Both were nominated for Oscars .

Joshua Oppenheimer, photographed at home in Copenhagen. Photograph: Katherine Anne Rose for the Observer

Salaam Cinema, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1995

For this film, Mohsen Makhmalbaf announces a casting call: thousands of people turn up and theres a riot to get in. Each participant is channelling their worries and hopes into the desire to be in a movie. He interacts with them in this autocratic route, which builds the cinema ultimately about power and authority. He demands that people scream on command. One girl becomes so frustrated that she does start to cry, so he tells OK, youve attained it. And shes so happy, but then theres the frustration as she realises this was her moment on screen. She thought thered be a script and a real movie to make afterwards. Its a devastating, beautiful film.

A scene from Close-Up by Abbas Kiarostami.

Close Up, Abbas Kiarostami, 1990

A man pretends to be Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the director of Salaam Cinema . He insinuates himself into a familys life out of loneliness, to make friends. At one point the family realise hes not really the director and have him apprehended. The cinema follows this mans trial in an Iranian court, and then the real Mohsen Makhmalbaf satisfies the man and takes him to the family.

The impostors fragility ultimately embodies what it means to be poor and fighting in life, and through that you feel how sad it is that we live in a world where people are measured by wealth and power, and the cruelty that any human being could ever feel insignificant.

Gates of Heaven, Errol Morris, 1978

This was Errol Morriss first cinema. He was taking his time with it so Werner Herzog promised If you finish this film I will eat my shoe, which he did. Its about two families in California who operate pet graveyards, and it looks at humen relationships to their pets. Its an odd mystery, a pet. We eat animals, we use them for labor, but then we keep them in our home as objects upon which we project love that we maybe lack elsewhere. Morris has these carefully crafted tableaux: theres one continuous shooting where a woman has a 15 -minute lament, complaining about aspects of their own lives, and thats where the movie becomes something altogether greater and more mysterious.

Loss Is to Be Expected, Ulrich Seidl, 1992

This was constructed shortly after the fall of communism in eastern Europe and it looks at two communities on either side of the Czech-Austrian border. Theres an elderly human in Austria looking for a new spouse, and he fulfils a lone single woman on the Czech side of the border.

There are these amazing scenes where they go on a date to a funfair and then to a sexuality museum. Shes much more sexually comfy than he is, which is a source of incredible comedy. But its about passion and love and the fulfilling of our quotidian needs and the necessary, wilful blindness towards our deeper needs because ultimately, to contemplate those requires is to contemplate our own mortality.

A scene from The Hour of the Furnaces. Photograph: Tricontinental films

The Hour of the Furnaces, Octavia Getino and Fernando e Solanas, 1968

This is a furious, angry cinema about neocolonialism in Argentina, and its the most devastating look at colonialism Ive seen in nonfiction films. The sections about Argentinas oligarchy, and the exploitation on which they flourished, are so poetically rendered that you relate to the horror of totalitarianism purely through your emotions.

It was built secretly and was screened at illegal opponent meetings, in defiance of the authoritarian rule. People were arrested for screening it. I imagine that ensure it at the time you would come out feeling like youd “re going to have to” do something about the situation. There are segments of The Act of Killing where I surely had this film in the back of my head. KB

Lucy Walker: The Up series showed me what the medium was capable of

Director Lucy Walker. Photo: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

British director Lucy Walker has been Oscar-nominated twice, for Waste Land ( 2010) and The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom ( 2011 ). She is currently working on a remaking of Buena Vista Social Club .

Hoop Dreams, Steve James, 1994

Hoop Dreams follows two very talented African American boys in Chicago who get a basketball scholarship to go to a prestigious, predominantly white high school. It follows them for five years and its a spectacular example of a longitudinal documentary where you get to glimpse the machinery of life. You get a real sense of hour unfold and the big forces that act on us. The twistings and turnings are subtle , nothing much happens, and yet it feels unbelievably dramatic and compelling because its so well crafted and the characters are so beautifully rendered. I watched it repeatedly when I was stimulating my first cinema, Devils Playground , because it follows young people through this pivotal period in “peoples lives”, and I was trying to understand how you could get so much narrative, feeling and character into a movie. Theres a scene where the mum is icing a birthday cake for her sons 16 th birthday. Its an interview, in the sense that the film-maker is asking her the issues and shes talking to camera, but it doesnt feel like one, its so much more cinematic and compelling and the activity is so perfect.

Streetwise, Martin Bell, 1984

This film had its beginnings in a photojournalism assignment for Life magazine by the photographer Mary Ellen Markabout a group of street kids living in Seattle. She persuaded her husband, Martin Bell, to make a film about them. Its just so intimate that its hard to believe the film-maker is actually in the room with these kids. Its like hes put on a cloak of invisibility. I could have chosen any number of cinema vrit masterpieces but for some reason this moves me. Ive made quite a few films with young people and its fascinating because the plot of their lives is so close to the surface: one conversation can change the course of your life when youre young in a way that is rare when youre older and you are able to capture that nano-second when the course of a lifes direction is altered. When you put a camera and a cinema crew into a room, the observers paradox is almost always true you cant capture life because youre in the way of it. But these kids seem unaware of the camera and theyre behaving in a way that feels like life unfolding. The filmmaker is so present with them, you cant help but understand what theyre “re going through”, and to understand is to feel empathy and to want to help.

The Five Obstructions by Lars Von Trier.

The Five Obstructions, Lars von Trier and Jrgen Leth, 2003

In this underrated cinema the iconoclastic Danish director Lars von Trier challenges experimental film-maker Jrgen Leth to remake one of his earlier movies, The Perfect Human , 5 times, each time with a different creative constraint. The first obstruction imposed by von Trier, for example, was that the cinema had to be made in Cuba, using shootings of no more than 12 frames. Another was that it had to be made as a cartoon. Its basically these two creative egos going up against one another and it dedicates a fascinating insight into the film-making process, what goes on in a directors head and how you cope with stress and constraint and challenge. Its delicious and playful and theres never a dull moment watching these two maestros needling each other.

The Gleaners and I, Agns Varda, 2000

This film was made during the early days of the hand-held digital camera, when for the first time you could capture something high-quality enough to show on a big screen on a camera that would fit in your handbag. Its an essay about the people who pick through other peoples leftovers, whether it be the remains of the harvest in the countryside, or in cities. Its very casual, but Varda is so astute and the quality of the film-making is such that it becomes something very beautiful, a meditation on life. Were having this golden age of documentary right now and its being driving in technology. In the past you would need to write a script first because the editing process was so laborious but now you are able to shoot a whole bunch of stuff and capture life in a way that you couldnt before and this movie, shot by a 72 -year-old woman employing a very low-key format, shows you just what level of artistry is possible.

Jackie in 21 Up, 1978. Photo: ITV

Up series, Michael Apted, 1964

Im fascinated by longitudinal film-making and this series, which has followed the lives of 14 British infants since 1964, when they were seven years old, showed me what the medium was capable of. This series is head and shoulders above any other attempt to record dramatically a whole human life. And because its a whole group of people, you learn not just about the individual but also about the organizations of the system in which theyre living. I cant think of any other artefact in our culture that can tell us so much about Britain in our lifetime and how society is evolving as this body of work. Its light and fascinating and its one of the things that inspired me to do the work that I do. JOC

Alex Gibney: Fake home movies dont bother me you might as well object to dreams

Going Clear director Alex Gibney. Photo: Larry Busacca/ Getty Images

Alex Gibneys award-winning films include Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room ( 2005 ), Taxi to the Dark Side ( 2007) and Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God ( 2012 ). Last year he released documentaries on Scientology and Steve Jobs. He tells: I dont believe in five best films. But I do believe in influential films. These are five of mine .

Night and Fog, Alain Resnais, 1955

What really impressed me about this movie was its concision. Its about the Holocaust, but it has a simple and horrible beauty to it, because it describes the scaring nature of the Holocaust through a powerful series of images and a narration that was specific, naming the collections of items of the prisoners and survivors. Its the cruel verse of detail that is so heartbreaking: the handles of the ovens, the fingernail scrapings on the ceilings of the cells. We assure piles of combs, shaving brushes, shoes and a vast mountain of human hair. It took something so horrible but discovered a way to go to the heart of the matter through simple details.

Gimme Shelter , Albert and David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin 1970

Here you assure the Rolling Stones on tour singing about empathy for the demon, but their posturing about satanism blows back at them at the Altamont music festival. Its structured like a detective tale: it starts with a assassination a Hells Angel stabs somebody who seems to have a gun in the audience and then you go back in time. Maybe one of the most powerful scenes is of the Stones listening to a playback of Wild Ponies in the studio. Its stunning in its simplicity. That movie went route beyond a concert reveal; it celebrates music but its really about a few moments in time and how dark forces-out get unleashed. Its powerful both in its observation and its analysis, which is a rare combination.

Leon Gasts When We Were Kings. Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd/ Allstar

When We Were Kings , Leon Gast, 1996

This is perhaps the greatest sport cinema ever attained. It has wonderful cinema vrit footage of the Rumble in the Jungle, the famous 1974 battle between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Gast has the most magnificent material, particularly in Muhammad Ali on a running, dancing, gooning for the camera, at his most charismatic. And then the dwell figure of George Foreman. But Gast wasnt be permitted to put that footage together, and in arrives Taylor Hackford, shoots some interviews with people who were there , notably George Plimpton and Norman Mailer, and through their recollection you also have a sense of analysis and understanding rather than mere observation. So its combining those two things in the film that really is magnificent.

Stories We Tell , Sarah Polley, 2012

This is a detective narrative thats very much in the first person. Its about identity, trying to understand your childhood, and ultimately paternity. Sarah Polley is digging back into the relationship between her mother and father, who she discovers isnt her biological father. In some quarters she was criticised for using a series of fictional home movies that she manufactured, but it didnt bother me at all they might as well any objections to dreamings and memories, because those are everyday recreations. The trick is receiving the verse in their own homes. Its a very powerful movie about memory and exploration and love, because she comes to appreciate her adoptive father in a manner that is she might not otherwise have done.

Waltz With Bashir, an animated documentary.

Waltz With Bashir , Ari Folman, 2008

Part of the small but growing category of the animated documentary, Waltz With Bashir is actually a film about repressed memory, and the recollection of Israeli soldiers trying to understand why theyre having these nightmares. The notion of using animation to convey what is mostly going on inside their heads, in their imaginations, is such a powerful one. It doesnt become clear until nearly the end that the soldiers all took part in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp massacre in Lebanon in 1982. And the very end of the movie includes just the slightest bit of real footage: a woman whimpering in the wake of that carnage. It really is one of the most poignant movies about the trauma of war. KB

Kim Longinotto: All the very best Tv documentaries are on the BBC at the moment

Film-maker Kim Longinotto. Photo: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

British film-maker Kim Longinotto tackles topics such as female genital mutilation ( The Day I Will Never Forget ) and women opposing abuse ( Sisters in Law ). Her most recent cinema, Dreamcatcher , is on Chicago females trying to leave the sexuality industry .

Shermans March, Ross McElwee, 1986

I saw this at film school, then watched it again at a festival a couple of years ago and thought it was so charming, so good. It has a very simple premise. The director is meant to be making a film about General Shermans march through Georgia during the course of its American civil war, but he falls out of love with the idea. Instead, the film becomes about his attempts to find a girlfriend, shooting as a kind of video diary an approach that was completely new at the time. Its so candid and affectionate and lovely, and everyone at the celebration loved it. Not many cinemas bear rewatching, but this one does.

Tales of the Grim Sleeper, Nick Broomfield, 21

Nick Broomfield has become much more serious and political in recent years and this is a difficult and perpetrated cinema. Its about a man who was arrested in 2010 for killing as many as 100 prostitutes in Los Angeles over a period of 25 years. Whats extraordinary is how he managed to get away with it for so long the police didnt seek because his victims were mostly black prostitutes. Its a very timely cinema, in terms of Black Lives Matter and police abuses in the US, and I thought he got it just right. Its also a really good crime story.

Solar Mamas.

Solar Mamas, Jehane Noujaim and Mona Eldaief, 2012

This is a film about Bedouin women trying to get solar energy in their village in Jordan. It follows one woman travelling to a college in India to become a solar engineer. I like it because its not saying, Oh, look at these poor women. Instead, it presents women actively changing their lives and I found that very inspiring. So many documentaries tell you what to think. This one doesnt it puts you straight into the story and you get to know the characters merely by watching them. It was part of a very good BBC series on poverty. Thats where all the good Tv documentaries are at the moment: on the BBC.

Virunga, Orlando von Einsiedel, 2014

I watched this in the cinema, which was good because its very beautifully filmed a real spectacle. Its set in a reserve in the Congo, which is home to the last mountain gorillas on earth and it follows the people who are trying to save them, as well as the corrupted people trying to get the land to drill petroleum. Theres a moment when the person or persons in a neighbouring village are assaulted. It was filmed so well, I dont know how they did it. Youre right in the thick of it and you feel so angry, because you know it all come to corrupt practices and greed.

Five Broken Cameras.

Five Broken Cameras, Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi, 2011

This is about a Palestinian man who films the destruction of his villages olive orchards by the Israeli army. His cameras maintain get broken by the Israelis, hence the title, but he just maintained filming. I think he was feeling: Theres an incredible incorrect being done to my people, Im going to film it, even if I succumb doing it. Then he linked up with an Israeli film-maker, who edited the footage. I recollect people saying he shouldnt have worked with an Israeli, but I thought it was so great that they came together and made something very powerful which showed us what is really going on in Palestine. KF

James Marsh: In my view there should be no borders to film-making

James Marsh at the 2015 Palm Springs film festival. Photo: C Flanigan/ Getty Images

James Marsh is a British film-maker, best known for the Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire ( 2008) and the acclaimed Stephen Hawking biopic, The Theory of Everything .

Man with a Movie Camera , Dziga Vertov, 1929

This was the first truly subversive, playful documentary. Its notionally a day in the life of a city in the Soviet Union and so it has, on a purely sociological/ historical level, great value. But what it does beyond that is to show you the means of production: the filming, the trim room, the editing all the things that are going into the stimulating of this film. Its style before its period, the Tristram Shandy of documentaries, if you like. Its so inventive and it has techniques that, 87 years later, still look pretty revolutionary: the freeze frames and slow motion. Its simply full of inventive and brilliant formal ideas as well as being a very beautiful cinema to watch. And its informative too, showing us the Soviet Union in a halcyon period before Stalins terror, when you felt that things were still possible in a new political context. Of course we now know that Vertov suffered in the Stalin era, as many other independent artists would have done, but theres a sort of optimism and a playfulness to it that you wouldnt expect from a Soviet documentary from 1929.

Le Sang des Btes , Georges Franju, 1949

This is a documentary about an abattoir that was built in Paris just after the second world war. If the cinema had been shot in colouring it would be unwatchable, its so gory and weird and disturbing, but its in black and white and so it becomes a bit more abstract. There are images in that cinema that I think are some of the most powerful Ive ever seen. Theres a surreal sequence where lots of sheep have been beheaded and theyre all dancing without their heads on this conveyor belt. Its like a bit of choreographed horror, but its all real. The director Georges Franju went on to have a career doing very artistic horror movies in French cinema, most famously a cinema called Les Yeux Sans Visage .

The War game by Peter Watkins.

The War Game , Peter Watkins, 1965

In this film, Watkins takes a possible scenario a nuclear attack on London and shows you very carefully, each step of the style, what is likely to happen. It was banned by the BBC for many years because it was just too harrowing a depiction of a reality that all individuals at that time was very concerned about: this was in the middle of the cold warand at the time there were dozens of warheads pointing at us. Its like a documentary made by Brecht youre staging something to flush out a reaction in the audience, and that reaction is one of utter horror. Some people would say this is not a documentary because everything was staged, but its a speculative documentary the director is saying: This is how it could be and Im going to show you this in a way thats very truthful.Its very responsible, even if the imagery is very disturbing: youre find bobbies firing at people in the street, people with their clothes burned off. His information is sourced directly from the government and based on scientific fact, so the bed of it is factual, and people responded to it “as if its” a real documentary.