Hey everyone. Did an article for my website recently on the top ten most underrated movies by great directors. Put Welles' The Trial at #1. Just love this movie to pieces. From the board I can tell others dig it as well but does anyone else think it's a masterpiece too?
Here is a link to the article.
http://www.examiner.com/x-1550-Seattle-Movie-Examiner~y2010m1d13-The-W ednesday-10--The-Top-10-Most-Underrated-Movies-by-Great-Directors
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rszanto - A lot of people have said The King of Comedy for sure.
share I absolutely agree about the magnificent "The Trial".
I also value "The King of Comedy". Other underrated Scorsese films include "The Last Temptation of Christ", "The Age of Innocence", and "Kundun".
There are lots of underrated Welles films, too. Like "The Stranger" and "Mr. Arkadin". That guy was SO ahead of his time.
I also think "Jackie Brown" has been the red-headed stepchild in Tarantino's filmography for far too long. It is possibly his most mature and realistic work.
I always felt Steven Spielberg was underrated on "Empire of the Sun". I think Spike Lee is underrated most of the time, but mainly on "Clockers". And Oliver Stone's "Nixon" is a masterpiece that was never really acknowledged at all.
I would agree with Barry Lyndon and The Tenant.
Others I would argue for, depending on your definition of underrated:
Rope (Hitchcock)
Alice in the Cities (Wenders)
Only Angels Have Wings (Hawks)
Love and Death; Broadway Danny Rose (Allen)
The Trial of Joan of Arc (Bresson)
One Two Three; Ace in the Hole (Wilder)
The Circus (Chaplin)
Miller's Crossing (Coens)
Othello; Chimes at Midnight; The Trial (Welles)
I Live In Fear; Red Beard; Kagemusha (Kurosawa)
Le Petit Soldat (Godard)
The Phantom of Liberty (Bunuel)
My Darling Clementine; How Green Was My Valley (Ford)
"Always look on the bright side of life. Do do. Do do do do do do."
I think The Trial is rated about properly - it´s fascinating and frequently brilliant and there´s so much going on, but it´s also very uneven and the connecting tissue between the flashes of greatness isn´t always what it should be.
One particular problem I personally have with pretty much all Welles´s works I´ve seen (besides Citizen Kane) is the too-frenetic, relentless pace and the overt talkiness - time and time again I wished there was some narrative down time, that the silences would linger a little longer and camerawork/soundtrack would take over for more extended periods of time. But Welles dashes on and the characters jabber on and then there are scenes too silly or self consciously bizarre (like the women throwing themselves at Perkins or that clownish painter with his annoying antics).
And then there´s the issue of Perkins who - as one reviewer wrote - is simply too twitchy and obnoxious as Joseph K. The book character was much more a cipher and yet, in a peculiar fashion, simultaneously more relatable. Perkins carries him a bit too much on the surface and his performance tends veer time and time again into a too high-pitched, feverish theatricality. He seems like a good choice to play Joseph K., but somehow fails to hit the nail 100%.
But of course there´s so much great stuff going on most of the time; it´s shot with such virtuosity and imagination & it has so many scenes of immense power that the flaws are certainly not what I chiefly remember about it. And even what I consider the final misstep of going out with a bang instead of a whimper, is amended by Welles´s final words over the end credits.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
Leone: Duck, You Sucker
Hitchcock: Lifeboat
Tarantino: Jackie Brown (his only film which is a great film and not just a collection of great scenes)
Welles: Chimes at Midnight, The Trial
Kurosawa: Red Beard
Altman: The Long Goodbye
Carol Reed: Odd Man Out
Scorsese: Kundun, After Hours, King of Comedy
Lean: Ryan's Daughter (found the second half really moving), Oliver Twist
Fuller: I Shot Jesse James, The Big Red One
PT Anderson: Punch-Drunk Love
Hawks: Red River
"You're going to cross Sinai?"
"Moses did"
Tarantino: Jackie Brown (his only film which is a great film and not just a collection of great scenes)
I wouldn't say The Hidden Fortress is underrated actually.. it's often seen as one of the greatest by Kurosawa and it's a well known fact that the film inspired Lucas to make Star Wars! It's an amazing film, but not underrated imo. Good list though! Lost Highway, Heavenly Creatures and of course The Trial are highly underrated. The Trial is perhaps the greatest by Welles, with the exception of Citizen Kane.. of course.
I would also add:
Red Beard by Kurosawa
Rhapsody in August by Kurosawa
The Circus by Chaplin
The Wrong Man by Hitchcock
Le petit soldat by Godard
Notre Musique by Godard
No End by Kieslowski
Assunta Spina by Fransesca Bertini
Finis terrea by Jean Epstein
Rien que les heures by Alberto Cavalcanti
Las Hurdes -A Land without Bread by Luis Bunuel
Statues Also Die by Alain Resnais & Chris Marker
..just to name a few
"I never said all actors are cattle; what I said was all actors should be treated like cattle"
Interiors - Woody Allen
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Lynch - Rabbits
Bergman - Hour Of The Wolf
Cronenberg - eXistenZ/Cosmopolis
Kubrick - Eyes Wide Shut
Kurosawa - Dreams
Hitchcock - Rebecca
Welles - The Trial
Scorsese - The King Of Comedy
And then not as great, but interesting/promising filmmakers
Forman - Man On The Moon
Coens - The Man Who Wasn't There
Spielberg - A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Aronofsky - Noah/Pi
von Trier - Antichrist
Miike - The Bird People In China/Gozu
Dial M For Murder-Hitchcock
The Hidden Fortress-Kurosawa
After Hours-Scorsese
so many movies, so little time