u/Borgisium

Be creative. I will have to cast downvote if you reply with any of these

Taken from Map Men

If you’ve ever wanted a thriller with biting dialogue, sexual tension, and the blocking and lighting of “12 Angry Men”, this is the movie for you. It’s like a Jeeves and Wooster story if they were both assholes who had oddly homoerotic tension. 

The film follows Barrett, a recently hired servant for the upperclass Tony. As the film progresses, tensions boil over between them, Barrett’s sister Vera, and Tony’s girlfriend Susan.

What’s immediately striking about the film is the acting, the dialogue, and the camerawork. The four leads, Dirk Bogarde, James Fox, Sarah Miles, and Wendy Craig are all fantastic. The dialogue is also brilliant, with the film being written by accomplished British playwright Harold Pinter. Even though the film was based on a book, it feels like it was based on a stage play, with its limited locations and focus on human drama. The cinematography is also incredible, thanks to future Spielberg collaborator Douglas Slocombe taking advantage of uncanny black and white images. There’s a semi-long shot near two thirds of the way through which builds so much tension in about a minute that you feel glued to the screen. 

It’s a film that feels like it was made five years early, like a missing link between old Hollywood (or whatever the equivalent was in England) and the New Hollywood era. The director Joseph Losey (who had been blacklisted in America by McCarthyism) gives us a film about class conflict, high-ish society, and sex. That’s another thing I want to add, this had to have been one of the most sexual films your average moviegoer might’ve seen outside of straight pornography. There’s also a scene where a character says “fucking bitch” and it caught me off-guard since I had never heard that said in a movie from 1963. 

Go give this a watch and you’ll be sunk into a psycho-sexual thriller with the plot of a comedy of manners. While watching it, I felt like Emerald Fennell must’ve taken cues on the film before she made “Saltburn”. Sure enough she cited this film as an inspiration, saying it had an "undeniable erotic power” relying on violence caused by upending the status quo. 

1. Alfonso Bedoya (Treasure of the Sierra Madre) Bedoya was a Mexican actor best known for his small roll as Gold Hat. When his character claims to be the federales and is asked to show a badge, he says “Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges. I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!”

2. Estelle Reiner (When Harry Met Sally) Reiner was the mother of the late great director Rob Reiner. After Meg Ryan fakes an orgasm in a crowded restaurant, she delivers the iconic line “I’ll have what she’s having”.

3. Strother Martin (Cool Hand Luke) Martin was a prolific character actor who worked alongside everyone from Raymond Burr to Cheech and Chong. He’s best known for playing the villainous wardon from “Cool Hand Luke”, who delivers the line “What we got here is a failure to communicate”.

If you are in the mood to watch a mid century, Eastern European folk horror film and you’ve already watched “Viy”, this ought to be your next pick. 

The story is about a pastor and folklorist who is invited to stay at the home of an enigmatic count, whose family hides a dark, supernatural secret. 

What struck me about the film is how much it felt like a European version of an Edgar Allen Poe short story, loosely like “The Fall of the House of Usher”. There are supernatural secrets, ancient tomes, decaying gentry, a pale white person, it’s all here. 

On the whole, it may not be as scary as most modern horror films, but what it lacks in scares it makes up for in intrigue. The climax is also incredible, it’s like the scene was directed by William Friedkin. 

Minor spoilers but the story does not involve the Norse trickster god despite what the title accidentally implies, it’s something way stranger. 

For context, the lyrics to the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” were so impenetrable that they were investigated several times for obscenity