Unique films
a very short recommendation list
Watching films has become one of my greatest passions and pleasures in life lately, and I become more interested in the cinematography world each day that goes by.
There are still so many countless movies I want to watch (and I am very certain that this is much like my fatal love for books, I’ll never be able to watch all the films I want to for there are so many) and so few I have, that I don’t feel like I have the knowledge to make a whole full recommendation list.
Yet.
However, between so many marvellous films I had the utmost delight to watch, I found three very particular, unique, and different films from all I have ever watched before.
So these are the ones I’ll be recommending today.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, this film is truly unlike everything I have ever watched, from the main character, the most peculiar and singular one I’ve ever seen, and the odd perspective of life that he has, until it’s sad and stunning finale.
A man who is born old and gets younger each year that passes, and experiences life and sees people in a very different way than everyone else. I didn’t expect to love this movie as much as I did, but the story is beyond moving, beyond beautiful. It represents so much in such a simple plot and it shows so much about life, love, family, war, loss and beliefs. Also, it is a fetching, and again unique, love story with an old-fashioned aesthetic, since it is set from the 20s to the 2000s.
It is a life-changing film, if you appreciate it for its poetry and beauty, if you appreciate it in its whole.
“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late, or in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you are not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.”
Orbit Ever After
I think many people tend to underestimate short films and so it’s very hard to see people mentioning a 20 min long film as their favourite, or simply recommending one that is not one of those emotional Christmas films everyone watches at school about unlikely friendships or whatever.
Nevertheless, I very recently discovered a film that changed my whole perspective on short films. That being Orbit Ever After, a very theatrical, fetching and stylish production that truly became one of my favourite films of all time. I’ve watched it five times already since I discovered it last week, and I feel myself longing for this love story every night.
Oh, and not only the story is enchantingly beautiful, but the soundtrack is just perfect and makes the movie even more magical. I can’t speak much without spoiling it, so I guess you’ll have to take my word for it.
“Sorry. It’s just, I want more than just safety. I’ve spent my whole life in here, just going round and round and nothing ever happens, nothing ever changes, and nobody seems to mind. I would give a whole lifetime of safety for just 10 seconds with her, just 10 seconds of actually feeling alive.”
Loving Vincent
Now, this film is the definition of uniqueness. Truly.
It is a short animated film made with Van Gogh’s technique of painting, showing Armand Roulin (from Van Gogh’s painting Young Man with a Cap) investigating Van Gogh’s last days under his father’s (Joseph Roulin from the painting Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin) request. It is unusually beautiful, and it made me cry a lot, which was unexpected. It honestly makes you see the world in the way Vincent probably did too. You will see not only his technique but his paintings as landscapes. His models as people (interpreted by great actors and actresses too). It is truly worth it.
Anyone who loves Van Gogh and his paintings will be delighted and mesmerised to see them come to life in this animation. And anyone who doesn’t (?) will probably start to.
“Who am I, in the eyes of most people? A nobody, a nonentity, an unpleasant person. Someone who has not and never will have any position in society- in short, the lowest of the low. Well then, even if that were all absolutely true, then one day I would like to show by my work what this nobody, this nonentity, has in his heart.”
And well, that’s it. If you’ve never watched any of this films I beg you to do it. And if you have watched them, then well… watch it again, I guess.