Zama (2017), A Short Film About Love (1988), My Life to Live (1962), Safety Not Guaranteed (2012), Mouchette (1967), Into Great Silence (2005), The World of Apu (1959), Aparajito (1956) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Human Condition movies.
Storyline: Born January 22, 1961, the late Daniel Johnston began expressing himself through art as a child while doctors struggled to accurately diagnose his unusual behavior. In addition to drawing prolifically, he began using a boombox record curiously stirring songs to cassette tape in high school. Following his brother to Texas, he eventually landed in Austin, working unskilled jobs while continuing to record and self-distribute music to friends and friendly strangers. It was clear to everyone that Daniel was not a typical artist - a disquieting innocence, with references to both light and dark spiritual forces, were evident throughout his work. It was this distinctive voice that compelled local musicians to share his art beyond Austin's city limits, culminating in respected indie musicians like Tom Waits, Beck, and Wilco to either record his songs or reach out to collaborate. Four years in the making, THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON honors the complex artistry of Daniel Johnston while exploring how bipolar disorder and schizophrenia distorted his behavior and informed his haunting work.—Mae Moreno
Plot Keywords: documentary, biography, music, mental illness, artist, independent film, creativity ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In a small village in a valley everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave the village and go to a certain mountain top to die. If anyone should refuse he or she would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to the mountain. But first she must make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei finds a wife.—Mattias Thuresson
Plot Keywords: drama, period drama, cannes film festival, palme d'or, adaptation, village life, aging ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Bruno Stroszek is released from prison and warned to stop drinking. He has few skills and fewer expectations: with a glockenspiel and an accordion, he ekes out a living as a street musician. He befriends Eva, a prostitute down on her luck. After they are harried and beaten by the thugs who have been Eva's pimps, they join Bruno's neighbor, Scheitz, an elderly eccentric, when he leaves Germany to live in Wisconsin. In that winter bound, barren prairie, Bruno works as a mechanic, Eva as a waitress. They buy a trailer. Then, bills mount, the bank threatens to repossess the trailer, Eva wants privacy, and inexorably, the promise of a new life deserts Bruno.
Plot Keywords: drama, road movie, black comedy, social critique, german cinema, american dream, immigration ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Near Penn Station, next to the Amtrak tracks, squatters have been living for years. Marc Singer goes underground to live with them, and films this "family." A dozen or so men and one woman talk about their lives: horrors of childhood, jail time, losing children, being coke-heads. They scavenge, they've built themselves sturdy one-room shacks; they have pets, cook, chat, argue, give each other haircuts. A bucket is their toilet. Leaky overhead pipes are a source of water for showers. They live in virtual darkness. During the filming, Amtrak gives a 30-day eviction notice.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: documentary, homelessness, underground, survival, poverty, urban life, independent film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Filmmakers (and brothers) Albert and David Maysles follow four employees of a company that makes expensive, ornate, illustrated bibles as they attempt to sell the items door-to-door to less-than-interested customers, who are mainly poor or lower-middle-class Catholics with little money to spend on pretty Bibles.—Gary Dickerson <slug@mail.utexas.edu>
Plot Keywords: documentary, american film, 1960s, real life, social observation, working class, american dream ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Many years after a global plague wipes out nearly all of humanity, two San Francisco filmmakers traverse the city and beyond to interview fellow survivors. The pair document the day-to-day struggle for survival and the underlying battle between two generations: The elders who wish to hang onto the past, and their children, who want to go forward.
Plot Keywords: sci-fi, apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, independent film, mockumentary, survival, virus ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Follows the literal and associated life journey of middle class Brit Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell), representing the "everyman", as he tries to make his mark in his so far young life. He is able to make great strides in his traditional view of success by being what those in authority want him to be. As such, he achieves in a few weeks what it usually take years for others, namely having his own sales territory, the northeast and ultimately Scotland, for Imperial Coffee. He is also able to garner a plethora of fringe benefits from this job, including women throwing themselves at his feet. But he will ultimately face a struggle in class and authority warfare, which culminates with his encounter with the Burgess family, wealthy industrialist Sir James Burgess (Sir Ralph Richardson) and his daughter Patricia (Dame Helen Mirren), who Mick wants to marry, the former who is contemplating investing in the shady dealings in Zingara. Mick will also find that the class struggle not only applies in his case in an upward direction, but also in a downward direction with the working class and the truly down and out. Through it all, Alan Price and his small combo act as a Greek chorus of sorts providing commentary of Mick's travails through song.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: satire, black comedy, social criticism, british film, dystopian, absurdist, allegory ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Neddy Merrill has been away for most of the Summer. He reappears at a friend's pool. As they talk, someone notices that there are pools spanning the entire valley. He decided to jog from pool to pool to swim across the whole valley. As he stops in each pool his interactions tell his life story.—John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>
Plot Keywords: psychological thriller, existential, midlife crisis, suburban life, social satire, identity crisis, american dream ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Forty year old documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee has a penchant for filming everything around him. Following the announcement of his impending marriage to his film-making partner Marilyn Levine - marriage something that he and his family never thought would happen for him - McElwee turns on the camera to film life as it happens in respect to this new phase in his life. Both in real terms (as it applies to himself and those around him) and philosophical terms, McElwee discusses, through self-narration, life, death, love, family and babies.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: documentary, autobiographical, family, marriage, death, grief, reflection ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: 'Werner Herzog' takes his camera to Antarctica where we meet the odd men and women who have dedicated their lives to furthering the cause of science in treacherous conditions. A scientist studies neutrinos, which are everywhere, yet elusive; he likens them to spirits. A researcher's nighttime performance art includes contorting her body into a luggage bag. A survival guide teaches his students to survive white-out conditions by wearing cartoon-face buckets over their heads. Animal researchers milk mother seals as part of their study. Volcanologists offer advice on what to do when a volcano erupts. A pipefitter shows us the anomaly in his hands that he says are a sign he descended from Atzec royalty. A former Colorado banker drives what he has christened Ivan the Terra Bus. An underwater diver shows his colleagues DVDs of apocalyptic sci-fi films like Them! (1954). And -- though Herzog declares he's not "making another film about penguins" -- we meet a penguin researcher who answers the filmmaker's questions about homosexuality and insanity in his subjects. We also meet an individualist penguin, who breaks away from the other birds to run toward the mountains, facing certain death.—J. Spurlin
Plot Keywords: documentary, exploration, scientists, adventure, nature, wildlife, extreme environment ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Lorenzo, who's 16 and born to a wealthy family in Parma, tries to make things right toward a showgirl, Aida, whom his older brother has mistreated. In extending kindness and standing up for her, he comes of age. But, is there anything he can do that will alter Aida's situation or her prospects?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: italian cinema, drama, female protagonist, coming of age, social criticism, 1960s, black and white ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.
Plot Keywords: drama, rural life, existentialism, slow cinema, man and nature, cultural conflict, documentary style ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Italian immigrant tries to become a member of Swiss society but fails as a waiter and even as a chicken plucker. He then becomes involved with shady wealthy character and tries to hide his Italian identity. He refuses to give up no matter how awful his situation.—Bill Smith <bsmith30@ix.netcom.com>
Plot Keywords: comedy, drama, immigration, social satire, italian cinema, working class, cultural clash ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: When his only friend and co-worker dies, a young man born with dwarfism moves to an abandoned train depot in rural New Jersey. Though he tried to maintain a life of solitude, he is soon entangled with an artist who is struggling with a personal tragedy and an overly friendly Cuban hot-dog vendor.
Plot Keywords: independent film, drama, friendship, loneliness, small town life, character-driven, healing ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Set against Paris' oldest bridge, the Pont Neuf, while it was closed for repairs, this film is a love story between two young vagrants: Alex, a would be circus performer addicted to alcohol and sedatives and Michele, a painter driven to a life on the streets because of a failed relationship and an affliction which is slowly turning her blind. The film portrays the harsh existence of the homeless as Alex, Michele and Hans, an older vagrant survive on the streets with their wits. As they both slowly get their lives back together, Michele becomes increasingly dependent on Alex as her vision deteriorates further. Fearing that Michele will leave him if she receives a new medical treatment Alex attempts to keep Michele practically a prisoner. The streets, skies and waterways of Paris are used as a backdrop to the story in a series of stunning visuals which dominate the film.
Plot Keywords: romance, drama, french cinema, art film, independent film, street life, poverty ...
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