Mesmerizing movies
A list of all the beautifully made films that left me awe-struck, mesmerized, and moved. In no particular order.
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- DirectorOlivier NakacheÉric ToledanoStarsFrançois CluzetOmar SyAnne Le NyAfter he becomes a quadriplegic from a paragliding accident, an aristocrat hires a young man from the projects to be his caregiver.
- DirectorWalter SallesStarsFernanda MontenegroVinícius de OliveiraMarília PêraThe emotive journey of a former schoolteacher who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.
- DirectorKore-eda HirokazuStarsYûya YagiraAyu KitauraHiei KimuraIn a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.
- DirectorJean-Pierre JeunetStarsAudrey TautouGaspard UllielJodie FosterTells the story of a young woman's relentless search for her fiancé, who has disappeared from the trenches of the Somme during World War One.
- DirectorJean-Pierre JeunetStarsHelena Bonham CarterJudy DavisCallum Keith RennieA ten-year-old scientist secretly leaves his family's ranch in Montana where he lives with his cowboy father and scientist mother, escapes home, and travels across the country aboard a freight train to receive an award at the Smithsonian Institute.
- DirectorLee Hae-junStarsJeong Jae-yeongJung Ryeo-wonYeong-seo ParkA failed suicide attempt leads a heartbroken man to live a life in the wilderness.
- DirectorOriol PauloStarsMario CasasAna WagenerJose CoronadoA successful entrepreneur accused of murder and a witness preparation expert have less than three hours to come up with an impregnable defense.
- DirectorWalter SallesDaniela ThomasStarsFernanda TorresFernando Alves PintoAlexandre BorgesAfter the death of his mother, a young Brazilian decides to leave his country and travel to his mother's native land. In a foreign land, he finds love and danger.
- DirectorTakashi MiikeStarsMasahiro MotokiRenji IshibashiMakoA salaryman and yakuza are each sent by their bosses to a remote Chinese village but discover more than they expected.
- DirectorJean-Pierre DardenneLuc DardenneStarsJérémie RenierOlivier GourmetAssita OuedraogoRoger uses his son Igor to ruthlessly traffic and exploit undocumented immigrants. When one of the immigrants is killed, Igor is guilt-ridden and wants to care for the dead man's family against his father's orders.
- DirectorFernando León de AranoaStarsJuan Luis GaliardoAmparo MuñozÁgata LysSantiago wakes up like any other morning. He goes down to the kitchen and his whole family is waiting for him: it's his birthday. They all sing "Happy Birthday to You" and give him presents. But when he opens the present of his youngest son, he gets angry and says he doesn't like it. The boy starts crying and saying that he loves him, but Santiago answers that he doesn't believe him and he tells the boy that he is fired and that he wants another son, who is thinner, who doesn't need glasses and who resembles him more.
- DirectorWolfgang BeckerStarsDaniel BrühlKatrin SassChulpan KhamatovaIn 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.
- DirectorAndrey ZvyagintsevStarsMaryana SpivakAleksey RozinMatvey NovikovA couple going through a divorce must team up to find their son who has disappeared during one of their bitter arguments.
- DirectorRamin BahraniStarsAlejandro PolancoIsamar GonzalesRob SowulskiAlejandro, a resourceful street orphan on the verge of adolescence, lives and works in an auto-body repair shop in a sprawling junkyard on the outskirts of Queens, New York. In this chaotic world of adults, Alejandro struggles to make a better life for himself and his sixteen-year-old sister.
- DirectorMarc ForsterStarsWill FerrellEmma ThompsonDustin HoffmanI.R.S. auditor Harold Crick suddenly finds his mundane Chicago life to be the subject of narration only he can hear: narration that begins to affect his entire existence, from his work to his love life to his death.
- DirectorRamin BahraniStarsSouleymane Sy SavaneRed WestDiana Franco GalindoTwo men form an unlikely friendship that will change both of their lives forever.
- DirectorToke Constantin HebbelnStarsLeonard ProxaufRolf BeckerManni LaudenbachOne night he will fetch the silver from the night sky Jonas loves his fathers magical stories. When Helge dies, Jonas ends up in an orphanage whereupon dreariness and discipline rule his life until a group of circus performers appear in the village.
- DirectorRoy AnderssonStarsElisabeth HelanderJörgen NohallJan WikbladhYou, the Living is a film about humankind, its greatness and its baseness, joy and sorrow, its self-confidence and anxiety, its desire to love and be loved.
- DirectorJim JarmuschStarsChris ParkerLeila GastilJohn LurieA young man wanders New York City searching for some meaning in life and encounters many idiosyncratic characters.
- DirectorBakhtyar KhudojnazarovStarsChulpan KhamatovaMoritz BleibtreuAto MukhamedzhanovThe unborn child of Mamlakat (Khamatova) is telling her story. She is 17, beautiful and vivacious, and dreaming secretly of becoming an actress. She lives with her father and brother (Bleibtreu) in a small village in Central Asia. One night she is seduced by an actor from a traveling troupe, who poses as a friend of Tom Cruise, and makes her pregnant. She tries to abort, but her father and brother become determined to find the seducer, setting in motion a cascade of comic adventures.
- DirectorDaying YeStarsKe-Yu GuoXiao-Li XuIgor LedogorovIt is 1940. Chuchu and Luo Xiaoman are Chinese students who have been sent to study in Moscow, at the international school. She is 13; he is 12. Xiaoman is from Yanan, Mao's base after the long march; Chuchu had seen her father executed by Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang. The youngsters fit in well and learn to speak Russian. A large group of students, including Chuchu, leave for summer camp in Byelorussia accompanied by their teacher, Miss Vera. Xiaoman remains behind. The Germans invade the Soviet Union but Moscow remains unoccupied. Xiaoman takes a job delivering condolence letters to soldiers' families. At one apartment, he finds a mother has died and her very young daughter, Nadia, has not realized it. The summer camp is occupied by Germans and Miss Vera is murdered. One of the Soviet boys, Carl, is half-German, and helps the others escape but they are quickly recaptured. Chuchu and several other students are sent by Gen. von Dietrich to work as servants at German headquarters in the Yakovliv Monastery. The general is also a medical doctor with a peculiar hobby, tattooing.
- DirectorMilos FormanStarsF. Murray AbrahamTom HulceElizabeth BerridgeThe life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
- DirectorBahman GhobadiStarsSoran EbrahimAvaz LatifSaddam Hossein FeysalNear the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of an American invasion, refugee children like 13-year-old Kak (Ebrahim), gauge and await their fate.
- DirectorYôjirô TakitaStarsMasahiro MotokiRyôko HirosueTsutomu YamazakiSoon after buying an expensive cello, Daigo learns that his orchestra is disbanding. He moves back to his hometown with his wife, where he answers an ad for what Daigo thinks is a travel agency but is, in actuality, a mortuary.
- DirectorJacques AudiardStarsVincent CasselEmmanuelle DevosOlivier GourmetShe is almost deaf and he lip-reads. He is an ex-convict. She wants to help him. He thinks no one can help except himself.
- DirectorCharlie KaufmanStarsPhilip Seymour HoffmanSamantha MortonMichelle WilliamsA theatre director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he creates a life-size replica of New York City inside a warehouse as part of his new play.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsJean-Paul BelmondoAnna KarinaGraziella GalvaniPierrot escapes his boring society and travels from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea with Marianne, a girl chased by hit-men from Algeria. They lead an unorthodox life, always on the run.
- DirectorSpike JonzeStarsJohn CusackCameron DiazCatherine KeenerA puppeteer discovers a portal that leads literally into the head of movie star John Malkovich.
- DirectorSpike JonzeStarsNicolas CageMeryl StreepChris CooperA lovelorn screenwriter becomes desperate as he tries and fails to adapt 'The Orchid Thief' by Susan Orlean for the screen.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsChristian BaleHugh JackmanScarlett JohanssonAfter a tragic accident, two stage magicians in 1890s London engage in a battle to create the ultimate illusion while sacrificing everything they have to outwit each other.
- DirectorLuis MandokiStarsCarlos PadillaLeonor VarelaXuna PrimusA young boy, in an effort to have a normal childhood in 1980's El Salvador, is caught up in a dramatic fight for his life as he desperately tries to avoid the war which is raging all around him.
- DirectorLuis EstradaStarsDamián AlcázarPedro Armendáriz Jr.Delia CasanovaA naive man appointed as an acting mayor of a small town turns into a corrupt politician capable of anything to stay in power.