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Great Films About Loneliness That Are Worth Your Time « Taste of Cinema. The following titles are all great films that contain recurring themes of loneliness or isolation. Many films explore these motifs through various means, such as a detachment from society, battling their own psychological demons or quite simply, being stranded in a place far, far away. In several of these films, we will observe how the ‘lonely’ characters will often find themselves thrown together with another, more often than not, of the same perception.

Slow- burning, brooding and emotionally charged, we hope you enjoy our picks on this quite captivating subject. Please note, the following films are listed in chronological order. Wild Strawberries (1. Written and directed by the wonderful Ingmar Bergman, Wild Strawberries is not a far cry from most of his other work, in that it deals with thought provoking questions and themes of self- discovery. However, in this quite sublime drama, we are treated to a warmer, more optimistic Bergman and with fantastic results. Victor Sjostrom plays Isak, a widowed 7.

Along the excursion he is forced to confront recurring nightmares and visions, of fractured human relationships from his past. These contests are only heightened, when he is challenged by several encounters with people that are directly related with this anguish. The closer he gets to his lifetime achievement, the nearer he comes to the realisation of how things could have been. Wild Strawberries is a metaphorically moving and exceptionally nostalgic road trip that in true Bergman fashion is jam packed with symbolism. This is a work of art from a genius director who was in the form of his life.

Red Desert (1. 96. In Red Desert, Michelangelo Antonioni’s heart- breaking first colour film, we observe a woman’s sorry struggle with alienation and disorientation. Through brilliant use of colour, Antonioni delivers an emotional and visually stunning setting that channels our protagonist’s psychological anguish. Monica Vitti plays Giuliana, a young mother whose husband, Ugo, is the manager of a local chemical plant. With an overworked and disengaged husband, Giuliana is starved of the emotional support and attention that she so desperately seeks. With this neglect, Giuliana’s mental state quickly collapses and we witness the crushing despair and depression of our pain- bearer. A film that will always divide opinion, Red Desert is a slow burning and stylish character- study that one way or another will linger long in the mind.

Repulsion (1. 96. Roman Polanski’s first English language film; Repulsion, is a psychological horror made in 1.

Starring Catherine Deneuve, the plot focuses on a young woman’s descent into madness after being left alone in her sister’s apartment. Repulsion is the first instalment in Polanski’s sinister ‘Apartment Trilogy’ and in this viewer’s opinion, the best. Carole Ledoux (Deneuve) is a manicurist who is currently living with her elder sister in London. Beautiful but socially awkward, Carole would certainly not look out of place on one of Alfred Hitchcock’s feature films. When her sister leaves to go on vacation with her boyfriend, the already distracted Carole begins her downward spiral into insanity, thus exposing the true horror of her demented psyche. Cracks become craters, voices reveal rapists and every sound hides an ill- fated outcome in the delirious mind of this physically and emotionally abandoned young woman. A claustrophobic and gory tale of sexual repression and isolation, Repulsion is a disturbing and unsettling tour de force that will go down as one of the most influential films of the genre.

Le Samourai (1. 96. Jean- Pierre Melville’s effortlessly cool crime- drama, Le Samourai, is an example of minimalist perfection at its very best. With leading man, Alain Delon’s character literally brimming with composure and nonchalance, the result is a fusion of stylistic excellence and arresting suspense that makes Le Samourai a subtle yet breathtakingly absorbing masterpiece. Jef Costello (Delon) is a hit man living in a barren single- room apartment in Paris that contains very little, barring a small bird kept in a cage. Void of emotion or expression, Costello is the personification of the lone wolf, vocally impassive and highly skilled with a poker- face to startle a statue.

When the authorities begin to loom and a sophisticated game of cat and mouse develops, we witness an accumulation of the loneliness creep up in a remarkably fascinating conclusion. Le Samourai is a simple story with a relatively basic plot that will leave you gripped as events unfold. Watch Hercules Returns Online Hercules Returns Full Movie Online.

Cast/credits plus additional information about the film. The following titles are all great films that contain recurring themes of loneliness or isolation. Many films explore these motifs through various means, such as a. Thanks for providing some details behind the legend. I’d heard of Bill Hickman, but only from Bullitt. i always found the chase in “French Connection” to be the.

Akin to our subject, Le Samourai is a low- key yet thoroughly engrossing spectacle that is well worth the high praise that it has gathered. Silent Running (1. In his directorial debut, Douglas Trumbull brought us the wonderfully underrated and fascinating sci- fi drama, Silent Running. Bruce Dern brilliantly plays Freeman Lowell, the outsider in a crew aboard a space shuttle that have been tasked with rehabilitating plant life that are preserved in domes attached to space freighters. Despite being trusted with such an important and momentous assignment, Lowell is the only crew member that displays any emotion or interest in their occupation of restoring what remains of our planets plants.

However, when the team receive an order to destroy the domes and return home, Lowell faces a monumental decision in what he sees as a sacrifice for the greater good. Despite being over 4.

During the 1970s, car delivery driver Kowalski delivers hot rods in record time but always runs into trouble with the highway cops. I remember the movie “The Seven Ups” – – it was filmed in Seattle when i lived in the area. I can’t watch videos at work, so i don’t know if this scene. The Greatest is a 1977 film about the life of boxer Muhammad Ali, in which Ali plays himself. It was directed by Tom Gries and Monte Hellman. The film follows Ali's. Humans love closure, feeling a need for everything in the world to make sense or offer resolution. Telling stories is one of the ways we pass on information and.

A poignant and thoughtful film, Silent Running is definitely sci- fi with a difference. Solaris (1. 97. 2)Directed by the great Andrei Tarkovsky, 1.

We should hate ourselves for watching movies that were never intended for screens smaller than a microwave door, but there’s something exciting about revisiting.

Solaris is a Russian sci- fi drama that is recognised as one of the best space films ever made. Another film on this list that contains little action, Solaris excels as a slow- burning psychological drama, with hauntingly stunning visuals, thought provoking scenarios and trademark Tarkovsky long takes. Solyaris is an ocean- like planet that for years has been orbited by a Russian space station attempting to study this phenomenon. Due to a lack of progress and reports of strange activity, psychologist Kris Kelvin is handed the responsibility of investigating the peculiar goings on aboard the station. As Kris arrives to hostility, he sets off to enquire about these events, only to find himself confronted with these similar situations himself.

When confronted by a chilling episode from his past, Kris gets trapped in his own feelings of emotional isolation and loneliness. The question is, are they real? A complex and philosophically frightening study in confinement and alienation, Solaris is an epic vision by a supremely talented and grandiose director. Whilst probably not his best work, Solaris is still a beautifully insightful and captivating movie that makes a great companion for Kubrick’s own tour de force, ‘2.

The 2. 0 Best Movies With Ambiguous Endings « Taste of Cinema. Humans love closure, feeling a need for everything in the world to make sense or offer resolution. Telling stories is one of the ways we pass on information and create catharsis, learning from the successes and failures of others and the movies are the leanest and meanest form of storytelling. There is less room for experimentalism in Hollywood, as confusing movies means a smaller box office profit, but the auteurs of cinema have always found ways to make ambiguous movies mean something more than just the sum of their parts.

An ambiguous movie can be one that ends with a mystery, defying the rational need for answers, or it can be one that presents a story with multiple interpretations. Ambiguity is difficult to pull off, but when it works, it can triumph as a testament to the power of emotion and penetrate past some of the boundaries that pure reason comes with. These movies that transcend the definitions of traditional storytelling tend to stick with moviegoers long after they leave the theatre, and even though they sometimes provoke controversy, they are more than worth watching.

Drive. Nicholas Winding Refn’s art film masquerading as an action thriller that features minimal dialogue and ends with an exceptionally long take of Ryan Gosling sitting in his car, motionless. Drive doesn’t really tell us what happens to its characters. Sure, the Driver and Irene (Carey Mulligan) have a sweet romance, but she will move on and probably won’t be all too happy to see the man responsible for her husband’s death, albeit indirectly, show up at her door again. It is that long shot of Gosling though, that really bring the film together at the same time as it takes it all apart, and we don’t really know whether Driver survived his final showdown or not – he comes alive again and drives away but is severely wounded – and whatever resolution we thought the movie would offer, especially in the romance department, fades into the sunset with him. The Thing. Horror movies are the perfect venue for filmmakers to explore the fear of the unknown, but rarely do they venture beyond the runtime of the movie as well as John Carpenter’s The Thing. Capitalizing on the public’s fear of unseen enemies – a clever metaphor for disease and sickness or even prejudicial differences – The Thing remains one of the most deeply affecting horror movies of the 8. It doesn’t hurt that it contains some of the best makeup and practical effects either.

What makes The Thing really great is that it doesn’t offer any answers. Maybe the thing is dead and maybe it isn’t by the end of the movie. Kurt Russell’s Mac.

Ready could be an unreliable narrator in that only up to a certain point can he prove that he is human. The assumption is that the thing has survived, either in one of the survivor’s bodies or is frozen beneath the snow, waiting for another rescue team to awaken it just like the Norwegians did at first, or just like the cast of this movie provided a new series of hosts after the Norwegians failed to contain the threat. That the uncertainty stretches past the end of the film – a lesser movie would have had a definite ending – makes The Thing a classic unknown fear.

Broken Flowers. Talking about plot in a Jim Jarmusch movie is kind of like talking about life in a cemetery – it isn’t that it’s not there, it’s just that it doesn’t look like what we expect. Broken Flowers follows Don Johnston (another subdued performance from Bill Murray) as he revisits his past lovers after learning he has a son from one of them. Unfortunately for Don, he doesn’t find any answers, making the movie seem somewhat impenetrable. In the last scene Don sees a boy ride past him in a car and for a moment a look of recognition flashes on his face.

Jarmusch cast Murray’s real son as the boy, making a seemingly clear statement – yes, Don does have a son. However, the film offers no conclusion to this suspicion. Don never meets the boy and after glimpsing him never sees him again. The ending brings up the question of whether any of the stories Don heard from his past lovers were accurate or whether they were just retellings of memory, flawed and modified by the years, much like Don himself has become. Martha Marcy May Marlene. Movies that blur the lines between fact and fiction are often the subject of much debate but rarely do they venture into the territory of memory versus dream. Martha Marcy May Marlene follows a young woman, Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) who, after joining a beautiful on the surface but sinister underneath cult, seeks refuge with her sister.

Struggling with PTSD and having difficulty reconciling her trained behaviours with the social norms of the real world, Martha tries to recount her stories to her sister but finds herself torn between the two worlds. As Martha becomes increasingly unhinged, her sister and brother- in- law’s concern that she might be lying or mentally ill threaten her security in the refuge she has taken, while Martha’s paranoia that the members of the cult are chasing her becomes a burden on the whole family. Martha’s true mental state is never revealed as the movie cuts back and forth between past and present, dream and reality, memory and fantasy, crafting a waking nightmare for Martha and her sanity. Synecdoche, New York.

Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut is a Russian nesting doll of stories within stories within stories. Following Caden Cotard, a playwright as he attempts to create his masterpiece, a play about himself, featuring an actor playing him, the writer, an actor playing an actor who plays him, the writer, an actor playing the actor playing the actor… and so on, Synecdoche New York is Kaufman’s most ambitious and perplexing work so far.

A rumination on life, consciousness and dying, Kaufman crafts layers upon layers as Caden’s life falls apart, all providing inspiration for his play, which eventually becomes his entire life. After a while it is hard to say what is part of the play and what is not, until Caden is devoured by his work, ultimately giving his life, and his final breaths over in an effort to make his masterpiece work, completely obsessed with finding meaning in the most meaningless aspects of existence.

Whether he succeeds or fails is up to the audience’s interpretation of not just the movie, but of life itself. Watch Battle Recon Online. The Wrestler. Darren Aronofsky captured Mickey Rourke’s comeback in the best way by casting him in the role of a washed- up wrestler attempting to make a return to fame. Randy “The Ram” Robinson gives everything he has to get his life back together but can barely keep himself from falling apart. After suffering a heart attack but insisting on pushing through, Randy finally gets his big comeback match, but his health doesn’t hold up. He knocks down his opponent – of course the move was agreed upon beforehand – and sets up for his signature move, a diving headbutt called the “Ram Jam,” balancing himself on the top rope, before diving off. The film abruptly cuts to black before we see what happens. A perfect example of the power of an edit, Aronofsky holds the black screen for an extended period of time before the credits roll, leaving Randy’s fate completely unknown.