A friend of mine gave me this idea by publishing a list of films he saw last year. I'm going to list some of the more obscure but great films I've been finding on Netflix for my reference and for the use of others. Here goes.
Akira Kurasawa (all his films are great)
The Bad Sleep Well 1960: Toshiro Mifune creates mayhem in a large corporation after his father dies.
Stray Dog 1949: Toshiro Mifune plays a young police detective whose gun is stolen on a bus.
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams 1990: Eight short stories including one about a nuclear power plant explosion ("They said it was safe. They lied to us.")
Madadayo 2000: about a retired professor.
Drunken Angel 1948: Toshira Mifune is a young doctor who tries to save a gangster.
Other directors:
Kolya 1996: a Czech cellist ends up caring for a 5-year-old Russian boy.
Cinema Paradiso 1988: a boy in love with the movies. However, this version has about an hour cut from the full film, which I have still yet to see.
Gate of Flesh 1964: Japanese prostitutes band together during the US occupation after WW II.
Comizi D'Amore 1964: Pier Paolo Pasolini documentary about love and sex in Italy.
Mama Roma 1962: Pasolini film about a prostitute trying to leave that life.
Accatone 1961: Another Pasolini film about the dark side of life.
Oedipus Rex 1967: Pasolini's take on the Greek story.
The Hawks and the Sparrows 1964: Another Pasolini classic
Whoever Says the Truth Shall Die 1981: Documentary about the murder of Pasolini in 1975
Brokedown Palace 1999: American teens become entangled in smuggling drugs in Thailand
Free Zone 2005: Natalie Portman gets a tour of Jordan with an Israeli cab driver
Teorema 1968: Pasolini has Terence Stamp visit a wealthy Italian family and seduce each one.
Day for Night 1973: Godard plays a director making a film with Jacqueline Bisset and Jean Pierre Leaud
Elevator to the Gallows 1957: Louis Malle directs Jeanne Moreau in a suspense thriller
The King of Masks 1999: Chinese performer buys a child to learn his skills
Goodbye, Lenin! 2003: a woman falls into a coma before the Berlin Wall comes down and wakes up afterward
La Bete Humaine 1938: Jean Renoir directs Jean Gabin as a murderer trying to cover up his crime
Pepe le Moko 1939: Jean Gabin is a criminal on the run in Algiers
Onegin 1999: English version of Pushkin's masterpiece
Dangerous Beauty 1998: story of a courtesan in 16th century Venice
Divided We Fall 2000: Czech couple shelter a Jewish concentration camp escapee
Underground 1995: Yugoslavs continue making arms in an underground factory because they are not told that the war ended.
Elena and Her Men 1957: Jean Renoir directs Ingrid Bergman as a Polish beauty who drives men mad
Le Corbeau 1943: Clouzot manages to make a searing film under Nazi censorship.
The Saga of Gosta Berling 1924: the Swedish film that made Greta Garbofamous
