Home movies
Films made up entirely (or mostly, towards the end of the list) of old amateur home-movie footage. Not old newsreels, not short amateur fiction films, but real life snapshots, camera tests, wedding clips, etc. I'm also adding some films at the very bottom where renowned professional filmmakers turned the camera on their own lives... mostly on their girlfriends. This is a personal interest of mine. With some filmmakers I wouldn't know where to stop, e.g. Brakhage, Godard... so I'll only be choosing one or two. Comments and suggestions welcome.
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- Jan Sikl expertly edits together actual home-movie footage from the 1920s to the 1960s in order to chronicle the history of Czechoslovakia in the 20th century. In eight episodes of 52 minutes, the major events of Czech history, including the Depression, the occupation by the Nazis, World War II, and the rise of communism are depicted through the experiences of real-life Czech citizens. The series reveals that history is the story of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances - not the dry, dull set of names and dates taught in schools.aka Private Century, 8-episode series for Czech TV. Private footage from the thirties to the sixties.
- DirectorPéter ForgácsStarsMiklós BodóczkyFernando BujarrabalNils BlunckFilmmaker Péter Forgács compiles home movies by a family of Catalan industrialists who have documented their lives as their homeland is besieged by labor unrest, the collapse of the monarchy, the rise of anarchism, and ultimately the Spanish Civil War.
- DirectorTrent HarrisStarsGroovin' GarySean PennCrispin GloverIn 1979, filmmaker Trent Harris visits the small town of Beaver, Utah to film a talent show. Impressed by a performer called Groovin' Gary, he recreates Gary's act in 1981 with Sean Penn and in 1985 with Crispin Glover.
- DirectorJosé Luis López-LinaresStarsMadronita AndreuJesús AgeletJulio IglesiasCompilation of images of the amateur recordings of Madronita Andreu, Catalan intellectual of the nineteenth century, daughter of Dr. Andreu, famous for its pills and cough syrup.
- DirectorKurt KuenneStarsKurt KuenneAndrew BagbyDavid BagbyA filmmaker decides to memorialize a murdered friend when his friend's ex-girlfriend announces she is expecting his son.
- DirectorMartin SulíkStarsMarek JuracekEdita LevaJulie RitzingerovaA Czech director wrestles with problems personal and political during the Prague spring of 1969.
- DirectorElías León SiminianiStarsLuis CallejoElías León SiminianiAinhoa RamírezAbout someone who once loved a woman in a desert with a camera.
- DirectorAndrew JareckiStarsArnold FriedmanJesse FriedmanDavid FriedmanDocumentary on the Friedmans, a seemingly typical, upper-middle-class Jewish family whose world is instantly transformed when the father and his youngest son are arrested and charged with shocking and horrible crimes.
- DirectorJohn DouglasRobert KramerStarsMary ChapelleSharon KrebsJim Nolfi"A many-faceted portrait of those individuals who sought radical solutions to social problems in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. It cuts back and forth between six major story lines and more than fifty characters, and across a vast landscape, to explore the lifestyles and attitudes of the American left who faced both personal and hhistorical transitions in the period following the Vietnam War."
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsSandrine BattistellaPierre OudreyAlexandre RignaultAn analysis of the power relations in an ordinary family.
- DirectorStan BrakhageStarsStan BrakhageMyrrena SchwegmannJane WodeningStan Brakhage films the birth of his first child, Myrrena.
- DirectorSu FriedrichStarsPeggy HealeyMakea MacDonaldEla Troyano"Damned If You Don't is a real prize. Beautifully shot in black and white, it blends conventional narrative technique with impressionistic camerawork, symbols and voicovers to create an intimate study of sexual expression and repression. It begins with footage from a stylish old potboiler about an isolated convent, whose tale of passions leashed and unleashed provides the leitmotif for a young lesbian who watches it and the lonely nun she pursues and seduces. As the two women's lives come closer to joining, voiceovers from the biography of a 16th century lesbian nun and the reminiscences of a woman's closeted romances at a Catholic school flesh out the theme. When the two women finally meet and make love, the woman's careful unwrapping of the nun's complicated prison of clothing is both foreplay and liberating metaphor. The film is as hypnotic as a dream."
- DirectorJonas MekasStarsJonas MekasAdolfas MekasPola ChapelleFilmmaker Jonas Mekas creates an elegiac diary of a trip to his home country of Lithuania.
- DirectorNikita MikhalkovStarsNikita MikhalkovAnna MikhalkovaNadezhda MikhalkovaDirector Nikita Mikhalkov documents the history of Russia from 1980 to 1991 by annually asking his daughter Anna questions.
- DirectorNicholas RayWim WendersStarsGerry BammanRonee BlakleyPierre CottrellWim Wenders abandons the shoot of one of his own films in order to help his friend and fellow director Nicholas Ray create his swan song before he dies.
- DirectorAnthony NewleyRichard WilliamsStarsAnthony NewleyJoan CollinsAlexander NewleyHeironymus Merkin (Anthony Newley) screens an autobiographical movie of his life, growth, and moral decay.
- DirectorJonathan CaouetteStarsJonathan CaouetteRenee LeblancAdolph DavisFilmmaker Jonathan Caouette's documentary on growing up with his schizophrenic mother -- a mixture of snapshots, Super-8 film, answering machine messages, video diaries, early short films, and more - culled from nineteen years of his life.I haven't seen it yet
- DirectorRobert Jan WestdijkStarsKim van KootenRomijn ConenHugo MetsersMartijn is obsessed with his younger sister Daantje and visits her to make a documentary about her. He manages to invade Daantje's life with his video camera, but soon unresolved issues from a distant past come to the surface.This is a piece of fiction. A home-movie story filmed as a home-movie.
- StarsLiv UllmannErland JosephsonBibi AnderssonTen years within the marriage of Marianne and Johan.My mother insisted I should include Bergman and his wives. This is not a case of a filmmaker turning the camera onto his life/wife, but rather the reverse dynamic: a man bringing in the actresses and love stories from his movies into his private life. Polanski is another case in point. There are many more examples of this, so many that they would crowd out the real home-movies in this list.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsHugh GrantKristin Scott ThomasEmmanuelle SeignerAfter hearing stories of her, a passenger on a cruise ship develops an irresistible infatuation with an eccentric paraplegic's wife.And one other example from Polanski. Not that I think this story is a reflection of his private life with Seigner, but he was accused at the time of bringing his own 'wet dreams' into the film. A lot of people found that Seigner wasn't that sexy, and the erotic scenes not to be erotic at all, but rather embarrassing. I disagree, but I can see their point.