Let's revive them and list - Any year. Any genre.

My first nominee is 'On Borrowed Time' (1939) with Bobs Watson and Lionel Barrymore. An excellent little story about a boy and his grandfather and the rather odd man they trap in their apple tree.

"Evidence Preferred... But Not Essential" (1982) was made for British television, but I first saw it in an American movie theatre. I happened to catch it one time on TV and made a precious recording that I have watched over and over, praying that it will survive one more time until I can replace it with a DVD. Set in a Welsh seaside resort in the early 1960s, it's a sweet -- but not syrupy -- coming-of-age story where a young woman works with all kinds of oddballs: an Elvis-wannabe, a somnambulist nudist, a runaway (at age 36), etc.

Georgia, your mention of Helena Bonham Carter reminded me of "Getting It Right" (1989). The protagonist, Gavin, a 31-year-old male virgin, is tentative about getting involved with modern women. Bonham Carter plays an aristocrat who is anything but aristocratic in her demeanor (I recall her morning-after, mascara-smudged eyes every time I see HBC is one of her more fastidious roles). Jane Horrocks (Bubble in "Absolutely Fabulous") is a junior hairdresser whom Gavin works with but who never seemed very interesting to him until... Lynn Redgrave is the older woman who teaches Gavin a thing or two.

I also think "That Sinking Feeling" (1980), directed by Bill Forsyth -- about a Glaswegian-gang that specializes in stealing kitchen sinks -- is one of the funniest films I've ever seen, though I had to watch it at least six times before I could understand a lot of the dialogue.

I brought up another "little movie" on another thread: "Why Shoot the Teacher?" that stars Bud Cort of Harold & Maude fame and Samantha Eggar. The setting is Depression-era Saskatchewan and the hard life the people in that province led. Eggar's character is particularly poignant, a British war bride who followed her Canadian husband but never really adjusted to the loneliness and weather. One of her lines: "Canada is a nice country -- sometimes, in the spring." But this is not really a completely-sad film; it's actually very funny in a gentle, low-key way. The politician character is a riot, and Bud Cort is perfect as Max Brown, as he is called, though the film is based on Canadian writer Max Braithwaite's reminiscences.

I can name scads of "little movies," but I'll hold off because I don't want to hog the thread. :-)

An Angel at my Table (1990). New Zealand,Jane Campion, director. Wonderful Kerry Fox in lead role. Biographical drama about a young writer's coming into to her own through personal hardships and misdiagnosed illness.

Italian for Beginners (2000). Denmark, social drama with humorous touches about a group of misfit singles in a small town who come together in a night school class.

Big Night (1996). USA, Stanley Tucci and Tony Shaloub. A failing family restaurant business comes up against stiff competition. Will the business survive? Will the 2 brothers survive... each other? Sublime humor and Italian angst at its best!

Shallow Grave (1994). UK, tense thriller with brit wit. Stars Christopher Eccleston, Ewan McGregor and again Kerry Fox.

And another personal fave: Two for the Road (1967) w/Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. An underrated classic, imho.

And "Shallow Grave" is on my list of all-time creepy favorites. The part where one of the guys is moving around in the attic drilling holes so he can peer into the rooms below is the first thing that comes to my mind when this film is mentioned.

Another film with Kerry Fox I think is very good is "The Affair." A British woman and a black American GI have a relationship during WWII while her soldier husband is away. This drama is not easy to watch sometimes; but Ms. Fox and Courtney B. Vance are outstanding and the story is thought-provoking.

Okay, while I'm at it :-), I'll mention several other "little movies" that I seldom get to discuss because no one I know has seen them.

A couple from the 1960s starring Hayley Mills in her first grown-up roles:

"The Truth About Spring" -- Spring (Hayley) is a tomboy growing up mothertheless on her father's boat. Father -- who else but John Mills -- is searching for pirate's treasure and fishing in the meanwhile. A young man (the delectable James MacArthur) falls in with them and, well, nature takes its course. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why this film has never been released on video. It is very rarely shown on television, either, but I was lucky enough one time to catch it and make a tape. Has anyone else seen it?

"The Family Way" -- Jenny (Hayley) and Arthur (Hywel Bennett) are newlyweds who have to live with his family (his father is played by John Mills). They don't have a honeymoon and poor Arthur just can't manage to consummate the marriage. This is really a lovely little film and not prurient, but can you imagine acting such an intimate subject with your own father as one of your fellow actors, like Hayley did? I guess she was accustomed to it, though.

Skipping a decade: Thomas McGuane adapted his own novel, 92 in the Shade, and directed the 1974 film of the same title. Peter Fonda is a Key West fellow who wants to get into the fish-guiding business. Warren Oates is a curmudgeonly guide who doesn't want a new rival. Harry Dean Stanton is a go-between who has a major problem of his own, a voluptuous ex-majorette wife (played SO well by Elizabeth Ashley) who still likes to put on her skimpy costume and twirl her baton. Burgess Meredith is a crooked, old lawyer who can't keep his hands off his middle-aged secretary (Sylvia Miles). William Hickey, the Fonda character's grandfather, won't get out of bed and won't fund his grandson's enterprise. Margot Kidder is Fonda's girlfriend. I'm naming all these actors because each one nails his/her part. Despite a downbeat ending -- which is actually true to the book -- I think this film is one of the funniest of the 1970s. But who else has seen it? It's a shame it's not better known.

"The Little Thief" -- last film directed by the great Francois Truffaut, in French, starring Charlotte Gainsbourgh.

"The Secret of Roan Innish" (not just for kids).

"Five Easy Pieces"

"The Major and the Minor" (1942), starring Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland
Of all the screwball comedies of that era, this is probably one of the lesser known. I've always wondered why because I think it is hilarious. I went over to the IMDb Message Board to see if I could get some insight, and I found that it must not translate well to modern audiences because some viewers expressed misgivings about a romance between an adult and a child! I guess they don't get the joke: Su-Su, the Ginger Rogers character, is obviously NOT a child, though she pretends to be one to get a half-fare train ticket.

"Cal" (1984), with John Lynch and Helen Mirren
Against his nature, a young man, Cal, gets involved with the IRA in Belfast. He falls in love with an older Catholic woman (Mirren), whose Protestant policeman husband was murdered by Cal's "friends" and Cal himself drove the getaway car for them. Adapted from Bernard MacLaverty's novel, this sad tale is at once a character study and a depiction of what life is/was like inside "the Troubles." The Uilleann-pipe music by Mark Knopfler is sublime. The late, great Donal McCann is Cal's father, Shamie.

"Heartaches" (1981), with Annie Potts, Margot Kidder, Robert Carradine
Could be called a chick flick, I suppose, but my husband likes it! Annie's character is married to Robert Carradine's character when she gets pregnant (results of a single-time mistake), but unfortunately he's not the father. She's terrified to tell him so she leaves, but she quickly learns that she's not going to be able to take care of herself. Lucky for her, she falls in with Margot Kidder's character, named Rita (the only character name I can recall at the moment). Rita is brassy, both loves and hates men, and has had a pretty hard life herself; but she has a good heart and gets attached to Annie Potts (Bonnie, I just remembered!) and Bonnie's unborn baby. This is a female-buddy movie -- parts are poignant, parts are funny because they ring so true -- with Kidder & Potts a great team.

Hey "Smoke" has a sequel...can't recall the name but it's the same group of people. That's quite good, too. Anyone remember the name?

As always, I find our different perspectives amusing - some of the films you (in the US) consider little would probably be seen as 'big(gish)' ones here (in the UK), e.g. 'Shallow Grave' and 'Educating Rita'.

One little film which I really need to watch a second time was Kevin Smith's "Clerks". Saw it years ago on tv, hadn't ever seen anything quite like it!

Another odd and delightful televisual find was the "Wisconsin Death Trip", a very strange and poetic documentary of weird events, deaths and misadventures reported in a small town 19th century newspaper.

Moongirl, the sequel to Smoke is 'Blue in the face', I believe.

Some more:
*Ryan's Daughter (John Mills, Sarah Miles, Robert Mitchum)
*Viva la Vie (star-studded cast, excellent Lelouch tale)
*Le Mari de la Coiffeuse (The Hairdresser's Husband). A beautiful, yet unusual love story.

Friedag, just reading over what's been said and I DO SO remember that Hayley Mills movie with 'dreamy' James McArthur!!! (brings back memories, sigh).

Anyway, that's the set up and Christine's business grows and she starts to specialize in "kinkiness for older gentlemen." If it sounds very sordid, well, it is and it isn't -- it's all played for comic effect. There's a lot of sexual suggestion, but it's nearly all verbal and thankfully none is graphic -- making it all the funnier, I think. Julie Walters is perfect in her part. Note: Cynthia Payne, the famous oft-arrested British madame, was a production consultant, but there are disclaimers both fore and aft that this story isn't about Payne's life. One wonders if the protesting is too much.

Another film, "Wish You Were Here" (1987) is supposed to be about Cynthia Payne's teenage years. Emily Lloyd plays young Lynda (as she is called in this film). David Leland, the writer of the "Personal Services" screenplay, also wrote the screenplay for this one. But, whereas "Personal Services" is lighthearted, "Wish You Were Here" has a darker tone, though parts of it are funny, too. I recommend both films to certain viewers but not to everyone.

If you like Thomas McGuane, Rancho Deluxe is another funny little movie,and Jeff Bridges plays a character that could be related to his Dude in The Big Lebowski.

Oh, yes, "Rancho Deluxe" is an old favorite. I have never seen "The Big Lebowski." It's probably too new for me, though I see it was released in 1998. I'm hopelessly years behind most movie watchers. That's why I enjoy threads like this one -- finally, I can talk about films I've seen. :-)

Out of Rosenheim (1987), better known as Bagdad Café
CCH Pounder stars, alongside Jack Palance.

"Hester Street"- turn of the century immigrant Jewish life in NYC

"Delancy Street" -romantic, off beat tale set in the garment district of NYC

"The Sailor who Fell with Grace from the Sea" - bizarre story a bit reminiscent of "Lord of the Flies" starred Sara Miles.

"The Crying Game" - strange love story set in Ireland.

Gosh, I adored "Educating Rita." I think this was Michael Caine's best film, except perhaps "Alfie."

And I liked "Cal" very, very much.

And "Room at the Top" with Simone Signoret.

Marianne Sagebrecht is the surprise in "Out of Rosenheim" (Bagdad Cafe), a frumpy-looking Frau dumped by her husband in the American desert. But gradually we find out -- just like Brenda (CCH Pounder) does -- that there is something about Jasmin and how she can set even the most chaotic situations aright (and boy! Brenda's life is a huge mess). I love this film.

Heh! Mary, don't you think some of the casting in "Walk on the Wild Side" is a hoot? I mean:

Laurence Harvey, born in Lithuania and raised in the UK, plays Texan Dove Linkhorn. That would be fine if his accent was appropriate -- I don't know what he sounds like but it sure ain't a Texan!

And Jane Fonda as Kitty Twist (don't you love these characters' names?) slithers all over the place, overacting, and her accent is as weird as Harvey's.

But Anne Baxter beats both of them, playing a good-hearted senorita who runs a cafe -- her Mexican accent is so cliche that she should have been stifled!

Barbara Stanwyck is well-cast, though. Stanwyck could elevate any part.

Capucine is...well, Capucine. What did they think? New Orleans = French; Capucine is French? Ha! The music and that black cat are so jazzy, though. All and all, a camp classic, in my opinion.

Woodnymph - do you mean Crossing Delancey with Amy Irving?

The Pad and how to use it (1967?)--How I wish I could find a copy of this. Saw it years ago and it has never been broadcast again. A shy young man is tutored by a Ladies man and meets a young woman. The dynamics involved between the three are incredible.

The Good Wife (1985?)--This is a fascinating character study set in a turn of the century Austrailian village. Rachel Ward plays a wife and mother who is molested by a creep then finds herself consumed by him and he wants nothing to do with her. I have never seen a film that so amazingly depicts the breakdown of a persons character and sanity as this one does.

The one I also loved, and don't see here is "The Winslow Boy" ever see it? Quiet little thing, but I always get sucked into it if it is on tv. I also can't help but watch "The Spitfire Grill" if I run across it.

Keep up the thread, I'm making my list.

:o)

Living in Oblivion (1995) w/ Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, Durmot Mulroney - I loved the humor in this one.

Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991) w/ Helen Mirren, Helena Bonham Carter, Judy Davis and Rupert Graves - I may not be totally objective about this one since I'm an unabashed EM Forster fan, but I always regarded this as an excellent book-to-film adaptation and it has been largely forgotten among films of this kind.

Another Canadian movie, Margaret's Museum, with Helena B. Carter, Clive Russell and Kate Nelligan. Poignant and tragic love story in a tiny mining town. Very bizarre ending...

I agree, "The Winslow Boy" was wonderful.

I never saw "Sue" but the theme to me sounds awfully like an old Italian film, "La Strada." Anyone here like that one? There was a whole string of those B & W Italian films in the Sixties that used the same actress, waif-like. I think she was at one time the wife of the late Marcello Mastriani.(Her name escapes me -- was it Juliette something?) Frieda, do you remember her?

Another old favorite: "Wild Strawberries", directed by the inimitable Ingmar Bergman. Each time I see this one, I get some new insight or wisdom from it.

Also: "Babette's Feast."

Georgia, "Where Angels Fear to Tread" does appear to have been overlooked and underrated, even during that flurried period when it seems every E.M. Forster novel was filmed. I did see this film -- I even have it on video -- but for the life of me I can't remember much about it other than Judy Davis's turn as the priggish Harriet. It's time I rewatched this one.

Add me to the ravers of "Crossing Delancey"! I love Peter Riegert in this and in "Local Hero" and in his small-but-so-good role as Sam in "Chilly Scenes of Winter" (aka "Head Over Heels"). I liked Amy Irving as the virginal Hadass in "Yentl." I know "Yentl" is not exactly forgotten, from all the lambasting on the IMDb Message Board I've been reading. Sheesh! I quite like it. I fell in love with Mandy Patinkin's Avigdor. Tell me I'm not the only one!

Speaking of Mandy Patinkin, he's Alfred de Musset to Judy Davis's Aurora Dudivant/George Sand in "Impromptu." I laugh and laugh at the wordplay and sight gags in this costume biopic. Bernadette Peters is the deliciously devious Marie d'Agoult; Julian Sands is Franz Lizst, much harried in his homelife with his perennially baby-producing mistress (how did that man manage to write such music as he did?); Ralph Brown is Eugene Delacroix (who had a thing about painting dead things); Georges Corraface is Sand's jealous lover, Mallefille....and oh! I must not forget Emma Thompson as the Duchess d'Antan whose hospitality was so greatly imposed upon! Only Hugh Grant as Chopin slightly disappoints me, but, oh well, he's good enough.

Mary, I think you are thinking of Guilietta Masina who was Frederico Fellini's wife. "La Strada" is splendid, superb, and every other superlative I can think of. I'm not sure that I see any resemblance between it and "Sue," but then I didn't watch all of "Sue" so I might have missed something. Georgia, what do you think?

Reggie, indeed "Hud" is vintage Newman and Martin Ritt (director) and Larry McMurtry ("Hud" is adapted from his novel Horseman Pass By). Gosh, McMurtry has had quite a number of his novels turned into films and television miniseries. "Hud" and "The Last Picture" are my favorites. I like "Lonesome Dove," too.

One more and I'll shut up: It's funny how the mention of one film leads to another. Jeff Bridges has been mentioned several times above and that brought to my mind "Bad Company" (1972), with Bridges and a raft of other up-and-coming young actors of the time as a bunch of drifters in the American West trying to escape conscription during the War between the States. They find themselves particularly inept at getting by in an alien land. This film is beautifully photographed with ambient light and slightly sepia tones, giving one of the most realistic depictions of the way things would have really looked interior-wise in the 19th century. I do so love a western, and this is one my favorites of the realistic-type.

Frieda, you aren't the only one who loved M. Patimkin as Avigdor in "Yentil." I adored the entire film from start to finish: wonderful settings, casting, and nostalgia.

Another small forgotten little movie I always liked is Best Laid Plans with Reese Witherspoon and Josh Brolin. And speaking of her, The Man in the Moon is another good one. Oh, and A Walk on the Moon with Diane Lane. I always get these two mixed up, but they're both nice little films.

I don't know if this next movie belongs in the forgotten category, but to my knowledge it still has not been released on DVD here in the states, and I find myself wondering why. Does anyone remember "The Double Life of Veronique"? I only saw it once, but have been thinking about it and would like to see it again, but it is hard to find these days.

A movie that pleasantly surprised me was "Leading Man" with Jon Bon Jovi and Thandie Newton. It wasn't a great movie, but it was one of those little, overlooked movies that turned out better than I expected and had plenty of entertaining plot twists.

How could I have forgotten to mention "Elvira Madigan". I think that exquisite scene with the tightrope really put the 21st by Mozart on the map for many folks.

I think I did see "Double Life of Veronique" if it was the French film with subtitles, and liked it very much.

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE La Strada! The BEST Fellini film hands down. So beautiful. I studied it in school.

Gosh, I haven't thought of "Brimstone and Treacle" in years! Unsettling though it is, there's something about it that appeals to my gothic proclivities (and by gothic I'm NOT talking about the dress-all-in-black-and-look-dead fetish of the lot who call themselves Goths). "Brimstone and Treacle" was a theatrical release in the US -- several films that originated on British TV have been presented in American theatres first; for instance, "Enchanted April." We should be so lucky to have that kind of quality in our television programs! But I can't think of a single example of an American TV show that was "considered a film" and shown in European cinemas -- maybe there are some, though, that I just don't know.

Dennis Potter's "The Singing Detective" was recommended to me over and over, but I couldn't find it for the longest time. I did find "Lipstick on Your Collar" and quite enjoyed that one as soon as I adjusted myself to the notion (actually the central device) of the actors lip-synching all those songs. When I finally did get a copy of "The Singing Detective" I was very excited, but alas! it just didn't work for me -- it was too protracted or something and I still haven't finished viewing it, although I've had it for at least seven years.

Just thought of another film with Julie Walters: "Buster", based on the life of a real person. Phil Collins, the drummer/singer in the rock band "Genesis," does a quite nice job of playing a rather thick fellow who is involved in that British "Great Train Robbery" of the early 1960s. Julie Walters is Buster's wife, and it's easy enough to understand -- crazy though it sounds -- that Buster loved her and their children enough to do something as foolish as rob a train! There's some nice comic turns in this one and the characters are very appealing.

Did the excellent Richard Attenborough film Oh What a Lovely War ever reach the US? Taken from the stage-play produced at Joan Plowright's Theatre Royal Stratford East (ie Eastend of London). Just about every English actor of note was in it. Rent it if you can.

Oh, and how about "24 Hour Party People"?

Another fave of mine is "Dead Man" with Johnny Depp (looking oh so handsome). I thought he was great in this movie directed by Jim Jarmusch. There's even a cameo of Robert Mitchum.

I also really like "Walk on the Moon", "Smoke", "The Big Lebowski", which, by the way has quite a cult following with annual "Lebowski Fests", check out their website at lebowskifest.com

Moon made me think of "Racing with the Moon," the first time I really noticed Sean Penn and Nicholas Cage were good actors (Penn in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" doesn't count with me). I like so much about "Racing," especially the setting, a California coastal town during World War II -- love that bowling alley and the pie shop! Elizabeth McGovern is very good in it, too, although I had noticed her before in "Ordinary People" and "Ragtime" -- whatever became of her, anyway? Cage played such a cad! But when he sang "Tangerine" with the broom in his hands, I thought: Now, that's acting! Unfortunately, Cage hasn't really impressed me in much else, though I know he's been Oscar-nominated a few times and even won once, I think -- for what I don't remember.

"The Man in the Moon" with young Reese Witherspoon always tears me up. I can't watch it when it gets close to a certain point (you know what that is, I'm sure) and even the other parts are affected because I know what is going to happen.

Is anyone familiar with "High Tide," starring Judy Davis? It's very good, in my opinion. Davis is a backup singer for an Elvis impersonator touring backroad towns of Australia. She is sacked and while in a funk she winds up in a coastal caravan park during the off season, mostly nursing a bottle of booze. An adolescent girl who lives there year-round with her grandmother is intrigued with Lillie (Davis) and things develop from there. In some ways it a predictable little film, but the acting of Davis, the young girl, and the girl's grandmother, and the directing of Gillian Armstrong transcend.

I think it was Judy Davis who starred in "My Brilliant Career." There were a group of films from Australia some years back which were all excellent: "The Last Wave", "The Piano", (H. Keitel), "Picnic at Hanging Rock", "Gallipoli", and of course "My Brilliant Career." I adored Sam Neill in the latter.

Plot Outline: An Australian school teacher and her students are kidnapped. She and the children fight for their lives and try to escape from their captors.

I think I have it taped and was reminded of it by the other Aussie films mentioned. It is really good.
Another one I used to have was of an Australian teacher who taught a dance class now has to coach the boys futball team. Of course no one thoughht she could do it. I wish I could remember the name maybe Rachel Ward was in this one too.

Anyway... there is a reference to this movie in Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" and every time I get to that passage where she makes this reference, I find myself wishing I could see the movie again.

I like Rachel Ward very much and just re-visited "Against All Odds" in which she had a role.

Years ago, there was a unique film set in tribal country of Africa -- I think the title was "The Gods are Crazy."

I like some of the Coen Bros other little forgotten films...Barton Fink, Raising Arizona, Hudsucker Proxy, Blood Simple. Goodness you would think they ONLY made Fargo!

I think the title of the movie was "The Gods Must Be Crazy" and it centered around a Kalahari bushman who is trying to return to the gods something that must belong to them -- a Coke bottle. It has some of the funniest sequences I've ever seen on film.

Georgia, you mentioned Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" above. It does seem to be one of Hitch's lesser-watched films. I know I've seen it once -- and I think twice. What I recall about it was the claustrophobic sense it gave me, surely a partial feeling of what it would be like to be confined in such a small space with other helpless, and sometimes erratic, people. But I wonder if the reason it is not viewed as often as some of Hitchcock's others is the staticness and the talkiness of it. I think Hitchcock's "The Lodger," a silent made in 1926, is an effective bit of creepiness (based on Marie Belloc-Lowndes's novel about a Jack the Ripper-type killer), but some people I know are loath to watch it because it's black & white (yet they willingly watch "Psycho") but mainly, I think, because it's a silent.

Has anyone seen the Australian film "The Well"? It's an adaptation of Elizabeth Jolley's very strange novel of the same title. I saw the film once and thought it was very interesting, and I want to buy myself a copy but not until it's released on DVD -- if it ever is! That's a problem with these "little films" -- that, and finding them to rent. Netflix is not an option for me, unfortunately.

I absolutely loved "Fargo." McDormand was perfect as the policewoman and I liked the understated, terse dialogue.

Quite different, but does anyone else recall the oldie "Dr. Strangelove."?

Btw, my DH and I rented and watched "The Big Lebowski" this week. DH had already seen it several times and he swore that I had seen it, too. Turns out that I had seen parts but didn't know at the time what I was watching -- apparently I had traipsed through the room where DH and sons were viewing "Lebowski" and I paused to watch bits and pieces before wandering off. I got a kick out of it this time, watching it all the way through. John Goodman is amazing!

A film I've been thinking about renting again is The Mission w/ De Niro and Jeremy Irons. I don't hear people talking about this one too much anymore (might be indicative of me living under a rock, though). Along those lines, I don't think At Play in the Fields of the Lord was ever a big movie, but I lump it in the same class of movies as the above.

Another movie with an exotic locale, is Mountains of the Moon, with Patrick Bergin and Iain Glen as Burton and Speke looking for the source of the Nile. There are some interesting personal dynamics in this film.

Finally, another movie I regard as one of those little heartwarming types, is Little Voice, with Brenda Blethyn and Ewan McGregor.

I don't think any of these were big movies in the box office sense, but they were all movies that I have enjoyed and might watch again.

I particularly love "The Last Leaf."

More trivia - The introduction is by one John Steinbeck.

Another dark rather obscure film I liked, set in England, was "Waterlands" with Jeremy Irons. Very unsettling, but somehow satisfying....

Just tons and tons of them......

Another great forgotten little movie that may not have had time to be forgotten just overlooked is "Mind the Gap"

Peter Tinkladge who plays Finbar McBride (the dwarf), did an excellent job. About halfway through the film I forgot all about the fact that he was a dwarf and saw him only as a leading man with romantic interests. Patricia Clarkson is also in the film.

Jodi-