Your chance to promote an overlooked/forgotten masterpiece: Movies

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38. Three selections . . . .

Ran - 1985. Not Akira Kurosawa's last movie, but his last big movie, and simply overwhelming. It's King Lear set in Japan during the Warring States period. Stylized by American standards, but powerful, with some of the most amazing shots of any movie on record and (I would argue) the greatest battle scene on film. Cool trivia - the actor portraying Lord Hidetora, the Lear figure (Tatsuya Nakadai) was the protagonist in "Hara Kiri" (1962).

Dead Ringers - 1988. David Cronenberg even icier than usual in what is (to date) the most genuinely disturbing movie I've ever seen. Jeremy Irons is amazing playing identical twin gynecologists circling the drain, driven by drugs and sexual obsession. Gore-free to all intents and purposes, but staggeringly weird and sad, with one question at the center - who are you, really? Do you really have your own identity?

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen - 1989 - Yes, yes, yes, you either like Terry Gilliam or you don't. I do, and there it is. Anyway it's a bit slow to get going, but once it does, enjoy the ride. This is really one of the last movies from the golden age of practical effects and features (among other things) a balloon trip to the Moon, a swashbuckling protagonist in the form of John Neville, and a nearly naked Uma Thurman.