The Open Culture site has cropped up before, I think. Some kind soul with time on his hands has compiled a list of free movies online that are actually worth watching. They’re pretty much all on YouTube, but this removes the serendipitous stumbling process. For instance:
Crash: The Short Film – Free – Otherwise known as The Atrocity Exhibition, this pre-Cronenberg short film was directed by Harley Cokeliss and stars J.G. Ballard himself. (1971)
End of the World – Free – After witnessing a man’s death in a bizarre accident, Father Pergado goes on a spiritual retreat, where he encounters his alien double bent on world conquest. Sci-fi film stars Christopher Lee. (1977)
Fear and Desire – Free – An uncut print of Stanley Kubrick’s “lost” early film. Kubrick didn’t like how his first film came out, so removed it from circulation. (1953)
Lumiere – Free – A very short film by David Lynch. 55 seconds. (1966)
Mike Leigh’s Five Minute Films – Free – The BBC commissioned him to make a series of five-minute movies in 1975. They eventually aired in 1982.
Tuileries – Free – A short twisted film by Joel and Ethan Coen. Stars Steve Buscemi and takes place in Paris. (2006)
And, to whet your appetite:
Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life – Free – Directed by Peter Capaldi, the Oscar-winning short film shows Kafka, on Christmas Eve, struggling to come up with the opening line for his most famous work, The Metamorphosis. (1993)
More in comments.
725 Free Movies online (proper ones)
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Plenty of gold in the documentary section:
1959: The Year that Changed Jazz – Free – Documentary looks at the transformative albums released by Miles, Brubeck, Coleman & Mingus in 1959.
Albert Camus: The Madness of Sincerity – Free – About the life and work of writer Albert Camus, including interviews with his former mistresses and Camus’ daughter Catherine and her twin brother Jean. (1997)
Conversations with Myself – Free – Alan Watts walks in the mountains and talks about the limitations of technology and the problem of trying to keep track of an infinite universe with a single tracked mind. (1971)
Down from the Mountain – Free – Documentary/concert film about the making of the Grammy-winning soundtrack recording for the Joel and Ethan Coen film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Jammin’ the Blues – Free – Directed by Life magazine photographer Gjon Mili, the film features Lester Young and other jazz/blues legends. (1944)
Shock of the New – Free – Art critic Robert Hughes looks at the the development of modern art since the Impressionists. (1980)
Live in Rome – Free – Documentary captures the Talking Heads playing live in Rome. Features the group’s full “Afro-Funk Orchestra” lineup, plus Adrian Belew on guitar. (1980)
Better stop there, maybe…
Sounds like a real treasure trove. As you say, there are far more complete movies on YT than one would suspect. Sometimes with subtitles that the poster has added themselves. That’s a whole cottage industry here in Sweden.
Those amazing, zany Swedes! Yes, third only to irritating pop groups and the world’s least sexy car, subtitling employs millions of industrious Swedes, working from home as they painstakingly embroider the subtitles to that new Michael Bay movie! Entire villages compete to see who can subtitle the Oscar winners first! The fjørds ring with laughter as the happy children sing the Subtitling Song!
Voi, perheeni on tekstitystä perhe
Elämme välillä metsässä ja järven
Kun tekstitys- valmis
Isäni saa humalassa
Menee Trampoliinilla hyppiminen yöllä!
It’s a bit chilly, but I’ll take my hat off to you anyway, H.P.
Original song lyrics written in fluent Finnish! What an amazing polyglot.
What impressed me most was your use of the correct postposition for trampoliini. Not many foreigners get that right. Perhaps you should offer your formidable skills to the Finnish people and write the lyrics for their next Eurovision entry? Lordi would be honoured to perform your composition, I’m sure.
Glorious! That looks like a gem of a find. Cheers.
Powell and Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death is freely available at archive.org to stream, torrent or download.
I’m not sure which cut of the film this, and its probably not the very recent restored print, but it is the greatest film ever made. . .
They made a few Greatest Films Ever Made. A Canterbury Tale is probably my favourite.
Didn’t you used to have Doctor Frank Reeve as your avatar? I notice it’s now Colonel Blimp. Livesey is marvelous in both of course, and in I Know Where I’m Going, but of all their great films AMOLAD is my favourite too.
Yes, I did. A marvellous actor. I remember seeing him in BBC’s adaptation of ‘The Pallisers’, which I think was the last thing he did before he died. I didn’t see AMOLAD or Blimp until after he’d died.
Kathleen Byron was in an episode of The Bill.
Just tried it. Files won’t load – I am disappoint. I’ll have to watch the pristine Criterion print I
downloaded from Pirate Baybought from Amazon instead.Works for me, maybe the boys in the village need to pedal harder. But I didn’t really think that anybody in these parts needed to be pointed towards AMOLAD anyway.
Have a look at Jammin’ the Blues instead. Sensational.
I watched the 1969 film What’s Good For The Goose on YouTube last year but it appears to have disappeared now. The only X-film that Norman Wisdom starred in, shot in the exotica location of Southport and also starring Sally Geeson and The Pretty Things. Still worth searching for.