Gummo
Harmony Korine 1997 US (2nd time)
In an Ohio town, which hasn't recovered from a tornado, youths search for ways to pass the time.
Because of its utter disregard for narrative, this episodic succession of anti-climaxes, full of unpleasant images and characters, is a demanding, challenging film. In many ways it is quite clearly a feature debut, while in others it has the feeling of an assured master playing with the medium; in this respect, it is like no other film, which must account for something.

Julien Donkey-Boy
Harmony Korine 1999 US (1st time)
A schizophrenic lives with his brother, who aspires to be a wrestler, his pregant sister (father unknown) and stern, military father.
Willing, and succeeding, to create new images and new contexts for familiar images, Korine's second film, the first American feature made under the Dogme manifesto, is powerful, even gut-wrenching, in much of its raw aesthetic. Shot on lightweight DV, it is deliberately the anti-everything, in turns poignant and hilarious, at once uplifting and bleak.

The Thin Red Line
Terrence Malick 1998 US (2nd time)
In 1943, US forces land on Guadalcanal, and are ordered to take a heavily defended position.
An absorbing war film with much killing and little blood; Malick instead focuses on how war itself is the enemy, and how it lamentably only exists among humans and the civilised world: as much as they're trying to defeat the Japanese, the Americans still get caught up in the corruption of their own hierarchy and chain of command. Meanwhile, amid all the noisy chaos, there are plenty of placid shots of the natural world at peace, accompanied by multi-faceted, ruminative voice-overs.

Kárhozat (Damnation)
Béla Tarr 1987 Hungary (1st time)
A hopeless man, distanced from society, is in love with a singer, but she's married…
An absolutely astonishing piece of work, decidedly not for everyone, but essential viewing for those who appreciated assured visions, and they don't come more firm than this; a methodic film shot in long takes and slow pans, with a bleak mise-en-scene and cynical poetry to match. Surreal, haunting, astounding.