Best movies like Escape from the 'Liberty' Cinema
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The film is set just before Poland's communist regime came to an end, and the central character is a provincial censor (Janusz Gajos), a tired, sloppy, lonely man, whose wife has long since left him. For him, censorship is both an art and a game, but he does not enjoy it. During a screening of a sentimental Polish melodrama called "Daybreak" at the Liberty cinema across the road from the censor's office, the actors start to rebel and refuse to speak their lines. There is anarchy and when the censor is unable to control the situation, senior party officials are called in. Eventually a film critic notes that the situation reminds of "The Purple Rose of Cairo" by Woody Allen and brings a reel of the film to demonstrate. The officials watch the film with amusement until another mix-up occurs: the second projector is turned on accidentally and superimposes "Daybreak" over "Purple Rose".
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Poland
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychedelic, intellectual
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The Woman with Red Boots (1974)
Plot Summary:
An elderly millionaire manipulates an avant-garde writer and a happily married man.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 494
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: France, Italy, Spain
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sex comedy, surreal
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Body (2015)
Plot Summary:
A busy attorney, worried that his anorexic daughter Olga might try to harm herself, since she's still grieving over her recently deceased mother, sends her to see a psychiatrist, Anna, who's dealing with her own loss in an unusual way.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, sincere, humorous, captivating, melancholic, suspenseful, art house, comedy drama
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Teddy Bear (1981)
Plot Summary:
The main character, nicknamed "Teddy Bear" by his friends and acquaintances, is a manager of a sports club in Poland. One day he is detained at the border just as his sport team is off to a tournament. It appears that somebody has torn out a few pages from his passport. It occurs to him that perhaps his ex-wife has done it in order to get her hands on their joint account in a London bank. Therefore, he has to get to London as soon as possible in order to transfer the money to a different bank. The solution is taking part in a movie, made by his friend. The script requires a double role, thus the search for another actor is announced. The double has to apply for the passport, and that is solved through a girlfriend who agrees to play the dope's new fiancée. At the engagement party he is slipped a drug, and Teddy Bear runs off to the airport with the false passport. On the plane, however, he meets his ex-wife.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy
Country: Poland
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: funny, parody, cult classic, humorous, realistic, semi serious, biting, road movie, philosophical, sexy
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Short Working Day (1995)
Plot Summary:
Kieślowski’s study of a political strike, controversially told from the viewpoint of a Communist functionary trying to keep order.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 402
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: political drama
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The Constant Factor (1980)
Plot Summary:
The main character in this effective, convincing drama is Witold (Tadeusz Bradecki) who is high in what later would be termed the "emotional quotient" or the ability to bounce back from adverse, tragic circumstances. Witold has been nursing both his sick mother and a deeply rooted desire to climb the Himalayas. His father had died climbing in those mountains, and they have an allure for Witold as well. But his dreams begin to crumble when his mother succumbs to her illness and trouble brews at work. The situation becomes bad enough to scramble Witold's life with no indication of future improvement.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: intellectual
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Sauna (1992)
Plot Summary:
A film based on a simple situation: several men talk in the sauna.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 141
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags:
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Barrier (1966)
Plot Summary:
A dream-like meditation on post-industrial life in Communist Poland.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 515
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: Poland
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags:
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Traps (1998)
Plot Summary:
After two troubled but powerful men rape a young hitchhiker who happens to be a vet, she drugs them and remove their testicles.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 488
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: Czech Republic
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: mind bending, psychedelic, surreal, dark comedy
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It's Better to Be Healthy and Wealthy than Poor and Sick (1992)
Plot Summary:
A satiric tragi-comedy about two women and their lover Robert who is an emigrant that keeps coming back. This film shows chaotic post-communist Europe after the fall of totalitarianism. Two opposite characters, women, meet during the Velvet Revolution in November 1989. Intellectual dissident Nona and a Communist secret police boss’ mistress Ester. They meet at an anti-regime demonstration and become friends. They don’t want anything to do with politics, both want to get married and have kids, but also get rich. Crazy plans and risky attempts to realize their shared dreams land them in many sticky situations in the post-revolution chaos. Too much money gets in the way of the power of friendship.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 134
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags:
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Everything for Sale (1969)
Plot Summary:
Wajda's homage to Zbigniew Cybulski, the "Polish James Dean" who starred in the director's ASHES AND DIAMONDS and died young. The movie follows the tribulations of a director attempting to make a movie with a Cybulski-like star who never shows up.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 846
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: semi autobiographical
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The Discarnates (1988)
Plot Summary:
Harada is a successful scenario writer, and his best buddy has just announced an intention to propose to Harada's ex-wife. Recovering from the shock, Harada indulges in melancholy, mainly on his failure as a husband and father, and goes to a 'Rakugo' (sit-down comedy) show, where a friendly man in the audience invites him home. Harada is puzzled at the strong resemblance of this man and his wife to his own parents, who were killed nearly 30 years ago when he was twelve.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 410
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: mind bending, psychedelic, surreal
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Hands Up! (1981)
Plot Summary:
Beginning with a sci-fi prologue before finding itself with several doctors attending a medical school reunion in a sealed-up railway carriage. Between drinks, the disenchanted medicos ruminate over the effect that communism (particularly the Stalinist brand) has had on their profession. Originally banned in 1967 and finally released in 1981 after Skolimowski shot new sequences, the 76 minute 1981 version was the only one ever officially released.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 409
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: philosophical, experimental, avant garde, dark comedy, political
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Wielki bieg (1981)
Plot Summary:
Set in 1952, the story follows events around the "Peace Run", a propaganda 3-day marathon for peace. The winner is to be presented with a new motorcycle by the country's president. Chief organizer is a ruthless manipulator who will stop at nothing to make sure that the right man wins. There are two runners, Budny and Stolar, who are participating in the race for different reasons.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 95
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags:
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Sunday Pranks (1983)
Plot Summary:
Made in 1983, shelved for four years. A chilling tale about kids playing in a bombed-out Warsaw courtyard on the day of Stalin's death, while their parents are away at the church or a memorial procession.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 92
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags:
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Camera Buff (1979)
Plot Summary:
Filip buys an 8mm movie camera when his first child is born. Because it's the first camera in town, he's named official photographer by the local Party boss. His horizons widen when he is sent to regional film festivals with his first works but his focus on movie making also leads to domestic strife and philosophical dilemmas.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Poland
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: biting, existential, art house, poetic, clever, humorous, realistic, semi serious, parody, meta
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Big Animal (2000)
Plot Summary:
Left behind by a circus, a camel wanders to the house of a simple middle-aged couple in a Polish village. Although the wife is initially bewildered by the strange and unexpected animal, her husband immediately adopts it as a pet.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, mind bending, psychedelic, surreal, contemplative
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A Report on the Party and the Guests (1966)
Plot Summary:
In Jan Němec’s surreal fable, a picnic is rudely transformed into a lesson in political hierarchy when a handful of mysterious authority figures show up. This allegory about oppression and conformity was banned in its home country but became an international success after it premiered at the New York Film Festival.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 71 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, cult classic, mind bending, psychedelic, spiritual, surreal, crying, allegory, weird
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Johnnie Waterman (1993)
Plot Summary:
On the road wandering minstrel finds a mare, which, upholstered and sickly, is dying. He buries mare and casts a curse in the village where the animal was tortured. In the village lives Jańcio, a philosopher, a man loving life and his young wife, Weronka. Jańcio lives in harmony with God and is not expecting that he will be put to the test by him. He is convinced he has the power to make miracles. He leaves his pregnant wife, and goes to see the world, promising to return before the due date.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 634
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychedelic, offbeat, humorous, semi serious
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Takeshis' (2005)
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Beat Takeshi lives the busy and sometimes surreal life of a showbiz celebrity. One day he meets his blond lookalike named Kitano, a shy convenience store cashier, who, still an unknown actor, is waiting for his big break. After their paths cross, Kitano seems to begin hallucinating about becoming Beat.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: surreal, stylized, semi serious, mind bending, psychedelic, offbeat, non-linear, postmodern
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The Hawks and the Sparrows (1966)
Plot Summary:
A man and his son take an allegorical stroll through life with a talking bird that spouts social and political philosophy.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Italy
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: surreal, road movie, mind bending, psychedelic, intellectual, spiritual, neorealism, mystic, thought provoking, clever
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Pastoral Hide and Seek (1974)
Plot Summary:
A young boys' coming of age tale set in a strange, carnivalesque village becomes the recreation of a memory that the director has twenty years later.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: surreal, experimental, psychedelic, mind bending, disturbing, avant garde, weird, cult film
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WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1971)
Plot Summary:
A dense film that cuts up footage of a primary plot of two young Yugoslavian girls, one a politico and the other a sexpot, and an affair with a visiting Russian skater. Mixing metaphors of Russia's relationship with Yugoslavia, intercut with footage and interviews with Wilhelm Reich and Al Goldstein of Screw magazine. The film applies Reich's theories of Orgone energy and analogies of Stalinism as a form of Freudian sexual repression. Also known as W.R. The Mysteries of the Organism in English subtitled version. Was banned in Yugoslavia shortly after it was made.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Yugoslavia, West Germany
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: surreal, experimental, avant garde, controversial, disturbing, sexy, sex comedy, mind bending, psychedelic, educational
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About Endlessness (2019)
Plot Summary:
A reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendor and banality, guided by a Scheherazade-esque narrator. Inconsequential moments have the same significance as historical events. Simultaneously an ode and a lament, presents a kaleidoscope of all that is eternally human, an infinite story of the vulnerability of existence.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Sweden, Germany, Norway, France
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychological, sincere, thought provoking, contemplative, anthology, mind bending, psychedelic, stylized, existential
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City of Women (1980)
Plot Summary:
A businessman finds himself trapped at a hotel and threatened by women en masse.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: surreal, satirical, art house, cerebral, atmospheric, mind bending, psychedelic, cult classic, clever, offbeat
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Three Colors: White (1994)
Plot Summary:
Polish immigrant Karol Karol finds himself out of a marriage, a job and a country when his French wife, Dominique, divorces him after six months due to his impotence. Forced to leave France after losing the business they jointly owned, Karol enlists fellow Polish expatriate Mikolah to smuggle him back to their homeland.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 78000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Switzerland, France, Poland
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: witty, atmospheric, emotional, touching, art house, cerebral, visual, spiritual, art film, black comedy
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Shivers (1981)
Plot Summary:
Set in the early 1950's, during the Stalin's Personality Cult. The story opens in a provincial town. Tomek's father, a former member of the Home Army is arrested so the mother is left with the task of raising two kids alone. The neighbor upstairs commits suicide when her husband is also arrested and transported to the prison camp. It's winter so the kids keep their hands warm at school by hand-beating themselves. The teachers at school are mean, narrow minded idealists, When they ask the kids who goes to church on Sundays, the whole class stands up to defeat the purpose of the propaganda lesson. Tomek is sent to the training school in the summer. There he absorbs most of the ideology pumped into his head, and when his father is released from prison he finds another boy he has left.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 509
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: political
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The Firemen's Ball (1967)
Plot Summary:
In Milos Forman's satire on Communism set in a small Czechoslovakian town in the 1960s, the local firemen decide to organize a ball, however the proceedings are dogged by difficulty at every step. They plan to organize a beauty pageant at the ball, yet struggle tremendously to find enough pretty contestants. A lottery is planned for later in the evening, but the guests begin stealing the prizes. Then, inevitably, there is a fire in the town... It seems that whatever can go wrong, does go wrong.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia, Italy
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: black comedy, dark comedy, surreal, cult classic, allegory, humorous, witty, biting, mind bending, thought provoking
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The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973)
Plot Summary:
Set in pre- World War II era. A young man is on a strange train to see his dying father in a sanatorium. But the place is going to ruin and recalls a lot of memories from the past. He is beset by soldiers from the past, colonial black mercenaries, girls from his early life, and his parents. It is an interior adventure, with unusual atmospheric flair and extraordinary sets.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Country: Poland
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychological, psychedelic, dark, mindfuck, disturbing, existential, philosophical, slasher
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A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014)
Plot Summary:
An absurdist, surrealistic and shocking pitch-black comedy, which moves freely from nightmare to fantasy to hilariously deadpan humour as it muses on man’s perpetual inhumanity to man.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Sweden, Germany, Norway, France, Denmark
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: surreal, realistic, talky, lyrical, dark comedy, humorous, philosophical, semi serious, absurd, art house
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Being John Malkovich (1999)
Plot Summary:
Spike Jonze’s debut feature film is a love story mix of comedy and fantasy. The story is about an unsuccessful puppeteer named Craig, who one day at work finds a portal into the head of actor John Malkovich. The portal soon becomes a passion for anybody who enters it’s mad and controlling world of overtaking another human body.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 349000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychological, cerebral, mind bending, offbeat, mindfuck, philosophical, dark comedy, disturbing, black comedy