As much as I love the antics of Mel Brooks , Monty Python and Woody Allen, one of the most astounding films that I've ever come across was "Mindwalk" (1990) based on a story of one of my favourite authors, 'The Turning Point' by Fritjof Capra, author of The Tao of Physics' and several other books.
It is , to be short, a conversation between 3 people while hiking along the coast of Normandy to view Mont St. Michel. The conversation is about our world and all the perils we now face; that conversation has been dubbed one of the most profound since My Dinner With Andre; perhaps even the best ever written.
I have been searching for a DVD copy and cannot so far locate one nor even confirm that it has indeed gone to the DVD format. Thankfully, I have one copy on VHS and may have to have it done myself.
The film stars Liv Ullmann, Sam Waterston, (from Law and Order fame) and John Heard. It is simply spellbinding. The fim is by Bernt Capra, screenplay by Fritjof Capra and Floyd Byars.

quote:
Jupiter

22:14 Jul 03, 2010
My favorite film is "Night of the Hunter"
It influenced so many of the great filmmakers of today. Robert Mitchum is brilliant in this film.
The actor Charles Laughton directed this film. It's the only film he ever directed and was pretty much panned when it was first released in the 50's.

I remember seeing this on TV when a kid...found that Mitchum's character of the Preacher, really creepy. Years later, it still had a chilling effect, it was so well done. Many of my relatives hated it and the author Grub for using the novel to 'disparage both 'the Old South' and the supposed 'reconstructed South' after the civil war. If he had wished to show the effects of corruption in both society and in religion, then why not simply write a sort of part 2 of 'Gone With The Wind' like the aftermath of losing, the psychological damage to people that formed the aftermath societies for the next few generations. Some of my US southern relatives saw it as a totally unwarranted attack on the South and its people, not as a social historic commentary as by the early 50's, the South had risen again and it certainly was not anything like the old South. Also, no region of the US had a monopoly on corrupted clergy let alone on murder of widows and children for money. I traveled around the Old South many years later and found that , for the most part, their criticisms of the purpose and use of the story from the real and tragic story to have been well founded. It became a very unfortunate portrait of the entire region just as much as Faulkner's God's Little Acre despite its hilarious /pathetic characters ... (I'd love to find that one on DVD...

Mindwalk' is an interesting film in conversation, even if a bit contrived at times. But, you can't beat Liv Ulmann and Sam Waterston in conversation, which is exceptional at times. Good film pick!

It is indeed odd this film is not available on dvd...

Comparison with 'My Dinner With Andre' is appropriate, though in a different setting. Conversation films, each in their own context. If you like conversation films, check out 'Before Sunrise' (1995) and 'Before Sunset' (2004). Two films made ten years apart and follow the characters ten years apart too. They are conversation films. Not so deep in philosophy, but very much so in human relationship ways. I enjoy these two films for the conversation and pulling together of time, and making the most of time. Simply elegant as a pair of films.