Top Rated Documentary Movies on Pantaflix - Page 168

Inhabitants

1970

Inhabitants

1970
6.3
Inhabitants depicts animals in panic: the film is mostly filled with shots of mass migrations and stampedes (some, surprisingly, filmed from a helicopter). The title equalizes the species of the earth. Artavazd Peleshian merely alludes to the presence of human beings—a few silhouettes that seem to be the cause of these vast, anxious movements of animal fear. In many ways, this film is an ode to the animal world that moves toward formal abstraction, with clouds of silver birds pulverizing light. Peleshian said, “It’s hard to give a verbal synopsis of these films. Such films exist only on the screen, you have to see them.”
Jungle Cat

1960

Jungle Cat

1960
7.3
This final True-Life Adventure would also appear to be one of the best, as we go into the South American jungle to observe the jaguar. Jungle Cat is more intimate than its kin, allowing individual animal characters to be developed. Central to the cast is a pair of jaguars (one ebony), whose fighting leads to love and, not long after, two babies (one resembling each parent).
New York: Broadway at Union Square

1896

New York: Broadway at Union Square

1896
4.8
The Human Scale

2012

The Human Scale

2012
6.2
50 % of the world’s population lives in urban areas. By 2050 this will increase to 80%. Life in a mega city is both enchanting and problematic. Today we face peak oil, climate change, loneliness and severe health issues due to our way of life. But why? The Danish architect and professor Jan Gehl has studied human behavior in cities through 40 years. He has documented how modern cities repel human interaction, and argues that we can build cities in a way, which takes human needs for inclusion and intimacy into account.
Michael H. – Profession: Director

2013

Michael H. – Profession: Director

2013
6.1
Over the past twenty-five years, director Michael Haneke has established himself as a towering figure in modern cinema whose rigorous focus on the craft of filmmaking has produced works of profound artistry. This career-spanning documentary gives unprecedented access and covers the body of Haneke’s work, offering insight into his creative process through on-set footage and interviews with the man himself and collaborators including Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert and Juliette Binoche.
Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment

1963

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment

1963
6.9
During a two-day period before and after the University of Alabama integration crisis, the film uses five camera crews to follow President John F. Kennedy, attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, Alabama governor George Wallace, deputy attorney general Nicholas Katzenbach and the students Vivian Malone and James Hood. As Wallace has promised to personally block the two black students from enrolling in the university, the JFK administration discusses the best way to react to it, without rousing the crowd or making Wallace a martyr for the segregationist cause. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 1999.
Please Kill Mr. Kinski

1999

Please Kill Mr. Kinski

1999
6.4
In 1986, director David Schmoeller worked with notoriously eccentric and tantrum-prone actor Klaus Kinski on horror triller Crawlspace. Now, Schmoeller talks about this shoot and how it almost ended with crew lynching the actor.
100 Years at the Movies

1994

100 Years at the Movies

1994
7.5
Commemorates the centennial of American movies with a montage of clips and music scores from the most important movies of the century.
Pan 2

1974

Pan 2

1974
4.7
Rain falls and reflects the light.
Death by Misadventure: The Mysterious Life of Bruce Lee

1993

Death by Misadventure: The Mysterious Life of Bruce Lee

1993
8.1
Death by Misadventure: The Mysterious Life of Bruce Lee exposes the truth behind Lee's death and the cover-up that ensued.
Hôtel des Invalides

1952

Hôtel des Invalides

1952
5.7
A tour of the Hotel des Invalides, and more particularly of the Army Museum and the Saint Louis Chapel. From François I's armor to Guynemer's airplane, to Napoleon's and Marshall Foch's tombs. But this is no ordinary tour,it is rather a chilling visit guided by Georges Franju and narrated by Michel Simon emphasizing - at times through biting humor -not the glory but the nonsense of wars, but their tragic aftermath.
The Making of 'Jurassic Park'

1995

The Making of 'Jurassic Park'

1995
7.2
This documentary treats film fans to a behind-the-scenes look at the making of "Jurassic Park," one of the 90's biggest hits and a milestone in special effects development. Narrated by James Earl Jones, it includes footage of the filming process, as well as interviews with director Steven Spielberg, and other members of the cast and crew, who give their insights into what it was like working together on this project and the efforts it took to bring the film to completion.
Les Hautes solitudes

1974

Les Hautes solitudes

1974
7
Garrel convinced Jean Seberg, in the midst of a long struggle with mental illness, alcohol and drug, to “star” in this silent document of her daily life. Consisting mostly of meditative B&W close-ups of Seberg and her friends, as her torments and inner life flicker across her eerily beautiful face.
In the Street

1948

In the Street

1948
6.4
Images of street life in New York's Spanish Harlem during the 1940s.
Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse

1940

Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse

1940
6.6
The collapse of the bridge was recorded on film by Barney Elliott, owner of a local camera shop. The film shows Leonard Coatsworth leaving the bridge after exiting his car. In 1998, The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. This footage is still shown to engineering, architecture, and physics students as a cautionary tale. Elliott's original film of the construction and collapse of the bridge was shot at 16 frames a second, on 16mm Kodachrome film, but most copies in circulation are in black and white because newsreels of the day copied the film onto 35 mm black-and-white stock (not to mention, often showed the film at the wrong speed).
Daphnia

1928

Daphnia

1928
6.1
Titles in French and English help us know what we're seeing. In all waters, daphnia abound. They are crustaceans about 2 ml long, with one eye that turns in all directions. Antennae enable daphnia to move: in a close up magnified 150,000 times, we see the muscles of the antennae pulse. We see the eye, the nerve mass, blood globules, and the heart, beating several times per second. The intestine forms a long line. All are females; eggs develop above the intestine. New generations come rapidly. Inside each daphnia are tiny infusoria; we watch them clean the intestine of a dead daphnia. An enemy, the hydra, approaches. A daphnia dies, but many remain.
Hindenburg Disaster Newsreel Footage

1937

Hindenburg Disaster Newsreel Footage

1937
7.5
The airship Hindenburg, arriving from Europe, was being led to its mooring at Lakehurst, New Jersey when suddenly disaster struck. The hydrogen-filled zeppelin ignited, and was almost instantly transformed into an enormous fireball. In less than a minute, the entire ship had been consumed by flames. The Hindenburg explosion marked the end of the budding airship travel industry.
Glimpse of the Garden

1957

Glimpse of the Garden

1957
5.5
Experimental film showing film clips of a garden, with birds chirping for the soundtrack.
Hapax Legomena II: Poetic Justice

1972

Hapax Legomena II: Poetic Justice

1972
5.2
Poetic Justice presents the viewer with an ordinary domestic scene: a stack of papers, a cup of coffee, and a potted cactus on a table. The sheets of paper compose a script that provides handwritten, frame-by-frame instructions for a film that unfolds only in the mind of the viewer.
Mamonas Forever

2009

Mamonas Forever

2009
7.5
In less than ten months, the music band Mamonas Assassinas went from being completely unknown to becoming one of the biggest phenomena in Brazilian music. Irreverent, intelligent, sarcastic and creative, the band took over Brazil and sold two million albums in just six months. Never-before-seen footage and interviews from family, friends, producers, and musicians tell the band’s story, their challenges, their rise to fame, and the tragic aeroplane accident that killed all its members in 1996.