John Sayles's Lianna: it deserves more of your attention.
On Sunday, in the Observer Review, we publish a list of 50 great films. But it isn't just another list of wonderful movies. It's a rallying cry for films that for a variety of reasons - fashion, perhaps, or the absence of an influential advocate, or just pure bad luck - have been unduly neglected and should be more widely available.
You know that feeling when someone hasn't heard of a film you've always loved and you want to show it to them? Or, in a different way, when you get annoyed because a picture hasn't been accorded the position you think it deserves in cultural history or the cinematic canon? That's the sort of film we have included on this list. Salt of the Earth, for instance, is a landmark film few have seen, though it was a cult movie to the radical students in John Sayles's debut, Return of the Secaucus Seven, which is itself now a cult movie - though Sayles is represented on our list by his lesser known Lianna. For sanity's sake, we restricted ourselves to English language feature films.
When I began my DVD Club column last January, many readers sent in lists of films they thought should be released on DVD, and this roster of neglected films, only 18 of which are available on DVD in the UK, is intended to provoke discussion, dissension and your own suggestions. Is there a film among your favourites that you are forever recommending to friends, aghast when they say they've never even heard if it? Recommend away. We'll publish the most inspiring suggestions in next weekend's Review.
