How about Obscure Movies Few People Think About?
Here's my entry:
Friends This 1971 film, partly in French, is an unusual love story, with principal characters being young teens. It was somewhat scandalous when it came out, but that era was known for its boldness. One of its major features is a soundtrack by Elton John, who was virtually unknown at the time, and the sound track predates his first album. The soundtrack was great, and introduces Elton John in a unique way. I saw this in its original run in a small art theater. It's hard to find the DVD for it, but it is available. Make sure you don't get the English dubbed version, though. It was awful. There was a sequel to the film, as well, but it's not very good.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067118/
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Welt am Draht ("World on a string"
, by Werner Fassbender, predated the Matrix and The 13th Floor by a quarter century. It's based on the same book that the 13th Floor used for its source material, Simulacron-3 by Daniel F. Galouye, and was probably one of the inspirations for the Matrix as well.
I'll be the first to admit that it's very dated, but I still rate it higher than The Matrix any day.
Last edited Mon Jan 20, 2014, 09:01 PM - Edit history (1)
on edit: Aw, no subtitles! 
It was made for German TV in the early seventies and is interesting for the early use of the concepts.
Other than that, it's mostly just people sitting around talking and being paranoid from what I remember.
Last edited Fri Jan 17, 2014, 03:04 PM - Edit history (2)
This was a 1976 summer movie. It's a lot of fun -- especially with the movie-within-the-movie, "Disaster '76" -- a spoof of all 70's disaster movies that serves as the backdrop for the main plot of the film -- which is pretty much a typical mid-70s teen comedy. As one IMDB reviewer pointed out, the disaster movie spoof has one aspect that would disturb today's viewer -- a 747 crashing into the World Trade Center.
The whole thing was shot in rural Texas with local talent (most of whom never went on to bigger & better things). It's funny, and features a great Country soundtrack. (E.T.A. and it's like opening a 70s time capsule for those of us of a certain age).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074433/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
ETA:
Back story - it came out that I read at the collegiate level when I was 8. My parents were then tasked with finding me suitable reading material so I would stop sneaking my mom's Sidney Sheldon and Jackie Collins books.
One of the authors they "gave" me was S. E. Hinton. We went to B. Dalton and my mom bought me all of her books. So I read the book - then saw the movie in the theater when it came out . . . At ten!
For the Gen X crew at DU it's probably NOT obscure - but for our younger DUers concerned with class and social structure - see this movie and read the book. Hinton nailed it and so did Coppola.
And for those of us Gen X and older - the cast alone is worth it. Had the movie been made 3/4 years later with the exact same cast for salary alone it would have been millions of dollars to make.
The movie came out in 1983 - so think about the movies that came out over the next few years. . .
Tom Cruise - Risky Business, Top Gun
Swayze - Dirty Dancing - when his career took off
Macchio - Karate Kid
Dillon - Flamingo Kid
Brat Packers throughout - Estevez, Lowe - St. Elmo's Fire, the Hughes films, connects the Charlie Sheen - that crew was the toast of the town the 1980's.
And again - a very young Diane Lane. S. E. Hinton herself appeared as a Nurse.
Often overlooked film about the beginning of US involvement in Vietnam.
Great starring role for Burt Lancaster (who happens to be one of my all-time favorite male actors). 