Dark City is a great movie. Not really obscure, but well under the bar set in this thread. Was far from a box office hit. I know Ebert praised the movie, as he appears on a commentary track on the dvd.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... And Spring

Very slow paced w/ very little dialog. But it's a beautiful heartwarming view into a culture that deserves more attention. It's not for everyone, but it will amaze you if this description didn't turn you off (read: not for action junkies).

New York Stories. It's a collection of three shorts(all between 35-50 minutes) done in the 80s with Scorsese, Allen, and Coppola doing them. The Scorsese one, Life Lessons, is worth the DVD alone. The Coppola one is alright, and the allen one is very good. Life Lessons though is the one that really needs to be seen

I saw this movie based entirely off of this thread and it's very good. I think I still have a couple more viewings left before I can understand all of it.

Lone Star, like most John Sayles films, is excellent. My personal favorite by Sayles is Limbo. Sayles likes to take his time telling his story, though his movies are more about the who than the what.

Tapeheads

Duets

The First One Million

Already mentioned and seconded...

Aguirre Wrath of God
Christine F

Not yet mentioned...
Tin Drum

The Witchfinder General

Leolo

I've seen most of those on normal UK TV (I think), so probably not very obscure.

That kid's screaming in Tin Drum qualifies as perhaps the most annoying moment/s in film history.

I remember watching this in college in a German Film Studies class and every time the kid would scream the whole class would get have a kind of annoyed-jesus-here-he-goes-again type laugh.

I remember it being a somewhat interesting film though and there was probably a lot that was going over my head at the time. Should probably give it another try if I happen past it on cable sometime.
But that screaming is REALLY obnoxious.

Battle Royale

Battle Royale wikipedia

KOYAANISQATSI
Presented by Francis Ford Coppola
Godfrey Reggio's debut as a film director and producer, is the first film of the QATSI trilogy. The title is a Hopi Indian word meaning "life out of balance." Created between 1975 and 1982, the film is an apocalyptic vision of the collision of two different worlds -- urban life and technology versus the environment. The musical score was composed by Philip Glass.
KOYAANISQATSI attempts to reveal the beauty of the beast! We usually perceive our world, our way of living, as beautiful because there is nothing else to perceive. If one lives in this world, the globalized world of high technology, all one can see is one layer of commodity piled upon another. In our world the "original" is the proliferation of the standardized. Copies are copies of copies. There seems to be no ability to see beyond, to see that we have encased ourselves in an artificial environment that has remarkably replaced the original, nature itself. We do not live with nature any longer; we live above it, off of it as it were. Nature has become the resource to keep this artificial or new nature alive.

Do you mean Subway Stories : Tales from the Underground?

Thanks for reminding me of this one. Great film that fits the thread perfectly. I agree it is a must-see.

If there was ever a movie that everyone seemed to talk about back then and now nobody seems to mention it then Blue Velvet hits it. Dennis Hopper is the scary creep in this one so he really didn't have to act much.

~ Rick

This is about as far away from obscure as a movie can get. I have a Blockbuster "Greatest Movies of All Time" book handy and it leads off in 1946. Saw it last year on Netflix. IMO it's a great movie that probably would play well to a modern audience, i.e., it isn't dated.

BTW, WW2 ended on Sept 2, 1945. My Dad's Destroyer (USS Walke) was anchored behind the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

~ Rick

I don't think any of these favorite's of mine were mentioned so far. Perhaps "The Last Seduction" and "Ulee's Gold" aren't that obscure but for some reason most of these movies didn't do all that well in theaters.

One False Move

A Simple Plan

Red Rock West

The Last Seduction

Trees Lounge

Ulee's Gold

A few people mentioned Lone Star. That's one I'd give that one at least five stars.

~ Rick

If Zoolander and other such "wacky" humour tickles your side, then "Protégé de la Rose Noire" will definitely have you cracking up.

Eraserhead, David Lynch--quite bizarre and hilarious look at first dates, marriage, becoming parents.

Tuvalu (1999)

In a desolate and colorless landscape stands a dilapidated bathhouse run by a puffed-up blind man, his long-suffering wife, and their son Anton, who does all the work. He's lonely and unsophisticated, and he falls in love with the beautiful Eva, who comes to bathe with her father. When Eva and her father lose their home, they come to the bathhouse to stay, but bits of the ceiling fall on the old man and he dies. Eva blames Anton, and she seems to seek the arms of the brute Gregor. Can Anton win back her heart, get the bathhouse through a rigorous government inspection, and help keep his parents employed? Waiting out there somewhere is the paradise isle of Tuvalu. Written by {jhailey@hotmail.com}

Kid in the Hall: Brain Candy

God this movie is funny! It contains what I think is the inspiration for Dr. Evil, of course I think both characters are base off of Lorne.

DUEL from 1971

I don't know if this can hardly be classified as obscure as much as it has been on TV, but I rarely encounter anyone that knows about it when these kind of conversations come up. Certainly qualifies as a must see.

This is a very early work of Steven Spielberg that stars Dennis Weaver.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067023/

Series 7: The Contender

Six ordinary Americans are chosen at random to participate in a "reality-based" TV show where contestants must kill or be killed. The winner gains his/her freedom if they survive. The reigning champion, Dawn Lagarto, is eight months pregnant. Brutal. And, the entire "film" was shot as if it were a reality-TV show with icons, graphic lay-overs, and spots for commercial breaks. Have enough "suspension of disbelief" or show it to an unwitting person, and it is easy to mistake it for an actual reality TV show.

As a side, this was pitched the major networks as an actual show to see how far they would go. The responses came back as highly positive, but asking for more sex and less violence (from DVD extras). Fairly obscure, and worth a watch.

Valdez is Coming.

Burt Lancaster as a Mexican sheriff who's forced to kill a man on the whim of the local land baron.

If you like the classic Western 'good guys vs. bad guys' genre, this flick is quite a little gem.

Seconded.

Not sure if this is obscure or not, but lots of people I know with otherwise great taste haven't seen it

HurlyBurly

I'm not sure if it qualifies as obscure by the standards of this thread or not, but I didn't see anyone mention the most underrated movie of all time:

Grosse Point Blank (1997)

sounds like a remake of battle royale

One of the very few movies I've walked out on.