Spall, of course, has kiled more movies than any actor alive; a friend of mine judges movies by the Spallness Factor
BWAH!!! There ought to be a warning label, along the lines of the Hedgehog warning for Ron Jeremy appearances.
I liked Gothic quite a bit. It creeped me the fuck out at first, but that's good. I also love the Ken Russell bit in Aria, just breaks me every time. NSM with his other movies; there are images that stick (Kathleen Turner's heels gouging into Anthony Perkins' thighs, Hugh Grant's bed), but the movies themselves generally don't speak to me. I had to watch Altered States for a college class, and I didn't get what the big deal was.
(Here's a challenge: for the same class I had to watch The Doors as well. It was not a film or performing arts class; can you guess what it was?)
We watched Dead Man last night. Iggy Pop! Gabriel Byrne! Crispin Glover! Billy Bob Thornton, unrecognizable! An amazingly sculptural Johnny Depp! Even without all those plusses, I would have liked it. A lot.
And thanks for the Jarmusch help - it helped me go with the movie rather than trying to make it into something left-brained. Corwood, I think your comments about Ghost Dog will help me appreciate that movie more.