june gloom on 26/4/2009 at 08:25
I've seen Solyaris and I thought it was a bit of a snooze towards the 2nd half.
If we're gonna talk foreign film I'd like to recommend The Red Spectacles- part of the Cerberus series out of Japan. It's mostly black and white and it's mostly the very strange misadventures of a deserter trying to escape the clutches of the government.
Kolya on 26/4/2009 at 10:20
(
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083336/) Wolfen (1981) (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CVtWfYOdbg) Trailer
A weary cop investigates gruesome killings in the South Bronx where old houses and street bums have to make way for a new building project.
The movie is an examination of old vs. new. Similar in tone to an HP Lovecraft story an ancient mystical force lashes out at humans, cornered by their noisy technology.
1981 was the year of werewolf movies. But Wolfen has a very different approach to the also excellent
An American Werewolf in London and
The Howling which came out in the same year. It's a rather quiet though suspenseful movie that explores themes of spirituality and anticipates a bit of the 1980s ecological awareness. It does have it's share of brutality too, including a decapitation scene. But the sympathy clearly is with the wolves here and large parts of the movie are seen through their eyes. The wolf-o-vision effect used for this may well have been an influence to the 1987 Predator's thermal view.
Kolya on 26/4/2009 at 10:45
Quote Posted by Shakey-Lo
I'm not one for 'nightmarish' type mindfuck movies, so I'm not sure if any of these are what you're after, but one I could recommend is Jan Svankmajer's
Alice, the flat-out weirdest interpretation of Alice in Wonderland I've seen.
Svankmajer's Alice was rather nightmarish, wasn't it? I found it way more disturbing than a lot of horror movies I've seen.
Speaking of Alice movies, the best one I know is (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089052/) Dreamchild (1985) which deals with the real life Alice Pleasance Liddell and her relation to Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll).
Angel Dust on 26/4/2009 at 12:31
Quote Posted by Scots Taffer
Mulholland Drive did never and will never make any sense because it was an aborted TV pilot trying to deal with issues way too big for a film and too confusingly written to be anything other than a supreme mindfuck (and not much else).
Nah, I actually think it's the 'straightest' of his abstract mindfuck films. First time through was very enjoyable even if I didn't understand what the fuck was going on but the second time it clicked. I flip flop with this and
Inland Empire as my favourite Lynch films.
Quote:
Blue Velvet is an ugly, ugly movie and not so much a mindfuck as just bordering on extremely unpleasant voyeurism of fucking weirdos.
I more or less agree with you there, it is an unpleasant film but I thought it might be more up dethtoll's alley than the more Lynch's more abstract stuff. Not that I'm suggesting you're some kind of perverted weirdo dethtoll but I think it has the same kind of WTF factor as something like
Tetsuo. That is the story isn't told in a fucked up was as much as it's just a fucked up story.
Hmm, I've really got to check out that version of Alice in Wonderland.
SubJeff on 26/4/2009 at 18:33
Quote Posted by Angel Dust
Nah, I actually think it's the 'straightest' of his abstract mindfuck films.
Word.
Still to see Inland Empire though.
Quote Posted by Aja
Lost Highway is a terrible movie. It's like Lynch parodying himself, and it's even boring somehow.
You never, ever get it right. When will you just shut up?
june gloom on 26/4/2009 at 19:55
Quote Posted by Angel Dust
Not that I'm suggesting you're some kind of perverted weirdo dethtoll
well darn, missed opportunity for flattery
Sulphur on 26/4/2009 at 21:42
Quote Posted by Kolya
Svankmajer's Alice was rather nightmarish, wasn't it? I found it way more disturbing than a lot of horror movies I've seen.
It always makes me wonder how the kids are affected by the experience of being involved in movies with disturbing themes. Svanjmaker's Alice (to an extent I guess), and other movies like Cidade de Deus.
I don't think the kids would have come off those projects without having been impacted by them in some way.
Aja on 27/4/2009 at 02:30
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
You never, ever get it right. When will you just shut up?
probably once you've ground your teeth down to the gums
Jackablade on 27/4/2009 at 02:32
I'd have to agree with Aja on Lost Highway. Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire, and Eraserhead made me pretty much fall in love with David Lynch for a brief period so I went out and bought Lost Highway and Blue Velvet without giving it much thought. Lost Highway was, yeah, boring and it's Lynchian style was obvious. Lynch parodying himself is probably a good way to put it. Although, it did teach me that he would probably make a pretty good porn film. As for Blue Velvet, well, I have yet to watch it, sorry.
Aja on 27/4/2009 at 05:06
if dethtoll hasn't seen Eraserhead, there's one to watch immediately.
