Naked Lunch is definitely a good one, and although it doesn’t really follow the book, still effectively captures Burrough’s weirdness
the understatement of the century
THX 1138 has some surreal moments for me.
‘from beyond 1986’ directed by stuart gordon very surreal horror movie
the third story from 'necronomicon book of the dead 1994’
was really sureal you will not believe in your eyes how much!!
[quote=“genesis_pig, post:4, topic:2579”]Spirit of the Beehive is an excellent film, I second it.
Excalibur (Surreal Fantasy)
Brazil
Alphaville
In the mouth of madness[/quote]
Yeah, Alphaville is a solid choice.
Also, anything based on Franz Kafka’s fiction.
A couple spring to mind…“LUCKY THE INSCRUTABLE” (1967) a very surreal Jesse Franco film with Ray Danton, a sort of spy film also with Rosalba Neri
"THE CREMATOR" (1969)- a strange Czech film about a guy working in a crematorium in W.W.2
"SUCCUBUS" - another Jesse Franco film from 1968
"WITHNAIL AND I" ? ( i like it…)
Mario Siciliano’s supernatural giallo Malocchio is one I’d recommend. And Jess Franco’s A Virgin Among the Living Dead; grest atmosphere, really something.
Maybe some more will come to mind.
The new film Enter the Void is supposed to be a mind altering picture. Heard a lot of good things: it’s on Netflix instant right now.
Love that flick! “We’ve gone on holiday by mistake!”
[quote=“MetalGeorge, post:29, topic:2579”]The new film Enter the Void is supposed to be a mind altering picture. Heard a lot of good things: it’s on Netflix instant right now.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1191111/[/quote]
Definitely worth a view.
If you’re talking about shorts:
I dunno if chased by mysterious vehicles would qualify as ‘surreal’…
Figures In A Landscape is excellently suspenseful, with Robert Shaw (who directed) and Malcolm McDowell being sinisterly harassed by a black helicopter. They’re already on-the-run as the film begins, though each are handcuffed.
Duel is scintillating, with a black tanker-truck ominously pursuing milquetoast-businessman; Dennis Weaver’s wimpy 6-cylinder compact.
Killdozer features an alien ‘possession’ of a bulldozer on a small Pacific Island. Clint Walker matches wits with it.
Those are my top-3, I guess.
Schizopolis is a nice & absurd film directed by Soderbergh.
Also Kafka starring Jeremy Irons.
A good film to my mind is Godard’s ‘Pierrot Le Fou’ which is (as they state in the film) “real and surreal”… one of my favourites.
Another favourite is Jodorowsky’s ‘El Topo’ (which many have seen on this site if I remember correctly). I also would suggest many films by my favourite director Ingmar Bergman such as ‘Hour of The Wolf’ (‘Vargtimmen’), ‘Persona’ and to a slightly lesser extent ‘Serpent’s Egg’).
Almost every film by David Lynch belongs on a list of surreal films. Even the TV show ‘Twin Peaks’ had its surrealist touches. Cronenberg’s films are as well especially ‘Videodrome’.
I have also always found the film ‘Caligula’ surreal ever since I watched it when I was in school… its also probably the least “sexy” erotic film I have ever seen.
Some suggestions:
La Jetee (this link is to the full film in French [I think – I’m in a library and can’t turn the sound on] with Spanish subtitles):
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4536409644066983943#
Lisztomania (or really, anything by Ken Russell, including his sequence in the film below):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWOWLXHAUhc
Aria (Altman, Beresford, Bryden, Godard, Jarman, Roddam, Roeg, Russell, Sturridge, Temple):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rA-39whayI&playnext=1&list=PL99338A63A7D28999
Least sexy? Maybe the rape/orgy scenes are a bit overdone, but Teresa Ann Savoy and Helen Mirren are still turn-ons. 
Just watched Head by Rafelson/Nicholson, starring Mike, Dave, Pete, and Mick… and Victor Mature as himself. It really wasn’t made for Monkees-fans (late teen, not quite hippie-ish females), nor for the ‘art film’ crowd. I think it was just Jack Nicholson writing for Jack Nicholson, which almost every film-maker would like to do at some point. Sometimes it would involve a rock-group, like Richard Lester’s Beatles-adventures. And since the Beach Boys (the American ‘Beatles’) placed all their eggs in one Brian Wilson-basket, becoming too drug-immersed to actually do a ‘drug movie’, the Monkees were already viable enough to step-right-in, having a hit TV-show prior to Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson’s Head-project. As kind of a stealth ‘slap’ to the TV-show, the Monkees use their TV studio/flat in a few scenes, as their base-of-operations… but that’s the only similarity between the movie’s characterizations and the TV-show’s. Head is essentially plotless… in a good way. Not bad. It’s psychadelically non-psychadelic in a good way too. In my mind the plot is searching for meaning in the overall search for meaning… Nicholson does a cameo in a dance-sequence, and Annette Funicello looks as hotly sweet as ever. The songs are great, but the actually movie sound should’ve received an award of some sort. No pun intended, but I ‘highly’ recommend the film…
I was a big fan of Head as an undergrad in college. Haven’t watched it in almost a decade though.
Has anyone mentioned the films of Guy Maddin yet?