He seems worth-checking-out, definitely. For Canada, I was more caught-up in the Norman MacLaren/Marshall MacLuan/National Film Board Of Canada releases. -Mostly 16mm stuff, but still mesmerizing. Ballet Adagio, Pas De Deux, etc.
I don’t know if this has been suggested for you, but check out Tinto Brass’ The Howl, then tell me what beats that.
Repo Man… with Harry Stanton and Emilio Estevez. A wayward Los Angeles ‘punk’ is tricked-into repossessing a car, and embarks on an odyssey of life-discovery… wrapped-around a quest for a mysterious car with-a-dead-space-alien-in-its-boot (trunk). It’s a funny, fast-paced, fascinatingly ‘street-savvy’ film, with a great music-score. The characters are brilliant… a lot of them are surreptitiously time-looped back into the story as it goes-along. It’s a masterpiece for writer/director Alex Cox. Words can’t describe how great Stanton’s performance is. Tracey Walter is perfect too, as the unfazed yardman/philosopher, Miller. Un bee leev uh bull.
you should check out the film WHITY by rainer werner fassbinder that film is kinda out there and i belive it was filmed on the leone film sets
Omega… by Donald Fox, from the Pyramid Films 16mm archives… available on youtube, but it’s split into 2 films. -AND was video’d from the 16mm projection-screen. Doesn’t matter, once the film begins. It’s one the most colorful sci-fi inspired ‘surreal’ projects I’ve ever seen. 40-years-old and it looks like it could’ve been made last-week. The plot is simple; humankind wants to free itself from Earth, so they fire a ray at the Sun. It almost sounds like something that terrorist-zealots would do 100-years from now. The music-selection is great too; a blend of obscure avant-garde symfonias…
part 1
part 2
Can’t believe nobody has mentioned Hausu:
Great flick.
[quote=“TheBigSmokedown, post:46, topic:2579”]Can’t believe nobody has mentioned Hausu:
Great flick.[/quote]
It looks too scary… My review would probably be subtitled: It Knows That I Scream
One of my favourite movies!
Two of my favourite surreal movies are by Maya Deren. ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’ & ‘At Land’ - very much like the two Dali/Buñuel collaborations.
Thanks for mentioning her. -Another great artist, with a great intellect, swallowed-up by ww2 turmoil. Dave Lynch’s work was influenced by her. Transfiguring time and space became a theme that Zagreb/Prague would re-capture repeatedly from 1955-to-'75-ish. -Too bad she never got-around to returning to the Czechoslovakian region.
Women and experimental-films are an odyssey of fascination.
The Cabinet Of Caligari, 1962… Not ‘Dr. Caligari’. The film’s a showcase for writer, Robert Bloch (Psycho) fans. He basically keeps a short-leash on his imagination here, but still presents a wide spectrum of macabre twists in the innocent traveler seeks refuge plot-formula. Compelling through-out, director Roger Kay cinematically muffs one-or-two key scenes, robbing the ending of some dimension. Bloch’s creepy atmosphere is what makes it re-watchable.
[quote=“TheBigSmokedown, post:46, topic:2579”]Can’t believe nobody has mentioned Hausu:
Great flick.[/quote]
I revisited Hausu (a.k.a., House, 1977) again last night after a few years, and IMO it’s a true classic. The filming technique is pure genius, and not a second goes by that isn’t shot in some surreal, dreamlike fashion. Although I didn’t laugh quite as much this time, I was even more in awe of director Nobuhiko Obayashi’s creative vision.
Other surreal films I like include:
The Happiness of the Katakuris
Gozu
…both directed by Takashi Miike.
Eraserhead (1977, Lynch)
Synechdoche, New York (2008, Kaufman)
Sukiyaki Western Django (2007, Takashi)
INLAND EMPIRE (2006, Lynch)
Pi (1998, Aranofsky)
A Scanner Darkly (2006, Linklater)
Lost Highway (1997, Lynch)
Three… Extremes (2004, Chan/Park/Takashi)
A Tale of Two Sisters (2003, Kim)
Blue Velvet (1986, Lynch)
Ghost in the Shell (1995, Mamoru)
Audition (2000, Takashi)
Primer (2004, Carruth)
Rubber (2010, Dupieux)
Antichrist (2009, von Trier)
Kill List (2011, Wheatley)
All rather odd in their own ways, to varying degrees. All bloody excellent, too. IMO, of course.
[quote=“TheBigSmokedown, post:46, topic:2579”]Can’t believe nobody has mentioned Hausu:
Great flick.[/quote]Crazy ass film, I hadn’t seen it till a couple of years ago when the Criterion release came out.
Never thought about “surreal” films before. I guess I’d have to say that the most surreal films I’ve seen so far are the silent films Intolerance 1916…and Metropolis 1927 (especially the scene where they bring out the MenschMaschine). The more recent film Cloud Atlas was pretty surreal as well IMHO.
[quote=“TheBigSmokedown, post:46, topic:2579”]Can’t believe nobody has mentioned Hausu:
Great flick.[/quote]
Finally saw it last weekend. It’s stylish. Parts of it succeed. Others misfire. But it’s easy to see why Hausu is a forerunner of 21st Century Asian horror-cinema.
Nah, I think Hausu manages to be funny, totally batty, visually gratifying and (yes!) sublime. A unique flick IMHO. A genuinely great piece of entertainment.
I saw Daisies (1966) today and it immediately became one of my favorites. Surreal, feminist and anarchistic film with almost no plot at all. It’s even hard to describe why i liked it so much other than the two girls in the lead were just adorable and the film has unique artistic look. Best film I’ve seen from female director.
Yes, it’s a fantastic flick, glad you enjoyed it.
Singapore Sling (1990)
-I had not even heard about this greek black-and-white film before but I had downloaded it just because some interesting looking stills. It’s a sort of surreal version of Preminger’s Laura where detective is looking for lost girl and ends up in a house where a demented woman and her daughter lives in incestuous relationship. They captivate him, torture him and use him as a sexslave. Film is really over the top in it’s excessive perversions. The women have sex with the man while torturing him with electricity and pee on his face afterwards, girl masturbates with fruits in explicit scene. But the film is so beautifully shot and well acted that it never feels like an exploitation movie. Really interesting film, I need to watch it again soon.