Strange, Surreal, Weird, Outrageous Movies

[Kory]

"Dreams" by Akira Kurosawa came to mind immediately.

It's a series of 'short film' type sequences- none of the stories are realted.  The thing to take into consideration when watching it is the difference between our cultures.  Some of the dreams may not make sense, but it you go into it with an open mind I think some of them will BLOW your mind.

Some of the dreams have a very obvious tie to Kurosawa's feelings about war and government.  Those don't take much interpretation.

This is by no means a "bad movie"- it's a phenominal film (you can tell after the first dream- it has some of the most beautiful scenes EVER).

It's a crazy experience- I highly recommend it!

[Scott]

I'll have to agree with others on these films. They are strange films:

Naked Lunch
Donnie Darko
Dreams

[Blair]

Hey, y'all.

I've always thought The Doom Generation was totally bizarre.

[dean]

Anything with Cronenberg directing is pretty wacky [well, his old stuff anyway]

Requim for a dream and Fear and loathing are excellent as well.  Both are quite disturbing.

I haven't seen Brazil, but the little I saw from bits of the behind the scenes made it seem very surreal as well.  Might be worth a watch.

Surreal Strange Weird and Outrageous are perhaps the best kind of film to watch!

[Yaddo42]

Once again so many good choices already named.

"Head" - the Monkees' attempt to destroy thier old popstar image and gain the respect of older fans and their musical peers. It failed, but it's still a fun twisted bit of psychedelic smartass hijinks. Has a couple of cool songs as well. Plus it has odd cameos from people like Sonny Liston, Terry Garr, Annette Funicello, Victor Mature, and Jack Nicholson (one of the producers in real life).

Typical exchange:

Frank Zappa (while walking a cow): That song was pretty white.
Davy Jones: Yeah, so am I, what can you do?

The films of Alejandro Jodorowsky mentioned earlier (El Topo, The Holy Mountain) would defintely fit the bill, but most except "Santa Sangre" and "Fando and Lis" are hard to find through "legit" sources. He was going to direct a version of "Dune" in the 70s, that would have been interesting, it's worth looking up interviews articles about him to see his vision for the film.

"Castle Keep" - an odd WWII film from the late 60s, tamer than most the choices mentioned here but still worth a look.

"200 Motels" - Frank Zappa's very cheeky, and cheap looking, take on the trials of life on the road. If nothing else worth a look for a few clever scenes and Ringo Starr playing a Zappa clone/crony called "Larry the Dwarf".

"Chappaqua" - a very dated look at a man trying to beat drug addiction, but it has a scene where William Burroughs and Herve Villechez (Years before "Fantasy Isalnd" or "Forbidden Zone") are a gangster and his sidekick mowed down by rivals for who knows what reason.

[Pus]

A great thread. Some of my favorites are:

Liquid Sky
Visitor Q
The Lathe of Heaven (original)
Audition
Tetsuo (nice to see this one mentioned)
Dark Water
Juon


I see alot of Asian cinema on the threads here. And that's a very good thing.

[raj]

Definitely Brazil (hey, just about anything by Terry Gilliam is,  e.g. Time Bandits)

[Ash]

raj wrote:

> Definitely Brazil (hey, just about anything by Terry Gilliam
> is,  e.g. Time Bandits)

Timebandits...hehe!
Everytime I think of that movie I remember the phrase I've always loved.

"The Most Fabulous Object In The World!"

[Jay]

"We don't know him that well, we only work for him"

[Harry]

has anyone seen Ichi the Killer?  It's one of the most voilent movies I've ever seen, and extremely odd.

[nobody]

Thanks for the suggestions. My list of movies to rent/buy is now incredibly large... it'll take me a while to get through it all.

I love "Fear and Loathing" and "Requiem for a Dream", and hope I'll find other movies like them within the list I've received.

BTW, to throw more ammo to this thread I'll go ahead and suggest a movie of my own that wasn't mentioned: "Waking Life" (2001)

[Pus]

Oh yeah, I should have included that one in my list too! "Love really does hurt !!"



Post Edited (07-21-04 20:21)

[Yaddo42]

jga5000 mentioned "Aguirre: The Wrath of God". I have the Herzog/Kinski box set that includes all 5 films they made together and Herzog's documentary about their "friendship" called "My Best Fiend". I'd recommended any of their work together for a thread like this.

They're both long and drawn out, and not everyone's cup of tea, but the Russian films "Solaris" and "Stalker" are both odd and disconcerting. Both are by the same director, I'd give "Stalker" the edge on oddness just because the story is more abstract and the characters are more symbolic types reather than people per say. Plus it has that bizarre last scene, that makes me think I know where the inspiration for several Tool videos came from.

[Gerry]

Yaddo42 wrote:

> They're both long and drawn out, and not everyone's cup of tea,
> but the Russian films "Solaris" and "Stalker" are both odd and
> disconcerting. Both are by the same director

Andrei Tarkovsky.  Yes, they are good candidates for this thread...both VERY VERY slow however, so be warned.

[BeyondTheGrave]

Harry wrote:

> has anyone seen Ichi the Killer?  It's one of the most voilent
> movies I've ever seen, and extremely odd.

yeah  i got this one on dvd. i liked it even though i wass labeled a sadist by my friends.

"I know I know ive been exposed permeant psychoses..
at least the colors are nice"- Aeon Flux