Post by toskaliku on Feb 25, 2011 9:48:38 GMT -5
Requiem for a Dream is nice, but it employs too much Hollywood, which tends to get on my nerves after a while.
Most surreal films I have ever seen:
Come and See:
(WWII presented through the eyes of a teenager in the Partisans. The movie makes use of disjointed "dreamlike" elements to present the horrors of WWII in a non-idealized way. It pretty much becomes a continuous long running nightmare. The main character becomes partially deaf and tormented while you travel with him. The darkest scene in the movie is when the population of a village is placed inside a barn and then slaughtered.)
Through a Glass Darkly:
A ride into the world of a woman who is slowly losing her sanity from schizophrenia. Amazing camera angels and lighting present a truly twisted and isolated world of a woman who feels increasingly lost in her world.
Persona:
I don't really know how to summerize this movie. Its really an play, very minimalist. An exploration of a number of feminine themes, from sexuality, meshing up of identifies, existentialism, modernity, nihilism... its an absolutely terrific work.
Berlin Alexanderplatz:
At 15:30 hours lost it is the longest film ever made, it is split into 14 parts that were shown in 1980. Its based on the 1928 book by the same name. An amazing detailed portrayal of life in Weimar Germany shortly before the Great Depression. One of the most challenging films I have ever seen, simply because of its vast cast and mingling stories. Fassbinder, the director and writer, used the movie as a commentary on the ability of people to fall into right-wing trends in our constant pursuit of "peace, housing and work".
Stalker:
One of Tarkovsky's hardest to watch but fulfilling films and commentary on the nihilism of the modern world. In a stark an gray reality, the people of a town in no real country (but with strong similarity to his own Soviet Union) find a whole new reality after the landing of an aircraft. They call the place "the Zone" and it has the ability of granting man a single wish that he desires most. There is no promise that it will work, or that it will accept you. People try eitherway, simply to escape the drab emptiness in their own reality.
Its a scifi film without employing any special effects whatsoever.
Winter Light:
You can see Im a big Bergman fan. A movie about a man who is enveloped with fear and terror after he begins to lose his faith and realizes the magnitude and hostility of the modernity he is living in and the failure of the pastor to properly provide him answers for it.
The Return
Another typically slow and confusing Russian film, but as usual, great cinematography. A father comes back home to his wife and two sons suddenly after a 12 year absence and wants to reconnect with his distant children. The movie takes place in a trip in which a cold and distant man cannot seem to connect with the sons who are ambivalent of his return at best, and hate and resent him at worst. Still the movie really delves into the ambivalence and confusion of our own emotions towards our loved ones.
The Decalogue:
The masterpiece of Polish filmmaker, Krzysztof Kieslowski, before his later more popular French based films. A ten part miniseries on the 10 Commandments and their relevance and application in our own twisted and confused modern world. Even I, a staunch Atheist at heart, was pretty moved and affected by the various lives and the way in which Kieslowski works in the particular commandment into his stories and twists them into a modern secular world. The most powerful by far is the fifth one, about murder (also called 'A short film about murder') which compares state sanctioned murder (death penalty) with the act of criminal murder.
Solaris
Not the hollywood American version. The Russian Tarkovski version. What is better, your own empty existence or a lie inwhich you can rekindle your connection with a person dearest to you? One of the most beautiful Russian actresses ever, Natalya Bondarchuk (http://s11.bdbphotos.com/images/orig/e/u/eutdn9rsl96hued9.jpg) alone makes me love this film (something about the coldness and sadness of her face, which almost never smiles).
Most surreal films I have ever seen:
Come and See:
(WWII presented through the eyes of a teenager in the Partisans. The movie makes use of disjointed "dreamlike" elements to present the horrors of WWII in a non-idealized way. It pretty much becomes a continuous long running nightmare. The main character becomes partially deaf and tormented while you travel with him. The darkest scene in the movie is when the population of a village is placed inside a barn and then slaughtered.)
Through a Glass Darkly:
A ride into the world of a woman who is slowly losing her sanity from schizophrenia. Amazing camera angels and lighting present a truly twisted and isolated world of a woman who feels increasingly lost in her world.
Persona:
I don't really know how to summerize this movie. Its really an play, very minimalist. An exploration of a number of feminine themes, from sexuality, meshing up of identifies, existentialism, modernity, nihilism... its an absolutely terrific work.
Berlin Alexanderplatz:
At 15:30 hours lost it is the longest film ever made, it is split into 14 parts that were shown in 1980. Its based on the 1928 book by the same name. An amazing detailed portrayal of life in Weimar Germany shortly before the Great Depression. One of the most challenging films I have ever seen, simply because of its vast cast and mingling stories. Fassbinder, the director and writer, used the movie as a commentary on the ability of people to fall into right-wing trends in our constant pursuit of "peace, housing and work".
Stalker:
One of Tarkovsky's hardest to watch but fulfilling films and commentary on the nihilism of the modern world. In a stark an gray reality, the people of a town in no real country (but with strong similarity to his own Soviet Union) find a whole new reality after the landing of an aircraft. They call the place "the Zone" and it has the ability of granting man a single wish that he desires most. There is no promise that it will work, or that it will accept you. People try eitherway, simply to escape the drab emptiness in their own reality.
Its a scifi film without employing any special effects whatsoever.
Winter Light:
You can see Im a big Bergman fan. A movie about a man who is enveloped with fear and terror after he begins to lose his faith and realizes the magnitude and hostility of the modernity he is living in and the failure of the pastor to properly provide him answers for it.
The Return
Another typically slow and confusing Russian film, but as usual, great cinematography. A father comes back home to his wife and two sons suddenly after a 12 year absence and wants to reconnect with his distant children. The movie takes place in a trip in which a cold and distant man cannot seem to connect with the sons who are ambivalent of his return at best, and hate and resent him at worst. Still the movie really delves into the ambivalence and confusion of our own emotions towards our loved ones.
The Decalogue:
The masterpiece of Polish filmmaker, Krzysztof Kieslowski, before his later more popular French based films. A ten part miniseries on the 10 Commandments and their relevance and application in our own twisted and confused modern world. Even I, a staunch Atheist at heart, was pretty moved and affected by the various lives and the way in which Kieslowski works in the particular commandment into his stories and twists them into a modern secular world. The most powerful by far is the fifth one, about murder (also called 'A short film about murder') which compares state sanctioned murder (death penalty) with the act of criminal murder.
Solaris
Not the hollywood American version. The Russian Tarkovski version. What is better, your own empty existence or a lie inwhich you can rekindle your connection with a person dearest to you? One of the most beautiful Russian actresses ever, Natalya Bondarchuk (http://s11.bdbphotos.com/images/orig/e/u/eutdn9rsl96hued9.jpg) alone makes me love this film (something about the coldness and sadness of her face, which almost never smiles).