Bizarre Movies that Defy Explanation

robmneilson beat me to it with Tetsuo the Iron Man. SadMax introdued me to that one a few years ago.
Sooooo +1 for that.
 
Egg Born Son said:
Gummo - a good collection of munted heads there. If you keep the beautiful people out then the film has to be interesting instead. Harmony Korine, I'm not sure I've seen any of his films but have been interested to do so since I saw a pseudo-documentary special of him showing Gaspar Noe around his hometown.

And Dead Man's Letters has a great aesthetic, definitely a Tarkovsky influence there. It might take some finding but it's on the new list now that you guys have helped me out with the longstanding ones.
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Here you go a more recent offering form Korine... "Trash Humpers"(2009)


The problem here is anyone else doing this sort of thing... would be banned... I think for every era there is only one filmmaker who can get away with this sort of fine art kitsch...
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
Here you go a more recent offering form Korine... "Trash Humpers"(2009)


The problem here is anyone else doing this sort of thing... would be banned... I think for every era there is only one filmmaker who can get away with this sort of fine art kitsch...
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I love Gummo, it is an amazing film. But Trash Humpers really didn't do it for me. Would have made an amazing short, and the trailer is funny, but as a feature just doesn't go anywhere and the weird wears off pretty quick as the boredom sets in. His new film coming out Spring Breakers looks pretty cool.
 
robmneilson said:
I don't think its nessesarily a bizzare movie
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I'm prepared to play it pretty fast and loose with that definition but truly bizarre is extra points.

robmneilson said:
In fact I felt that it was a good date movie, made it easy to weed out the ones that are easily offended!
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I like how you think.

Wild Zero - Love has no limits! It's amazing how many of these I first encountered on SBS of a Saturday night. SBS friday night, guaranteed boobage. Saturday night guaranteed mindfck. The aussies will be familiar with this unspoken SBS promise. SBS is a public broadcasting station showcasing the best of world cinema/tv.

Trash Humpers - was not expecting the title to be literal. That said, it 'splains a lot a about the Korine I saw on that doco/special. That and the fact he and Gaspar Noe are mutual admirers. The horror of loving Enter the Void and deciding to check out some of Noe's earlier work...
 
Egg Born Son said:
The aussies will be familiar with this unspoken SBS promise. SBS is a public broadcasting station showcasing the best of world cinema/tv.

Trash Humpers - was not expecting the title to be literal. That said, it 'splains a lot a about the Korine I saw on that doco/special. That and the fact he and Gaspar Noe are mutual admirers. The horror of loving Enter the Void and deciding to check out some of Noe's earlier work...
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Ever since SBS started broadcasting ads throughout movies I've lost interest. Just loses the flow, and especially with artier films that might require more attention than some, just tears me out of the mood.

I'd recommend Gaspar Noe's Irreversible. Hella messed up.
 
Dan Pears said:
Ever since SBS started broadcasting ads throughout movies I've lost interest. Just loses the flow, and especially with artier films that might require more attention than some, just tears me out of the mood.

I'd recommend Gaspar Noe's Irreversible. Hella messed up.
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Yeah, the ads stopped me for a few years too. It was okay when it was just ads between shows but when they extended it to a single ad-break in the middle I wavered and stopped watching when it became two ad-breaks. But it hasn't changed the fact it's the only station with worthwhile movies. Saves me having to download to find out what movies to buy and frees me from the shackles of my own taste, coughing up surprises I might not have found for myself. They don't get as much funding as the ABC and they provide far more content than even the commercial stations so I guess they have to pay for it somehow. And their subtitle services are superior to any other, especially the DVD releases.

I've seen Irreversible. It's a good film but I don't think I enjoyed it. I still haven't decided if the payoff (of an unusual structure and the ultimate misunderstanding) was worth the discomfort of watching the movie. Same with I Stand Alone. He's a good filmmaker and he doesn't need to go to those extremes. I'm no shrinking violet and I appreciate a film that can make me squirm, there's nothing besides eyeball slicing that can make me look away. And while going into the stark darkness of reality with something like the rape scene is confronting and does force me to ask some questions of myself, it also somehow feels like a cheap trick. It makes me feel like Gaspar let himself down, he's better than that. In Enter the Void I think he finally found the balance of the darkness he is drawn to but also payoff and reward for submitting to his vision. It is a visual treat, explores some big issues, asks some searching questions but manages to be tantalising, forbidden, rewarding and accusing of the viewer all at the same time. The darkness supports the story.

Bad Boy Bubby (Rolf de Heer) is likewise a film that probably contains the most claustrophobic and uncomfortable Act I that I have ever sat through. But you are rewarded for not walking out. The scenes with his mother are motivated and paid off in the events that follow. As Bubby moves slowly from the darkness into our world, highlighting first the bad and then the good of it, the lessons he learns from the band as he moves from outsider to accepted participant in the outside world and finally to confront his past. It is one of the greatest movies I've ever seen, and possibly odd enough to be worthy of this list. Trailer NSFW.
 
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Human Centipede is a brilliant horror film, and worthy of this list not so much for it's execution as for the demented thought process that lead to conceiving it in the first place. It's the first horror I'd seen in over a decade that bothered with craft. The lead performance is everything high class b-grade should be. And 100% medically accurate!

Human Centipede 2 is another story. I saw this in the cinema primarily to be part of the spectacle, it was going to be banned. They only managed to screen it due to the fact that the censorship body didn't meet on the weekend, their decision was already known. I briefly met the star and director but I didn't really have much of note to say to them afterwards. It took a couple of days to process what I'd seen. I was shellshocked by it. As a gimmick they handed out sick bags, had the audience not been the kind drawn to such a movie they may even have been needed them. Strangely the worst bits weren't even the gore. When we came out the lead actor was standing in the doorway waving a bloody axe. Nice touch. It was funny, well-made, awful to watch, deeper than it looked, and often questioned the audience what was wrong with them for watching the movie. But I still can't recommend it even though I think it was worthy. I don't want the blame! It was essentially a letter to the censorship boards of the world, showing how patently ridiculous their worst fears were by making a movie about what would happen if a fan of his first movie decided to copycat it. While making the sickest film ever made. Apparently it's meant to be a trilogy, don't know if the third one is getting off the ground but I'll have to go see it with my group of friends. In for a penny, in for a pound. I don't know where he can take it this time though, but then I didn't think the idea had two films in it. That it did is bizarre. 100% medically inaccurate.
 
301/302 was kind of messed up. Not that it defies explanation, just that it was a very strange, psychological film. Visually and aurally very well-made. Story... not so much. Deals with similar themes as Fight Club.
 
great thread, with some juicey examples - would just like to add any Guy Maddin film, personal favourite is The Saddest Music in the World....early John Walters films always intrigued me too
 
Zardoz, great pick. Didn't like it so much the first time I saw it as it overexplains itself a little but it's grown on me with repeated viewing. It helps to remember when it was made.

I don't know why it made Nicolas Winding Refn's Valhalla Rising pop into my head. Not much in common. This movie is somewhat strange but even more bizarre once you've heard the director's explanation. Visually striking, my only complaint is the handheld camera in some scenes is really distracting. That said, after watching the making of, I don't think I'd of been too keen on lugging an extra 10lbs+ of tripod either. There's a place for handheld but it really let's a film down when the top of the actor's head is bouncing in and out of the frame on a composed close up shot. It's one handheld shot I'm sick to death of. If there's no motivated movement, why not put it on sticks?

Guy Maddin's a new name to me. His wiki bio sounds interesting tough, I'll add him to my list to check out.

Thanks again to nycineaste, I've tracked down a copy of Santa Sangre. It's in the mail. Been trying to find that one for a long time. Sometimes a movie's so engrossing by the time you think to write the title down it's too late! Got Audition too. That's my bluray budget for this week.
 
Gord.T said:
robmneilson beat me to it with Tetsuo the Iron Man. SadMax introdued me to that one a few years ago.
Sooooo +1 for that.
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Those Japanese "Cyperpunk" films are really out there. I like "Tetsuo the Iron Man" but the sequel, "Tetsuo II: Body Hammer"; not so much. For my money, my favorite of the "Cyberpunk" flicks is "Rubber's Lover"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0227408/


I also like the films of Takashi Miike. While I have seen some that are pretty far out, for the most part, I really admire that he has been so prolific. I really liked "Audition", and thought that it was msi-characterized as "Torture Porn". The flick he made for the Showtiime "Masters of Horror" series, "Imprint" I thought was just pure gratuitous junk. Another one of his films. "Visitor Q", previously mentioned by Mile Bozicevic, has one of the most disgusting scenes I have ever seen in a movie... wow. However, the Miike film that sold me on the guy and made me a fan is "Crows: Zero" (Also called "Crows: Episode Zero"). In that film, Miike out Walter Hills Walter Hill! The battle at the end is fantastic. The characters are well developed and the action is almost non-stop. The flick blew me away.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1016290/


A really bizarre movie I have seen recently is "Little Murders", staring Elliott Gould, Marcia Rodd and Vincent Gardenia with Alan Arkin. It was directed by Arkin, from a screenplay by Jules Feiffer, from his play. I ran across it because it was photographed by Gordon Willis, and I am trying to see all of the movies that he has shoot. It is one of the strangest films that I have ever seen, and is hilarious in a very, very dark sense. It is worth a watch, that is for sure.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067350/fullcredits#cast

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Murders


The flick is worth it just for the wedding scene with Donald Sutherland:

 
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