Topic: For the funky film fanatics (Read 24511 times)

thew · « **on:** 22 Jul 2005, 13:53 »

Nice to see a movie forum here. I find the music forum highly intimidating and the sandbox is more like quicksand.

Anyway, I thought we could use a thread for offbeat movie recommendations, so I'm starting with Little Otik, got this on Netflix last week and wow. It's a really bizarre movie. Story-wize it's cross between Pinocchio and Little Shop of Horrors as a childless couple raises a "baby" carved from roots of a tree stump. It uses stop motion and puppets for the creature and it's less a horror movie and more a dark fairytale.

I give it 4 out of 5 chinchillas. I would give it 5, but it's sort of unsettling and not the kind of movie I can watch over and over. I also rented a version of Alice and Wonderland by the same Czech filmmaker and it's supposed to be even more surreal.

Tinjessla · « **Reply #1 on:** 22 Jul 2005, 14:17 »

YES! Finally, someone who had heard of this movie! I absolutely love it. Plus it satifies the animation geek inside me.

A good film i would recommend is 2046. It focuses on a womanising writer who starts to confuse his current reality with the futuristic setting of his book. It's a beautiful film, which just sweeps you away with it's strange hybrid of 60's/futuristic glamour.

KharBevNor · « **Reply #2 on:** 22 Jul 2005, 14:21 »

I'll kick off like a broken record with three gems of Icelandic cinema:

Utlaginn (Eng: Outlaw): A great, low budget, gritty historical romance, shot on that grainy seventies film that warms the cockles of the heart. It's probably the only serious Icelandic film I've ever really learned to love.

Reykjavik 101: A really fucking bizarre comedy from Iceland. (Reykjavik 101 is essentially the most urban place in the whole country). Features lesbians, iguanas, traffic wardens, alcoholism, dope, Salsa dancing, internet porn and the most wonderfully dysfunctional lead character ever. Not only are the characters brilliantly studied, and the plot inventive and well told, but this film easily has the most sex in it for any film I have ever seen with a plot. And this includes lesbian sex. Most film critics have long considered 'plot' and 'lesbian sex' to be mutually exclusives. Seriously, find and watch. It's the kind of film they sometimes show late at night on BBC Four when they think no-ones looking, because it's foreign and a bit avant-garde. You can get it on DVD though.

Also, it's the only comedy I know of that opens with the narrator walking off into the snow with his suicide note pinned to his chest.

Magnus: Another great Icelandic comedy. The humour here is as black as fucking night: It's got a complex plot involving terminal cancer, corrupt local governments, an illegal liquour still and genetic diseases. Easily one of the best examples of the Theatre of the Absurd in cinema. Utterly bizarre and highly nihilistic. Also one of my favourite films ever.

chupones · « **Reply #3 on:** 22 Jul 2005, 16:58 »

Personally, you can't ever go wrong with http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0840905/">Jan Svankmajer. I really enjoy his take on Faust.

If I were to recommend a smaller release title at this moment, it would http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342300/">Dopamine.

KharBevNor · « **Reply #4 on:** 22 Jul 2005, 17:35 »

Oh, also, anything by Pier Paolo Pasolini. A damned genius. He turned The Canterbury Tales into something approaching soft porn, making him the only person ever to do justice to the five tales he selected.

"...and in he throng!"

Stranger Dan · « **Reply #5 on:** 22 Jul 2005, 20:46 »

Warriors of Virtue:
It is a movie about kangaroo warriors and pre-Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon wirefighting.

Inlander · « **Reply #6 on:** 22 Jul 2005, 22:20 »

Quote from: Tinjessla

2046.

Crap, I really have to get my arse into gear and go and see that before it's finished. Tinjessla, did you see In the Mood for Love? 2046 is sort of a sequel to it.

Tinjessla · « **Reply #7 on:** 23 Jul 2005, 06:07 »

No, i haven't but i really would like to. I didn't know it was the prequel to 2046 though..that's just made me what to see it even more.

My Aim Is True · « **Reply #8 on:** 23 Jul 2005, 08:22 »

if you like surreal things, you have to check out MOTORAMA. Also, the old British TV show "The Prisoner."

I know I sound like a broken record too. I had a really long discussion about movies last night while drunk, and now it is early and I have to go to work.

Schmendrick · « **Reply #9 on:** 25 Jul 2005, 17:43 »

Ginger Snaps is very good if you can find it. It's a Canadian movie so it's either on television here or you can get it from some rental places. It's a somewhat coming of age film crossed with a low budget horror. I know it sounds terrible, but trust me it is wonderfully addictive.

Also I heard of Little Otik and I wanted to rent it, but my friends voted against me ... sigh...

TrueNeutral · « **Reply #10 on:** 26 Jul 2005, 08:58 »

Personally, I find Dog Soldiers utterly hilarious.

sandysmilinstrange · « **Reply #11 on:** 26 Jul 2005, 21:08 »

Good luck finding this one, but about two years ago I saw a movie called Pale Blue Moon at a film festival and it was WONDERFUL. The two main characters were phenomenal. More work for Ice Mrozek, please!

Props to Mark Hosack for getting a low-budget suspense/comedy movie just right.

Praeserpium Machinarum · « **Reply #12 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 03:24 »

oh my was Dog Soldiers terrible, the only thing I could think about during the film was how the werewolves looked like egyptian gods a bit. I doubt it had a plot, I didn't notice it anyway.
Okay movies:

The Nightmare Before Christmas
James and the Giant Peach
Bjergkøbing Grand Prix(a norwegian stop-animation classic I tell ye!)
I Kina Spiser De Hunde(In China They Eat Dogs)
Blinkende Lygter(Flickering Lights)

La Creme · « **Reply #13 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 17:25 »

Quote

Warriors of Virtue:
It is a movie about kangaroo warriors and pre-Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon wirefighting.

That was the worst movie ever. Of course, I didn't think so back when I saw it when I was in probably the first fucking grade, but now that I look back and remember it, what a peice of shit. It probably went along to inspire other bullshit children's action movies like Spy Kids. Fuck that.

Good obscure movies:

Primer: A sci-fi movie (but only that for lack of another genre name, as it's not in the future or anything...) about a bunch of guys who invent a time machine by mistake and it ends up cloning them. The movie is full of awesome time travel paradoxes you never would've thought of. Plus it was filmed on a $7000 dollar budget, which never ceases to amaze me.

Delicatessan: A movie by those two awesome French Burton/Giger hybrid crazy motherfuckers who made City of Lost Children. This movie is incredibly awesome and there's a scene where a guy plays musical saw and.... so.... see it. Seriously.

My Life As A Dog: The title is actually whatever that is in Swedish, but I don't know any Swedish so yeah. Anyways, it's an awesome coming-of-age story and it has many scenes in which they play "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts" in Swedish, which has a great novelty value if you don't speak a single word of the language...

Less obscure movies that are worth a checkout if you haven't seen them already:

Fight Club: Greatest movie ever. If you haven't seen it, see it. Asks great questions.

American Beauty: Like Fight Club, this movie has enough good ideas to keep Einstein, Voltair, and Aristotle's love child thinking for a long time. Plus Kevin Spacet is totally amzing in it.

Empire Records: World's greatest movie about a record store.

High Fidelity: A close second. Jack Black at his finest. Plus Tim Robbins getting smashed in the face by an air conditioner.

Many many more. Thank pants for movies. Especially the good ones.

*EDIT* Sorry, but I said one untrue thing. Warriors of Virtue is not the worst movie ever. It is the second worse. "Manos: The Hands of Fate" is the worst.

thew · « **Reply #14 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 19:21 »

Quote from: La Creme

Primer: A sci-fi movie (but only that for lack of another genre name, as it's not in the future or anything...)

Actually sci-fi is the most accurate description of Primer. Most of what passes for sci-fi these days is simply action/adventure.

Some of my top filmmakers that are hard to find in the US:

Julio Medem, his only American release was Sex & Lucia, but his other films are equally brilliant, my favorite is Lovers Of The Arctic Circle which still isn't available in the US. :(

Takeshi Kitano (Beat Takeshi), pretty well known (his Zatoichi remake came out last year), does a lot of Yakuza films, but they all have a surreal childlike slant at one point or another which I love. My favorite is Kikujiro.

Abbas Kiarostami, maybe my favorite. His films are like moving paintings and the stories are so pure and life affirming. He also blurs the line between fiction and documentary more and more with every film (especially now that he's left film for video).

Inlander · « **Reply #15 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 20:31 »

Quote from: thew

Takeshi Kitano (Beat Takeshi)

Hana-bi is one of my favourite films.

Anyone else here love Andrei Tarkovsky? I didn't see Soderbergh's Solaris because Tarkovsky's is just so amazing and I couldn't imagine it possibly being topped.

chupones · « **Reply #16 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 20:49 »

I love Tarkovsky as well. I do own both Tarkovsky's Solaris and Soderbergh's Solaris because they are different enough and wonderful in their own ways. Soderbergh's version is much truer to the book, while Tarkovsky's version explores deeper philosophical issues.

Sythe · « **Reply #17 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 22:12 »

Quote from: TrueNeutral

Personally, I find Dog Soldiers utterly hilarious.

Dog Soldiers is NOT funny! Its a harrowing tale of Brits who fistfight with warewolves!

5thWheel · « **Reply #18 on:** 28 Jul 2005, 01:58 »

I loved Dog Soldiers, Sean Pertwee's character is ace:) Just saw the writer/director's next film "The Descent", IMO better (different in tone to DS). But I end up getting dragged to anything horrorish by my s/o so have developed a taste for the genre (we watched "The Beyond" again last night, Lucio 'king of the eyeball gag' Fulci's, um, masterpiece).. We're off to see the new ".. of the dead" film in August, mixed feelings...

I have seen "Andrey Rublyov" [Tarkovsky], which was fantastic (and has the longest and most involving depiction of bell-making I have seen:) )

Fans of Takeshi Kitano or fans of violence and nastiness generally might what to check out Takeshi Miike; "Koroshiya 1" ("Ichi the Killer") is pretty cool, although we've seen other stuff that was kindof drossful. "Batoru rowaiaru" (Battle Royale) is also good stuff and has Kitano in it.

The best thing I have seen in ages is Riget ("The Kingdom"), mini-series by Lars von Trier, or "À bout de souffle" ("Breathless").

& "Jeepers Creepers 2" is the worst movie ever; it displaced "The Fly 2", which had held the top spot in my head for many years previously.

TheCourtJester · « **Reply #19 on:** 28 Jul 2005, 02:21 »

"Vincent" by Tim Burton...a short claymation-style film pre-Nightmare Before Christmas. Kinda eerie and maybe disturbing (much like Tim Burton) but it's neat to see someone's earlier work with developing styles and concepts.

"Cannibal, The Musical." Early work from one of the creators of South Park. Absolutely hilarious. And yes, it IS a musical.
"The sky is blue, and all the leaves are green
My heart's as warm as a baked potata!
I think I know exactly what I mean
when I say it's a shpadoinkle day!"

Oh..."The Graduate." Maybe it's just because of the music or because so many other movies make shameless references to it...I liked it...alot.[/u]

Inlander · « **Reply #20 on:** 28 Jul 2005, 02:39 »

Quote from: 5thWheel

The best thing I have seen in ages is Riget ("The Kingdom"), mini-series by Lars von Trier

Yes! I remember seeing it in the cinema years ago (long before the Dogme manifesto). Brilliant. There was a recent dodgy American re-make written by Stephen King (it was a T.V. series, as Von Trier's was originally). Also, there was a sequel T.V. series by Von Trier, but I never saw it.

5thWheel · « **Reply #21 on:** 28 Jul 2005, 02:58 »

I'm not sure that sequel is available outside Sweden etc (we couldn't get it in the uk but we were on holiday in Sweden so we got it while over there, got all girlishly gigglesome when the hot swedish bloke selling us it subsonically rumbled at us that he thought it was cool

). The sequel is probably worth having if you liked the 1st series, but it isn't IMO quite as good and it does not provide any resolution (typical Trier :/ ).
A 3rd part is highly unlikely since I think Helmer & Mrs Drusse are IRL dead.
The Stephen King remake went from bad to plain unwatchable IMO.

Inlander · « **Reply #22 on:** 28 Jul 2005, 03:02 »

The sequel was screened on T.V. here (god bless S.B.S.!), but I never got around to seeing it - I missed the first few episodes and after that it was just impossible to get into it.

Tinjessla · « **Reply #23 on:** 28 Jul 2005, 04:21 »

Ooh, have any of the Beat Takeshi fans here seen Kikujirô?

On the subject of asian cinema, i have three films to reccommend: Gozu, Oldboy and The Happiness of the Katsukaris.

Gozu is just....too crazy for me to describe. No really, i don't know where to start with that one. The basic premise is that of a Yakuza member being ordered to kill a fellow Yakuza member as he's gone stark raving mad. Things go a little awry and well..you just have to see it.

Oldboy is a Korean film which pretty much centres on one guys thist for revenge. I thought it was going to end up being a very typical gangster film but the twists are ingenius. Ingenius i tells yer!

The Happiness of the Katsukaris is kinda old now, but it's just so wonderfully insane. Imagine a very skewed version of The Sound of Music and you're half way there.

There's a lot more i'd talk about (i sure do loves me some Asian cinema) but i'd be blabbering on for days.

thew · « **Reply #24 on:** 28 Jul 2005, 08:07 »

Quote from: thew

My favorite is Kikujiro.

Quote from: Tinjessla

Ooh, have any of the Beat Takeshi fans here seen Kikujirô?

:)

Tinjessla · « **Reply #25 on:** 28 Jul 2005, 11:32 »

LiterSize · « **Reply #26 on:** 28 Jul 2005, 12:28 »

There's a german film I saw once somewhat titled "In case of fire" or something like that...

some random bad action movies:
Hollow Point (it's got Tia Carrere and John Lithgow in it!)
American Ninja (sooo cheesy)

Oooh, went to watch "Save the Green Planet" a couple of weeks ago. Friggin' weird.

I is Grammar · « **Reply #27 on:** 28 Jul 2005, 13:26 »

Quote from: Schmendrick

Ginger Snaps is very good if you can find it. It's a Canadian movie so it's either on television here or you can get it from some rental places. It's a somewhat coming of age film crossed with a low budget horror. I know it sounds terrible, but trust me it is wonderfully addictive.

Also I heard of Little Otik and I wanted to rent it, but my friends voted against me ... sigh...

Ooh, I have Ginger Snaps on DVD. It's a beautiful werewolf movie. It parallels girl problems and lycanthropy in the sense that they are both being "cursed". Good movie.

Mr Putter · « **Reply #28 on:** 28 Jul 2005, 16:53 »

It's international film festival time here - yay!

I saw "Kung Fu Hustle" last night which is like 12 helpings of awesome - totally recommended.

There's a heap of films that look pretty good from the blurbs, but I'm too poor to see them all - I was wondering if anybody has any recommendations from this list:

Howl's Moving Castle
Broken Flowers
The Ax
3-Iron
9 Songs
The Edukators
Darwin's Nightmare
A Decent Factory
Tarnation
Steamboy
Ghost in the Shell 2
Monster Road

KharBevNor · « **Reply #29 on:** 28 Jul 2005, 18:10 »

Quote from: TheCourtJester

"Vincent" by Tim Burton...a short claymation-style film pre-Nightmare Before Christmas. Kinda eerie and maybe disturbing (much like Tim Burton) but it's neat to see someone's earlier work with developing styles and concepts.

Vincent is totally brilliant. Definitely the spiritual pre-cursor to The Nightmare Before Christmas in it's style. My special edition DVD of TNBC has both Vincent and Frankenweenie (Burtons other student film) as special features. It only cost about ten pounds actually, and is seriously worth it if you onyl have it on VHS or even unadorned DVD, as it has buggerloads of special features.

Has anyone here seen a German film called 'Die Bombe'? (The Bomb). It's a really tense low-budget psychological thriller about a nuclear technician who holds an entire city to ransom with a home-made nuclear device built with pilfered equipment from a decommisioned nuclear powerplant. Very riveting.

5thWheel · « **Reply #30 on:** 28 Jul 2005, 23:28 »

Quote from: Mr Putter

I was wondering if anybody has any recommendations from this list:
The Edukators

I was pretty disappointed in The Edukators; "Lola Rennt" ("Run Lola Run") is cool and German and Franka Potente has red hair in it and everything.

Does anyone here know of a decent movie review site? I am kindof tired of being armwrestled into seeing stuff by my s/o cos "it had good reviews" when in fact it turns out to be Jeepers Creepers 2. I need to be able to launch retaliatory strikes..

thew · « **Reply #31 on:** 29 Jul 2005, 08:06 »

Speaking of "Lola Rennt" has anyone seen Tom Tykwer's other films? Winter Sleepers? Princess & The Warrior? Heaven? I had a little mini-marathon a month ago, amazing stuff.

As for movie reviews, IMDb has an "external reviews" link on the right hand side of any movie page that gathers most available online reviews (from Ebert to Rotten Tomatoes to Ain't It Cool News).

chupones · « **Reply #32 on:** 29 Jul 2005, 14:12 »

I'm a huge Tykwer fan. Own Run Lola Run, Princess & the Warrior and Heaven. Best german director since Wenders.

Inlander · « **Reply #33 on:** 29 Jul 2005, 16:52 »

I just finished watching Ingmar Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage on video (yes, video) last night. Wow! It's three hours long, and for the most part it's only two people and almost no exteriors, but it's absolutely gripping. I'd liken it to a really good novel: not just because it's broken up into six sections like chapters, but because it draws you in to the characters lives like few films I've seen and you can't tear yourself away - even when I told myself that I had to go to bed, I was thinking "just another 10 minutes, then I'll press stop". Amazing film.

KharBevNor · « **Reply #34 on:** 29 Jul 2005, 17:20 »

Bergman is great.

Oh! Everyone should see Nosferatu and Metropolis. Even if Silent films make you claw out your own eyes, they will be worthily sacrificed eyes.

Inlander · « **Reply #35 on:** 29 Jul 2005, 18:31 »

See, I'm a bit lairy about seeing "great" movies - that is, those movies that are constantly harped on by every single movie critic who ever sat down in a cinema - because the expectations can be so overwhelming that often the results don't quite live up to them. Bergman's Wild Strawberries, for instance, didn't really do anything for me. So I was double pleased to enjoy Scenes From a Marriage as much as I did.

thew · « **Reply #36 on:** 29 Jul 2005, 18:44 »

Quote from: KharBevNor

Oh! Everyone should see Nosferatu and Metropolis. Even if Silent films make you claw out your own eyes, they will be worthily sacrificed eyes.

I love silent films. Buster Keaton is a god.

La Creme · « **Reply #37 on:** 29 Jul 2005, 23:40 »

Quote

3-Iron

Don't bother unless you like shitty art films where the main character doesn't fucking talk. Like, at all.

Maybe I was just pissed off when I saw this but from my perspective, it chocked on testiclite.

Anyways, I also reccomend The Island, which just came out. I thought it was going to brutaly suck, but besides the shite acting, it wasn't all that bad. Plus you almost get to see Scarlet Johansen's breasts. Why do they protect them?

Sorry, just, y;know, had to get it off my back. = P

Praeserpium Machinarum · « **Reply #38 on:** 30 Jul 2005, 00:17 »

I have thought she was a harlot ever since she did the Calvin Klein commercials, but then again I am odd and possessive. But Lost in Translation is still good though, even if there is a future harlot in it..

La Creme · « **Reply #39 on:** 30 Jul 2005, 09:53 »

A sexy harlot who can almost act sometimes.

Praeserpium Machinarum · « **Reply #40 on:** 30 Jul 2005, 10:27 »

okay I admit for a harlot she is sweet, but she still demands money when you come to see her!

I am so sorry

lastclearchance · « **Reply #41 on:** 30 Jul 2005, 10:49 »

Quote from: Mr Putter

I was wondering if anybody has any recommendations from this list:

Howl's Moving Castle

I've heard that while it's not as good as Miyazaki's best (which I say is Spirited Away but others say is Princess Mononoke or Nausicaa) it's very good.

Quote from: Mr Putter

Broken Flowers

New Jim Jarmusch starring Bill Murray as the same character he's played in every movie since Rushmore? I'm there.

As for my own picks, has anyone seen "How to Get Ahead in Advertising" ?

5thWheel · « **Reply #42 on:** 31 Jul 2005, 09:00 »

Quote from: KharBevNor

Oh! Everyone should see Nosferatu and Metropolis. Even if Silent films make you claw out your own eyes, they will be worthily sacrificed eyes.

"The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is also ace & viewing it should earn you a goth point. "M" is also apparently very good but I haven't got round to watching it yet.

thew · « **Reply #43 on:** 31 Jul 2005, 12:29 »

Ok, if we're getting into silent films you can't leave out Murnau's "Sunrise" and "The Last Laugh."

Mary Pickford's "Stella Maris" opened my eyes because it has a morbid ending that I didn't expect from a silent staring America's first sweetheart. She also plays dual roles and it's fun to see how they pull it off 90 years ago.

One of my favorites that's also deliciously morbid is Victor Sjöström's "He Who Gets Slapped" starring Lon Chaney. Beautiful visuals and no one gets cosmically crapped on quite like the heroes in a Chaney tragedy.

KharBevNor · « **Reply #44 on:** 31 Jul 2005, 16:29 »

If we're talking about multiple roles.

KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS

One of the greatest films ever. Alex Guinness is eight different people in it.

sandysmilinstrange · « **Reply #45 on:** 31 Jul 2005, 16:45 »

Quote from: TheCourtJester

""Cannibal, The Musical." Early work from one of the creators of South Park. Absolutely hilarious. And yes, it IS a musical.
"The sky is blue, and all the leaves are green
My heart's as warm as a baked potata!
I think I know exactly what I mean
when I say it's a shpadoinkle day!"

Oh..."The Graduate." Maybe it's just because of the music or because so many other movies make shameless references to it...I liked it...alot.[/u]

I LOVE Cannibal the Musical! I'm partial to the numbers "Hang the Bastard" and "This Side of Me".

Have you noticed all the visitors hidden in that movie?

thew · « **Reply #46 on:** 04 Aug 2005, 08:23 »

It's been two weeks but I finally got back to my Netflix and watched Jan Svankmajer's Alice. The DVD also had his short Darkness/Light/Darkness. I think I enjoyed the short more simply for the sense of humor. The dialogue in Alice and the constant "said the little white rabbit" sort of wore me down. It could have easily been a silent film with the occasional title card or stop motion word bubble. The animation on both were great and frame-by-frame fans should definately check them out. Now I've got some Miyazaki films to watch (I've only seen Princess Mononoke, how embarrasing).

Karn · « **Reply #47 on:** 04 Aug 2005, 13:03 »

Funky, bizarre films? Here's one that's pretty much been forgotten in the past 25-or-so years.

Altered States.

Based on the Chayefsky book. About a scientist who explores the science of sensory deprivation, very interesting stuff. Although the special effects are obviously dated, I'm confident we're all above that kind of thing.

5thWheel · « **Reply #48 on:** 04 Aug 2005, 13:46 »

Quote from: Karn

Funky, bizarre films?

After Hours Although I'd need to see it again to tell you if I still think it is any good (long time ago).

THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

Author Topic: For the funky film fanatics (Read 24511 times)

thew

Tinjessla

Tinjessla

Schmendrick

TrueNeutral

Praeserpium Machinarum

La Creme

thew

5thWheel

5thWheel

Tinjessla

thew

Tinjessla

Mr Putter

5thWheel

thew

thew

La Creme

Praeserpium Machinarum

La Creme

Praeserpium Machinarum

5thWheel

thew

thew

Karn

5thWheel