Taking Tiger Mountain - 1983 Existential post-apocalypse films are few and far between, and this is one of the strangest and most complex. I can only report that it was worth the effort of tracking it down and watching it. The director, Tom Huckabee, didn’t direct another feature for another 25 years, but as you know, Bill Paxton went on to become a well-known and busy actor. The script is by Huckabee and Kent Smith, and William S. Burroughs contributed to the story.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. I wish that Annie Proulx rewrote that one. David Lynch's DUNE. (I saw it at the movie theater when it was released with my sister. Anytime a movie theater gives you a glossary sheet of terms and characters before going in to see the movie...you are asking for trouble. I didn't understand not one damn thing that happened in that movie. My sister and I fell asleep on it.) Any Stanley Kubrick film...2010: SPACE ODYSSEY. CLOCKWORK ORANGE. EYES WIDE SHUT. *shivers* TONGUES UNTIED. That film was bizarre yet real. It was a documentary about homophobia within the African American community.
I liked this, but I had to watch it a couple of times, because after the first view all I could say was ...WTF? Memento (2000)
And of the Blue, White, Red trilogy. I had to watch White a couple of times. I got lost somewhere between the shadow and act in the middle of it. Three Colors: White (1994)
Barton Fink, Mulholland Drive, Adaptation, Being John Malkovich and A Clockwork Orange. All excellent movies though...
Yes. I just mentioned Kieslowski in that favorite director thread. Awesome, awesome beautiful trilogy. I never thought it was that bizarre, though. Definitely check out the work of directors Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jan Svankmajer if you want bizarre. Alejandro Jodorowsky Fando and Lis (1968) El topo (1970) The Holy Mountain (1973) Jan Svankmajer Alice (1988) Faust (1994) Greedy Guts (2000) Blow your fucking mind.
Clockwork Orange is the most mainstream off the top of my head. But I saw one in the early '90s that stared Judd Nelson called The Dark Backward. It was about a guy who grew a third arm out of his back and the friends I watched it with and I all agreed that the film had no redeeming qualities whatsoever - writing, acting, lighting, everything about it left us wondering WTF. :yuck:
I happen to enjoy dis-jointed (and disorienting for many) narrative. I'm the kind of guy who reads the first five pages of a book, then the last five pages, then skips to the middle and reads most of it, then go back to the beginning and continue to where I picked up in the middle. Frequently I'll re-read the middle, skipping over to the last twenty pages occasionally before finishing it entirely. Strictly linear narrative is much more easily comprehended but in many ways I find the characters are better revealed in the way that I've described reading a book above. Some of my best writing is non-linear-based narrative, with flashbacks and flashes-ahead. I'd do much more of it if it weren't so damn confounding for my readers My ex had a terrible time with Momento. Eventually I just gave up on attempting to explain it to him. My all-time bizarre movie is, without any doubt, Thundercrack! which really must be seen to be appreciated (it, too, has some really disjointed narrative techniques). The official website claims that DVDs will be pressed from an original negative and that it will be much crisper than the old VHS copies that were available in the 80s. But the DVDs still aren't being sold yet, two years after the website popped up. Copies are notoriously rare and difficult to locate. It was posted privately on YouTube (through a loose network of friends), but the owners of the copyright threatened a lawsuit and it was, alas, removed. Thundercrack! makes any early John Waters movie look like a Disney production in comparison.
NOTHING and I mean nothing can compare to the movies made by Harmony Korine. Gummo is THE most bizarre! If you like weird...watch this movie.
"Pink Flamingos" , truly bizarre, springs to mind off the top of my head. Which reminds of of "Head" which is more trippy öite then bizarre. I'll have to give it a little thought...there are plenty. Just thought of "Eraserhead" Memento, for me, was not at all bizarre. I can see how it might spin some people out though. Along the same lines was "Irreversible", but that is much heavier. There are some truly bizarre Japanese films. One that is crazy in that it starts out very serene and then takes a major turn is a film called "Audition"
I LOVE weird movies!!! My favorite weird movie is The Forbiden Zone. It's by Richard Elfman, and features The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo! And Danny Elfman is even there as Satan. This is the coolest artsy movie, I soooo recommend it. Also anything by Terry Gilliam of Monty Python. What a weirdo, I love him!
Blue Velvet - one of my favorites. Last Year at Marienbad - the whole thing is just one big awkward moment.
Hmmmmm. . . . the book is much better, but the film inspired by Naked Lunch has its moments. And there is always Freaks. "One of us! One of us! We will make you one of us!" The armless/legless (in real life) guy worming his way in the mud with a knife in his mouth -- in the rain and under a carnival wagon? Priceless.
