A Russian documentary art film by Dziga Vertov.
Scenes from a busy city or town are shown with no explanation.
This is one of those wonderful films that I can't write enough good stuff about. Unintentionally being the first piece of psychedelic cinema, the filmmaker used every effect available. These effects ranged from playing with the speed of the film to multiple exposures and screen splitting. I can appreciate much of what is being done because of some experience with videos and a recent course in photography. The original film was released without sound and supposed to be accompanied by a live musical performance. The version that I saw had a soundtrack by Michael Nyman recorded in 2002. I liked this soundtrack, but I may watch the film again with one of the other 19 soundtracks. Some memorable scenes include the shadow of a doorway with people walking through, athletes doing high jumps, a magic show, stop motion of the camera getting onto the tripod and a scene of women putting a dark substance on themselves (picture, female anatomy points). I rate this best and would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in photography and video.
An American art film by Marilyn Manson.
Dark scenes are shown with the filmmaker and some other people in uncomfortable settings. Repetitive music is played and phrases are repeatedly spoken.
Repetition is what this film was about. It accomplished this goal within the first few seconds, so it's a good thing that it was only 25 minutes long. It does get female anatomy points though. At one point, the filmmaker states that the film was made to upset the viewer and this was accomplished as well. Repitition of music, spoken phrases and dark scenes gets old really fast. Given that this was the purpose of the film, as stated in the film, I rate it adequate. It did what it was meant to do. Whether you should watch it or not is for you to decide.
An art film by Crispin Glover with music by Anton Szandor LaVey.There's a retarded guy who pours salt on snails, a dominating jerk and a man in black face makeup who injects himself with snails. Make of it what you will.When the film started, I hated it. There was almost no plot and the characters were terrible. Also, the production value was horrid. By the end, I LOVED IT! My only question is: where did they get all those retards? About 90% of the characters were actually mentally handicapped. Oh, 2 questions: how did they get the retards to act? This was literally the strangest film I've ever seen and I've seen strange films. For being the weirdest thing to cross my screen, I rate this best.
An art film by Lodge Kerrigan.A schizophrenic man tries to get his daughter back from her adoptive mother.There wasn't much plot, but there were characters... The style was rough and dirty and the production value was low. I'm rating this bad because I don't see the point.
An art film by Gaspar Noe.Men try to avenge a raped girlfriend (according to Wikipedia). I saw NO plot.I watched the first half hour and when I heard annoying sounds, but no audible dialogue and saw the tiny subtitles in the middle of the screen and wildly orbiting camera-work, I turned it off. Where I come from, we call this shit.
An art film by Pier Paolo Pasolini.Young prisoners are tortured and a woman relates stories of a perverse sexual nature.I don't know whether to be confused by this or disgusted. It would seem that there is no real plot to this film and the characters don't make a big difference. The height of my disgust was reached at a scene in which a girl is forced to eat poop. Everyone eating poop in the next scene paled in light of the initial shock. The production value was superb, considering the date. I have to rate this poor because I don't think it's worth watching.
A horror/art film set directed by Jorg Buttgereit.A man on a corpse clean-up crew brings his work home with him as an aphrodisiac for his girlfriend. She leaves him and he kills himself. He is later dug up by another woman for the same purpose that he was using corpses for.I saw death, gore and sex. In my mind, they don't mix well. I could go for sex with blood in any amount, but this was too gross. The first film was more senseless gore and corpses than the other. The second film was more of an art piece, with peaceful outdoor settings and better music. The characters and plot are a non-issue here, as they were a minor part of the films in question. I think that the style was very unique and emphasized the gruesome details. These films clearly achieved what they set out for, and for that, I commend them. However, it wasn't what I wanted to see. I'm rating it o.k. for the execution being balanced with the execution (if you get my drift).
An art film Directed, produced, written by and starring Vincent Gallo.A motorcycle racer drives around and meets up with various women for very short periods of time.I still don't understand this. There is a revealing final scene about a party that the main character was at with the last girl he meets. It tries to inject some plot into the story, but it was too little, too late. The whole hour before it (of an hour and a half film) was just the guy driving around, having short chance encounters with women, usually involving a kiss and him leaving. I have to rate it poor for plotlessness.
An art film by Jim Jarmusch, starring Steve Buscemi, Bill Murray, Iggy Pop, Jack White, Meg White, GZA and RZA.A series of short scenes is shown in which small groups of characters meet and the topics of coffee and cigarettes always come up in their conversation. Most of the characters drink coffee and smoke cigarettes.The premise is a cool idea, but I don't think that it was executed as well as it could have been. All of the characters seemed very uncomfortable, except for RZA and GZA when talking to Bill Murray. By the way, what a great cast for a scene! It was my favorite part. If I had been in charge, I would have put someone with alternative methods of administering drugs in one of the scenes, like someone who uses chewing tobacco and drinks soda, just to throw a monkey wrench in the works. I thought it was cool, but not quite as cool as it could have been. I'm rating it adequate.
An art film by David Lynch.
A factory worker impregnates a woman. When the baby comes out, it is a monster. The woman leaves the man to look after their monster child.
This film is strange and disgusting. It is difficult to watch, even for hardcore film nuts like myself. I'm rating it adequate because it's strange but repellant.
An art film directed by Paul Mazursky.A film director ponders his next film as his life goes on with family and friends.This was really strange. The plot didn't seem to flow very well because of choppy cuts between scenes and drastic changes of locations and situations. The main character seemed like a cool hippy, but the rest of the characters didn't play a large enough role to count for much. The version that I got was of terrible quality in audio and video, but I watched it anyway. I'm rating this adequate for being cool, but a little confusing.
An art film by Richard Linklater.The camera follows various people in a city for short periods of time.There being no real plot and no main characters, this is difficult to rate. It was all about style. I'm having trouble finding words to express what I think of this film... I'll just rate it good for being weird. The picture is of an androgynous individual trying to sell some celebrity paraphernalia.
An art film by Sergei Parajanov.The life of a poet is described symbolically.This looks and seems very similar to the work of Alejandro Jodorowsky. Seemingly unrelated scenes are cut together in an aesthetically pleasing way, but the plot is not clear. I found out about this film at a concert last night. The band before mine was projecting it onto their kick drum while they played. I asked the guitarist what it was and when I mentioned Jodorowsky, he said that people thought they were showing El Topo. I'm rating it awesome for being strange, but it would have gotten a better rating if it had a coherent plot.
An art film by Theo Angelopoulos.A man is "going away" on the next day and tries to get his affairs in order. He picks up a young street-punk who follows him.The plot was very murky, but the characters were identifiable. The style loked like an older film, but the pacing was alright. I'm rating this o.k.
An art film by Chris Marker.Videos and descriptive narrative are used to illustrate scenes from around the world with a focus on Japan and Africa.The English name of this film is Sunless. The scenes show a wide variety of subjects from the mundane scene of people sleeping on a train to the shocking footage of a giraffe being shot and killed. Some of the footage is treated with a Spectron video synthesizer, giving it an abstract and almost ghost-like quality. Over all of this, a calm female voice narrates as if reading from letters sent by a videographer. I thought it was worth watching. If you like slightly strange art films, this would be a good one to see. I'm rating it adequate.
An art film by Jim Henson.A man is stuck in a room and people keep entering to play tricks on him.I had been looking for this ever since seeing the Cube series. Oddly enough, I found it on Google video. It turns out not to be all that great though. I'm rating it o.k.
An art film by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman.Allen Ginsberg's work, Howl is explored in many ways. An interview, a court trial, some animations, and a narration are woven together to present a complete picture.I can't really say much about plot, as the film was non-linear. The style was good and I liked the animations. The song about death at the end was really cool. I'm rating this adequate.
6 art films by Matthew Barney.Each film is unique in it's strangeness, let alone each scene. There is always something crazy happening or the craziness is in the inaction.These films take up lots of time. There are 6 of them at around an hour each. If you are not really into crazy cinema, stay away or you will be bored out of your mind. Everything happens very slowly. This isn't the Alejandro Jodorowsky type of "POW! it's crazy!", this is more restrained and organized. Some of the scenes are cool like the death metal song consisting of a drummer, vocalist and swarm of bees. There is also freemasonic symbolism that is overtly used. I am unsure of the meaning of this as to whether the filmmaker was mocking this or was a part of freemasonic rituals. Be aware that there is sex and nudity in the film. There is a car scene that is AWESOME! One car is destroyed by other cars and when they run out of destruction, they destroy eachother like a destruction derby. I hate cars, so this was my favorite scene. I'm rating it adequate because it's crazy, but I still haven't quite wrapped my head around it and may never do so.
An art film by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali.The plot is a bit murky with surrealist and dada symbolism.I like weird movies, so this is a real treat. From the ants coming out of a man's hand to the guy dragging the ten commandments, 2 rabbis and 2 dead donkeys on 2 grand pianos, they spared no shock value. If Holy Mountain was too tame and Chronopolis was too coherent, then you must watch this. It will rock your fucking world and you will have no clue why. I'm rating it awesome because Holy Mountain actually is better, but for it's time, nothing beats it.
An art film by Alejandro Jodorowsky.A group of 9 people goes on a quest for immortality.The audio and video were as good as it gets in content, but lacking slightly in quality.check out: The sets, costumes and props. There's some wild stuff.If you thought that "A Clockwork Orange" was too tame and that "Altered States" wasn't crazy enough, this movie is for you. Some viewers might not understand this film. Some may be repulsed and disgusted by it. Some may turn away from the screen in fear. From the psychedelic weapons to turning Jesus' poop into gold, Jodorowsky delivers the absolute wildest, craziest, most fucked up, best film I've ever seen. This is a MUST SEE for anyone who's into extreme film. WATCH THIS FILM!!!
