Over twenty years ago, in the spring of 1989, I took a seminar in graduate school called "Narrative Complexity in Film." The class was taught by Robert Carringer, who was (and still is) an expert on Orson Welles. In the semester, we studied three auteurs--Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder--whose movies were deemed by Carringer to be "narratively complex." It's no exaggeration to say that this seminar changed my life. I had never seen a film by Godard before, but I fell in love with his work and ended up writing my dissertation about the reception of Godard's films in America.
The fifth week into the class, in the middle of our Godard unit, we watched Weekend (1967), Godard's surrealist diatribe against capitalism. The plot of Weekend is simple: a husband and wife, both supremely shallow and evil people, travel from Paris to the French countryside to visit the wife’s sick mother. (In fact, during this trip the husband and wife plan to murder the sick mother and claim her inheritance.) What makes Weekend so bizarre isn't this set-up, but the individual episodes that the husband and wife get involved in on their journey. They get trapped in an excruciatingly long traffic jam (shot as a single long-take tracking shot); they meet a hitchhiker who calls himself God and turns a field of wrecked cars into a flock of sheep; they light Emily Bronte on fire; etc., etc. I found Weekend endlessly inventive the first time I saw it (which was in Carringer's seminar), and to this day it remains one of my favorite films.
Near the end of Weekend--and don’t worry about spoilers, since Weekend doesn’t try to create any kind of conventional suspense in viewers--the husband and wife are captured by a band of cannibalistic hippies. There's an amazing shot at the hippie's camp, near a lake. The camera tracks horizontally back and forth, right and left, across a tableau of a drummer pounding a fast beat. Meanwhile, various members of the hippie commune wander in and out of camera range and a voice on the soundtrack recites portions of the Comte de Lautremont's Les Chants de Maldoror ("I salute you, Old Ocean!"). The scene ends with the camera zooming out to the water, filling the screen with blue and sky.
The first time I saw this scene, I was so moved I cried. I still remember sitting in the uncomfortable auditorium seat, my head full of feelings and ideas ("Godard’s camera is inscribing a thesis-antithesis-synthesis dialectic!") that challenged my definition of what a film could be. I also remember hearing a noise behind me, faint at first and then louder...and I remember my surprise when I realized that the noise was the snoring of another student in the seminar: ZZZZZZZZZZZZ. But that was a valuable lesson too: it taught me that people don't necessarily respond to movies like I do, and that I need to remember that one person’s epiphany is another person’s nap.
And you? What's the strangest film you've ever seen, and under what conditions did you see it?
The weirdest film I believe I have ever seen was Lost Highway by David Lynch. It involved characters who seemed to change into different characters while keeping a parallel plot. It had reverse burning cabins and people who could be at two places at once; not to mention a camera that told the future. I saw this while I was sitting up one night at 3:00am.
ReplyDeleteThe strangest film I have ever seen would have to be Black Sheep (not the Chris Farley comedy). The acting is terrible and the storyline is horrible, but the climax of the movie delivers the strangest (and most hilarious) scene of any movie I have ever seen. Killer, genetically-mutated sheep run down the valley and eat the throats and faces of every person present. The movie incorporates Peter Jackson's WETA workshop gore effects, which most of you all are familiar with in Peter Jackson's Dead Alive. Pretty ridiculous although the movie sucks.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, David Lynch. (LOST HIGHWAY's the one starring Robert Blake with shaved-off eyebrows, right? Insane.) I love the scene in THE SQUID AND THE WHALE where two teenagers see Lynch's BLUE VELVET on their first date.
ReplyDeleteThat climax of BLACK SHEEP really is over the top (in a good way). Watching a ridiculously gory, transgressive film can be a blast, especially when you don't know what to expect: that's how a bunch of friends and I saw RE-ANIMATOR in a funky little grindhouse in downtown Buffalo in 1985...
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ReplyDeleteMaybe not the strangest, but possibly the most disturbing/over-the-top/sexually deviant film I can remember seeing is Ken Park. It's hard to tell exactly where a film will go after the opening scene is of a skateboarder's self-filmed suicide in the middle of a public skatepark, but Ken Park definitely succeeded in addressing teen angst and other issues to the extreme, with one character choking himself while masturbating to tennis on the TV, and then later killing his grandparents; one character who is in an intimate sexual relationship with his girlfriend's mom; and another characters abusive father trying to molest him while he sleeps. It's hard to tell if a film like this is just "weird for the sake of being weird," but it definitely resonates with you.
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ReplyDeleteI have not seen too many weird movies because I usually turn them off, but the weirdest one that I can remember would have to be Cabin Fever by director Eli Roth. It was supposed to be a horror film so I rented it with a few friends to watch late at night, but for me it was just gory and humorous. The whole movie is about five friends who go on a vacation to a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Then one decides to go squirrel hunting and shoots a diseased man instead. They eventually kill this man, dump him in the water, and later one of the friends drinks from this water and catches his disease. A flesh eating disease then starts to spread around the friends making them crazy and turning them against each other. For some reason there is a pink bunny hallucination; it seemed reminiscent of Donnie Darko, which was definitely a much better film. And then there was a seen with a kid who did kung fu moves and screamed "pancakes" at some of these friends. I just laughed through the whole movie, and gagged when I had to see the skin peeling off of the characters, especially when the girl was shaving her legs. Gross. It had potential but was just way too strange for me to enjoy.
ReplyDeleteThe strangest film I have seen was Teeth directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein. It was about a teenage girl whos vagina has teeth. This is the movie they should show in 6th grade abstinence class.
ReplyDeleteThe strangest and one of the best films that I have seen is the Japanese version of "The Ring". Its very similar in premiss but has a few extra things in there and if I remember right a differnet ending. I love scary movies but this one really freaked me out and i had nightmares for weeks but it was great!
ReplyDeleteDogville, directed by the infamous Lars von Trier. I watched this strange moral play in the middle of the night on a laptop while laying on the floor. It's a good film and definitely memorable in a creepy sort of way. The film contains almost no physical set, just lines drawn on the ground to represent buildings. It also contains some disturbing subject matter, such as the complete degradation of Nicole Kidman. Although, I'm sure if I saw von Trier's Antichrist that it could easily top this.
ReplyDeleteAnd just to add something entertaining, the film Manos: The Hands of Fate, which was made on the cheap by a vacuum salesman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxt7F97xUFY
I have to say that the strangest films that I have seen were films I was not ready for. When I was nine or so my mom took me to see this film called 'Microcosmos'at the local art house cinema. It was 80 or minutes of bugs having sex and babies set to classical music. The only dialog was a line or two at the beginning of the film. It was painful for me to sit through at that young age, and weird.
ReplyDeleteAt first when I got this assignment I thought about putting down "Un Chien Andelou" because I;m a fan of both Bunuel and Dali and because the movie is just a string of bizarre, arbitrary sequences with no narrative structure whatsoever. Then, I thought about a movie that I saw in Craig's class last semester called "Audition." Before I saw it I knew nothing about it other than it was a horror movie and it was Japanese. I think the strangest thing about the movie is the fact that for the first like 2/3 of the film, it isn't strange at least. Actually, the premise (a widower working in the Japanese film industry invents a role in a fake movie so he can hold auditions for a new wife) would make a decent rom-com. Then, after a while, the cute young girl seems a little off at times. Then, there's a crazy dream sequence, we see a scene that we are sure we've seen before, and when the main character wakes up, and she's disappeared. Then he gets tortured in his own house by her and she cuts off his foot. The whole movie wraps up when his 14-year-old son kills her in self defense. The movie is very disturbing and above all strange and it had a profound effect on me personally. If you have not seen it, I suggest seeing it because my description doesn't do it justice.
ReplyDeleteA couple of you have had problems posting to the blog (and we can troubleshoot in class). In the meantime, let me post for them:
ReplyDeleteFirst, here's Mo Haygood's choice:
"One of the strangest films that I have seen was an italian film (I think) made in either the 1900's or 1910's. The film was produced only to see the different visual effects a camera was capable of. It was made by setting up a camera on the back of a car and filming the ride. For the time it must have been amazing (and I did appreciate it for what they were able to do with the limited materials available); however, it was one of the most excruciating films I ever had watch. It is a little over and hour long, with different blurbs of color and movement and if I remember correctly no sound. If anyone caught on to the fact that I have not mentioned the name of this film, it is because I don't remember it. So if you think you may have seen what I'm describing and know the title, please share it."
[Craig again: y'know, I'm wondering if this isn't MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA. We're watching MAN next week, so you'll have to let me know if it looks familiar...]
And here's Sarah Penrod's choice:
"The strangest film I’ve ever seen was REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2000). This film is a testament to the failure of the American Dream as it follows the lives of four individuals whose lives are intertwined by their addiction to hardcore drugs. The entire film is shot from a warped, subjective, perspective and the audience is immediately drawn into an almost hallucinogenic following of the plot. Two characters, Tyrone and best friend Harry, begin selling drugs to find a way out of their dead-end lives. Addiction to selling becomes addiction to the drug itself. Harry, ultimately shoots up one too many times and doctors end up amputating his arm. Marion, Harry’s girlfriend, prostitutes herself to pay for her heroine addiction. The most nightmarish performance is hands-down that of Ellen Burstyn as Sara, a Speed addict who attempts to loose weight so that she can fit into a red dress and go on a game show. Addicted to glamour and uppers, Sara begins to hallucinate about guest stardom in the game show limelight. These neurotic experiences climax when she imagines her refrigerator, possessed and with a mind of its own, is lurching towards her in an attempt to devour her. As the addictions of each character progresses, sensibilities are destroyed and the perspective of the audience is further and further warped. Ultimately, each character becomes a shell of their former selves and the audience is held witness to the fire and brimstone of the drug underworld. I first watched this film late one night on Netflix. The darkness of the room certainly intensified the darkness of the subject matter."
[Craig here: And hey--Ellen Burstyn was nominated for an Oscar in 2001 for her role as Sara! But Julia Roberts won.]
Colby, I'd never even heard of KEN PARK, but based on your recommendation--and on the fact that PARK was co-directed by the director of KIDS (1995)--I'm going to hunt it down.
ReplyDeleteCasey: CABIN FEVER, eh? I'm not sure what to think about Roth as an auteur...both CF and HOSTEL disturbed and annoyed me (just like Roth's performance as 'The Bear Jew' did in Tarantino's INGLOUROUS BASTERDS did). There's something extremely mean-spirited about his work that I'd don't see in other horror films...
Scot, I actually liked DOGVILLE better than ANTICHRIST, though I think there's value in just about everything Von Trier has made. (Were you there when we were talking about THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS at the end of class on Tuesday?) And I can't believe MANOS, HANDS OF FATE is available on Youtube--though I'd probably prefer to watch the MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 version of MANOS rather than the original. I'm fascinated by movies that are "so bad they're good"--certainly true of MANOS--and we'll talk about this when we look at Jack Smith's aesthetic during our "Decadence and Detournment" week.
Ben writes that UN CHIEN ANDALOU is "just a string of bizarre, arbitrary sequences with no narrative structure whatsoever." Is that a recommendation or what? And we're watching CHIEN on Friday! Slicin' up eyeballs, ha ha ha ha...
ReplyDeleteAbout AUDITION: check out this lively article from THE ONION's A-V club (and watch out for spoilers):
http://www.avclub.com/articles/turning-on-a-dime-15-great-gearshift-movies,23015/ [.]
The strangest film I've ever seen is "Darling" (1965) starring Julie Christie. It's one of those films that was made during that weird transition between the classic golden age of cinema and the more modern cinema that we know today. So it tried to deal with very graphic and sexual things WITH OUT actually being graphic. Which meant the film had creative camera angles and lots of vague insinuations. What made this movie strange was how it presented themes like homosexuality, abortion, free love, adultery, etc. And how it's main character Diana reacted to those themes. Not to mention through out the film there's this dialogue that you hear every now and then to transition through the years of this actress's life that's supposed to sound like she's being interviewed but you never see this future Diana being interviewed. You just hear it. It sort of floats over the movie in a strange way. There's a scene in this movie where Diana is left all alone in this large mansion. She's so saddened by this fact that on the way to her bedroom she's knocking down furniture, and ripping off her jewelry and clothing. When she reaches her bed she throws her nude self onto it and sobs. I was sort of left blinking at the screen. And for a film with a coherent narrative it really has no solid ending nor does the main character really grow or change at all.
ReplyDeleteIt probably didn't help that I was watching this movie alone at 3 AM on Turner Classic Movies. I think sitting by yourself in the dark could probably make a lot of movies feel more bizarre than they actually are.
My dad loves old science fiction movies and one night last summer he put on, THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE (1962) directed by Joseph Green. It's about a scientist who gets into a car crash with his girlfriend, who becomes decapitated. The scientist takes her head into his basement, brings it to life, and keeps her alive against her will. Meanwhile the scientist goes out and tries to find a suitable replacement for his girlfriends body. On top of all this there is a monster-like creature in the next room. I have not watched very many old science fiction movies but this was definitely the weirdest.
ReplyDeleteI think the strangest film I have ever seen is 'American Psycho.' This film just blows my mind. I know it is based off a book, but after watching the film I don't want to read the book! It is about a man who works on Wall Street and has a fabulous lifestyle but has this uncontrollable urge to kill. This film is full of sex, drugs and blood. The plot is so confusing to me, I just can't get my head around it! At one point he is about to kill his secretary and his 'girlfriend' calls and leaves him a message, he ends up letting the secretary go but then kills someone else the next day. He also pretends to be at least two other people throughout the film. The whole time I'm watching it I just can't help but think "What the Hell?!"
ReplyDeleteI do agree with Sarah's post about 'Requiem For A Dream,' that film is very strange! And so is 'A Clockwork Orange,' I almost didn't make it through that one.
Probably the strangest most bizarre movie I've ever seen is a 2003 South Korean movie called Oldboy, directed by Park Chan-wook. It was the winner of the Grand Prix at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. It's about a man named Dae-su who is abducted and locked in a room for 15 years away from all human contact, by a strange guy looking to get revenge for something Dae-su did when he was still in grammer school. When he is finally released from his prison he makes it his mission to find out the reasons behind why he was locked away and who is responsible. Along the way he falls in love with a younger woman and ends up sleeping with her only to find out that she's actually his daughter. While the incestueous relationships and crazy revenge tactics used against Dae-su make the movie really strange, I found myself intrigued by the charecters and the unexpected plot turns.
ReplyDeleteCraig,
ReplyDeleteIt is actually a recommendation, I really like that film. it's very true to the surrealist movement that it is apart of.
"Xenia, Ohio. A couple of years ago, a tornado hit this place. It killed the people left and right. Houses were split open, and you could see necklaces hanging from branches of trees. Dogs died. Cats died. I saw a girl fly through the sky... and I looked up her skirt."
ReplyDeleteSorry for the late post, folks. I love all the movies being represented here. Lost Highway, yikes. That one is pretty awesome, the car rundown scene. The guy with the Eyebrows shaved off, in real life he was accused of murder I'm pretty sure? Acquitted I think.
Okay, the strangest experience I have had with a movie has to be when I showed a group of friends Gummo. I had seen Harmony Korine's trash epic four years earlier in high school. The first time I was blown away, I couldn't believe a film like this existed. For me, this opened up a whole new slew of possibilities of what defines a good movie.
Fast forward to college. I have a group of friends whom I find out never have seen Gummo. There are about 8 in the group including my then roomate. We all watch films like Eraserhead, Nosferatu, and Pi together. These are pretty off the wall, left field, dark and brooding. This is going to be awesome.
We are all cramped into my apartment living room, it is night and dark. The room is pretty hot, it is still September and there is no window units, just open windows. About 30 minutes into the film, two of my friends tell me, with a hint of disdain, that they have to leave and go home. They walk out! If you have ever seen Gummo, there are some pretty funny parts, like where the two girls are giving the cat a bath, and one exclaims while putting her tongue through a magazine spread size picture of Burt Reynolds, "I want a mustache, dammit!" in a southern drawl. Hilaroius. I burst out laughing, and everybody looks at me, almost shaking their heads.
After the movie, The 5 that are left ask me why I would think of showing them something so "dark". They sincerely show regret for their self proclaimed ordeal they all just went through, and scold me for my poor taste. They tell me that they were offended that I would show them something so vile, and 4 of the five never responded to my calls, nor called me anymore afterward.
You may recall that I said the 5 remaining when talking about who made it all the way through. The missing 1 was my roommate who actually was asleep at the credits. I woke him up and he apologized for falling asleep, he just thought the film was too boring, it reminded him of his hometown, and he saw nothing new. AMAZING.
All in all, Gummo turned 4 of my friends into enemies, the remaining 3 and I are estranged, and my old roommate still talks to me and never brought up the movie again. Maybe the boring nostalgia put him to sleep. Anyways, thank you Gummo, for everything. I mean that sincerelly.
Perhaps the strangest movie I ever saw was an insanely low budget student film by the name of "Within The Woods." The film is short, maybe only thirty minutes, but not bad. The film was written, directed, and produced by none other than Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and and Robert Tapert in order to raise money and awareness for their planned feature length film "The Evil Dead." This bit of trivia I found on IMDB is really all you need to gauge the reception of "Within the Woods":
ReplyDelete"The film was publically released once, shortly after it was made, and featured before late night preformances of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975) in a Detroit theater. Due to not having the rights to the music, Raimi and Campbell donated the film's entire gross of less than $20 to the American Cancer Society."
Problems with the music rights have made the film impossible to release on any sort of a wide format. So, the only copies available are generally internet bootlegs. I first saw the film in this manner at the age of about nine. My friends and I sat and watched a horribly pixilated version of the movie, not really knowing what we were watching, at about 2 or 3 in the morning. The plot basically consists of "some friends go to have a picnic in the woods. One friend accidentally disturbs an indian burial ground. The predictable occurs as one of the friends is possesed by a spirit and then proceedes to go on a murder spree. Fun for the whole family."
By itself, the short film really isn't much, but somehow a combination of the pixilation (that rendered a few scenes practically unrecognizable) and the caffine and sugar induced insomnia of a few young boys created something new-and horrible. Or wonderful, whichever you like. Long story short we were all scared out of our minds, not to mention a bit naucious from all of the blood and gore (not that we would ever admit to it).
I know that I've already been on this for much too long, but there is one more thing I would like to say: Earlier in the posting someone mentioned "Lost Highway" and Robert Blake's shaved eyebrows. I'm not sure, but I think that that might be a nod to Syd Barret of Pink Floyd (before Roger Waters took over) who did in fact go crazy and do such things as shave his eyebrows. Syd Barret, well he's just a strange story in himself.
The Strangest film i've ever scene was cemetery man starring rupert everet. I first heard of the film last year and it seemed intersting so I watched it. The plot follows a grounds keeper at a cemetery where the dead bodies rise from the dead as zombies a week after burial. It is Everets job to kill these zombies before they leave the premises. By the time the film starts he's already been doing it for years and shows a very calm and nonshulant aproach to his job. Its both weird and funny seeing the protagonist killing zombies like it was an everyday task. No fear, no excitement, as if he were washing the dishes. He soon falls in love with a woman who dies and is buried in his cemetary, then she keeps reapearing as several other women, and goes on from their
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's been said here yet, but if it has I apologize for repeating, but "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" is a very good, very strange film. Not sure if it counts, though, Hunter Thompson was a strange person...
ReplyDeleteThe strangest movie I have seen is 'Tideland' directed by Terry Gilliam. My job at the time required that I watch movies so I could make movie suggestions to the customers. When i got done with this one I did not know what to think. It had a lot of crazy things in it. It was about a little girl left alone with her dead dad. The little girl's dolls talk to her and some lady shows up to stuff the dad so she can marry him. (if I remember correctly)This was not a horror movie and I still find it had to put into word how crazy this movie was.
ReplyDeleteI must admit I have not seen any exceptionally strange movies however I had a very weird experience when I went to see the lastest Transformer movie this past summer. I was extremely excited to see the movie with my friends not for my particular pleasure since I have never been a huge fan of the Tranformer movie that preceded it. I was excited I love the ritual of goin to the movies with my friends. I was wide awake watching the movie one minute, bored the next and sleep the next. It was a three minu te ordeal. When the movie was over, my friends joked at how I could sleep through a movie so loud and explosive. I couldn't answer but after reading Roger Ebert's review of the movie, I found that there was another person who shared my sentiment on the movie. Overall, that was the best nap I ever had but i would have stayed home had i known that I was just goin to be sleeping.
ReplyDeleteI got so wrapped up in my story about watching Gummo, I actually didn’t really describe any parts of the film. The most entertaining part of the film is when the rednecks get tired of arm wrestling in the kitchen, so they decide to start grappling and fight the kitchen furniture. Once the furniture is pounded into oblivion, they put the mangled furniture into the trashcan. Then they spit beer on it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQlmQ9apOul&feature=related
There is the link to the wrestling scene on youtube. It starts at about 2 minutes
The most disturbing part of the film was easily the part where the two main characters go to this house and pay this strange man to have intercourse with a girl who has Down syndrome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQJmQ9apOuI&feature=related
ReplyDeleteTheres the link, sorry, the first one wasn't right.
It may not be the weirdest movie I've ever seen, but it's one I can think of at the moment, as it's the most recent strange movie I've watched. La cité des enfants perdus (The city of lost children). Incredibly strange, the way it was shot was incredibly surreal and the whole concept of the movie was excellent, at least I think. Even if you cant appreciate the movie for the story told, there is no way you can deny the visuals.
ReplyDelete