Great thread here recently on summer reading. Got to pick up Christian Bok's "Eunoia" and "The Sea Came in at Midnight" by Steve Erickson. Can't remember if it was someone on this list who recommended it but I'm just ordered a weird sci-fi/horror book called "Satan Burger" by Carlton Mellick III. Though I'm sure it will take up my next few weeks to catch up on recommendations I get from y'all here, I was wondering if anyone wanted to share some titles of favorite foreign / cult movies. I'd be glad to start. Jan Svankmajer: Czech director who was supposedly a big influence on the Quay Brothers- uses stop-motion (think that's the right term) animation within the films, mixed with child-hood nightmarish tales. Just seen Little Otik and Conspirators of Pleasure (both recommended) and heard that Alice and Faust were also worth seeing. Lars Von Trier: The Element of Crime is a very languid, dream-like psychological crime thriller (wonder if it was an influence on Angel Heart). He did Europa later. He's also responsible for the Danish TV series The Kingdom (aka Riget, available on video) which has a bizarre cast of characters: a med student whose nightmares come true, a somewhat crackpot clairvoyant who pursues the ghost of a little girl, a Swedish doctor who hates and berates the rest of the staff, a kitchen crew who speak in allegories and metaphors, etc.. Sean Guilette: Pi is about a mathematician who's going insane trying to figure out the connection between number sequences and the stock market and Jewish mysticism. Not foreign but definitely cult. Takashi Miike: Visitor Q is one of the most unsettling movies I've seen in a while- lots of violence (including a teenager beating his mother) plus incest and necrophilia (the later of which provides an especially disturbing yet somehow funny scene). I've heard that another film of his, Audition, is even more graphic. Best, Jason -- Perfect Sound Forever online music magazine with warped perspectives http://www.perfectsoundforever.com
Sean Guilette: Pi is about a mathematician who's going insane trying to figure out the connection between number sequences and the stock market and Jewish mysticism. Not foreign but definitely cult.
He's definitely the lead actor (and co-writer) in Pi, but Darren Aronofsky was the director/writer. I enjoyed Pi quite a bit and caused me to have high expectations for Requiem for a Dream. I ended up despising the latter quite a bit. It used the same tricks as Pi, but not to good effect. The final "horrific" scene which intercut the fates of the protagonists' drug addictions was nothing close to effecting or disturbing, just funny. A group of naked middle aged guys chanting "Ass to Ass" is sadly funny; did not create the effect intended. I highly recommend Pi. On a side note: I think the score was very effective in Pi, but a Masada/Naked City hybrid courtesy of Mr. Zorn would have been cool, too. Zach
on 8/4/03 12:05 PM, Perfect Sound Forever at perfect@furious.com wrote:
Though I'm sure it will take up my next few weeks to catch up on recommendations I get from y'all here, I was wondering if anyone wanted to share some titles of favorite foreign / cult movies. I'd be glad to start.
FASTER PUSSYCAT, KILL KILL -- one of the most original suspense movies ever made. It's movies like this that make me believe that nobody gets it right like a Hollywood film maker, no matter how low the budget. 8 1/2 or AMARCORD -- When Fellini allows himself to show some soul (and not just a platform for eye-popping visuals), he can make you laugh and tear your heart out, even at the same time. ROCK'N'ROLL HIGH SCHOOL -- Essential. People who don't like this movie are to be avoided. The KILLING -- I don't know if you'd call this cult, but it's nowhere near as famous as it should be. Early Kubrick, full of all kinds of ways to make an inexpensive movie that's not cheap. Great plot, great dialog, great visuals. Damn near perfect. sh NP: Bob Dylan, complete Basement Tapes bootleg (four discs)
skip Heller wrote:
on 8/4/03 12:05 PM, Perfect Sound Forever at perfect@furious.com wrote:
Though I'm sure it will take up my next few weeks to catch up on recommendations I get from y'all here, I was wondering if anyone wanted to share some titles of favorite foreign / cult movies. I'd be glad to start.
I'll just throw one essential movie:
IRREVERSIBLE (Gaspard Noé) -- Really sad but beautiful French movie about rape and revenge. I think it was released in the US a few months ago. -- Thierry PS: I guess by 'foreign' you mean non American?
The KILLING -- I don't know if you'd call this cult, but it's nowhere near as famous as it should be. Early Kubrick, full of all kinds of ways to make an inexpensive movie that's not cheap. Great plot, great dialog, great visuals. Damn near perfect.
I second that recommandation. Great movie, fun to see for those who were impressed by Tarantino's 'Reservoir Dogs' (I mean his first film - I'm not sure whether the title is correct), on which it seems to have a direct influence. Marcin
Hi. That's my list of some films that can be considered "cult films", that i discovered lately: NOTICE:Some of the english titles are translated by me. If you see something strange, you are advised. Audition(Takashi miike):If you like Visitor Q, you have to see this, is even better and more onirical, and with a satirical and critic sense of humour. The Naked Island(Kaneto Shindo): a b/w wonderful drama without words.The images speaks for itself. Samuel Beckett Film(Alan schneider):a film directed by alan schneider with a screenplay by Beckett "composed" à la Cage and starring Buster Keaton!!!¿What more can I say? The Terrorist(Santosh Sivan): an indian film with highly sofisticated violence.Quite shocking. The Sandglass (Wojciech Has): I discovered this filmmaker some years ago, I saw a lot of his films, and absolutely all i've seen was wonderful. This is a surrealistic dream based on the play by Bruno Shulz. But any of his films are more than reccomendable: The Saragossa Manuscript, Farewells, How to be loved, The Keys, The doll... Valeria y la semana de las maravillas(Jaromil Jires): Sorry, but i don't know the english or original title. This checoslovaquian film is the most beautiful vampire film i've ever seen.The naturalist color, the dreamy atmosphere, the bizarre situations, the enigmatic erotism, everything have a really magic touch.Something really special. (By the way, if someone knows how to get a video copy of this film, I would be very acknowledged). The misteries of a hairdresser's(Bertol Brecht):Starring Karl Valentin (sure, one of the best comedians ever)this incredible strange comedy dating from 1920's aprox. is a strange mix of Chaplin and Buñuel¡¡? A really dadaist film. Regards, Ricardo. n.p:Brötzmann,Kondo,Parker,Drake"Die like a dog"FMP. ------------------------------------------------------- --- Perfect Sound Forever <perfect@furious.com> escribió: > Great thread here recently on summer reading. Got
to pick up Christian Bok's "Eunoia" and "The Sea Came in at Midnight" by Steve Erickson. Can't remember if it was someone on this list who recommended it but I'm just ordered a weird sci-fi/horror book called "Satan Burger" by Carlton Mellick III.
Though I'm sure it will take up my next few weeks to catch up on recommendations I get from y'all here, I was wondering if anyone wanted to share some titles of favorite foreign / cult movies. I'd be glad to start.
Jan Svankmajer: Czech director who was supposedly a big influence on the Quay Brothers- uses stop-motion (think that's the right term) animation within the films, mixed with child-hood nightmarish tales. Just seen Little Otik and Conspirators of Pleasure (both recommended) and heard that Alice and Faust were also worth seeing.
Lars Von Trier: The Element of Crime is a very languid, dream-like psychological crime thriller (wonder if it was an influence on Angel Heart). He did Europa later. He's also responsible for the Danish TV series The Kingdom (aka Riget, available on video) which has a bizarre cast of characters: a med student whose nightmares come true, a somewhat crackpot clairvoyant who pursues the ghost of a little girl, a Swedish doctor who hates and berates the rest of the staff, a kitchen crew who speak in allegories and metaphors, etc..
Sean Guilette: Pi is about a mathematician who's going insane trying to figure out the connection between number sequences and the stock market and Jewish mysticism. Not foreign but definitely cult.
Takashi Miike: Visitor Q is one of the most unsettling movies I've seen in a while- lots of violence (including a teenager beating his mother) plus incest and necrophilia (the later of which provides an especially disturbing yet somehow funny scene). I've heard that another film of his, Audition, is even more graphic.
Best, Jason -- Perfect Sound Forever online music magazine with warped perspectives http://www.perfectsoundforever.com
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Ricardo wrote: RC> The Sandglass (Wojciech Has) One of my all-time top 10. Has is great generally but particularly shines in the fantastic: _Sandglass_, _Saragossa Manuscript_ (hey, check out the article on Potocki in the current issue of The Believer), _Tribulations of Balthazaar Kober_, and _Memoirs of a Justified Sinner_ (based on the early American gothic novel by James Hogg). RC> Valeria y la semana de las maravillas(Jaromil Jires): RC> (By the way, if someone knows how to get a video copy RC> of this film, I would be very acknowledged). It was released on PAL/VHS in the UK by Salvation/Redemption, maybe 5 years ago ... their site shows it out of print but it might could turn up on ebay UK. Speaking of which label, their release of the early short films by Clive Barker (as experimental maker, not horror-film scriptwriter) is highly recommended, especially for the second film. I rate Merhige's _Begotten_ pretty highly, too. If by "cult" one were to mean "nigh-on unseeable" I'd give big ups to Ivan Zulueta's _Arrebato_ (released for about 30 seconds in the anglophone world under the title _Rapture_), one of the best films i've ever seen (speaking as a once+future experimental filmmaker) about what shooting film does to you. About equally disappeared, Claude Faraldo's _Themroc_ (1972), with Michel Piccoli as a defeated Parisian worker who reverts to caveman. As if Ballard were adapted by Tati (well, if he were first possessed by Pasolini) ... IIRC *all* of the dialog is in pre-lingual grunting. I'd love to be able to show this one to people who think the concept "Modern Primitive" was invented by Re/Search, but where is it? Oh, all of the features by midwest master Richard Meyers have just been released on DVD, available from Canyon Cinema ... not particularly cheap ($50 a pop) but multiple viewings are pretty mandatory so i'd argue the value is returned eventually; start with _Jungle Girl_ or _37-73_. And hopefully everybody here is already aware of the new Brakhage DVD and is planning to act accordingly ;-). -- Jim Flannery newgrange@newgrangemedia.com One cannot judge the value of an opinion simply by the amount of courage that is required in holding it. -- George Orwell np: MEV, _Rome_ nr: Dennis Lehane, _Prayers for Rain_ (yes, it IS summer)
Thanks for the information. And, of course, the Brakhage DVD, the best DVD release till date. Fortunately the double DVD is region free and I bought it some weeks ago.Though haven't got the same impact on dvd than on cinematographic film is a good way to know his masterfully work. Talking about Zulueta's "Arrebato" in Spain was replaced at the cinemas the last year, and was great. Sure, the most delirious spanish film ever. Regards,Ricardo. n.p.:Territory Band "Atlas" (thanks to Efren and Simon for recommend it). ------------------------------------------------------- --- Jim Flannery <newgrange@newgrangemedia.com> escribió: > Ricardo wrote:
RC> The Sandglass (Wojciech Has)
One of my all-time top 10. Has is great generally but particularly shines in the fantastic: _Sandglass_, _Saragossa Manuscript_ (hey, check out the article on Potocki in the current issue of The Believer), _Tribulations of Balthazaar Kober_, and _Memoirs of a Justified Sinner_ (based on the early American gothic novel by James Hogg).
RC> Valeria y la semana de las maravillas(Jaromil Jires): RC> (By the way, if someone knows how to get a video copy RC> of this film, I would be very acknowledged).
It was released on PAL/VHS in the UK by Salvation/Redemption, maybe 5 years ago ... their site shows it out of print but it might could turn up on ebay UK.
Speaking of which label, their release of the early short films by Clive Barker (as experimental maker, not horror-film scriptwriter) is highly recommended, especially for the second film.
I rate Merhige's _Begotten_ pretty highly, too.
If by "cult" one were to mean "nigh-on unseeable" I'd give big ups to Ivan Zulueta's _Arrebato_ (released for about 30 seconds in the anglophone world under the title _Rapture_), one of the best films i've ever seen (speaking as a once+future experimental filmmaker) about what shooting film does to you.
About equally disappeared, Claude Faraldo's _Themroc_ (1972), with Michel Piccoli as a defeated Parisian worker who reverts to caveman. As if Ballard were adapted by Tati (well, if he were first possessed by Pasolini) ... IIRC *all* of the dialog is in pre-lingual grunting. I'd love to be able to show this one to people who think the concept "Modern Primitive" was invented by Re/Search, but where is it?
Oh, all of the features by midwest master Richard Meyers have just been released on DVD, available from Canyon Cinema ... not particularly cheap ($50 a pop) but multiple viewings are pretty mandatory so i'd argue the value is returned eventually; start with _Jungle Girl_ or _37-73_.
And hopefully everybody here is already aware of the new Brakhage DVD and is planning to act accordingly ;-).
-- Jim Flannery newgrange@newgrangemedia.com
One cannot judge the value of an opinion simply by the amount of courage that is required in holding it. -- George Orwell
np: MEV, _Rome_ nr: Dennis Lehane, _Prayers for Rain_ (yes, it IS summer)
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...to add my two cents.... and I can not believe that this was passed over but Alejandro Joderowsky's "Santa Sangre". I know that El Tope and Holy Mountain can be trying ordeals to sit through but this was his attempt at a main stream movie and it works. Too bad is out of print around the world. Where is this dvd release? --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
_Tribulations of Balthazaar Kober_, and _Memoirs of a Justified Sinner_ (based on the early American gothic novel by James Hogg).
Hogg was Scottish.
About equally disappeared, Claude Faraldo's _Themroc_ (1972), with Michel Piccoli as a defeated Parisian worker who reverts to caveman.
Bootleg tapes of this have been fairly easy to find. LT
-----Original Message----- From: zorn-list-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:zorn-list-bounces@mailman.xmission.com]On Behalf Of Perfect Sound Forever Sent: Monday, August 04, 2003 12:05 PM
Takashi Miike: I've heard that another film of his, Audition, is even more graphic.
I had the chance to see "Audition" a few months ago -- "more walkouts than E. Elias Merhige's 'Begotten'!" I proudly told my friends -- and I'm of two minds about it. Yes, I'd recommend it, but rather guardedly; it really is best for people with strong constitutions, as it's the sort of movie your friends may hate you for afterwards. [very slight spoilers ahead] "Audition," on one level, is a satisfyingly manipulative genre flick; on another level -- well, I'm not sure there is one. There's a sense in which "Audition" is all about form, as it throws the audience into what seems, on the surface, a romantic comedy with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, albeit with sinister undertones. Then the audience gets to squirm all throughout because they know *something* will happen, and yet the film barely rises above a simmer for almost an hour. And then the rug is pulled from underneath the chief protagonist *and* the audience. Regardless of what you might already have read in reviews (and in that sense it's difficult to "spoil" the film), the sheer visceral impact of the conclusion is still quite intense. But beyond that -- critiques of patriarchal society notwithstanding, though Miike has disavowed that -- there's the lingering sense that there's little below the surface (not that that's such a bad thing). Later, Ben http://www.thewilyfilipino.com
Jan Svankmajer: Czech director who was supposedly a big influence on the Quay Brothers- uses stop-motion (think that's the right term) animation within the films, mixed with child-hood nightmarish tales. Just seen Little Otik and Conspirators of Pleasure (both recommended) and heard that Alice and Faust were also worth seeing.
Faust more so than Alice.
Takashi Miike: Visitor Q is one of the most unsettling movies I've seen in a while- lots of violence (including a teenager beating his mother) plus incest and necrophilia (the later of which provides an especially disturbing yet somehow funny scene). I've heard that another film of his, Audition, is even more graphic.
I thought Visitor Q was an almost complete misfire, interesting only for inverting the usual that outsider-family subgenre (Teoreme, Boudou Saved from Drowning). Didn't care much for Fudoh either. Much better--and conveniently both just released on US DVD though I haven't seen those--are City of Lost Souls and Dead or Alive which rework yakuza/crime films through culture clashes (and anybody who says they expected the ending of Dead or Alive is a liar). Way way over the top is the flabbergasting Ichi the Killer, even in the slightly censored Hong Kong DVD. Audition is good in a what-is-reality way like Polanski's Repulsion but not quite as "unwatchable" as its reputation. I'm hoping to get around soon to Happiness of the Katakuris, Miike's musical remake of a Korean film (no really). Other current Japanese directors worth checking out are films by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (especially Cure which I think is one of the best films of the 90s), Sogo Ishii (Angel Dust is pretty easy to find but don't pass up the dark satire Crazy Family), Sabu (the peculiar DANGAN Runner) and Shunji Iwai. Shinya Tsukamoto is well-respected but has always seemed pretty trite to me. I'd guess all Zornlisters already know about Seijun Suzuki and Takeshi Kitano. And I'd rate Hayao Miyazaki as one of the best filmmakers anywhere. LT
At 22:59 -0400 4/08/03, Lang Thompson wrote:
.../...
Other current Japanese directors worth checking out are films by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (especially Cure which I think is one of the best films of the 90s), Sogo Ishii (Angel Dust is pretty easy to find but don't pass up the dark satire Crazy Family), Sabu (the peculiar DANGAN Runner) and Shunji Iwai. Shinya Tsukamoto is well-respected but has always seemed pretty trite to me. I'd guess all Zornlisters already know about Seijun Suzuki and Takeshi Kitano. And I'd rate Hayao Miyazaki as one of the best filmmakers anywhere.
LT
there's also "lies" by corean filmaker Sun-Woo Jang
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At 21:21 -0400 5/08/03, Lang Thompson wrote:
there's also "lies" by corean filmaker Sun-Woo Jang
I much preferred Jang's A Petal. Lies seemed too much like he was trying to film Bataille and instead did a watered-down Last Tango.
quite true yet he movie has other qualities as to a petal never managed to see it
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"Samotari" - czech movie about young people in Prague "City of God" - recent brazilian movie "Talk to her" by Almodovar - but he is mainstream now, isn't he? ;-) "Irreversable" (whatever the title is) french movie with Monica Bellucci ... __________________________________________________________________ Artur Nowak [.com]
participants (12)
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Artur Nowak -
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billy macmillin -
Jim Flannery -
Lang Thompson -
Marcin Gokieli -
Perfect Sound Forever -
Ricardo Campillo -
skip Heller -
Thierry Raguin -
Zachary Steiner