Strange Cinema - Movies that Make you say, "WTF, yo?!?!?"

In my previous post I mentioned the strangest movie I have seen in the past six months. Oddly enough, it is not the strangest movie I have seen in my life. I am rather fond of films that make me scratch my head, that throw typical story conventions out the window, and that extend the limits of the cinematic art form outside the standard Hollywood movie. Not to detract anything from your normal film fare, but there are only so many Scorsese movies I can watch, ya dig? It gets BORING! So, here are the top 10 Strangest Films I have seen in my life, and it is about as accurate as possible. I present it in alphabetical list, because I don't play favorites.

1. Brazil (1985) - dir. Terry Gilliam.
I always have a rough time coming up with my top 10 favorite films. There are a few that I constantly name and others that sort of cycle in and out. I can comfortably call this one of my 10 favorite movies of all time. From the brilliant mind of Terry Gilliam who, for my money, is a modern visionary on the level of a Bergman or Fellini. This is hands down his best work, and if you question me I WILL SLAY YOU. This movie is a visual masterpiece. Gilliam creates a world with such care and detail that it may as well be a real place, alive and breathing somewhere in America (or England, or any other capitalistic-driven country). Not only does the movie deliver on a visual level, there are so many intricate meanings and lessons you can derive from the plot, from descrying the atrocious behavior of material-driven assholes, to simply proclaiming the overall need to follow your dreams. You could watch the film 50 times and glean a new message each time. All of it is wrapped neatly in this absurd, Python-esque, humor that is just enough to keep you from pulling your hair out because of the insane society in which the movie takes place. I believe this should be required viewing for everyone who considers themselves movie connoiseurs.


2. El Topo (1970) - dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky
Jodorowsky is a freak. Equal parts spiritual journey and western bloodbath, we follow the story of a cowboy clad in black and his young son, clad in absolutely nothing. The plot is rather hard to follow because of the insane amounts of symbolism and imagery. Some of the things on the screen just completly defy any explanation. Jodorowsky also has a fascination with little people/people with deformities, and there are a slew of them present (one that stands out it the legless midget who is riding an armless man). There's a whole mess of blood and violence here, but if you are just interested in senseless action, you should stay far, far away from this. Jodorowsky adds so many surreal images, the viewer could spend years analyzing them and still not fully understand their meaning. If there is anything that sums this movie best it is this: John Lennon often said El Topo was his favorite movie. Yes, the acid-taking, hippy-loving Beatle.

3. Eraserhead (1977) - dir. David Lynch
Lynch is the epitome of strange cinema in America. Each of his films tiptoes on the edge of absolute insanity. This is his first full length film, and without a doubt his strangest. The film opens with a man pulling levers while looking out the window at a weird worm-creature. So, starts off with a giant WTF. The main character, Henry Spencer, knocks his girlfriend up and she gives birth to a bizarrely deformed baby that looks something like a limbless calf fetus. Intertwined with this 'real-life' story are Henry's bizarre dreams and hallucinations, including his head coming off and finding a woman living in his radiator. The series of images, leading to the climax, are almost too overwhelming to understand. But this is certainly a movie that will stay with you long after you see it. Interesting point: Stanley Kubrick loved this film, and before he started filming The Shining, he showed this to the cast to convey the atmosphere he was going for (I wonder if he also showed it to that creepizoid kid Danny?)

4. Fantastic Planet (1973) - Rene Laloux
It is often easier to create bizarre and beautiful images when you are working with animation. Not that I am speaking out of experience, because I have not an artistic bone in my body, but if you can't create it physically, you could certainly draw it. However, there is a big difference between drawing a house with a family in it, and a giant flying hose beast that attacks tiny humans who are oppressed by giant aliens. That's what you get in Fantastic Planet. The imagination it would take to create the world of this film requires either some sort of psychosis or a huge pile of drugs. Basic plot: tiny little humans (Oms) live on a planet that is ruled by giant weird aliens (Draags) and they struggle to survive and maintain their culture. You get this story of oppressive regimes backdropped on this absolutely surrealistic world that most drug addicts couldn't even think up. Great story and visuals here, highly recommended.


5. The Holy Mountain (1973) - dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky
Another Jodorowsky film. I know at the top I said I wouldn't play favorites and pick the "strangest" film on this list. But this movie is the strangest movie I have ever seen in my life. If you think El Topo is weird, this will knock your respective dicks and vaginas in the dirt. Jodorowsky and the actors were literally tripping balls when they made this; they ate hallucinogenic mushrooms and LSD during production and some of the scenes. I'll provide a brief plot synopsis because I am still not really sure what happens. A thief, while begging for money (with a deformed little person, no less), encounters an alchemist who lives at the top of a very high tower. He is then introduced to seven very powerful people and they all decide to go search for immortality. They go to this island looking for the secret, and then... I don't even know. There are parts of this film that will make your head explode with craziness (see: Jenkem). But in the end, you will not be able to stop thinking about this movie.

6. Otesanek aka Little Otik (2000) - Jan Svankmajer
When one normally thinks of stop-motion animation, Ray Harryhausen and Wallace and Gromit are the first things to come to mind. Harryhausen is an icon who created all the fantastic animation in movies like Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans, and a slew of others. Imagine Harryhausen's talent put into the brain of a twisted, disgusting pervert. That is Jan Svankmajer. He creates visceral, bizarre stop motion animation that often involves uncooked meat surprisingly. Otesanek is a rather tame entry by his standards (seek out some of his shorts if you want the really strange stuff), but it still blows most movies out of the water in the strange department. A couple can't have a child, so the husband makes a baby for his wife out of a tree stump. The wife, who is bat-shit crazy, starts treating the doll as a real baby. Soon, the baby actually does become real and develops a taste for BLOOD. Hilarity ensues. The beauty about Svankmajer is he tells an excellent story. He doesn't let his ingenius animation drive the film even though it is a big part of the movie. Great plot+great visuals=great movie. Watch this first and then search out his other films.

7. Naked Lunch (1991) - dir. David Cronenberg
Cronenberg is well known for two different types of films. He pioneered the "physical horror" genre with films like Videodrome, The Fly, and Dead Ringers. More recently, he has gained attention from his serious dramatic efforts A History of Violence and Eastern Promises. Naked Lunch doesn't really fall into either category. Working with source material which was called "unfilmable" (and the strangest book I've ever encountered), Cronenberg achieves the impossible. We get a guy who is addicted to bug powder whose typewriter comes to life as a giant bug that tells him to kill his wife because she is a secret agent of the Interzone. Follow that? In the Interzone he writes a report about his mission while descending further and further into drug abuse and madness. This is a very accessible movie, similar to Brazil, but maintains its strange atmosphere throughout. Cronenberg is my favorite director of all time (possibly tied with Gilliam), and this is an excellent entry in his catalog.

8. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) - Shinya Tsukamoto
Those Japanese sure are crazy!!! Black & white cyberpunk goodness. The film opens with a scene that is vomit worthy; I cringed for ten minutes when it came on. We see a man who is haunted by a mechanical ghost and his body starts to transform into a giant pile of metal. He kills his girlfriend with his giant metal drill penis. Yep. There are some stylized chase scenes and a crazy fight at the end with the machine-ghost. It's all jammed into 70 minutes of head shaking craziness. It actually mixes some of the most eccentric parts of David Lynch and David Cronenberg into a successfully strange film. There is also a sequel that I have been dying to see. If it is anything like this, it should be a delightfully good time.
9. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) - dir. Jaromil Jires
I'd really like all the Twilight freaks that are running around to watch this movie. I am pretty sure it would make most of them cry. Talk about a different view on vampires!! A 13 year-old girl is experiencing a sexual awakening and also being stalked by vampires. I guess her newly-discovered menstrual cycle is getting them all hot and bothered. The story is very non-linear, often floating between the real world and dream world; this makes the plot rather hard to follow. We get some morally reprehensible behavior which includes, but is not limited to, attempted rape, pedophilia, and suicide. I'd liken the film to another young girl finds sex/vampire movie called Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural (which was banned by the Vatican!), but if you cranked up the weird factor by 10. I'd suggest you shouldn't watch this if you just think Robert Pattison is like, so totally buff and hot and the coolest vampire fo' sho'.


10. Un Chien Andalou (1929) - Luis Buñel
I debated putting this on the list because it is only 16 minutes long. But not only is it strange and surreal, it is also a ground-breaking piece of work from cinema's early period. Imagine a Salvador Dali painting in the form of a short film. That is exactly what this movie is. Dali wrote and produced the film along with Buñel, who would go on to have a very successful career as a filmmaker (and I unfortunately have seen none of his other work, but a lot are on my "to see" list). This film has no plot that I can distinguish. It seems to be more of a free association of images, of which the most famous is a woman having her eye cut open with a straight razor. It seems that Dali just wrote down a dream that he had and they said, "hey, let's film this." This movie is really the first of its kind and helped lay the groundwork for even more strange, avant-garde cinema that came after it.


Looking back on this obscene post makes me wish I could write more intelligently about films. I feel like most of the synopses were just reduced to me saying, "This tv film looks purdy." I guess the main point I am trying to get at here is to try something new. Step outside of your normal comfort zone when it comes to movies, music, or any kind of art. You can easily get into a pattern of watching the same thing over and over again, and what do you learn from that? Expand your horizons, you may find something that you really, truly love.