Arthouse Films/Directors

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0R0

Girbaud Shuttle Jeans
Dec 10, 2006
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BasedWorld
#1
I had no idea what that term was referring to until recently and realized that's the label my favorite directors would fall under. So if you know of any really artistic films that are hard to comprehend/symbolic/allegorical/metaphorical post them up here. I'll start it of course.

Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky

Film: The Holy Mountain



A Christlike figure wanders through bizarre, grotesque scenarios filled with religious and sacrilegious imagery. He meets a mystical guide who introduces him to seven wealthy and powerful individuals, each representing a planet in the solar system. These seven, along with the protagonist, the guide and the guide's assistant, divest themselves of their worldly goods and form a group of nine who will seek out the Holy Mountain, in order to displace the gods who live there and become immortal.


This film is truly something to behold, my current fav film, but I'm kind of a symbolism/subtext nerd when it comes to films. Brush up on your alchemy/astrology mythos and symbolism to get the most out of this film. If you're too lazy for that, it's still a beautiful/bizarre film that begs you to get fucked up while watching it.
 

Elemenno

F.W.A.H.R.L.D.
Feb 28, 2009
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#2
Director: Jean Cocteau

Film: Orpheus



Jean Cocteau's Orpheus is a 1949 film about a poet who falls in love with his death. His death is a woman named the Princess. The film can work as a narrative story, but to fully appreciate the film the viewer should try to dissect its multiple themes and its strong use of symbolism. Also Cocteau is known for his creative special fx for his time. Orpheus is no exception
 
Feb 7, 2006
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#3
Some good dir right there especially cocteau. Al boo boo if you like mr. jordowsky, check out El Topo as well. I'll try to get back to this thread.
 
Feb 7, 2006
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#4
Some good dir right there especially cocteau. Al boo boo if you like mr. jordowsky, check out El Topo as well. I'll try to get back to this thread.
 

0R0

Girbaud Shuttle Jeans
Dec 10, 2006
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BasedWorld
#5
^I've seen/own all his films except his black and white joint.


Director: Kim Ki-duk

Film: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... And Spring



The film is divided into five segments (the five seasons of the title), each segment depicting a different stage in the life of a Buddhist monk (each segment is roughly ten to twenty years apart, and is physically in the middle of its titular season).
In the midst of the Korean wilderness, a Buddhist master patiently raises a young boy to grow up in wisdom and compassion, trough experience and endless exercises. Once the pupil discovers his sexual lust, he seems lost to contemplative life and follows his first love, but soon fails to adapt to the modern world, gets in jail for a crime of passion and returns to the master in search of spiritual redemption and reconciliation with karma, at a high price of physical catharsis...

He is a great director, I recommend all his films, they are very well directed.
 

0R0

Girbaud Shuttle Jeans
Dec 10, 2006
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BasedWorld
#7
It's not as good as The Holy Mountain or Santa Sangre but still pretty good and entertaining. They call it an acid-western for a reason, his movies are like well directed mushroom trips.
 

Elemenno

F.W.A.H.R.L.D.
Feb 28, 2009
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#8
Director: David Gordon Green

Film: George Washington



Far from a perfect film, but still one of my favorite films. George Washington is a slow paced, meditative film that follows a group of kids through there small decrepit town.

Don't let the director of Pineapple Express and Eastbound and down fool you. He's got depth.
 

Elemenno

F.W.A.H.R.L.D.
Feb 28, 2009
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#9


Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
Directed by Todd Haynes

The story of The Carpenters with Barbie Dolls used as actors. Now considered illegal art after Richard Carpenter sued the director for not clearing any of the songs used in the movie. Though most copies have been destroyed, the Museum of Modern Art has a copy, but has agreed not to show it. But you can still watch it online: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=622130510713940545#
 
Feb 7, 2006
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#10
^^^^In that vein.

My other favorite Twin Directors duo (the other being the Coens).

THe Brothers Quay

THis is prob. their most famous piece of work (although it isn't my fav. of theirs). It's called "Street of Crocodiles" loosely based on a Kafka short story that Bruno Schulz took from with his work.




Synopsis

The Quays’ masterpiece, STREET OF CROCODILES is adapted from a short story by Polish writer Bruno Schulz, and was their first film shot on 35mm. A museum keeper spits into the eyepiece of an ancient peep-show and sets the musty machine in motion, plunging the viewer into a nightmarish netherworld of bizarre puppet rituals among the dirt and grime.

“On display in a deserted provincial museum is an old viewing Kinetoscope machine with a map indicating the precise district of the Street of Crocodiles. Lodged deep within this wooden oesophagus lie the internal configurations and mechanisms of the Street of Crocodiles like some quasi-anatomical exhibit. The anonymous offering of human saliva by an attendant caretaker activates and releases the Schulzian theatre from stasis into permanent flux. Myth stalks the streets of this parasitical zone where the mythological ascension of the everyday is charted by a marginal interloper who threads himself through this one night of the Great Season. No centre can be reached and the futile pursuit concludes in the deepest rear rooms of a slightly dubious tailor’s shop.” –The Quay Brothers


The majority of their work is done with dolls and miniature sets, using stop -motion. Their work is brilliant. They build the sets and make the dolls.
 

Elemenno

F.W.A.H.R.L.D.
Feb 28, 2009
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#11

The Fantastic Planet
Directed by René Laloux

I'm surprised Dhadnot hasn't put this up yet. The imagery in this sci-fi animation is strait out of a surrealist paintings. I just watched it for the first time and thought it was great.
 
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#14

The Fantastic Planet
Directed by René Laloux

I'm surprised Dhadnot hasn't put this up yet. The imagery in this sci-fi animation is strait out of a surrealist paintings. I just watched it for the first time and thought it was great.
Next you'll be telling me to post up jan svankmayer (sp) work.
 
Feb 7, 2006
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#15
STan Brahkage

I think this man understood film better than any other film maker from his time. This is one of my favortes from him.

Black Ice



A lateral descent through the midnight blues and blacks of ice and the refracted colors from absorbed oils.

Those who understand film will be able to hear music even though there is none in this short.
 

MAVA

Sicc OG
Jul 18, 2005
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www.gifsoup.com
#20
Performance (1970)



Chas, a violent and psychotic East London gangster needs a place to lie low after a hit that should never have been carried out. He finds the perfect cover in the form of guest house run by the mysterious Mr. Turner, a one-time rock superstar, who is looking for the right spark to rekindle his faded talent