Originally posted on Draven99's Musings on 7/28/04:
Welcome to this weeks Top Ten, back on schedule after last week's minor disruptions. This weeks list is Ten Bizarre Films. The list is compiled from films that I own and I have limited myself to one film per director, as some directors make a lot of strange films. The list is in no order of weirdness.
Ten Bizarre Films
1. Mulholland Dr.: One of the most unexplainable films (except for the hard to find Lost Highway) I have ever seen, this film from David Lynch started it's life as a pilot for a television show that got rejected.
2. City of Lost Children: From the director of Amelie, comes this sci-fi film about a circus strongman searching for his little brother and getting ensnared in a child thievery ring. More strange than it sounds.
3. Happiness of the Katikuri's: A Japanese remake of a Korean film (The Quiet Family), and directed by Takashi Miike, this film is part musical, comedy, drama, and horror. It is about a family that runs a remote cabin, where the clientele keep dying.
4. A Clockwork Orange: I remember disliking this the first time I saw it, my opinion has clearly changed, but it still remains one strange film. Great use of the old Ludwig Van, plus an anti-violence message.
5. Vanilla Sky: Cameron Crowe and Tom Cruise team up to deliver one strange film of jealousy, sex, and science fiction. A thinking man's Total Recall.
6. Suicide Club: A film about a string of unexplainable suicides, including a group of 54 school girls, and the cop investigating them takes a surreal turn into the realm of the unexplainable at the end.
7. Naked Lunch: "Exterminate all rational thought." That would apply to most films on this list. Based on the work of William S. Burroughs this film incorporates drugs, bugs, and typewriters into surreal fantasy starring Peter Weller and directed by David Cronenberg.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Chloe
I would venture to add U-Turn to the list, though there is some distance between my last viewing and today. Maybe not as Bizarre as Mulholland Dr.
2 - rahree
What about "Lost Highway"? What the heck was that film about!
Oh, and "Vanilla Sky" is the remake of "Abre los ojos" ("Open Your Eyes"). Just so you know.
3 - sonja valentine
FYI - amelie came out after city of lost children (1995)
that movie totally freaked me out...
4 - Farker
Fark Was Here.
5 - errantp
I would offer up the list as "The ten most bizarre films other than Brazil."
6 - Heather
Brazil. Very odd movie and one I've never been able to like since my first viewing many years ago.
7 - Mason
Donnie Darko and Bubba Ho-Tep get my vote
8 - marshall
really. el topo didn't make this list? that is truly the weirdest film of all time. and usually the one people put at the top of lists such as these. but, your list does skew more towards major releases.
also, i agree with the brazil guy. but in fact, that guy (who also directed the adventures of baron munchaussen & 12 Monkeys) would probably need his own list.
9 - robert berry
Another "of all time" list with 80% of its entries containing films from the last 10 years. Do some research before you make such sweeping claims.
Un Chien Andalou trumps all of these with "bizarreness".
Or
Eraserhead
Pink Flamingoes
Confessions of An Opium Eater
10 - MsDaer
Hi Draven, I found this page through FARK, but have seen you on the IVS forums. Rock on!
11 - roscoe
I dunno. Saying that David Lynch movies are wierd is like saying that ice cream is tasty... it's such a truism that nobody bother's saying it.
And I posit this: Troma films shouldn't count as wierd movies because they're trying too damn hard.
For more oddness/goodness (that have been sold as real movies):
Tetsuo the Iron Man
Turkish Star Wars
THX-1138
The Witches
Seconds
Holy Mountain
Anything by Jon Jost
Anything by Stan Brakage
Spider Baby
David Holzman's Diary
12 - cappadeluxe
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn Pro."
You guys aint seen nothing yet.
Clouzot
Jodorowsky
Bunuel
Tartovsky
Ken Russell
13 - The Rev
The American Astronaut, without a doubt, needs to be on this list.
14 - Eric Berlin
I love Vanilla Sky -- it's one of my favorite movies. Great cast, great writing... more than anything a triumph of storytelling by Crowe. Beautiful, surreal, funny, bizarre -- great, great stuff.
rahree - Abre los Ojos and Vanilla Sky are based on an experimental French film. Just so you know.
15 - Krono
Without a doubt... Donnie Darko needs to make the list. Also Lost Highway but I understand that you cannot use the same director twice for this list.
16 - J
You ain't seen bizarre until you've seen Takashi Mike's "Bizita Q" (Visitor Q).
17 - scott
hmm... seems they forgot
el topo, santa sangri and holy mountain by Jodorowsky (each one weirder than the last)
terror firmer, redneck zombies, toxic avenger... well, anything by troma actually.
salo - by pier paolo pasolini (though i think that would better categorized in sick movies as opposed to bizarre ones)
...i think most japanese art films fall into this category, i remember this one that was loosely based on pinnochio, but i forget the name right now.
18 - will
Eating Raoul is far more strange than most of these films.
19 - cappadeluxe
Donnie Darko is a bullshit knockoff of Harvey. Why do people like it other than the generational "speaks to me" crap and canned strangeness?
20 - Bird
How about "The Saddest Music in the World"? The Baroness with glass legs filled with beer! Very strange indeed.
My favorite John Waters film has to be "Desperate Living". I believe it to be more outrageous than Pink Flamingos.
Dark City doesn't need to be on the list but it is a must see.
21 - milkweed
Jacob's Ladder
starring Tim Robbins
awesome movie - i finally understood it after seeing it three times
22 - EGAD
For another taste of strangeness with an allstar cast try Straight to Hell. Stars Courtney Love, Joe Strummer, Elvis Costello, Dennis Hopper and Grace Jones.
23 - Harry
Wow. The absence of "Freaks" on your list is appalling, although perhaps you've not watched it. If you haven't, please do so post haste and update your list.
24 - spocko
rahree - Abre los Ojos and Vanilla Sky are based on an experimental French film. Just so you know.
Comment 15 posted by Krono on April 30, 2005 01:55 PM:
Krono - Abre los Ojos and Vanilla Sky and that experimental French film are all based on a book by some guy who writes books about stuff like that. Just so you know.
25 - Steve
The Forbidden zone with Herve Villachez is another one. I don't know how to categorize it, except that it's weird, funny, and kind of disturbing.