When people enter the theater more and more often to watch theatrical films, they may find that their faces are becoming more and more similar. It's not all the filmmaker's fault, the changes around us are accelerating all the time, and new narrative methods or dilating images can add a new burden to the audience's already overloaded ability to receive information. To avoid the anxiety of such a load, people instinctively approach films that confirm their known world and reflect their existing emotions, not to mention that the real world outside the theater is so complex that few people dare to claim to understand or try to understand it.
Films that are being produced faster and faster are also increasingly joining the network of contrasting one another, and they gradually form a complete sequence of end-to-end succession, with different mixes and combinations based on years or various film festivals. Once detached from the film sequence, their meaning or identity becomes blurred. Only by placing it in such a network of languages that map each other can we produce some meaningful understanding. The films selected in this issue are very different in "uniqueness" from the styles of other contemporaneous films, they are not attached to the understanding of the times, so any moment is worth taking out to disturb your overly harmonious viewing experience.
1. Horse Money (2014)
Director: Pedro Costa Country: Portugal
Vandura wanders between the hospital's gloomy boundless promenades and darkrooms. It was as if he were still alive in 1975, when a revolutionary army armed with carnations overthrew the dictatorship and was supposed to bring light to the migration of Vader Point. But his relatives and friends, the old women of the village next door, and the women who kept whispering about the past, the shadow of history continued to soak their lives into a boundless black.
Following the 2009 Cannes Film Festival award-winning work "Youth Goes Forward", Costa once again sneaked into Portuguese history and dreamed back in a trance.
2. New York Metaphor (2008)
Director: Charlie Kaufman Country: Usa
In September, with the arrival of autumn, there seems to be the loneliness of the theater director Kelton, who is caught in an endless medical treatment due to an accidental injury, constantly visiting doctors of various professions; on the other hand, his wife Adele, who creates miniature paintings, and his increasingly distant, cold and awkward family atmosphere deepens Keyton's self-doubt, even if his repertoire is a great success, can not hide all this.
Kaiton maintained an ambiguous relationship with a woman who worked in the theater and an actress, and after his wife abandoned him, Kaiton tried to find the possibility of improving his mental state from these two women, but he failed. Cayton finally decided to find the answer in theater, and he produced a huge creative plan...
3. Depression (2008)
Director: Ralph Diaz Country: Philippines
Lav Diaz's new film, completed in 2008, won the Best Picture Award in the Horizon section of the 65th Venice Film Festival in 2008. This film is probably Lav Diaz's most complex film. The 7.5-hour-long film is commonplace for those familiar with Lav Diaz. The film consists of three parts and an epilogue: the first part takes place in the village of Sagada, in which the male protagonist Julian and the heroine Alberta and their friend Rina play different personalities to try to relieve the distress of losing their loved ones; the second part is in Manila, when Rina has committed suicide due to depression, Julian and Alberta have a dispute over the previous personality playing therapy in Sagada Village, and the two have their own opinions. But neither of them can find a real cure for the depression; the third part is a flashback to the resistance struggle between left-wing radicals and the military that took place on mindoro Island a decade ago, Alberta's husband Renato is a member of a radical group, and in the face of the sacrifice of his comrades, Renato has a fierce internal struggle, believing that his grief will never subside, and then killed by the military.
In addition to the iconic black-and-white fixed camera length shots, Lav Diaz arranges a lot of dialogue in this new film, which is designed to express his thoughts, and also touches on the exploration of Philippine politics and Philippine film history, many of which are even puzzling. The plot of the film is complex, the narrative methods and perspectives are constantly switching, the time and space seem to be clear but not easy to sort out, and the insertion of lyrical paragraphs is sometimes accompanied by the insertion, which enriches the ideographic level of the film and increases the difficulty of understanding. Each person's story in the film is derived through the narration of others, but his own narration is difficult to distinguish between true and false, reminiscent of Faulkner's novel Absalom! Absalom! 》。
4. Blue (1993)
Director: Derek Jarman Country: UK/Japan
Director Derek Jarman's posthumous work, Blue, chronicles his last years after suffering from AIDS. By this time Jarman was blind, and in front of him was the color of death—the melancholy blue. The film is full of blue from beginning to end, and it is the only color. No picture, no plot, no dialogue, no characters, except for the poetic background music and Jarman's serene confession.
Jarman uses this extreme "anti-film" form to tell us about his last years: the noisy and irritable sound of the hospital, but also the lonely and deep waves on the shore; his silence without complaint in the face of death, and his intolerance and determination not to leave his beloved. He said: "I dedicate to you the blue of the universe, the blue, is a door to the soul, and the endless possibilities will become reality", which is also the last "blue" left to us when Jaman passed away.
5. Iron Man 1: Metal Beast (1989)
导
An ordinary white-collar youth is attacked and chased by a mysterious woman with iron claws in the subway station. Returning home after a fight, he discovers in his erotic fantasies that his body is steeling, his lower body has become a huge drill, and he has extremely terrible powers, his girlfriend has become a sacrifice for transformation, and he eventually becomes a metal monster. At this time, a man of unknown origin appears, and it turns out that he did not die in the car accident caused by his youth, and thus gained superpowers, and his hateful power led to all the above things. A body made of steel, a mysterious superpower, they will set off in a terrible duel.
6. The Long Night (1982)
Director: Chantel Ackermann Country: France/Belgium
The film consists of fragments of wonderful and dramatic moments that take place on a summer night by different people.
There is very little dialogue in the film, and a series of strong contrasts run through the film: in front of the camera is the rough and vivid passion of the hot and dry night, and in the background is a lifeless and bland city.
7. Possessed (1981)
Director: Andrei Zulaski Country: France/West Germany
Mark's wife, Anna, runs away from home for no reason, and at one point thinks anna is having an affair with a man named Heinz, but discovers that Heinerik is also looking for Anna, whom he has not seen for a long time. Mark then hired a private investigator to investigate.
But as the clues are presented one by one, the truth of the facts is unbelievable to Mark and others. The object of Anna's affection turned out to be...
8. Holy Mountain (1973)
Director: Alessandro Zodulovsky Country: Mexico/USA
A thief who looks like Jesus wakes up from the children's stone strikes and enters the city with a handless dwarf. A frantic celebration was taking place in the city, some people were killed, birds and finches flew out of their guns, and a large number of toads dressed as Indians and European colonists were blown up in the melee. The thief took the cross from several men dressed as Roman soldiers, and they made countless models of themselves...
The thief climbed in full view of a tower that produced gold, and the warlocks in the tower extracted gold from the thief's dung. The warlock used astrology to identify several disciples, who were mask-producing merchants, weapon dealers, artists, toy dealers, government advisors, army chiefs, and architects, representing different planets. The warlocks gather these figures who control the country, abandon everything, and set out for the legendary holy mountain in search of immortal secrets.
9. Playtime (1967)
Director: Jacques Tati Country: France/Italy
Mr. Hule, who came to Paris to run an errand, was shocked by the ultra-modern World Exposition building when he first entered Paris. Mr. Hule was soon lost in this breathtaking high-tech building, where the latest state-of-the-art equipment, the glittering exposition landscape, and tourists and patrons from all over the world opened his eyes. When Mr. Hule finally remembered the man he was going to look for, it was getting dark. After talking about business, Mr. Hule came to the nightclub that had just been renovated. The midnight phantom is like daylight, and the men and women inside are in high spirits. Naturally, Mr. Hule also joined their party. On a whim, Mr. Hule removed the roof decoration that had just been renovated, and the house was in a mess. How do you know that the guests did not feel disappointed, but played even more crazy. It's early in the morning, and After a night of revelry, Paris has a different flavor.
Written and directed by the famous French comedy director Jacques Tati, the comedy film "Playtime" uses a nearly monochromatic tone and a huge picture scroll of 70 mm to transform the coldness of the reinforced glass world into an out-of-place surreal image. There is almost no dialogue in this film, but the clever use of sound effects, coupled with the performance of the actors' body movements, has a strong early silent film style.
10. The Dream That Money Can Buy (1947)
Directed By: Hans Richter Country: Usa
Poor and destitute, Joe receives mysterious revelations in a cramped living room, and in order to make a living, he starts a business selling dreams. People flocked to his door, a bank clerk dreamed of a woman entangled in a nightingale; a girl who was obsessed with signing orders saw a love affair with a model man on the assembly line; the clerk's wife hallucinated a conversation with a gentleman and presided over a silent movie; the forcibly intruding criminal saw a swirling circle that seemed to symbolize desire; the girl and the blind old man brought Joe strange wire toys.
Joe sends off all the guests, and he himself falls into a dream, he escapes from a strange card game and finds himself facing a more mysterious encounter.