Since nihilistic films are my favorite kind of mvoies, and that's the kind Noe makes, I'm going to name a few films here I really like that people who are into Noe's style and content (even if they aren't in love with his films) might appreciate. I'm going to mainly name some recent films I HIGHLY reccomend, but I threw in some oldies but goodies too!!
- Frownland. Absolutely devestating, awkward, and insane.. this film took, like, 10 years to make. Despite being obscure as hell, Roger Ebert gave it a thumbs up! Anyway... if you'd like to see an utterly pointless waste of space, watch this film because the main character represents every creepy bizarre weirdo you've ever known. And yet it's compelling, even when there's about 10 minutes of him stretching his face with his hands and making himself cry. A brilliant piece of cinema, future classic.
- Back Against the Wall. James Fotopolous is my favorite no-budget independant filmmaker now than Giuseppe Andrews and Damon Packard have seemingly retired. He often gets compared to Cronenberg and Lynch, but that's unfair; his films have a lot more depth than either of those dudes, and that's saying something. This one is
DARK AS HELL. The elliptical editing is absolutely genius, the camera work is topnotch, the soundtrack is the best I've ever heard (loooooooow drones, sickening bass crawling along, weird high pitched tones that ring out for miles). The most artistic framing I've seen in an independant film. Every scene looks like a painting. Basically, the film is a brutal and complex observation of a woman, as she fucks rich men, becomes a porn star, and gets disfigured. However, that does nothing to describe what the movie is about, as the movie doesn't ever show "important" details. It lets your mind fill in the blanks. The movie jumps ahead years without any warning. But.. wow.. just a brutal, amazing film, of the highest calibre.
- Kichiku Dai Enkai. The most nihilistic, disturbing, hard to watch film ever made. A masterpiece.
- Hole in My Heart. Took a few watches to appreciate this one, but now, I can't get enough of it. 4 people live together, fuck peices of meat with Barbie Dolls, and argue. And it's real. No script. The director basically just put these insanely fucked up people in a room together. At first, it irritated me -- lots of noise on the soundtrack, and the film felt messy and directionless. By the end, it felt like a really strange, shockingly real comment on our culture, and all of its hypocracies.
- Combat Shock. I know this isn't recent either, but it's still fairly unknown except amongst Grindhouse fanatics. People write it off cuz it's a "troma film", but uh.. yeah, it's incredible. Dark as hell.
- Eureka. While this is, at times, the most depressing film ever, it's -- at most times -- the most beautiful film ever. In its 4 hours, it does, well,
everything. And it does it well. One of the only true masterpieces of cinema, one of the only perfect films (Taxi Driver and Hana-Bi would be on that list as well, and that's about it). Do whatever you can to see this film.
- Satantango. Not recent, but still underappreciated, even amongst hardcore cinephiles. 7 1/2 hours long, and never wastes a single second. I've watched this film 4 times, without fast forwarding, and all in one sitting except once. Frighteningly well-directed.
- The Bed You Sleep In. I already mentioned Jon Jost, but this is the most devestating film I've ever watched. Everything's going good.. kind of an awkward, odd little movie and then about 60 minutes in.. I've never seen anything like this...
everything falls apart... it's hard to describe, but when THE MOMENT happens, you'll know. A mind destroyer. You can buy this dvd off of amazon.com for, seriously, like $1 used. Please buy this, if you don't buy anymore films in this list. But, really, Jost's "Sure Fire" "Bell Diamond" "Slow Moves" etc. are all similiarly complex and disturbing. But they're also impossible to find unless you've got good friends... or you could just get on surrealmoviez.
- Shura, the Toshio Matsumoto film. I'm not really into "samurai movies" but this is the bleakest, darkest samurai epic ever made. Should be up there with Kurosawa's films, but I think it has like 3 ratings on imdb. wow. Toshio Matsumoto is a HUGE influence on my work, check out Funeral Procession of Roses, an insanely depressing movie about homosexuality in Japan.. in 1968.
- The Diary of Ricardo Lopez. Okay, this is a documentary, and is BY FAR AND AWAY the sickest and most disturbing thing EVER MADE. It's 2 hours of an insane guy ranting about Bjork and his life. He cuts himself, he picks at scabs on his dick, he sets up a bomb that sprays acid to hurt Bjork. He rants about his life. he films cockroaches in his apartment. You will never, EVER be able to get this film out of your mind. Damn... THE ONLY FILM TO MAKE ME THROW UP. This has never been officially released, so it's fine to "Share" it. "Enjoy":
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=W1TRJX7S
- Naked by Mike Leigh. Not new, but it is probably the bleakest film I've ever seen. There is a good 15 minute argument about planets aligning. This one's all about the dialogue.
- Out of the Blue by Dennis Hopper. In my top 15 favorite films ever. Underappreciated as hell, and absolutely, frighteningly beautiful. Shocking as hell. Lynch ripped it off a bit for Blue Velvet (Frank Booth is basically Dennis Hopper's character in this... well, at the end, anyway, when you find out who he really is).
- Pop Skull. This experimental film is a masterpiece. It's about a guy who is depressed and he drinks cough syrup. It accurately shows a robotrip -- not an easy feat; if you've ever done the stuff, you know how beautiful and amazing it can be and world-ending the next. What a film.
- Most High. The best "drug movie" ever that's not a straight documentary. The director lost like 150 lbs for this movie (he's also the star). It'd be the 2nd time in his life he did this -- the first time was when he really lost weight from meth. As such, this is REAL. Strangely overlooked, but by far, the most realistic, depressing, and genius drug movie ever made. No music video shit (though there is fast cutting, the editing is artistic, and not in a "LOOK HOW CLEVER I AM!" way). Dark, brilliant.
- Angel Dust. This is from 1997, and is a Sogo Ishii film. Mr. Ishii is one of my favorite directors. He is extremely versatile. This film is a shockingly dark depressing story about a serial killer. Memories of Murder seemed to be inspired by it, but there's something more to this one... hard to describe, with a vibe you won't be able to escape from.
- Schramm/Der Todesking/Nekromantik films. Often marketed as simple horror/exploitation films, these are shockingly complex, dark art-horror films, unlike anything else out there. Der Todesking made me really sick to my stomach; 7 short films shot in 7 completely different styles, all about suicide. In between each short is a sped-up timelapse video of a corpse rotting. Truly sick.
- Multipel Maniacs. I'm not much of a fanj of John Waters's films (gasp! shock! He's alright, just never been someone I go out of my way to watch, aside from maybe Desparate Living, Cecil B. Demented, and this film!). Typical Waters stuff at times, but a helluva lot stranger and more disturbing than anything else he's done... feels very very real.
- Stroszek. Depressing film that Ian Curtis watched before he offed himself. 'Nuff said.
- Pepperment Candy. Told backwards a la Irreversible and Memento, but implemented to a much greater degree...
- Last Life in the Universe. Bleak and hopeless film about "love".
- Bright future. Hopeless and bleak film about "Death".
- Clean Shaven. A bit hard to watch, this is the movie Cronenberg ripped off for Spider. Brilliant sound editing, and a truly disturbing performance make this a strange classic.
- Tokyo Fist. My favorite Tsukamoto film by far, this one always gets me. It's basically about some boxers and the rape of a girl. It's, ahem, a very unconventional tale after a certain point, with images you
will not be able to get out of your head. An absolute masterpiece. Tsukamoto staring lifelessly into a camera is more depressing than just about anything I can think of.
Gotta make special mention of Bruno Dumont's films.. 29 Palms, L'Humanite... essentially plotless and pointless at times, these films will fuck with you. You either love 'em or hate 'em. He's a philosophy professor turned filmmaker, and in 29 Palms, there's, um, philosophy! Unsexy sex scenes, long moments of nothingness... and then it becomes one of the hardest movies you'll ever sit through!
Also...
Anything by Fassbinder, but especially the above movie. Fassbinder's movies might be a bit hard for peopel to take at first, as he has a very.. uh.. UNAPOLOGETIC style. He almost has no "style", conventionally speaking, since his 42 films are all so different, yet they're all fucking brilliant, and focus on the darkness of life.
Also, of course, late-period Godard is usually grumpy, dark, ugly, and depressing, which is why I prefer it to his poppy cutesy new wave films.
Just way too many great dark films out there. Check 'em all out! And if anyone has any reccomendations for me, fire away! (please don't reccomend Salo, I think it's boring as hell, though I love the book)