disturbing films

Started by NEON MERCURY, August 16, 2003, 11:39:56 PM

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Monsoon

Actually I was dead serious about finding "Kids" disturbing.  I'm not a big fan of films classified as horror and such so I haven't seen too many and the ones I have seen haven't managed to freak me out.  Teenagers with no moral compass, however, do freak me out and I knew kids like that at the time, so it seemed real to me.  I'm pretty naive to some film genres so maybe this comes off as a touch nerdy or something but I've seen my share of debauchery and all I know is that that film, in 1996 or whever it came out did it's job of adequately disturbing me.  When I saw "Bully" it really didn't have the same effect so I'm probably quite a bit more jaded now.
The thought that stops thought is the thought that ought to be stopped.

NEON MERCURY

..recently i watched Bad lieutenant (rated )..and was wondering the diferences between the unrated one..

also if there ever was a film  that fits criterion's criteria it would be this one ..

Xixax

Wow. Caught a nice one on Sundance last night. Fits well into the "disturbing" vein, especially because it's a documentary!

http://www.thecucumberincident.com
Quote from: Pas RapportI don't need a dick in my anus to know I absolutely don't want a dick in my anus.
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freakerdude

Blue Velvet - pure art

8MM - a very dark but good movie IMO

Motel Hell - disturbingly good

Boxing Helena - too disturbing to watch again

Bad Lieutenant - just flat out bad.....I mean disturbingly bad!
MC Pee Pants

ono

The Piano Teacher sucked ass.  That is all.  Carry on.  And without those italics in that first sentence, that could really be misconstrued.  Um, yes.

billybrown

Quote from: freakerdudeBlue Velvet - pure art

8MM - a very dark but good movie IMO

Motel Hell - disturbingly good

Boxing Helena - too disturbing to watch again

Bad Lieutenant - just flat out bad.....I mean disturbingly bad!


So, 8MM is "good", but Bad Lieutenant is "just flat out bad"?!?! RRRRight.

billybrown

Quote from: OnomatopoeiaThe Piano Teacher sucked ass.  That is all.  Carry on.  And without those italics in that first sentence, that could really be misconstrued.  Um, yes.


The Piano Teacher hardly sucked ass... Isabelle Huppert gave a performance for the ages.

ono

Quote from: billybrown
Quote from: OnomatopoeiaThe Piano Teacher sucked ass.  That is all.  Carry on.  And without those italics in that first sentence, that could really be misconstrued.  Um, yes.


The Piano Teacher hardly sucked ass... Isabelle Huppert gave a performance for the ages.
That she did.  But the film still sucked ass.  And the Edit button is your friend.  :)

snaporaz

Quote from: MonsoonActually I was dead serious about finding "Kids" disturbing.  I'm not a big fan of films classified as horror and such so I haven't seen too many and the ones I have seen haven't managed to freak me out.  Teenagers with no moral compass, however, do freak me out and I knew kids like that at the time, so it seemed real to me.  I'm pretty naive to some film genres so maybe this comes off as a touch nerdy or something but I've seen my share of debauchery and all I know is that that film, in 1996 or whever it came out did it's job of adequately disturbing me.  When I saw "Bully" it really didn't have the same effect so I'm probably quite a bit more jaded now.

that's exaclty how i feel about that film. i know lots of fellow critics like to say that all that movie does it "try to shock you". well, that's the point, but i feel that most people, or at least the severely sheltered teenagers, have never come across kids like the ones portrayed in the film. it's supposed to be real, and often it is, and that - to me - is what makes it shocking. the shit that happened in that movie is not unlike my high school years. except not that much shit happened in the span of one day. but still...

Quote from: XixaxFits well into the "disturbing" vein, especially because it's a documentary!

that reminds me...


billybrown

Quote from: Onomatopoeia
Quote from: billybrown
Quote from: OnomatopoeiaThe Piano Teacher sucked ass.  That is all.  Carry on.  And without those italics in that first sentence, that could really be misconstrued.  Um, yes.


The Piano Teacher hardly sucked ass... Isabelle Huppert gave a performance for the ages.
That she did.  But the film still sucked ass.  And the Edit button is your friend.  :)


The edit button isn't my friend, you are  :-D ... and the film didn't suck ass.

ono

The dialogue was horrible (for one, the constant proclamations of "I love you!" when it's obvious neither of these two fucked up people have any idea what love is), the characters were unbelievable and not to mention unsympathetic, and each further event in the film was meant only to shock (semen sniffing, pissing while watching others have sex, glass in that poor girl's coat pocket, putting the moves on her mother), with very little if any at all foundation in reality.  But that's just one man's opinion.  Problem is, pretty much everyone else who exited the theatre last night shared my opinion.  A three-word review my friend and I settled on was "What the fuck?"

billybrown

Quote from: OnomatopoeiaThe dialogue was horrible (for one, the constant proclamations of "I love you!" when it's obvious neither of these two fucked up people have any idea what love is), the characters were unbelievable and not to mention unsympathetic, and each further event in the film was meant only to shock (semen sniffing, pissing while watching others have sex, glass in that poor girl's coat pocket, putting the moves on her mother), with very little if any at all foundation in reality.  But that's just one man's opinion.  Problem is, pretty much everyone else who exited the theatre last night shared my opinion.  A three-word review my friend and I settled on was "What the fuck?"


Regarding dialogue, some of that can be just not great subtitles and translating as if often the case with a lot of foreign films. As far as the "constant proclomations of 'I love you'' when none of them have any idea about it, so what? More than half of the free world doesn't either... The film had a foundation in reality when you base it on the fact that the woman in question was a highly unbalanced individual who lacked any kind of real emotional development and is weighed down by her dissappointment at her place in life, and her domineering mother, and perhaps a history of poorly connected relationships w/ society.  If you step outside of the picket fence and just watch the news or the world around you, you'll see that people are indeed very messed up and do indeed do a very many messed up things. Happens each and every day. And I can't stand the whole pedestrian criticism of saying a film had "unsympathetic" characters. Many great films contain unsympathetic characters. Big deal. Should the violins and harps and pianos have been blaring each and every moment she broke down so you'd feel bad for her?

Bottom line, IMO, the lead character's performance (Isabelle Huppert) carried the film above and beyond the standard emotional drama, and she completely engaged me, as the viewer, into the insanity that her life was spiralling into from a seemingly normal outward existence at the beginning. Micheal Haneke is a master at depicting an individual's disconnect from society, as well as a great explorer of the human psyche
in all it's fucked up splendor. Films like this, you either like or don't, there's very little in the way of indifference, and that is the point of great art.

Weird. Oh

I would have to go with Capturing the Friedman's as being one of the most disturbing films out there in regard to the topic in which it deals with. I watched this film past Monday and was amazed at the allegations the police brought against Arnie Friedman. THe movie makes you really question what really went down. If the allegations really happend this has to be the most disturbing film because of the non-fictional  nature of the content
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ono

Felt like I'd bump this thread for the hell of it.  There's something to be said about a well-made art film that portrays either sex or violence in an interesting, compelling way.  There lies the intrigue, and when it works, it's memorable.

The thing to note is, very rarely will you find sex being portrayed as a good thing in America, or violence as a positive thing, well, anywhere else.  That's how backwards our country is.  But then again, you have to wonder about certain other countries, and realize that we all have our hangups, especially after seeing a film as bad as Gojitmal (Lies).  Seeing this film did a few things for me - reminded me of the wonderfulness of The Dreamers, even if it was clunky in places, and the horridness of Ai no corrida, and reminded me that man, some Asians are into freaky shit.  And sadly, if you see Lies, you'll learn that when I say "shit," no pun is intended.

The film centers around a relationship between a 38-year-old man and an 18-year-old schoolgirl.  Their relationship gets closer, they have phone sex, meet, have sex in various hotels, and engage in S/M.  The film lacks any sort of real plot other than their escapades and attempts to avoid the girl's brother.  Most of the time is spent concentrating on them beating each other with the homemade tools they've fashioned -- whips, twigs, sawed-down broom handles, etc.  It's all just very boring, and really serves no point.  The director made the film based on a novel which was also banned in South Korea, just like this film.  He almost got charges brought against him.  He wanted to challenge their way of thinking, but offered nothing to think about.  There's manic camera movement, inserts of audition tapes to lend to a feel of reality, along with the fact that these two are amateurs, as well as voiceovers from the man, who is reading from the novel the book is based on.  This all serves no purpose

The question I pose here is, why?  Why make a film like this, giving credence to the belief that sex in cinema is boring, pointless, and too salacious to ever have a valid reason in showing, and why even post about such an awful movie anyway?  Other than The Dreamers, let's face it, I've never seen a movie with sex as a focus that really did a good job at entertaining.  Boogie Nights doesn't count because it dances around the more graphic elements quite nicely, and I think that is the heart of the issue really.  You can't have it both ways - you can't have this suspension of disbelief and then bring such realistic elements into a film such as graphic human sexuality.  At least -- I've never seen it work too well.

Like I said, in America, people are afraid of sex.  Violence is rarely portrayed as a good thing anywhere, and when it is, it's usually satirical as in American Psycho.  Go down the list of films rates NC-17 for another, and the violent ones you can usually write off as exploitative or just not very good.  Ditto for the sexual-based ones, save maybe Happiness.  Then again, the sexuality in that film didn't have all that much to do with the body, but with ideas that were too dangerous for the MPAA to let pass, and with good reason - a woman sleeping around, a pervert calling women and "coming" up with new adhesives, a boy learning to masturbate, and a father with a serious "Michael Jackson"-level problem, to put it lightly.

The difference, I think, is in a movie like Scarlet Diva, which, while it may be no Citizen Kane, it is admirable in its own right, because the lead bore her body and soul (irony not being lost on us for Anna's comment that she doesn't want to be an actress as she's constantly asked to show her tits), and was able to even talk with her family about it.  It shows the differences between American and European cultures - how they're comfortable with that kind of sexuality, and we simply are not.

pete

do you really think you can say that Americans are afraid of sex and violence?  you don't think violence is made fun and sex is fetishized in movies?
sex is portrayed as a bad thing only in horror movies, I thought.  in most other cases sex seems pretty pleasurable to me, even a bit glamourized.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
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