On the Offbeaten Track
Oct 19 '02 (Updated Feb 19 '03)
The Bottom Line If you have seen all of these cult films, give yourself an ice cream sandwich. If not, I present you with choice goods here. Go forth and rent!
I define cult film as one that either a) has a devoted fan base who claim it as their own and/or b) one that delves into particularly strange subjects. Some on my list below are there above all for their imaginative bravura, combined with the fact that they are relatively obscure. All of the films below have a healthy dose of strangeness.
1. The Kingdom, Parts I and II, dir. Lars Von Trier. Originally made for Danish TV, these episodic films (5 hours long for each volume!) are part attack on sitcoms, part horror story, part comedy. Set in a giant, corrupt hospital haunted by ghosts, The Kingdom is supremely bizarre and earnest, a cross between Lynch and General Hospital. Von Trier (director of controversial shockers Dancer in the Dark, The Idiots, and Breaking the Waves) is in top form here.
2. Careful, dir. Guy Maddin. This Canadian masterpiece sleeper is a "pro-incest" (director's words) mountain picture shot with camera techniques and style of the German expressionist mountain and butler pictures from the silent era. Very funny, very dead pan script and acting, with a story hardly to be believed. A singular blend of Luddite technique and post-Freudian kitsch. See also "The Heart of the World," Maddin's five minute short of comparable quality and style. See full review:
http://www.epinions.com/content_90513444484
3. Celine and Julie Go Boating, dir. Jacques Rivette. This consummately charming film from 1976 is part Alice in Wonderland, part Nancy Drew. Two women, newfound buddies, go deeper and deeper into a mansion haunted by ghosts acting out a daily chamber drama that would have made Chekhov blush. The film casts its own spell, and is supremely intelligent on a separate level, as a meditation on the process of art and filmmaking.
4. Maya Deren's Experimental Films. The short films by avant-garde film maker Deren, shot between 1943 and 1952) are symbolist, dreamlike gems. Their lapidary style and innovative editing demand close attention and repeated viewing to appreciate fully. Deren is celebrated for her "Meshes of the Afternoon" and "At Land", but my personal favorites are "Ritual in Transfigured Time" (which uses slide sequences and limited motion), and "The Very Eye of Night," made in collaboration with ballet choreographer Anthony Tudor. The film is shown in negative, with constellations of dancers falling slowly from the sky. All of these films are available on a single tape from Mystic Fire Video.
5. Eraserhead, dir. David Lynch. This film is the most insular, dark and enigmatic of Lynch's oeuvre (perhaps with the exception of his one minute film contribution to "Lumiere and Company"). It can mean many things, but there is no getting away from its bleak and industrial setting, the famous baby (that looks like am aborted ferret), the lady singing in the radiator, and poor Henry, waddling through this nightmare with an afro and no clue. They don't come much weirder than this.
6. As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty, dir. Jonas Mekas. Yes, that's the title. And the film is long, too: over four hours. The movie is a dizzyingly edited, achronological assemblage of home movies, of his wife, children growing up, his friends, Central Park, the seasons. It has a lousy piano score and can be painful viewing at times, what with the often jerky, out of focus camera movement. But, as with the title, there are indeed moments of beauty and tenderness. Certainly, the enthusiastic voice over by the director is worth the effort to stay the course. But then, this film can only be seen in a few libraries, and with some frequency at New York's Anthology Film Archives (Jonas Mekas, founder and president).
7. My Neighbor Totoro, dir. Hayao Miyazaki. This animated feature from Japan is a favorite of many Japanese kids and adults alike, but it is not nearly as much of a household name hear as it is in Asia. It is filled with great imagination and a childlike sense of magical wonder. Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, by the same team and director, are also excellent.
8. The Films of Jan Svankmajer. Czech animator and surrealist Svankmajer has consistently turned out films of epic strangeness. Little Otik, Conspirators of Pleasure, and Alice all combine animation with actors. Conspirators of Pleasure is a must see for its perverse and ridiculous world of determined, loony fetishists pursuing their passions.
9. Pink Flamingos, dir. John Waters. Before he started dispensing well-polished trash, Waters was the great pope of filthy trash, and Pink Flamingos is exemplary. The film is scatological in a vivid sense, and the humor is a great mix of shock and gentility. Waters said it best: "To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about. If someone vomits watching one of my films, it's like getting a standing ovation. But one must remember that there is such a thing as good bad taste and bad bad taste." See also: Polyester and Female Trouble
10. A Boy and His Dog, dir. L.Q. Jones. This 1976 oddball is a curious vision of post-apocalyptic America circa 2024. Don Johnson plays Vic, who together with his dog, Blood, who is telepathic and can communicate with his master, search for food in the barren landscape. The mood of the movie is unusually chipper and dead pan, despite its dire situation. Underground, we encounter a utopia that is rotten with conformity and enforced cheeriness. Johnson is literally milked for his semen in a machine to populate the underground women. A rare and curious charmer.
As in Spinal Tap, Mine goes to 11: Zardoz, dir. John Boorman. My favorite sci-fi cult film. Sean Connery plays Zed, an exterminator in orange diapers, in a dystopia set in 3026. A supposed utopia is shaken by Zed's pure id and libido. The colors are psychedelic, and the themes are quite valid, though buried under a severely dated aesthetic.
Honorable mentions, among many that keep leaping to mind:
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Falls (Greenaway)
Supervixen (and other Russ Meyer flicks)
Sleeper
Diner
Un Chien Andalou (Bunuel/Dali)
Sherlock, Jr. (Keaton)
Repo Man
The Wall
Safe (Todd Haynes)
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Member: John Stone
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