Weirdest Movies

Eraserhead has to be high on the list. And on the list of all-time repulsive movies, too.
;)
 
Memento is definetely at the top of my "Weirdest movies of the century" list. But the Cell is a close second and Event Horizon too.
 
verdantheart said:
Eraserhead has to be high on the list. And on the list of all-time repulsive movies, too.
;)
Holy felgercarb, you've seen it? I totally want to, but can't find it ANYWHERE. It's liked banned or something because it's so messed up.

But yeah, as for wierd movies, ANY David Lynch movie, and for sure Requiem for a Dream. That one was messed up.
 
lenkid said:
verdantheart said:
Eraserhead has to be high on the list. And on the list of all-time repulsive movies, too.
;)
Holy felgercarb, you've seen it? I totally want to, but can't find it ANYWHERE. It's liked banned or something because it's so messed up.

But yeah, as for wierd movies, ANY David Lynch movie, and for sure Requiem for a Dream. That one was messed up.
Apparently it's not out on VHS or DVD (checked the IMDb) . . . I must have seen it on HBO or something . . . it was some time ago. It was Lynch with a touch of Cronenburg, if you know what I mean . . . eesh. (I want to see Requiem for Ellen Burstyn's performance, but I know that it's going to be a difficult experience, so I keep putting it off . . . like seeing Leaving Las Vegas. It was worthwhile, but I'm not sure I ever want to see that one again.)
;)
 
verdantheart said:
lenkid said:
verdantheart said:
Eraserhead has to be high on the list. And on the list of all-time repulsive movies, too.
;)
Holy felgercarb, you've seen it? I totally want to, but can't find it ANYWHERE. It's liked banned or something because it's so messed up.

But yeah, as for wierd movies, ANY David Lynch movie, and for sure Requiem for a Dream. That one was messed up.
Apparently it's not out on VHS or DVD (checked the IMDb) . . . I must have seen it on HBO or something . . . it was some time ago. It was Lynch with a touch of Cronenburg, if you know what I mean . . . eesh. (I want to see Requiem for Ellen Burstyn's performance, but I know that it's going to be a difficult experience, so I keep putting it off . . . like seeing Leaving Las Vegas. It was worthwhile, but I'm not sure I ever want to see that one again.)
;)
whats this movie about?
 
[Eraserhead]

Holy felgercarb, you've seen it? I totally want to, but can't find it ANYWHERE.
Hey, guess what? I was looking for a summary out at IMDb and found out that you can now buy a DVD through David Lynch's web page ($40, unavailable in Portugal, Spain, UK, & Ireland).
:smiley:

VaughnFan13 said:
whats this movie about?
OK, now that's impossible to describe. Here's a few summaries from IMDb:

Emotional rather than literal film

Generally, movies are like novels: they follow a distinct plot line in which characters grow or don't grow and in which said characters' actions have definite causes and logical effects. This sort of connect-the-dots approach to film has almost always been the tack taken by moviemakers since the beginning of motion pictures (except for the earliest films that were simple exercises rather than planned-out pieces of either art or felgercarb). It's unsurprising, because of the common nature of novelish movies, that when a film breaks from that format, it's met with disregard or contempt.

Eraserhead seems to be one of those divisive films that one either thinks brilliant or ridiculous. Those who see it as ridiculous are those who expect films to follow clear plot lines and can't handle a series of provocative images that aren't necessarily cogently connected.

Those who find it brilliant are more open-minded about the possibilities of film: they realize that a major part of the significance of film as art is the emotional impact that sequenced images can deliver (this being why tear-jerkers are so popular). Eraserhead functions on a emotional rather than cognitive level--it is a nightmare, as Lynch calls it, and as such it doesn't present any thematic element above the emotions it brings out in the audience (assuming the audience experiences emotions other than outrage). In this sense it is much more akin to poetry than to prose, and it shares poetry's value as an investigation of human experience through emotion rather than reason.

Eraserhead, much like the rest of Lynch's work, is sort of like impressionist painting, which was derided by critics when it was first introduced to the art world. Those critics who voiced disgust with the work of Monet and his contemporaries were those who expected painting to be about the arbitrary subjects in a picture. Monet painted light, not objects, and this new approach to art confused many. In much the same way, Lynch makes movies about one's reactions to images rather than about the arbitrary subjects of a given film, and because of this he may well go down in history as one of the true geniuses of the medium.

What in the heck is this?!?!?!?

This seems to be the type of film that you either really like or you really hate, in my case I definitely choose the latter.

Ok to start off, what is the point of this film? I realize the allegories about fatherhood and all, but whats the deal with a friggin dinosaur that she gave birth to? Do you need to understand this film to like it? Maybe thats why I hate this surreal effort so much.

Oh yeah the pacing. Everyone in this film does everything sooooooooo s-l-o-w-l-y and deliberately it grates on your nerves. If they just sped up the movements in this film you could have cut it from 90 mins to 45 mins. For example, the first 13 mins has that whole birthing allegory with no a single word of dialogue. That whole part could have been cut to 3 mins tops.

I will admit some of the visuals are shocking, but what else is there to hold it together? This movie just seems like a series of shocking visuals

held together with no purpose, or no glue for that matter. And when a movie like this has no glue to hold it together, it becomes pointless just like this felgercarb. I dont care how artsy it is, I dont care how original it is, I just care about plot and story and pacing, and in all three this movie is seriously lacking. Heavy recommendation to avoid!

Odd, opaque, outstanding

Long before the coffee and cherry pie approach of Twin Peaks, the controversy of Blue Velvet or even the life and times of John Merrick came Eraserhead. An afterthought of the hippy era, a reflection on parenthood or the strangest nervous breakdown ever to be recorded on celluloid, Eraserhead could be all of these and possibly, none of them. So is the Lynchian nightmare.

Shot in stark black and white, Eraserhead focuses on Henry (Jack Nance) who lives alone in an empty industrial estate with only his fantasies of a woman living in his radiator to keep him company. Recently discovering his girlfriend has given birth, Henry becomes more unhappy and introverted. Posing many questions concerning tolerance, loneliness and of course, parenthood, Eraserhead is certainly one which film students could spend sleepless nights puzzling over. However anybody can "enjoy" it, if they approach it with an open mind.

Like Blue Velevet, Lynch uses a relatively simple narrative to communicate his themes and ideas. The viewer is presented with many, slightly uncomfortable scenarios and images which could be either social commentary or a confession of a troubled mind (Lynch or Henry). The lack of dialogue makes the film even more startling as does the lack of interaction Henry experiences between other people giving an impression of extreme melancholy. Nance is wonderfully distant as the central character and is given a truly spectacular hairstyle as a reward for his performance.

If you are expecting The Straight Story or even The Elephant Man, you should stay away. Eraserhead is disturbing, challenging and hugely rewarding. Superb.

watch this at 12:30am and just TRY to get to sleep afterward

(there might be some SPOILERS within this gibberish, but I'm not completely sure)

That's what I did, and I can say I regret it, but I don't; I can say that it was a mistake, but it wasn't. I was trying to clear my mind of the overwhelming hype surrounding the film, but some of it lingered as I watched the fair-quality VHS bootleg. I was prepared to call the movie "slow" and "pretentious", but now the right word is DELIBERATE. The events which conspire are are less "confusing" and more NIGHTMARISH. As the integrity of film as an art form deteriorated and gave way to formula and committee "thinking", it's hard to find films that not only have certifiable integrity, but also prompt you to think. "Eraserhead" is an ideal example ("Videodrome" and "Fight Club" are others), a movie whose bleak exterior is nothing compared to the emotional and psychological reactions it brings. Like Cronenberg, Lynch is a perpetual trickster, a court jester with an ace up his sleeve, wrapping a narrative around the viewer's mind like a hit of Ecstasy, to the point where nothing you see or feel seems real for a long time afterward. I wondered how much of Henry Spencer is inside me? What began as a hideous, deformed, wormlike creature has given way to the creature that is now typing this. Is there a difference? An elevator that hesitates before closing, a mailbox with nothing in it, two halves of a ripped picture, a hideous mutant baby. A lot of what I saw seemed to be making a point--or implying at least--self-conscious behavior in everyday life--the intimidation of cutting a miniature chicken whose thighs thrust and whose rectum oozes blood; the nervousness of a man being interrogated about SEXUAL INTERCOURSE; the baby that cries only when its father leaves, and its sudden outbreak in odd boils. A brick wall outside a window. A man pulling a lever, the sound of a train outside the window. Comments on fidelity as Henry sleeps with the seductress across the hall, the production number by the 'lady in the radiator' with sagging, 'genital' cheeks as she squishes sperm with an unflinching grin, the wiping away of eraser-dust. As with "Blue Velvet" (Roy Orbison's 'In Dreams') and "Mulholland Drive" (Club Silencio), "Eraserhead" possesses a similarly simple musical number (a song about heaven) that seems to symbolize the characters and events--SUMMARIZE, I mean, but the connections remain vague unless you devote time to studying it closely. I regret now calling Lynch's mindbending films "pretentious" (although honestly a few ARE)--"Eraserhead" and the more recent "Mulholland Drive" symbolize a dying breed of cinematic artist, who assembles half of a jigsaw and allows the viewer to exercise the power of reason to figure the other half, but playing fair and keeping the challenge equal. Even after watching "Videodrome" recently, I wasn't met with the same awake-with-nervous-jitters feeling that "Eraserhead" has given me--it's a distorted, perverse view of our own reality (even though it looks anything but) and reveals how self-consciously bizarre bland, everyday routines, sex, sharing a bed with a member of the opposite sex, and childbirth really are. As the clock approaches 4, "Eraserhead" has branded me with a red-hot cattle prod, a mosaic of images that endure and are complicated in the mind after the actual film ends.

7/10

erg?!?!?!?

i saw this film as an attempt to find out what all the fuss was about but came away with less knowledge then when i started. i found the basic plotline easy enough to digest but the pure confusion caused by, for lack of a better word, wierdness to much to bear and ended up feeling that my IQ had gone down more than a few points and a bit intimidated into saying, watching or doing anything ever again!
I hope these summaries are helpful! For me, it was worthwhile seeing it, and I might see it again, but it definitely was an unpleasant experience. The film is surreal and difficult--more difficult and demanding than any other David Lynch movie I've seen.
;)
 
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