Looking for strange or off-beat modern films

^ Seen Swiss Army Man and liked it; it definitely fits the topic.

^^ Will have to look into those that DrWu mentioned. There's so much good stuff out there, but it can be difficult to find and watch.

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Off from a black comedy/dramedy angle, a couple of horror films I watched and liked not that long ago were Apostle (one I liked much more than many critics, but I'm into folk horror) and The VVitch. And Hereditary was very good, but kind of hard to watch. The Babadook was another that I had really enjoyed.

Edited by Logan - August 16 2019 at 14:29

Edited by Lewian - August 17 2019 at 06:30

Moshkito, I'm well aware of Buñuel and Godard, and The Exterminating Angel and Los Olvidados did have an effect on me. One reason why I'm looking for more modern films here is because of my familiarity with the classics (and I have done past topics that cover other eras). That said, of course there are many older great films that I must have missed. In this poll, I mentioned lots of my favourite directors and films from each of them:
http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=115056

My list then, including films (lots more I could have listed, and some here I like more than others):

Woody Allen - Sleeper, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), Casino Royale

Pedro Almodóvar - Talk to Her, All About My Mother, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Robert Altman - The Player, Vincent & Theo, Nashville

Lindsay Anderson - if..., O Lucky Man, This Sporting Life

Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood, Punch-Drunk Love, Boogie Nights

Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

Theo Angelopoulos - The Travelling Players, Eternity and a Day, Ulysses' Gaze

Michelangelo Antonioni - L'Avventura, La Notte, The Passenger

Denys Arcand - Jesus of Montreal, The Decline of the American Empire, The Barbarian Invasions

Hal Ashby - Harold and Maude, Being There

Ingmar Bergman - Through a Glass Darkly, Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal

Bong Joon-ho - The Host, Memories of Murder, Snowpiercer

John Boorman - Zardoz, Deliverance, Excalibur

Robert Bresson - Diary of a Country Priest, Mouchette, The Trial of Joan of Arc

Luis Buñuel - The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Belle de Jour, The Exterminating Angel

Chen Kaige - Yellow Earth, Farewell My Concubine, Temptress Moon

Jean Cocteau - Orpheus, Beauty and the Beast

Joel & Ethan Coen - Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, Fargo or The Big Lebowski)

Francis Ford Coppola - Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, The Godfather: Part 2

David Cronenberg - Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, Spider (love so much of his)

Atom Egoyan - The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica, Felicia's Journey

Sergei M. Eisenstein - Alexander Nevsky, Battleship Potemkin, Ivan the Terrible

Rainer Werner Fassbinder - World on a Wire (TV miniseries), Fox and His Friends, Despair

Federico Fellini - La Dolce Vita, 8½, Fellini's Satyricon

David Fincher - Se7en, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Fight Cub

Terry Gilliam - Brazil, Time Bandits, Twelve Monkeys

Jonathan Glazer - Under the Skin, Sexy Beast

Jean-Luc Godard - Alphaville, Breathless, La Chinoise

Michel Gondry - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep

Peter Greenaway - Drowning by Numbers, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, 8 ½ Women

Michael Haneke - Funny Games (1997), Code Unknown, The Piano Teacher

Robin Hardy - The Wicker Man (1973)

Todd Haynes - Far From Heaven, Velvet Goldmine

Werner Herzog - Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo, Where the Green Ants Dream

Hirokazu Kore-eda - After Life, Air Doll, Nobody Knows

Alfred Hitchcock - Psycho, The Birds, Vertigo

Agnieszka Holland - Olivier, Olivier, Europa, Europa

Hou Hsiao-hsien - Flowers of Shanghai, Taipei Story, A Time to Live, A Time to Die

Shohei Imamura - Black Rain, Vengeance is Mine, The Insect Woman

Juzo Itami - Tampopo, The Funeral, A Taxing Woman

Jim Jarmusch - Mystery Train, Stranger than Paradise, Night on Earth

Jean-Pierre Jeunet - Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children, Amélie

Terry Jones - Monty Python and the Holy Grail (with Gilliam), Life of Brian, The Meaning of Life

Spike Jonze - Her, Being John Malkovich, Adaptation

Alejandro Jodorowsky - The Holy Mountain, El Topo

Aki Kaurismaki - The Man Without a Past, Juha, Drifting Clouds

Abbas Kiarostami - Taste of Cherry, The Wind Will Carry Us, Where is the Friend's Home?

Krzysztof Kieślowski - Dekalog (tv miniseries); Three Colours Trilogy: Blue, White, Red; The Double Life of Veronique

Takeshi Kitano - Fireworks, Kikujiro

Stanley Kubrick - A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Akira Kurosawa - Dodes'ka-den, Rashomon, Ran

Fritz Lang - M, Metropolis, Contempt

Yorgos Lanthimos - Dogtooth, The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Ray Lawrence - Bliss (not in the poll, but I love this film)

Ang Lee - Eat Drink Man Woman; Lust, Caution; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Mike Leigh - Naked, Secrets & Lies, Life is Sweet

Jens Lien - The Bothersome Man, Sons of Norway

Sergio Leone - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, For a Few Dollars More, Once Upon a Time in the West

Ken Loach - Riff-Raff, Raining Stones, Land and Freedom

Bigas Luna - Jamón, Jamón; La teta y la luna; Golden Balls

David Lynch - Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, Eraserhead

Terrence Malick - The Tree of Life, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line

George Miller - Mad Max and Mad Max II (The Road Warrior)

Hayao Miyazaki - Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle

Gaspar Noé - Enter the Void, Irreversible

Yasujirō Ozu - Tokyo Story, Tokyo Twilight, A Story of Floating Weeds

Peter Weir - Gallipoli, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Year of Living Dangerously, The Truman Show

Park Chan-wook - Oldboy, Lady Vengeance, I'm a Cyborg but That's OK

Wolfgang Petersen - Das Boot, Consequence

He Ping - Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker; Wheat

Satyajit Ray- The World of Apu, Aparajito, Pather Panchali

Jean Renoir - The Rules of the Game, The Grand Illusion, La Chienne

Alan Resnais - Night and Fog, Hiroshia Mon Amour, Last Year at Marienbad

Jacques Rivette - The Nun, Celine and Julie Go Boating, Paris Belongs to Us

Nicolas Roeg - The Man Who Fell to Earth, Don't Look Now, Walkabout

Éric Rohmer- Pauline at the Beach, Claire's Knee, My Night at Maud's

Walter Salles - Central Station, The Motorcycle Diaries, Behind the Sun

John Schlesinger - Sunday Bloody Sunday, Midnight Cowboy, Marathon Man

Martin Scorsese - Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Vittorio De Sica - Umberto D., Bicycle Thieves, Two Women

Volker Schlöndorff - The Tin Drum, The Ogre, The Ninth Day

Ridley Scott - Alien, The Duellists, Blade Runner

Tony Scott - The Hunger

Todd Solondz - Happiness, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Palindromes

Oliver Stone - Natural Born Killers, Salvador, Platoon

Quentin Tarantino - Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2, Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown

Andrei Tarkovsky - Stalker, Andrei Rublev, Solaris

Béla Tarr - Damnation, The Prefab People

Lars von Trier - The Element of Crime, Europa, Melancholia

François Truffaut - Fahrenheit 451, The 400 Blows, Jules et Jim

Tsui Hark - Butterfly Murders, Once Upon a Time in China, Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain

Tom Tykwer - Run Lola Run, Winter Sleepers, Heaven

Denis Villeneuve - Maelstrom, Sicario, Arrival (he also directed Blade Runner 2049)

Luchino Visconti - The Damned, The Leopard, Ossessione

Wim Wenders - Paris, Texas; Wings of Desire; Until the End of the World

Michael Winterbottom - Code 46, Wonderland

Robert Wise - The Andromeda Strain (really why I included him), The Haunting, Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Edgar Wright - Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, The World's End

Wong Kar-wai - In the Mood for Love, 2046, Ashes of Time

Zhang Yimou - Red Sorghum, Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern

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^ Seen and enjoyed They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

^^ Love Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Run Lola Run (Lola rennt), I saw those in the cinema when they came out here. I wrote a review of Run Lola Run when it came it on video, which I ended with "Rennt Lola rennt, rennt it today." Once Upon a Time in Anatolia I've seen, and was very impressed with it. I also liked City of God. Others I have not seen, and will be looking into, thanks.

I like a wide variety of things, from surreal mind-benders, sci-fi, fantasy and horror, to kitchen sink realism. I watch a lot of subtitled films, and a lot of films that gets labelled art house cinema. I will definitely look for "Halbe Treppe". Speaking of Indian films, at the multiplex cinema closest to me, at least half of the films are Indian as that area has a huge Punjabi population, and I have wanted to try some of those, but I think the ones that would interest me would more likely be at the Art House cinemas, and at the Vancouver International Film Festival, in Vancouver proper.

Thanks for all the recommendations and mentions of so many great films.

Edited by Logan - August 17 2019 at 10:11

While I'm at it: Import Export by Ulrich Seidl and Underground by Emir Kusturica.

Anything by Werner Herzog.

Hi,

I loved Jerry Lewis particularly in Funny Bones. From about the same time there's Tim Burton's very charming Ed Wood film.

I can’t remember whether or not I’ve mentioned these before, but here goes anyway as I think you’d find them all pretty funny.
Anders Thomas Jensen has made 4 films that all are wildly different from one another regarding general storyline, characters and whatnot, but there is a distinct black and wholly Danish kind of humour incorporated into them all that sort of takes a cue from Monty Python and then adds realism on steroids and a modern Pulp Fictionesque form of violence.
Blinkende Lygter (my dad worked on this)
De Grønne s.l.a.g.t.e.r.e. (Had to insert some dots so as to sneak pass the censor thang)
Adams Æbler
Mænd og Høns

Features everything from laissez-faire violence in the most odd (and funny) of places, shooting cows with machine guns, bad tennis player turned drunkard, pie baking, theological ponderings, Take That, cannibalism, blowing Easter eggs Danish style, autism and all around weird conversations.
Mads Mikkelsen and a bunch of other famous Danish actors that now also are fairly known in the big wide world all feature in these films...making them somewhat related in the cast and general ‘feel’ of them all.


Edited by Guldbamsen - August 22 2019 at 08:05