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Joined: July 02 2008
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Topic: Most puzzling film ever! Posted: May 01 2011 at 09:07
I love a film that puzzles and makes you think and question its meaning. Which of these made your brain boil the most?
Explain what you think the film is about....
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Posted: May 01 2011 at 09:26
Memento for me. Just when I thought I had understood the main idea (after at least two viewings), it occured to me to read the trivia and faq from IMDB and I realized I got it all wrong.
Mulholland Drive is tough too but in surrealist art making no sense is the idea so I never bothered to "figure it out" because that's outside the point.
Joined: July 02 2008
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Posted: May 01 2011 at 10:01
I think Eraserhead is a puzzle but that one is based on dream logic which is never logical. I think all these films are based in dream logic when i think about it and that is what makes them puzzling. Dreams are in the irrational and make no sense.
Joined: August 11 2009
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Posted: May 01 2011 at 10:05
I love these types of movie! Ever since Donnie Darko, these have been the hidden gems of the movie industry that I treasure.
Of course Donnie Darko has to be mentioned, it was my favorite movie for a long time. However, it has long since been surpassed. Right now there are two movies that I find really puzzling.
The first is Primer, which I had to watch 4 times to get a decent grasp on, before finally wiki-ing to solve the last few things. This might sound like a terrible experience but (I personally) find the movie very entertaining so it didn't bother me watching it multiple times and trying to piece it together. It can be rather dry and technical at times though which may bother some. There are some things that happen that aren't explicitly explained to the user that you kind of have to piece together with clues, which make it a more challenging view.
The second is Southland Tales, but I'm not yet sure if I should be praising this one. It's by Richard Kelly (the same guy who did Donnie Darko) but lacks some of the charm, and the plot is at least as out there as Donnie Darkos was. I've only seen it once and at this point, I'd actually describe it as an incoherent mess - I was far more confused by it at the end then I was by Primer, and that's saying something. I will give it at least one more watch to see if there's something to it I missed.
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Posted: May 01 2011 at 10:06
I voted other because I *think* I understood (as well as anyone can) everything on the list except Memento, which I simply haven't seen at all. Unfortunately I don't have an other to list - a few films puzzled me for a while because they were not straight naratives, but in the main I "got it" eventually.
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Posted: May 01 2011 at 10:21
In Memento, the black and white scenes happen before all the colour scenes ... if you think of the end of the movie as a pivot, all the black and white scenes move forward in time towards it, while all the colour scenes move backwards in time towards it.
A buddy of mine edited the film so that it played in chronological order and said it was actually pretty boring that way. A pretty interesting comment on how the way a story is told is at least as boring as the story.
SPOILERS!!! The big question in Memento to me has always been: Did Leonard kill his wife, or was Sammy Jenkins real? There were three directors commentary, one where the director said Teddy was lying (Sammy Jenkins was real), one where the director said he was telling the truth (Leonard did kill his wife), and one where he didn't bring it up at all. How's that for a mystery?
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Posted: May 01 2011 at 10:23
By the way Scott, if you liked Memento and Inception, you should check out "The Prestige", it's another Christopher Nolan film and it's also really good. Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite directors these days, he's great at those odd movies with fascinating stories, as well as Batman movies. What a combo, eh?
Also, if you liked Inception, have you seen Shutter Island?
Not as puzzling but I think the appeal is similar.
By the way Scott, if you liked Memento and Inception, you should check out "The Prestige", it's another Christopher Nolan film and it's also really good. Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite directors these days, he's great at those odd movies with fascinating stories, as well as Batman movies. What a combo, eh?
Also, if you liked Inception, have you seen Shutter Island? It's interesting because Leonardo Dicaprios roles in the two movies actually aren't so different, in a lot of ways...
Advert for Shutter Island came on tv as I was reading this comment, 0_0 zomg.
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Posted: May 01 2011 at 10:37
AtomicCrimsonRush wrote:
and what does the Renaissance room at the end of 2001 mean?
The Renaissance is sometimes called as "The Age of Discovery" - the name of the space craft is also called "Discovery One" ... the parallels there are self-evident in the pristine whiteness of both room and ship interior and in the illuminated grid pattern seen in both, I think there are also parallels between HAL refusing Bowman reentry to Discovery and him being unable to leave the Renaissance Room, but that could be me just seeing elephants in cloud-formations. Kubrick uses this room as symbolic of man's achievement since first using a thigh-bone as a tool; Renaissance also means (literally) "born again" so it also symbolises Bowman's rebirth as the Star Child. You can probably read even more into it if you are so inclined.
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Posted: May 01 2011 at 10:43
AtomicCrimsonRush wrote:
In Inception is the main character locked in limbo at the end....
The ending is deliberately ambiguous and for that I simply don't care since that is the ending Nolan gave it.
If I could muster enough thought power to care then I think the important aspect is that he is not looking at the top but at his children, which is all that matters to the main character.
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Posted: May 01 2011 at 11:37
AtomicCrimsonRush wrote:
INteresting - can anyone give me their take on the ending of The Shining? What does that photo represent?
Jack Nicholson's character, Jack Torrance, has become part of the evil and spritual manifestation of the hotel, as inferred by his likeness appearing in the photograph. He is, as Stanley Kubrick stated, a reincarnation of the previous employees of the Overlook. Which is why the 1920s butler says to Torrance, 'You're the caretaker, sir. You've always been the caretaker.'
...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology...
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Most puzzling film ever!
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