Evertything else on your list i understood.

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.

 

 

and what does the Renaissance room at the end of 2001 mean?

 

 

 In Memento the whole movie is edited backwards but where does it move to present tense. and what are the black and white sequences?

 

What does the red lamp  and little leprechaun represent in Mulholland Drive?

 

In Inception is the main character locked in limbo at the end....

 

just some puzzles u may be able to decipher

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?

Alright, I know I'm flooding with trailers right now so this will be the last one. XD But Scott - another movie you might like if you liked Inception:

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.

 

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.

 

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.'

Okay, I just watched this and now I have to second this recommendation - about halfway through this movie my mind starting thinking, "Holy sh*t holy sh*t holy sh*t" and it didn't really stop until the movie was over. Well, except for the part where my brain started thinking "please don't end please keep going" over and over as well.

PS. hey spell check, how is it that you don't think movie is a word? 

I'm going to have to watch this again with my wife when she gets home from work.

It's funny because after watching Inception, it didn't even occur to me that there was something I should be wondering about. I just thought of it as an action film with a cool reason to have multiple things happening at once. It was only after I saw the movie that I started hearing theories about how he might have been dreaming all along etc ... I haven't seen it since so in my mind it's still just a cool action movie. But I would like to see it again and pay more attention to those things.

What - Leonardo's acting? No, there was no wobble there - it was as wooden solid as ever.

I would say Eraserhead, but man did Memento f*ck with my mind.  I still don't quite know what to make of it.

I'd also nominate Donnie Darko just because the ending constitutes a pretty big amount of possible explanations.

Me too, although this graphic does sum up it's plot pretty well: (bottom right)

http://xkcd.com/657/large/" rel="nofollow - http://xkcd.com/657/large/

 

 

I want to watch Primer now and some of these other suggestions, but I hope they are not full of horrific images or count me out!

 

Checked 'Irreversible' clips on youtube and was horrified - that is definitely some extreme violence, esp that fire hydrant scene ()

 

I watched Fisher King and it is perhaps the only movie I switched off as I could not understand any of it and didnt want to!

 

I have 12 Monkeys but havent seen it yet, I will soon, cos I heard it was a weird one.

 

I love Brazil and would have to mention that for seer weirdness and very powerful ending that never sat with me well.

 

Some of the films in the list I put up on the poll have images I cant get out of myhead - I think they have a psychological impact on the viewer.

 

Heres a list of the most powerful images on my psyche:

 

Eraserhead - the baby crying, the girl in the radiator and her haunting song, the head falling off, the god figure pulling levers, the exploding planet, the twitching chickens.

 

Mulholland Drive - the little elf like person, the sisters discovery scene, 'Crying', the red carpet and curtains.

 

Inception - the appearance of Cobb's wife in the dream scenes, the spinning top at the end, the folding city.

 

Memento - the scene where the girl spits in his drink, her conversation about how he will forget everything after she yells obscenities at him, that ending photograph.

 

The Shining - the mirror image hallways following Danny on the bike, Axed sisters, "Redrum!", Jack stalking Wendy up the stairs, the scene in the bathroom with Grady, the corpse lady, "Heres Johnny!", "Great Party!", The maze, the end photograph.

 

2001: A Space Odyssey - the bone in the air cut, the monolith on the moon, Hal lip reads, "Open the pod bay doors Hal", Daisy... Daisy, psychedelic slit scans, the old man smashes the glass, the embryo.

 

Blue Velvet - the mask, Blue curtains, lady with the knife.

 

 

Vanilla Sky - "Tech Support!" 

  

2001 has no dream in it.

 I like the way you see the ending of the next scene and you have no idea why until the next scene plays out. eg: one scene begins with a guy in a pub laughing sardonically. We find out in the next scene which shows he and the bartender spitting in the glass. When the main character who forgets everything in minutes drinks it, the reason for the nasty laugh is apparent. That girl in the film is twisted.

 

MAJOR SPOILERS!!!!

My idea is having watched it recently is :

Leonard did kill his wife.

Sammy Jenkins was not real.

 

That makes the movie a more powerful experience - the murderer searching for his wife's murderer - a murder he himself committed but can never remember. the tattoos are therefore designed to set him on a wild goose chase for Sammy Jenkins - a man who does not exist - he will search for SJ eternally therefore and will never know he killed his wife. I cant remember how he got the name Sammy Jenkins - who gave that to him? Whoever it was is the reason the man will always search for a non existent murderer.

 

 

 

 

 

Though Kubrick may have invented that room to simply house the man as he gains the ultimate awareness. The room is like a waiting station where Bowman can amass the knowledge that will send him back to earth as an embryo. The nuclear devices and satellites are gone at the end becasue the Starchild has erased them. There is a new dawning of peace where the nuclear devices are now no longer necessary.

 

The monolith is a teaching tool but it does 4 things in its 4 appearances:

 

Appearance 1: Dawn of Man - teaches apes to kill to drive out the other apes from the water hole - survive

 

 

concerning 2001 Kubrick has offered a great explanation -

 

---

GELMIS: The final scenes of the film seemed more metaphorical than realistic. Will you discuss them -- or would that be part of the "road map" you're trying to avoid?

KUBRICK: No, I don't mind discussing it, on the lowest level, that is, straightforward explanation of the plot. You begin with an artifact left on earth four million years ago by extraterrestrial explorers who observed the behavior of the man-apes of the time and decided to influence their evolutionary progression. Then you have a second artifact buried deep on the lunar surface and programmed to signal word of man's first baby steps into the universe -- a kind of cosmic burglar alarm. And finally there's a third artifact placed in orbit around Jupiter and waiting for the time when man has reached the outer rim of his own solar system.

When the surviving astronaut, Bowman, ultimately reaches Jupiter, this artifact sweeps him into a force field or star gate that hurls him on a journey through inner and outer space and finally transports him to another part of the galaxy, where he's placed in a human zoo approximating a hospital terrestrial environment drawn out of his own dreams and imagination. In a timeless state, his life passes from middle age to senescence to death. He is reborn, an enhanced being, a star child, an angel, a superman, if you like, and returns to earth prepared for the next leap forward of man's evolutionary destiny.

That is what happens on the film's simplest level. Since an encounter with an advanced interstellar intelligence would be incomprehensible within our present earthbound frames of reference, reactions to it will have elements of philosophy and metaphysics that have nothing to do with the bare plot outline itself.

GELMIS: What are those areas of meaning?

KUBRICK: They are the areas I prefer not to discuss because they are highly subjective and will differ from viewer to viewer. In this sense, the film becomes anything the viewer sees in it. If the film stirs the emotions and penetrates the subconscious of the viewer, if it stimulates, however inchoately, his mythological and religious yearnings and impulses, then it has succeeded. (Gelmis, The Film Director as Superstar, 1970, p. 304.)

---

The monolith/cinema screen stuff is all after the event invention - Clarke and Kubrick originally wanted a pyramid, but in the end they thought it looked to cliched.

 

The monolith on the Moon is a becon to tell its makers that the Earths dominant lifeform has reached a predefined level of technology (ie space flight), of course they expect man to follow the signal.

 

According to Clarke HAL/IBM is a coincidence.

 

At the end of the film the Star Child does not neutralise all the nuclear devices - that only happens in the book.

I think you got Sammy Jenkins confused with John G. John G is the name of the killer that Leonard found out, it's never explained where he gets that name. Sammy Jenkins was his first insurance claim, the man with a similar condition to his who ended up putting his wife in a coma via insulin overdose, because she didn't believe his condition was real and tried to "fix" him by telling him again and again that she needed her shot.

 

 

 

This rectangle  shape though has some fascinating possibilities... and an amazing analysis here that makes you think...

 

 

 

 

I agree Mulholland is a puzzle itself.

 

At the premier press conference - the first question was:

 

"Mr Lynch please explain"

Lynch looked deadpan out at the press and said "its very nice to be here, thankyou for coming along..."

 

He later released so called clues to the film but they make your noodle bake even hotter.... 

Dream logic is used throughout...

Very puzzling in places and what the heck was that ritual in red and black with all the women all about?

 

I read that it was a reenactment of illuminati rituals or freemasonry but that is too freaky to consider.

 

The other thing is Kidman's character Alice apparently was there at the ritual therefore would have seen Bill (Cruise) and know what he was up to. The characters at the ritual are revealed too in the photos on Ziegler's wall! It is all there in front of our eyes but they are too 'wide shut' to see the symbols and imagery.

 

Kubrick puts things right in our faces but then masks them with dialogue and master camera work. As we marvel at all this visual trickery the images pass by unnoticed. Subliminally in some ways. The mirrors are used throughout the film. even mirror images of entire scenes - the party at the beginning is mirrored in the red and black ritual scene.

Don't worry, stonie and I got your back on Eraserhead's being possibly the worst movie of all time.

 

"Other" - Inland Empire would be my vote, I guess. But it's really not a puzzle to solve, it's more artistic, without any clear solution. But puzzling it was. And very great.

 

"The Night Listener" was really strange and puzzling because of the irrational , strange story, I just thought the movie was wierd, which was kind of fun, because it wasn't good at all, but still interesting and sort of fun to follow.

L'Age d'Or (Bunuel/Dali)

The Mirror (Tarnovsky)

Werckmeister Harmonies (Tarr)

 

I will

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

so:

 

what do i make of that scene!

 

The finale portrays dementia. What happens is a series of moments that bring in previous events. The baby twitches and bleeds like the twitching chickens, the man in the planet, the god that pulls the levers returns but he is no longer in control and finally is destroyed by fire. The planet has exploded - the psyche, the conscious is completely gone. Henry has died from fear, depression or guilt consuming him, and he finally is with the girl in the radiator, who welcomes him to heaven and peace.

 

or:

 

it could be just a load of bollocks