The Cat Piano.
This animated short deserves it’s many awards. Like noir and styled animation of anthropomorphic cats singing and adventure? Or you don’t even have to like all of the following. Just enjoy, because I did, and it’s definitely of the amazing merit.
A list and things of movies that will make you question yourself…and other things.
Most of these movies I have seen. Some of them I know are pretty messed up art films. But I haven’t put all of the world’s movies down here, so if I miss a few I shoudl check out and add, comment and tell me.
The main purpose of this entry is to introduce the magnificence of artistic and well-done filmaking. These films are mostly dark, graphic, violent, realisitic and futureistic at times, some involving fantasy elements, and some variying degrees of sexuality.
1. The Wall.
Pink Floyd’s The Wall, 1982.
This is my favorite example of a MindF*ck film. Based upon the double album by the band Pink Floyd, the work of dark and pink filmaking, with their music and animations follows the story of Pink, a rockstar and his messed up mind stemming from childhood, his imaginations and music. Based upon the life of the band’s front man Syd Barret. Movie containing brilliant rock music, sybolic animation sequences, the journey of his mind, WW II and England, rebellion and his opinionated thoughts on the world around him, and his sexual fear of women betraying him. Rated R by my standards. Contains some blood, sexuality, flowers making love, drugs and Pink’s cries for help and order in his shattered world.
2. Brazil.
Brazil. 1985.
The genius of one of the pythons Terry Gilliam, this is the complete definition I think of what these types of movies are. Set in the future, a world…oh forget it, I can’t think hard enough to describe it to you. There is an administrative error as the world, run mostly by a gruesome business like way, accidently kills the wrong man in a ‘mundane’ sweep. Sam Lowrey, working for this government tries to correct the problem and realizing more and more how ineffective society has become. He dreams of a woman he flies with and to save form a dream version of this terrible world, and meets her, a trucker. He becomes tangled and accused of working for the ‘terrorists’ who are trying to free the society as they live behind a mask. In the end, does he actually escape the city into the world of grass and freedom with his woman? Or is it a mask of his needled mind, betrayed by friends in such a demented world?
Truly this is a movie that’s hard to describe. There is even more Mindf*ckery to decipher from this movie. Symbols. Actions. Plot. Dreams and doldrum British life gone on steroids. I recommened this movie to you all. Rated R for violence, some gore, bombs, utter frustration, nudity and barbarity.
3. Time Bandits.
Time Bandits. 1981.
ANOTHER film by Terry Gilliam. Boy, but lucky for you this isn’t as wild and serious as Brazil. But it is more tragic.
A boy is considered less than furnature and appliances in a compulsive family. He goes to sleep only to find he is dragged on a journey through time with time-travelling midgets, goign through Robin Hood and Napoleon and time, running from the supreme being they stole the map from, stealing treasure. Eventually after the weirdness of being almost eaten by a troll in the middle of the sea on a wooden, ship, then it being a giant with the ship on his head, then stepping on a house in a desert, then they tranqulizing the giant and getting off, confronting a glass barrier which they breka and confront Evil, who has dogged their every turn. Even before that we had a glimmer of hope as Kevin, the boy, was adopted by a Greek king and almost had a fmaily…rudely dragged back with the Dwarves. Makes one sad.
They confront the form of evil, sacrificing everything in his coldness, really awful guy. He is on a level of freakiness mind you. He is momentarily defeated, the supreme being helps the dwarves collect his pieces to destroy so he won’t return but one is left…and Kevin, poor Kevin is left behind, alone in the fortress as they leave him there without a thought and smoke and…he wakes up, saved by the Greek king *a fireman now*, his parents only worried about the damn toaster and not their son. The fire over, he stands alone in the wreckage. Forgotten. No hope left.
This movie’s ending was so disturbing it truamatizied me as a child. That’s how Mindf*cked it is. Rating? I’d give it PG, Pg-13. It’s not a happy ending. It leaves you empty inside. Really, it does. Nothing overly bloody, but still really dark atmosphere and gruesomness.
4. A Clockwork Orange.
A Clockwork Orange, 1971.
Directed by Stanly Kruberick. This movie I haven’t seen yet. I’m goign to wait a few years. My dad seriously advises me to.
From what I know, it reminds me of Brazil but more violent, rough-and-tumble, rape and mature themes. Themes that when you’re an experienced adult would understand. It’s harsher than Bazil. Why? The summaries say it’s about a man….interested in rape…ultra-violence…talking in a futureistic way of speaking…and Beethoven.
You heard me. Violence and rape. A bunch of ‘droogs’ he gets together in the future Britian raping and destroying as they please, after being ‘reconditioned’ by society’s program to destroy violence tendencies he detests such violence…however his old Droogs try reshape him. The title is from a book an author int he movie is writing, a plea against making people turn ‘good’ against their will making them ‘Clockwork oranges’.
Moral? Sounds like ‘there will always be crime’. No matter how you eradicate and get a better and try to be better society, there will always be rebellion. There is always turmoil. There will always be the balance of good and evil in people. To even emphasize this rape and violent scenes in the movie are set to cheery non-fitting music, the directors way of showing you to experience and see the evil as evil, and you do not need music to mood you into thinking it’s bad. You are not controlled.
R rating? You bet your oranges it is. Rape. Violence. Gore. Blood. Darkness. Force. Bad language. Nudity. Be very, VERY mature my friends.
5. Donnie Darko.
Donnie Darko, 2001.
One of the newer films to be a definite Mindf*ck film, this film follows the troubled dreams and mind of Donnie, as more and more he sees things, feels the the world will end, Frank the rabbit telling him these things, is it a dream? Do time-bubbles exist? What must he do, after the incident with the jet falling down in his house, to stop the world from ending? Does fate exist? Do these things happen all the time? Hell, what is time?
The epic buildup of this movie is magnificent and thrilling. The ending makes you almost crap your pants. It’s a depressing movie set in reality but then again, not. Challenging your thoughts on fate. It is a milder one but a Mindf*ck movie non-the-less. Tears will come to your eyes. You will be depressed and forever when you think of blue and black, you will think of this movie.
6. Pan’s Labyrinth.
Pan’s Labyrinth, 2006.
Despite this being a foriegn film from Spain, it won plenty of awards. Of course it did, it’s a beautiful movie and a definite movie of the Mindf*ckery genre.
The princess of the fairy underworld goes through the portal to the mortal world, and in reincarnation is the sould of a little girl during WW II’s Spanish countryside. Her mother marries and becomes pregnant with a captain at the military dictator outpost fighting the gruellias. This real, historical setting is rare to be in film, but it does. The girl finds a praying mantis fairy and meets Pan the faun, who gives her a book and for her to return to her rightful place with the faire must complete magical and adventurous tasks in and out of the labyrinth in the forest. Meanwhile there is war, bad pregnancy, the death of her and her baby born, the fighters and their drama, death and realisim, guns and blood, stiches and dark, cruel emotions. Are all her travels to the darkness of the fae world real or imaginitive? In the end….did she come back to the world of the fae with her real parents and magic?………………or was it all a fantasy.
The movie questions if it was real of not. The movie mostly settles on her point of view, so the coincidences of magic and pain with her family and life could have been exaggerated. You want to believe there is celtic magic and she is going home to her parents of the fairies but is she trying to block the terror? Dead mother, nasty father, death and guns, war and fire, horror and trauma? Was it just her mortal body that died and her soul went to the portal?…….or was it her last thought she thought…and died….a human. A mortal. That maybe, her imagination was the better of her.
This is another confusing movie, rated R for a reason. Blood, guns and death, war and terror. The sacrifice of a child the adults could never understand. I recomened this beautiful vision to the eye.
7. Blade Runner.
Blade Runner, 1982.
Ridley Scott is an amazing director. That is that.
Blade Runner is a little known masterpiece. Set in a future world where Replicants, fake humans that work the moon colonies and lieve 4 years, some are dangerous and come to Earth. It’s up to Blade Runners, and one in particularily Deckard *played by Harrison Ford* to stop them from infiltrating society and take their little revenges on real humans. Unfortuantely some of them have fake memories implanted in them making themselves question if they are human or not. As Deckard tracks each of the four down we discover human situations, survival in such a sprawling dark and orange city world plus the fantastic landscape and photography and art form…the replicants fight to survive. Some go insane. One never knew. All trying to live. In the end….like tears in the rain…there is a monolouge on human death and life, physcology…
Deckard figures it out. And you will too if you pay close attention.
I will highly suggest this movie to anyone you know. It’s a sci-fi noir, beautiful lighting and camera work. Some violence and deep subjects and thoughts.
Watch the Director’s Cut. The version Ridley wanted.
The one with the ending that will give you one of the bext Mindf*cks in a long, long while.
8. Zardoz.
Zardoz, 1974.
Sean Connery became sick of being type-casted as James Bond, so he embarked on getting a diaper rash in his role in Zardoz.
Zardoz is known as a definite Mindf*ck and classified as part of the sub-genre of psychotronic films *Mindf*ck movies that are more phscyidelic than made for a subliminal ‘greater good’ story. Made around the 60’s and 70’s and very druggy films* The film’s plot involves the world of people on earth in slave and being hunted by a band of scantily-clad warriors, following their God Zardoz, the floating head. In fact, Zed comes in the floating head and goes through the vortex, and discovers he is only a tool by the bored Immortals, who long ago preserved themselves in an oasis as the world sunk into a dark age and left the world behind. Now, bored, they flock over the savage Brutal as they call him due to immense boredom, with sex and questions. Zed soon realizies that they are pawns and tools, stupid people made to grow food, kill, and live to entertain the bored society. During his stay they experiment on him, testing sleeping patterns and trying to get to erect. At this point in the film my parents had to shut it off at the images of the penis * I was 8 years old at the time* so I’ve now glanced throught he rest of the film for this partiular blog post. ^^;
This movie shows a grim future, and that civilizations run by the rich, despite how glorious and perfect the ideal dog-eats-rabbit of this world the more powerful they are the more tension there is, and eventually the perfect system will break, causing Brutals and Zed to lead rebellions and destroy the perfect world. And sometimes, holding unto the past and history of something so, so long, keeps the flow of renewal and life from happening. Zed, then destroys the remnants of the old world order that the rest of the world has forgotten and doesn’t need, and moves on to the future of civilization.
This movie is so weird and psychedelic, people have parties watching it when they’re high. Definitly prepare for weird plots and sexuality, weirdness and the odd. Rated R for sex, nudity, guns, teaching you the penis is evil, rape and slavery.
9. Le roi et L’oiseau
Le roi et L’oiseau, 1980.
A French animated movie, Le roi et L’oiseau *The King and the Mockingbird in English* is a beautiful movie and one of the few fully animated movies to be considered part of this genre. This film is more of a political and passive story, without the use of violence and darker themes. However it’s message and artistic style help count this in the Mindf*ck genre, a passive entry.
Based upon the Hans Christen Anderson tale of the Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep, a mockingbird with his children lives at the towering exaggerated castle, who is under the constant barrage of being hunted by the pompus king. The vain king commisions work from a painter, and at night his painting commes to life as does the painting of a young shepherdess and a chimney sweep. The statue however says ‘the shepherdess are destined for the kings’ and so, lusty painting of the king in a duck hunting outfit, embarks on claiming his bride from the chimney sweep. A long chase comes upon them as the painting replaces the real king, sending his swooping bat-like police after them. The couple go down the layers of the castle into the city, where the citizens live in poverty and rarely see the sunlight. In the end the king drives the giant robot, fight breaks out and the city crumbles, the people leave, the bat policemen drop from the skies as symbols…
…there in the wreckage the robot sits in the pose of The Thinker, and a little mockingbird is in a birdtrap. The robot opens it and frees the bird…and crushes the cage…the destruction of tyranny, the pompus, and ushers in a world of liberty and love and freedom.
The symbolic forms and people, the grays and colors of the hand-drawn animation make this a beautiful film, their struggles create emotions and the music…godly. Beautiful, beautiful music. This movie is a passive Mindf*ck and a Depressor, bulled filled with an uplifting message. Rated PG. Nothing overly violent even, nudity, sex, nothing. Just a continue stream of beauty and hard work. The movie has taken many many years to develop. It started in 1948 but production stopped when it was shown prematurely in 1952, and production picked up again 1967. Paul Grimualt the director now finally was able to work on one of his most passionate films.
10. Dark City.
Dark city, 1998.
This dark movie, another future-noir similar to Blade Runner has been somewhat forgotten from the sucess of The Matrix which came out the same time. Matrix was alot like this one, only more anime-ish and straight-forward with it’s message with lots of action and kung-fu, so it did way better than the darker and serious Dark City. I have yet to see this movie, but now I really, really want to.
By Noir, you can tell from the clothing style. 40’s gangster anyone? The plot centers about John Murdoch who wakes up and is wanted for murders and by his wife…that he doesn’t remember. Looking and running about he finds The Strangers, a cult of people who manipulate the city to their desires by altering memories and actions. Apparently he is wanted by them because of his stranges powers he manifested. John soon learns that their lives are a facade int he city and shrouded by the eternal night and the city blocked off. They are The Stranger’s toys.
Remiscent, too, of Zardoz, all the people of the city are controlled subliminally by a higher race. The movie more focuses on the bounds of reality under the mask and accepting the knowledge your life in this movie’s universe is a lie.
Matrix without fight scenes, anyone?
Rated R for some nudity, guns and some blood.
11. The Butterfly Effect.
The Butterfly Effect, 2004.
Again, another movie I have not seen. Alot of people consider this a Mindf*ck, and reaidng the plot, yes, it certainly is. Evan Treborn suffers in his childhood blackouts, and he had written them down at each time. When he is an adult, he looks back to his journals of these events and somehow manages by reading to go back in time and redo parts of his past, saving his friends from their horrible futures, and this was the source of his blackouts. However when he comes back to the future his life has changed with each time, from being a frat boy, to an amputee, to being a prisoner…every action he takes going back in time gives him a new kind of future, one worse than he had before.
Reading this it’s a Sci-fi Thriller, but so many suggestions I’ve got to put this one in it can’t be ignored. I can see how it relates to being a Mindf*ck movie. Reminds me of Donnie Darko too, in a way…
Rated R for violence, drugs, sex and language.
12. The Fountain
The Fountain, 2006.
Hugh Jackman isn’t usually synomous with weird movies. And this one isn’t. It’s abstract about mortality and love.
First part, a conquistidor in the Mayan civilization is searching for the Tree of Life, which would give him and his queen immortality, and by finding it, he would be able to save his queen from the clutches of the Inquisition.
Reincarnated later, he is a modern scientist looking for healing properties in trees to save his wife Izzi.
Again reincarnated, he is in the future, a space traveller in a floating sphere with the tree of life, floating through space as he looks for the clue to immortality…
Reading the plots and all, one can see this abstract movie is an amazing movie. It deals with the ideals of dealing with death and the unknown possibilities of immortality. Diggity dog! Not to mention the colors are mostly oranges and yellow glows, not depressing film like Butterfly and Darko is.
PG-13.
*taking break. Will add more later*
For all you Twitter-heads out there.
Oh, yes, I also have a Twitter. I only use it though to feel happy reading updates from The Ellen Show and some other similar junk like that when I log on it every 3 days. 😛
Also enjoy the Catina Band jazz number from Star Wars on harp!
I’m sure you might have known the news…
Disney is releasing later this year it’s first African-American princess, and the first official one in quite a few years. Not only that but thankfully it’s actually 2D animation like the good-ole days of yore. *HAND ANIMATED CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?* Hopefully it’ll be classic as Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and The Lion King in quality, songs, art and character. Hell I want to see it in theaters!
The style: It’s set in New Orleans. Involving jazz, frogs, voodoo and all that stuff that is much different than the usual European-royal fare of the majority of Princess movies of Disney. Course we have in similar vein the Arabian tale of Aladdin. Definitly not set in white-man’s culture. 😀 We actually have a black princess!
And then comes the villain. MY GOD. I found an article with new pictures of the characters and…like…wow…I’m so glad he’s so dark looking. Seriously, it’s been a long, long, painful while since we’ve had a movie that appears to harken to the days when cartoons were dark and violent in the 80’s and 90’s…and kids liked it. WOW. I HAVE CHILLS DOWN MY SPINE and it’s only a painting we have and nothing else.
I am giddy with excitement. And even also the beautiful, grand project of Rapunzel that they’re working on. *unfortunately pink mostly*
It’s a big, beautiful step for animation.
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Sahkmet Shalazamataz Shoys 