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Fortean Films

Re: V

hospitaller said:
Ah yes! 'V'! Anyone else remember this mini-series? Found it released on VHS recently and just couldn't resist! It's VHS release is by Warner Brothers/Beyond Vision - S001489. It was directed by Kenneth Johnson.

AND SHAME ON ALL YOU POSTERS SO FAR FOR NOT MENTIONING THE ULTIMATE, THE GREATEST, THE SCARIEST, THE FORTEANIST FILM OF ALL TIME...

:eek!!!!:
THE SHINING
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V was great, Hospitaller! The storyline was a bit obvious - the Rise of the Third Reich with lizards instead of Nazis, but still good at the time.

And The Shining really scared the **** out of me - still does!

I liked 'Stigmata', partly because Gabriel Byrne's in it . . .:rolleyes: but I liked the storyline too.

Carole
 
Jacob's Ladder

I loved that film so much I even bought the soundtrack! What a film.
The excorsist three is really spooky, nothing like the first more.....cerebral.
And what about the Entity, the original Body Snatchers (atmosphere!) and The Stepford Wives. Classics!
 
How about "Wings Of Desire"? Angel comes to earth to live as a mortal,(and Peter Falk plays himself as another angel who has came to earth). Cool music by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds too.....My favorite movie of all time!
Also:
Altered States
Gothic
A pretty cheesy movie was "The Final Countdown" (I think). Modern day US Navy carrier is transported in time back to just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Not really fortean, but for a truly bizarre and somewhat disturbing view of a gas sniffing, probably schizophrenic, Elvis obsessed deep backwoods redneck you have to see "The Dancing Outlaw"! Don't know if you folks in the UK have ever seen this, but it's somewhat of a cult thing over here. Documentary produced by West Virginia Public Television several years ago........Review of "Dancing Outlaw": http://www.lesblank.com/art/doreview.html

sureshot
 
What about Rosemary's baby staring Mia Farrow.It's areally subtle but creepy flim with a great ending.
The same could be said for the coen brothers flim Barton Fink.
 
...'Alien' was pant-changingly scary when I first saw it as a terrified 'teen! As was the later version of 'Body-snatchers', especially the end scene...'Arrrgh!'

..just watched 'Event Horizon' again on video...no sleep tonight!
It's the most disturbing thing I've seen in months...:eek!!!!:
 
One sadly overlooked little film is WINGS OF FAME. In this movie, the afterlife is a huge hotel, and the more famous you were in life, the better treatment and accomodations you receive. Though, once people back on earth forgot about you, you are evicted and cast into the black lake of screaming, faceless nobodies. While some people's fortunes rise in death, others fall. This movie concerns a man who kills a famous actor, and is then killed himself. They both wind up at the hotel, for killing someone famous make one famous, too. A very interesting social commentary.

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0098658

Also, there is the Spanish horror movie ANGUISH, whose big claim to fame was its use of subliminal messages to supposedly make the movie much more horrifying. It definitely has its moments. I saw this years ago, and then just last week, I noticed it for sale at my grocery store (yes, grocery store) for 8 bucks.

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0090644
 
Fortean Films, is it?

Well I'm still pushing `Perfomance' UK(1970), Directed By the strange, possibly satanic, Donald Cammell and the brilliant Nicolas Roeg.

Weird, weird. Mick Jagger at his most disturbing and seductive. James Fox turning in a fair performance and getting his mind worked over, but good.

Two ultra-sexy foreign chicks (in the parlance of the time), Anita Pallenberg and Michele Breton (I think she was Andre Breton's grandaughter), in extraordinary close up androgynous action. Is it the chick, or, is it Mick?

This film is a little piece of psychedelic, sixties London in crystaline form. Actually, you hardly see the `Big Smoke,' but, it's 99.8% pure.

Really! Watch it in the right state of mind and you can feel as if you're there.

Warning!! This is not necessarily a good thing.

Includes homo-erotic cockney gangster action and drug induced soul switching for beginners.
 
Performance is in my all-time top ten. Roeg is almost always good value (he also came out with "the Man Who Fell to Earth" and "Walkabout")

Nowadays, unfortunately, he seems to be consigned to straight to video stuff. If it don't spin dollars, the studios don't want to know.:(

Stu
 
Nicolas Roeg?

`Don't Look Now'! Baby! Yeah!

He even did a Dennis Potter!
 
AndroMan said:
Nicolas Roeg?

`Don't Look Now'! Baby! Yeah!

He even did a Dennis Potter!
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How could I forget? Great stuff. Even "Track 29" has it's moments.
 
I thought BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW was a very frightening film.

I am also strangely charmed by NIGHTBREED and THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS.

None of these films won any oscars, I don't think.
 
AndroMan said:
Nicolas Roeg?

`Don't Look Now'! Baby! Yeah!

He even did a Dennis Potter!
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I just finished reading the original short story of Don't Look Now. The dwarf I pictured was horrible lol... never seen the film though.
 
When I was quite young, I saw a short Spanish film called La Cabina, which seemed quite Fortean.

It's about a man who becomes trapped and frantic in a public phonebox; passers-by try to help him escape -- all in vain -- finally both man and phonebox are taken away on a phone company truck, which drives into an underground car park, which is filled with countless phoneboxes, all with bodies inside...

More info here .
 
"While there are hundreds, if not thousands of films that deal with fortean subjects and contain fortean motifs, very few of these films reflect a fortean philosophy on the part of their creators. When a film about forteana is directed by a director with fortean sensibilities or tendencies, the result may be a work that can truly be labeled fortean."

-From FT49:54. Compiled by Mark Chorvinsky.
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http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/listmania/list-browse/-/3CYIG0JU34E6N/026-3766039-1214859

I've made a 'Fortean Films' Amazon.co.uk Listamania thing. The first 12 are taken up by Mr. Chorvinsky's list (The Last Wave, Nomads and Curse of the Demon aren't there)

-2001 (1968, Stanley Kubrick)
-The Birds (1963, Alfred Hitchvock)
-Picnic At Hanging rock (1978, Weir)
-The Shout (1979, Jerzy Skolimowski)
-The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976, Nicholas Roeg)
-Don't Look Now (1973, Nicholas Roeg)
-The Lost world -25
-Koyaanisqatsi -83
-The Haunting -63
-Quatermass and the Pit -58/67
-The Elephant Man -80
-The Ten Commandments -57

That leaves 13 to find. I've put:

1- Rosemary's baby -68
2- Wicker man -73
3- Altered states -80
4- VideoDrome -82
5- Repo Man -84
6- The Navigator -88
7- Jacobs ladder -90
8- The Cube -97
9- Dark City -98
10- Magnolia -99
11- Pi -99
12- Blair witch project -99
13- The Mothman Prophecies -02

Now, these can be changed. Which ones should be there? Which ones shouldn't be there? Possibilities previously mentioned in this thread include:

Eraserhead -76
The Shining -80
Wings Of Desire -87
Communion -88
Fire In The Sky -93
Lost Highway -97
The Last -98
Ring -98
Urban Ghost Story -98
Green Mile -99
The Ninth Gate -99
The Sixth Sense -99
Memento -00
Mulholland Drive -01

Remember, they need to be philosophically fortean, not simply featuring paranormal subjects.
 
Nomads (1986)

Justin Anstey said:
From FT49:54. Compiled by Mark Chorvinsky.:

-Quatermass and the Pit
-The Elephant Man
-Nomads
-The Ten Commandments
-Curse of the Demon
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Hey, check this out. It looks as if Pierce Brosnan has starred in a 'proper' fortean film:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...4/103-2454743-3376648?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com

Pierce Brosnan, bloody and beaten and hysterically screaming in French, whispers a word, Innuat, into the ear of emergency-room physician Lesley-Anne Down and promptly dies. John McTiernan (Die Hard) knows how to kick off a movie, and his directorial debut, Nomads, shows a real flair for visual tension and eerie imagery. For reasons never explained, Down relives the final days of anthropologist Brosnan in mind-jolting flashes of memories that send her stumbling across L.A. and into the path of a demonic gang of black-leather punks (led by cult singer Adam Ant). McTiernan's ambition overreaches his abilities--the muddled story depends on smart people doing dumb things, and the hints of personalities merging in Down's tormented psyche remain frustratingly unexplored--but his sense of mood and mystery created solely out of suggestion is unerring. There's a fascinating movie lost in the confusion of this unsettling supernatural thriller. --Sean Axmaker
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http://www.playusa.com/playusa.asp?page=title&r=R1&title=101856
Pierce Brosnan plays a French anthropologist who is brutally murdered by the Nomads. But before he dies, he magically passed the memories of his last days on to the beautiful doctor (Lesley-Anne Down) who tried to save his life. Then suddenly, the doctor is plunged into a deadly game of life and death as she realizes that she has somehow become the next target of the unrelenting Nomads.
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Recomendations

Couldn't by any stretch describe it as truly Fortean but I saw Dog Soldiers yesterday and bloody enjoyed it. Think American Werewolf In London meets Zulu with sharp dialogue and a hint of Bravo Two Zero. Great stuff.

Similarly 28 Days Later is well worth a watch, not least for the stunning scenes of deserted London and a fantastic Soundtrack by Godspeed You Black Emperor!.
 
Here's a dozen fortean films. Not necessarily the best films, the only ones of there type or made the most $$$$$$$$$$$'s at the box office, but simply . . . . . . . .fortean.

1. Woyzec (Werner Herzog, 1978)
2. The Shout, (Jerzy Skolimowsky, 1978)
3. Magnolia, (P T Anderson, 1999)
4. Picnic at Hanging Rock, (Peter Weir, 1975)
5. Summer of Sam, (Spike Lee, 1998)
6. The Last Wave, (Peter Weir, 1977)
7. The Falls, (Peter Greenaway, 1980)
8. Herz Aus Glas, [Heart Of Glass], (Werner Herzog, 1976)
9. El Topo, [The Mole], (Alexandro Jadorowsky, 1971)
10. Baraka, (Ron Fricke, 1992)

and finally two tales of wild foundlings:

11. Jeder Fur Sich Und Gott Gegen Alle, [The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser], (Werner Herzog, 1974)
12. L' Enfant Sauvage, [The Wild Child], (Francois Truffaut, 1996)

Conclusion: The seventies, very fortean years in film-making!!!!! :blissed:
 
The Number's Up!

I've just watched, 'Pi' ('Π') (1998), directed by Darren Aronofsky.
From IMDB.com

Max Cohen is a mathematical and computer genius who seeks mathematical patterns in everything. However he also suffers from intense headaches, dellusions and some paranoia. He looks into patterns in the stock market only to find his ability sought by both a Wall Street trader, Marcy Dawson, and a Hasidic, Lenny Meyer, who both want the code for different reasons.
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Excellent Fortean Film, highly recommended!

Even if it is in grainy black& white.
 
Fortean films:cool:

Donnie Darko

The Andromeda Strain

On a Clear Day You Can See Forever- It's about reincarnation.

Man Facing Southeast (Southwest ?)

Gothic (Ken Russell) and Haunted Summer (?) Two films about the same event, the weekend in Switzerland that inspired Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. I'm not sure the second title is correct.

The Exorcist

Slaughter-house Five

Colossus: The Forbin Project- U.S. builds advanced defense control computer, it becomes intelligent and decides it should be in charge.


:confused: Wouldn't certain genres be Fortean? Time-travel movies, for example
 
Phase 4 - Excellent. Best ant-based sci-fi set in one room ever.

A.I. - Which loads of people thought was pants. I cried, dammnit. I cried, and it deals with some fairly big metaphysical issues (in a Hollywood way).

Blade Runner (Director's Cut) - As for A.I., but anyone who thinks this one's pants is just wrong.

The Snowman - Depending on what mood you're in, either: 1) Christmas morning lovelyness, with fluffy Aled-Jones-But-Not vocals.
2) Sappy, sketchy-cartoon pap.
3) A really creepy and quite moving piece of cinematography.
 
Re: The Number's Up!

AndroMan said:
I've just watched, 'Pi' ('Π') (1998), directed by Darren Aronofsky.
Excellent Fortean Film, highly recommended!

Even if it is in grainy black& white.
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Yes, absolutely! We caught this during the single week it was at the local theater that devotes one screen to non-mainstream film, and even this mathematical dunce was wowed. It's funny in a scary way - love the Hassidics using Mafia tactics in their desperation to find the name of God - and to a non-New Yorker this guy's isolation from nature and his fellow-man is really vivid. I was struck by the way he kept trying to kill off the ants, the only living thing in that awful closet of an apartment, and all the time they were showing him what he was looking for.

I don't think it would be the same film at all in color. The man's world was drab black-and-white.

Willing suspension of disbelief failure, though - how does a Jewish mathematician get to be this guy's age without having so much as *heard* of the Kabbalah?
 
Here's A Couple More:

'Nothing Lasts Forever' (1984), directed by Tom Schiller.

Plot Outline: An artist fails a test and is required to direct traffic in New York City's Holland Tunnel. He winds up falling in love with a beautiful woman, who takes him to the moon on a Lunar Cruiser.

[From the IMDB Site
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Very weird. Most reviews seem to think it's a comic fantasy set in a future New York. However, it has the nightmare logic of psychosis. It comes across as a sort of US version of Flann O'Brien's 'The Third Policeman' (Of course, that could just be my take on it).

Worth seeing.

'Cronos' (1992), directed by Guillermo Del Toro.

This is one of the few director's whom you can recognize who they are after just watching 30 seconds. In this movie an old antiques dealer stumbles upon a complex clockwork scarab built by an alchemist (in real life designed by the singer of La Cuca). This device enables youth, vigor and perhaps eternal life... in exchange of drinking blood of course. An incredibly wealthy dying man wishes to take the scarab from the old man kicking off the struggle. Ron Pearlman rocks in it of course. Good "alternative" vampire story with all sorts of drama.

From the ForeignFilms.Com site
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This is a vampire film like few others. A different sort of creepy, from Mexico.

Well worth seeing.
 
Cronos is wonderful . . . and del Toro's "The Devil's Backbone" and EXTREMELY gruesome "Blade 2" are both superb as well.
 
I was going to watch the copy of 'Blade II' on video, I got for €3.00 this week, but one of the local TV stations is showing 'Space Truckers' and 'Battle Beyond The Stars' back to back.

Blade can wait. :D
 
el Dia de la Bestia

Don't know if people are familiar with the director Alex de la Iglesia (a kind of cut-rate more irreverant Guillermo del Toro) but I finally caught El Dia de la Bestia (1995) at the weekend, and it's wicked!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112922/maindetails

A priest has to go round being as evil as he can in order to sell his soul to the devil so he can stop the anti christ being born. Some class comedy moments and some very disturbing scenes when the priest's innate goodness is warring with his need to be bad. Add a Madrid being torn apart by neo Nazis as the backdrop, a death metal over-pierced heavy sidekick, and an LSD eating grandad who spends all his time starkers, and it's a winner!
 
Silent Hill

set to be released in the US 4/21/06

I saw the trailer yesterday. It's apparently about a woman who takes her daughter to a place her daughter has been talking about in her sleep. On the way, a spirit appears before the car. Believing the spirit is actually a real person, the car crashes. When the woman awakens, the passenger car door is open and her daughter is missing. She travels the remainder of the way to Silent Hill, a town which has apparently been abandoned because of a coal mine fire which is still raging beneath the ground. Her search quickly becomes nightmarish with scenes I find difficult to describe since they look so bizarre. The film looks very promising.
 
The making of 'Performance'

Influence and Controversy: The Making of Performance (1970)
Donald Cammell And Mick Jagger Part 1/3

One of my favourite fillums. One went to a symposium on it at the Cornerhouse in Manchester, highly illuminating. :D
 
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