Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Bleak! Who else loves a black-hearted flick with a cup of nihilism that runneth over?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Bleak! Who else loves a black-hearted flick with a cup of nihilism that runneth over?

    So Sukenboy can't handle bleak. I can respect that. I wish there were more puppies and rainbows out there too. But I have to admit I love the bleak when it comes to film. The meaner, the crueler, the better. If everybody dies I'm a happy camper. So what are some of your favorite feel-bad films.

    I'll start with 2 faves:

    THE GREAT SILENCE and RACE WITH THE DEVIL.

    SILENCE is amazing because it delivers the ending that every other SW threatens to but chickens out at the last minute and RACE has the structure of a cool chase flick but takes a great dark turn in the final stretch that I just didn't see coming.

  • #2
    My Top 10:

    Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom, Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre, Cannibal Holocaust, Star of David: Beauty Hunting, Psychich TV's The Castration Movie, The Untold Story, Combat Shock, Nekromantik 2, Serbian Film.
    "Ah! By god's balls what licentiousness!"

    Marquis de Sade, The 120 Days of Sodom.

    Comment


    • #3
      Those are wuss movies Alex K lists.
      Those movies belong in "What's the wussiest movie you've seen?" thread.

      Emilio Fernandez's VICTIMAS DEL PECADO (1951) has the blackest heart of any film noir ever made. It's an abyss. A nihilistic abyss. Black on black and it has no bottom. Mothers throws babies in trash cans when the milk runs dry. It's also muy macho. Jump right in, Horace, if you have the guts.
      Richard--W
      a straight arrow
      Last edited by Richard--W; 12-04-2012, 05:00 AM.
      "I've been to college, but I can still speak English when business demands it."
      - Raymond Chandler, 1939.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Richard--W View Post
        Those are wuss movies Alex K lists.
        Those movies belong in "What's the wussiest movie you've seen?" thread.
        LOL...kinda have to agree with RICHARD W on this one.....Al those films you listed ALEX K I have seen and enjoyed.....I can handle THAT amount of BLEAK....

        I am not (despite what Horace thinks!) after the "puppies and rainbows" movies.....Stuff like SERBIAN FILM is bleak....but while it tries hard to pile on the bleakness /atrocities it is too sleek and professional a movie and doesn't have that effect....

        BLACK SUN is bleak....but I was more affected by MEN BEHIND THE SUN...merely for the subplot about the little boy...THAT got me...NOT the atrocities so much!

        COMBAT SHOCK was bleak..but again, didn't really affect me much.....NEKROMANTIC was too arty to be bleak....

        Emilio Fernandez's VICTIMAS DEL PECADO (1951) has the blackest heart of any film noir ever made. It's an abyss. A nihilistic abyss. Black on black and it has no bottom. Mothers throws babies in trash cans when the milk runs dry. It's also muy macho. Jump right in, Horace, if you have the guts.

        I am SOOOO tempted to try this one out.....just to see if i can push myself!!

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Richard--W View Post
          Those are wuss movies Alex K lists.
          Those movies belong in "What's the wussiest movie you've seen?" thread.

          Emilio Fernandez's VICTIMAS DEL PECADO (1951) has the blackest heart of any film noir ever made. It's an abyss. A nihilistic abyss. Black on black and it has no bottom. Mothers throws babies in trash cans when the milk runs dry. It's also muy macho. Jump right in, Horace, if you have the guts.
          I've got to see that. I love Mexican cinema, but it's so hard to see over here.

          I watched Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan's ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA last week, and found it utterly bleak - very blackly comic, but probably the most nihilistic film (in a true sense, not necessarily in terms of graphic violence or onscreen cruelty) I've seen in a long while, a reminder of how life is surrounded by death.

          COME AND SEE plunges the depths of human cruelty more than most films too, I reckon.

          Last night, I also watched Lee Tamahori's film THE DEVIL'S DOUBLE, which is historically inaccurate but very nihilistic, in the sense that it explores the relationships between narcissism, cruelty and despotism, and the protagonist's erosion of his identity and privacy is deeply nihilistic - again, not in terms of graphic content but in terms of theme.

          The most nihilistic Hollywood film I can think of - in the sense that it explores Nietzsche's ideas rather than wallowing in misery - is CONAN THE BARBARIAN. I suppose that in the true philosophical sense, APOCALYPSE NOW is a deeply nihilistic film too. I'm tempted to add Jerzi Skolimowski's ESSENTIAL KILLING to that list too: that film seemed very nihilistic, in a Nietzschean way, to me too.
          Paul L
          Scholar of Sleaze
          Last edited by Paul L; 12-04-2012, 06:47 AM.
          'You know, I'd almost forgotten what your eyes looked like. Still the same. Pissholes in the snow'

          http://www.paul-a-j-lewis.com (my photography website)
          'All explaining in movies can be thrown out, I think': Elmore Leonard

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Paul L View Post
            COME AND SEE plunges the depths of human cruelty more than most films too, I reckon.
            I was just about to add this one. I'll chuck in GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES as another gruelling antiwar downer.

            Comment


            • #7
              I remember seeing this NUCLEAR WAR WEEKEND thing on tv when I was younger.....Now THAT was a bleak time..

              They showed...
              THE DAY AFTER


              THREADS


              When The Wind Blows

              Comment


              • #8
                THREADS and WHEN THE WIND BLOWS. Good choices.

                What about PLAGUE DOGS? That's tremendously bleak.
                'You know, I'd almost forgotten what your eyes looked like. Still the same. Pissholes in the snow'

                http://www.paul-a-j-lewis.com (my photography website)
                'All explaining in movies can be thrown out, I think': Elmore Leonard

                Comment


                • #9
                  Stuff I found bleak...

                  -The Isle
                  -Bad Guy
                  -The Bow
                  -Pretty much anything else Kim Ki Duk has done
                  -Bedevilled
                  -Most of Gasper Noe's stuff
                  -Combat Shock
                  -Antichrist
                  -Eraserhead
                  -Melacholia

                  I figure Requiem For A Dream will get brought up at some point and for good reason but I found Pi more effective.

                  Never heard of VICTIMAS DEL PECADO but Richard's description has piqued my interest.
                  Rock! Shock! Pop!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Make Way for Tomorrow

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      There are other spaghetti westerns that are extremely bleak - EL PURO and BLACK JACK to name two. I love SILENCE and these two are very good but I think it'd be boring if they all went this route. THE RUTHLESS FOUR is another that's very downbeat, and a terrific film to boot.
                      I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Barry M View Post
                        Make Way for Tomorrow
                        Absolutely, this is one that separates the men from the boys!
                        I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Bleak! Who else loves a black-hearted flick with a cup of nihilism that runneth over?

                          Dammit I want that VICTIMAS DEL PECADO but it goes for a minimum of 75 bucks on Amazon.

                          Any movie that starts with a baby in a trash can is blasting out of the gate holding a brass pair in my book.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Isnt Escape from NY extremely bleak for a "mainstream" flick?
                            "No presh from the Dresh!"

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Escape From New York is a family movie for the kids. It only looks bleak on the outside, but it's really warm and fuzzy inside.


                              Originally posted by Horace Cordier View Post
                              Dammit I want that VICTIMAS DEL PECADO but it goes for a minimum of 75 bucks on Amazon.

                              Any movie that starts with a baby in a trash can is blasting out of the gate holding a brass pair in my book.
                              Buy it used from the marketplace sellers on amazon, the prices start at $15 which is a steal.
                              Richard--W
                              a straight arrow
                              Last edited by Richard--W; 12-04-2012, 02:04 PM.
                              "I've been to college, but I can still speak English when business demands it."
                              - Raymond Chandler, 1939.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X