one film that get me thinking that how simple evil can be was ‘Spoorloos’. Here the killer was not a movie Psycho. he is as ormal as my next door neighbor, but still the acts committed by him were nothing but shocking to the core
Camille Claudel.
Andrei Rublev.
The Thin Red Line.
Breaking The Waves (really just the final shot.)
Marty
Leaving Las Vegas
Dancer in the Dark
As a young cinephile who is angry with the way Western capitalist society is going (destroying people’s lives and the planet simultaneously), I have not experienced a film more disturbing and demanding as ROSETTA. The fact that it inspired the Belgian law called “Plan Rosetta” demonstrates that movies matter; that art can cause change. But political change like “Plan Rosetta” is rare. Instead, responsible artists have the power (if they’re talented enough) to cause personal change and awakening. The films of the Dardenne brothers and Michael Haneke (among others) shake me to the core. I think it is because they simply know.
I just remembered: the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre really disturbed me in a deep but not unpleasurable way.
There are films made to disturb (e.g. the Mondo series), so let’s exclude them… They are more cheesy than anything else.
Disturbing films? Extremely well-made to boot? Saying something important as well?
Michael Haneke and Bruno Dumont. Stop. Look no further!
The Seventh Continent (Haneke) (DO NOT WATCH THIS IF DEPRESSED)
Benny’s Video (Haneke)
Funny Games (Haneke)
TwentyNine Palms (Dumont)
Flandres (Dumont)
Haven’t seen L’Humanite (Dumont) but that is supposed to be very good (sic) too.
But if you do look further, then may I recommend:
An American Crime (2007) (I think I am strong, but I couldn’t take some of the images of this film)
Dekalog 5 (Never did the burning of a cigarette burn so deep a hole in one’s heart)
Brokeback Mountain. I saw it early, well before the hype etc.. I’m very close to a married (to a woman) man who is gay, and struggles evey day to honor his commitment to her and raise his kids. Because of that deeply personal relationship, that film spoke to me on such a level I felt like I was betraying his secret just by watching it.
The french film INSIDE
I heard about this movie called The Untold Story, or something akin, that details the true story about some butcher in China that murdered an entire family in front of eachother, and then served them to the public, and the actual murder scene is supposed to be shown in a very disturbing way, meaning they show everything, and some people were commenting on how it was possible for the child actors to not be disturbed by having acted through the scene. Just reading that made it automatic for me.
Fat Girl, of course, too. The surprise, and fear of ruthless violence wears off after a while, but it was on my mind for about half a year after I saw it.
- Andrei Rublev
- Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
- The Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal Lecter was always campy but Buffalo Bill was genuinely creepy. Wannabe transsexual (he really doesn’t even want to be a woman and he really isn’t even gay. He just gets off on rape and domination and in prison there are no women) flays fat chicks to make a woman suit to prance around in.
- Irreversible
- Salo
- Cannibal Holocaust (the sexual violence) but all the rapists fucking died so not as bad as say Salo.
- Last House on the Left same as Cannibal Holocaust.
- In the Realm of the Senses
There is a scene in Michael Tolkin’s The Rapture that always bothers me. Salo I just thought dull and stagey.
Steve – what scene is that (in the Rapture) – at the beginning, the end?
“Scum” Alan Clarke 1979.I can’t even start thinking about that movie so I’m just going to introduce the name and leave it there.
Very disturbing: Douglas Buck – Cutting Moments
Having only viewed it once, “Bicycle Thieves” still upsets me tremendously. I can’t take fathers getting humiliated in front of their children. That film ripped me open.
Bodysong (What my wife said to me as I shielded my eyes during the first ten minutes: “Watch it.” The rest of the movie is equally disturbing and sublime. Should be shown in schools. Kids need to see what this movie has to offer. It is nothing but the human condition in all it’s splendor and repugnance.)
Twentynine Palms (The ending of that movie comes as close to approximating what it’s like to wake up from a nightmare.)
Fearless (“Save me.” Gets me every time.)
Ivansxtc
Threads
The Chocolate War
To Live and Die in L.A.
Cannibal Holocaust
Nil by Mouth
Just a heads up, I copied and pasted the following response from a review I had earlier written for a friend.
I have had this man crush for Gary Oldman every since I saw Leon the Professional. So of course I hunt out everything he has ever touched and find myself licking my fingers in anticipation for the next slice. In doing so I quickly came across a movie that not only did he write, but he also directed…(I am already at half mass at this point). So I picked up a copy, and I watched the trailer for it prior to starting the actual film and during the trailer there was a quotation from Eric Clapton that read “One of the finest films I have ever seen.” I later found out that Eric Clapton was so moved by the film, that he offered to write the score for it…and did!
So on pins and needles, I wipe the foam from my mouth and for the 128 minutes, I am like a deer whose attention is paralyzed by on-coming headlights only this vehicle not only runs you over but backs up to knock you the fuck out again and again.
Nil by Mouth has enough power to pierce the hard rind that’s formed over our collective senses of revulsion, outrage, and apathy. This film was based on real events that have taken place in Gary Oldman’s family life, and at the end of the movie it read “in memory of my father.” Which of course only means anything until after the movie is over.
This movie is unflinchingly honest and brutally graphic and if you can endure its uncompromisingly bleak vision, this is a film with much to offer.
Ben,
HIV/AIDS has actually moved away from being a “homosexual disease”. The spread of the virus stabilized in the gay/bisexual male community by the early 1990’s and the dramatic spread of the disease has primarily been among heterosexuals in the West who fail to practice safe sex measures and people from lands that don’t have access to even basic safe sex items such as condums. Of course, the gay community in some two-thirds world nations are extremely at risk b/c of a lack of access to safe sex materials and education and because of the social/political restrictions on openly living a homosexual lifestyle.
The Vanishing is profoundly disturbing.
Band of Outsiders has always been troubling in a different manner. Godard’s little lecture about how pop culture is corrupting. Maybe not as strong a film as Masculine/Feminine but of all his films it’s best at reminding us what a bunch of damn naive fools we were in the 60’s. Transforming.
Umberto D. Can’t watch it again.
Wes Anderson being considered a competent film maker is also profoundly disturbing.
The Swimmer is a heartbreaking dirge of a film.
Ken Park by Larry Charles is a fairly disturbing watch but in my opinion the hardest movie to watch that i’ve seen has been irreversible or mysterious skin. Both Disturbingly real with makes it harder to watch
‘Blue Velvet’ ‘Bad boy Bubby’ and ‘Repulsion’. this thread is very similar to the ‘most disturbing films’ thread, but I prefer this one for people have gone further into there answers insted of just naming names.
BV, I had wanted to see since finding it in a family friends video collection, I finally found the courage to watch it when I was 13 and I still am haunted by Dennis Hoppers performance. The scene in which Roy Orbison’s ‘In dreams’ is played out, is so beautiful yet the most frighting thing I’m ever to have seen. I get tingles and feel uneasy still when ever I hear ‘She wore blueeee, velllvetttt’ come from the radio.
Repulsion there isn’t really a stand out scene, the film as a whole, and the use of sound sticks to your mind like a leach, throughout the duration of this film at no time do I think I felt even close to comfortable.
BBB, specifically the first 30 minutes of this film, a boy/35 year old man, kept inside a cage and raped by his mother, who is told if he goes out into the open air he’ll die for the poisonous gas filled the outside air. The cat scene too left me feeling awful.
Actually Jesse, I think that the “Most disturbing films” thread is beginning to get into the “reasons”
Oh sorry, I haven’t really been keeping up to date with that thread, I will have to have a read now though!
Just saw The Tin Drum
I watched alone but I still reacted visually
BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
STRAW DOGS
COME AND SEE (Klimov)
A must see film for all human beings.
rsarao
Mulholland Dr. left me dizzy when I left the theater. Amazing experience.