I don’t know about you, but when I’m out with someone and we’re deciding on which movie to see and they say: “Nothing serious or depressing- I only go to comedies…” it makes me want to whip out my straight razor, slice off their lips, and shout: “Now that’s funny!”
There’s a mania in this country for avoiding anything unpleasant at all costs. People pay thousands of dollars to psychiatrists for mood-altering medications that allow them to operate at the same even keel. But how the hell can you experience the real highs of life if you don’t go through the lows? No, I don’t think we should feel safe at all times. And I like art that shakes me up. I don’t want movies that just entertain. There’s definitely a place for them, but not all the time. I’ve never forgotten the films that left me rattled to my core in ways that the best movies have the potential to do.
Irreversible (Gaspar Noe) (2002) (Lions Gate) was one of those films. It’s also the ultimate non-date movie. This movie about a rape and it’s violent aftermath, told in reverse chronological order, is truly unnervingly; audiences members come reeling out of theaters. It’s easy to shock, but a film that affects viewers this profoundly takes as much guts to make as it is to watch. I’d like to create my own festival comprised of films that are so impossibly disturbing they rate their own category. Call it the Feel-Bad Film Festival. Here are 10 to rent or buy to horrify and depress your friends:
I Stand Alone (1998) (Strand Releasing) A nightmarish plunge into the raging mind of a violent, racist, 50-yr.-old former butcher by Irreversible’s Gaspar Noe. There’s even a warning towards the end: “You have 30 seconds to leave the screening of this film!” but by then it’s way too late.
Salo (1975) (Criterion) Loosely based on the writings of the Marquis de Sade and set during World War II at a remote mansion in Italy, a group of fascists round up some boys and girls and torture and kill them. With chapters like “Circle Of Shit” and “Circle Of Blood” Pier Pasolini’s swan song will also clear a room faster than you can say Gigli.
Funny Games (1997) (Fox Lorber) A fiendish and unrelenting, film by Michael Haneke (The Piano Teacher) about two serial killers (in white gloves no less!) who torture a married couple and their young son at their lakeside home. Don’t bother with Haneke’s own paint-by-the-numbers remake (which indeed had a great cast). The original is still the best. I took a close friend to a screening of this and he punched me in the stomach when it was over. Now that’s a good review.
Rosetta (1999) (Criterion) Punishing account by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne about a poor, violently unhappy teenage girl whose every day is a struggle- to get food, keep her mother from drinking and get a job. On the “Slit Your Wrist” meter it rates 8.
Humanite (1999) (Fox Lorber) This is Bruno Dumont’s long (148 min.) and unbearably bleak story of a Police superintendent in Northern France investigating the murder of an 11-yr.-old girl. I remember the screening I was at was packed, but by the end I was practically alone in the theater.
Requiem For A Dream (2000 (Lions Gate)) Darren Aronofsky’s jazzy, intensely cinematic version of Hubert Selby Jr’s harrowing book tells the story of drug addicts and desperate dreamers in Coney Island. Ellen Burstyn co-stars as an amphetamine-popping mother trying to lose weight in order to be a contestant on a game show. Your audience will truly hate you when it’s over.
Ratcatcher (1999) (Criterion) Director Lynn Ramsay’s poetic, unsparing, account of abuse set during a garbage strike in Glasgow in 1973. A 15-year-old boy deals with an abusive dad, rampant rats, and the traumatic death of his young friend in a filthy canal nearby. I really was fascinated by it but it did make me understand that old phrase about “needing to take a bath” after it was over.
The War Zone (1999) (New Yorker Video) Tim Roth’s needlessly grim drama is about a British family who move to the coastal village of Devon, where father has incestuous relations with his children. I really wanted to love this because I like Tim Roth so much but it made me want to jump into the Hudson River when it was over.
In A Glass Cage (1986) (Cult Epics) This intensely shocking film by Augustin Villaronga is about a Nazi war criminal in an iron lung hiding out at a remote estate in Spain and the mysterious male nurse who goes to work for him. Some of the scenes of pedophile torture are just unwatchable. But I love a movie that even shocks me.
A Serbian Film (2010) (Invincible Pictures) The uncut version of this notorious film by Srdan Spasojevic is not easy to find. Many of the so-called “uncut” versions available are heavily edited. And that’s unfortunate because seeing this in its undiluted form is a shattering experience. It’s about a down on his luck ex-porn star Milos (Srdan Todorovic), with a beautiful wife and small son, who is lured back into the business by a shady businessman who refuses to show Milos a script and implies what they will make will be more potent and artistic than pornography. After that it’s like Alice In Wonderland for perverts, with Milos sliding down a dark rabbit hole into a hellish underworld. I think it’s a great film but I’ve lost quite a few friends showing them this.