YouTube has an example of an early sequence from Weekend that's pretty much what provocative film is all about. Don't cheat, watch the whole thing: [link]
Buffista Movies 6: lies and videotape
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Is Gallipolli listed?
It should be. So should Pan's Labyrinth.
Upon some reflection (but not much), I think Dogville would be a better example of Von Trier's particular brand of evil genius than Dancer In The Dark.
Nomination to Be On The List: Boys Don't Cry.
It is on the list.
So should Pan's Labyrinth.
Really? I would watch that one again.
The only one on their list that I've seen is The Last House on the Left. Which amuses me for some reason. Er, that it's the only one I've seen, that is; the movie didn't amuse me. But I could watch it again.
I'm not sure I could watch Magnolia again, but I'm also not sure how good it was.
I couldn't get through Dancer in the Dark and I'm not glad I saw Dogville at all.
Dancer in the Dark has forever ruined "These are a few of my favorite things". Not that I was a fan of the song to begin with, but now it just creeps me out when I hear it.
Wish I'd never watch it either. Same for Requiem for a Dream.
Haven't seen it, but does Million Dollar Baby really belong on that list?
The one on the list I'm sure I saw was The Audition, and I've seen it twice. I'm probably not seeing it again because I remember it well enough to not have to--but if someone put it on while I was there I wouldn't leave or anything. I may have seen When The Wind Blows --I know it chokes me up a lot, but I can't place having seen it. Which is weird. I have no urge to see it again, since those 80s horrors of my teendowm are powerful and irrational and best left alone.
Wait, no! I've seen Million Dollar Baby. I keep forgetting that, because although I cried like a baby, I cried whenever she hit someone, every time she clenched her teeth and won a fight. I was done with tears about halfway through the movie. The bit after was just filler until she died. She had to die, and for me she had to die on her own terms. So it was...well, not happy (here's where the Oldboy people look at me funny) but narratively satisfying to me.
I feel pretty good about my choices that I've only seen Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby of that list. But I did see Breaking the Waves, and that was way more traumatic than either of those. I mostly like non-disturbing movies.
Although, I did just see Gone Baby Gone, and that was fairly disturbing, although I was distracted by meta -- both from the book ( didn't the cop have a heart attack at the quarry? ) and from real life (I went to high school with the guy who played the perv ).