So, I'm in the Honors Forum at my school, and to keep my membership, I need to complete a "citizenship project" for the school community.
I think I want to host a weekend-long film festival for controversial films-- movies that have been banned, censored, and generally considered 'unacceptable' by a lot of people. I'd like to play films that aren't as well-known, in addition to the really big ones like Clockwork Orange.
Any ideas?
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27 comments:
Man Bites Dog
Contact Crispin Glover to have him do a showing of his film "What is it?"
David Cronenberg's Crash - maybe too obvious?
Irreversible
Requiem for a Dream
"Lust, Caution" - pretty well known but fascinating on many levels, the main actress has been banned in China for her performance.
Go find an old film called THE RAPTURE with Mimi Rogers and David Duchovny. You will seriously not regret it.
Salo
I Spit On Your Grave
Cannibal Holocaust
Faces of Death
Lolita
I recommend heading over to the horror boards on IMDB to ask for suggestions. A lot of those posters are obsessed with banned and controversial films.
My suggestion: In My Skin (Dans ma peau). It's one of those deeply psychological horror films that had many documented cases of people passing out at festival screenings because the suggested content - self mutilation to become connected to the human body - was so disturbing. You barely see a drop of blood, but hear enough to know exactly what she's doing. Suicide Club and Noriko's Dinner Table fit into that category as well - controversial because the content gets pushed so far over what's acceptable.
Oh, and Battle Royale. How obvious.
Spike Lee's "Bamboozled" is certainly confrontational and probably still quite capable of generating controversy.
The movie "Priest" is a great example of a film that wanted to be controversial and provacative and is, sort of, but manages to be, well, WRONG about pretty much everything. Ebert's review (which can be found on his website) nails the film's inability to see itself as it really is much better than I could, so I'll point you there. In any case, with his analysis in one hand and the conclusions the film obviously WANTS you to draw in the other, it's a "fun"-filled night of controversy and disagreement for everyone!
Try "Lars and the Real Girl" for a movie that will have you feeling something for the guy who buys a sex-doll that you didn't expect (i.e., something other than contempt). I consider that controversial.
Try - I kid you not - Bobcat Goldthwait's "Sleeping Dogs Lie." He's not in it, thank god, he just wrote (and I think directed) it. Seriously. Look into it. Not even kidding.
I second Cannibal Holocaust; also try Freaks and In the Realm of the Senses. And Life of Brian instead of Last Temptation of Christ.
I know they're kind of "big/obvious" ones, but both Rosemary's Baby and Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974, please, as if there was any other) were highly controversial when they were released. And don't forget about Triumph of the Will and Un Chien Andalou. Again, big & obvy, but not seen by many modern audiences.
The Battle of Algiers: maybe not so controversial here, but highly controversial in 60's France, where it was banned for 5 years.
Tod Browning's Freaks: a horror movie from 1932, most people at the time felt it went to far in that Browning used actual circus freaks for actors.
Valley of the Wolves: Iraq: A Turkish film that is a very recent and very anti-American take on the current Middle East situation.
When I was in college (in the Stone Age...actually the late '80s) there was a big brouhaha about a screening of "The Cook, The Thief, The Wife and Her Lover". It was pretty darned controversial (and sold out within minutes).
Visitor Q
Ken Park
Boxing Helena
Irreversible
Hail, Mary
Henry, Portrait Of A Serial Killer
9 songs or shortbus for the explicit sex on screen angle.
Vengence is Mine, Audition, Dumplings, any short by richard kern.
IRREVERSABLE
I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE
SHORTBUS
Bad Boy Bubby
The Corndog Man
oddest movies I remember seeing
I like the Crispin Glover recommendation.
Spanking the Monkey.
Meet the Feebles.
Zeitgeist.
Kids.
"Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song"
I recommend Palindromes by Todd Solondz, or anything by Todd Solondz for that matter. Everything he does is disturbing and thought provoking.
Baise Moi.
It was banned in Australia, anyway.
The Woodsman, Kevin Bacon is the main character and a child molester. Hard to watch, but great acting. (There are no molestation scenes in the film).
American History X
Saved!
Jesus Camp
Last House on the Left
Monty Python's Life of Brian.
Dogma.
Muhammad, Messenger of God.
The Thin Blue Line.
The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel)
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