Surreal Cinema
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- DirectorJaromil JiresStarsJaroslava SchallerováHelena AnýzováPetr KoprivaSurreal tale in which love, fear, sex, and religion merge into one fantastic world. Based on a classical Czech novel of the same title.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsPierre BatcheffSimone MareuilLuis BuñuelLuis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí present 16 minutes of bizarre, surreal imagery.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsSilvia PinalJacqueline AndereEnrique RambalThe guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsPaul FrankeurLaurent TerzieffAlain CunyTwo drifters go on a pilgrimage from France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Along the way, they hitchhike, beg for food, and face the Christian dogmas and heresies from different Ages.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsJean-Claude BrialyAdolfo CeliMichel PiccoliA series of surreal sequences that critique morality and society in a stream of consciousness style.
- DirectorWojciech HasStarsJan NowickiTadeusz KondratIrena OrskaJózef visits his dying father at a remote mental institution, where time itself doesn't seem to exist, and the line between dreams and memories becomes indistinguishable.
- DirectorWojciech HasStarsRafal WieczynskiMichael LonsdaleAdrianna BiedrzynskaA dream-like odyssey of a young man across plague-ridden 16th century Germany.
- DirectorVera ChytilováStarsJitka NovákováKarel NovakJan SchmidAn experimental retelling of the story of Adam and Eve which then progresses into an allegorical depiction of loss of innocence.
- DirectorVera ChytilováStarsIvana KarbanováJitka CerhováMarie CeskováAfter realizing that all world is spoiled, Marie and Marie are committed to be spoiled themselves. They rip off older men, feast in lavish meals and do all kinds of mischief. But what is all this leading to?
- DirectorJacques RivetteStarsJuliet BertoDominique LabourierBulle OgierA mysteriously linked pair of young women find their daily lives preempted by a strange boudoir melodrama that plays itself out in a hallucinatory parallel reality.
- DirectorOlivier SmoldersStarsFabrice RodriguezYves-Marina GnahouaPhilippe CorbisierIn a world overtaken by eternal darkness, the buttoned down entomologist abandons his phantoms to embrace the unknown. Oscar is a conservator at the Natural Science Museum, and spends most of his days surrounded by bugs. When Oscar isn't tending to the tiny specimens that line his home and workplace, he can frequently be found reflecting on his childhood traumas in the psychiatrist's office. One day, Oscar returns home from work to find an African woman from the museum lying in his bed.
- DirectorMary LambertStarsEllen BarkinGabriel ByrneJulian SandsAn American skydiver wakes up in the middle of nowhere in Spain and must recount the last five agonizing days to figure out how she got there.
- DirectorJames Ward ByrkitStarsEmily BaldoniMaury SterlingNicholas BrendonStrange things begin to happen when a group of friends gather for a dinner party on an evening when a comet is passing overhead.
- DirectorPeter WeirStarsRachel RobertsAnne-Louise LambertVivean GrayDuring a rural summer picnic, a few students and a teacher from an Australian girls' school vanish without a trace. Their absence frustrates and haunts the people left behind.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsJack NanceCharlotte StewartAllen JosephHenry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsSheryl LeeRay WiseMädchen AmickLaura Palmer's harrowing final days are chronicled one year after the murder of Teresa Banks, a resident of Twin Peaks' neighboring town.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsBill PullmanPatricia ArquetteJohn RoseliusAnonymous videotapes presage a musician's murder conviction, and a gangster's girlfriend leads a mechanic astray.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsNaomi WattsLaura HarringJustin TherouxAfter a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsKarolina GruszkaKrzysztof MajchrzakGrace ZabriskieAs an actress begins to adopt the persona of her character in a film, her world becomes nightmarish and surreal.
- DirectorGrzegorz KrólikiewiczStarsFranciszek TrzeciakBeata TyszkiewiczBeata TumkiewiczMichal Toporny is a poor country boy whose determination and hard work help him climb the social ladder and become the head of a large factory in the city. But at what cost?
- DirectorNicolas RoegStarsJenny AgutterDavid GulpililLuc RoegTwo city-bred siblings are stranded in the Australian Outback, where they learn to survive with the aid of an Aboriginal boy on his "walkabout": a ritual separation from his tribe.
- DirectorRobert AltmanStarsSusannah YorkRene AuberjonoisMarcel BozzuffiWhilst writing a children's book, a woman interrupted by images unsure if they may, or may not be real
- DirectorRobert AltmanStarsShelley DuvallSissy SpacekJanice RuleTwo roommates/physical therapists, one a vain woman and the other an awkward teenager, share an increasingly bizarre relationship.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsTom CruiseNicole KidmanTodd FieldA Manhattan doctor embarks on a bizarre, night-long odyssey after his wife's admission of unfulfilled longing.
- DirectorLars von TrierStarsMichael ElphickEsmond KnightMe Me LaiA cop in a dystopian Europe investigates a serial killings suspect using controversial methods written by his now disgraced former mentor.
- DirectorDon LevyStarsMichael GothardGabriella LicudiPeter StephensWhen young poet Max (Michael Gothard) hires a marketing company to turn his suicide-by-jumping into a mass-media spectacle, he finds that his subversive intentions are quickly diluted into a reactionary gesture, and his motivations are revealed as a desperate attempt to seek attention through celebrity.
- DirectorPavel JurácekStarsLubomír KostelkaKlára JernekováMilena ZahrynowskaLemuel Gulliver (Lubomír Kostelka) has had a car accident and continues his journey across the unknown countryside on foot. On the road he finds a dead rabbit dressed like a man and takes a watch from its waistcoat breast pocket. The half-ruined house that he enters reminds Lemuel of his childhood and brings up a painful memory of a dearly loved girl Markéta who was drowned years ago. Gulliver finds himself in Balnibarbi, a country where he doesn't understand the laws and habits and so continually offends against public decency. It is a day when people are ordered to keep their mouths shut and they force their visitor to follow suit. He faces harsh interrogation and finds it difficult to explain that he is not the rabbit Oscar whose watch has been found in his possession.
- DirectorLouis MalleStarsCathryn HarrisonTherese GiehseAlexandra StewartTo escape a gender war, a girl flees to a remote farmhouse and becomes part of an extensive family's unusual, perhaps even supernatural, lifestyle.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsDelphine SeyrigGiorgio AlbertazziSacha PitoëffIn a strange and isolated chateau, a man becomes acquainted with a woman and insists that they have met before.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsDelphine SeyrigJean-Pierre KérienNita KleinIn the seaside town of Boulogne, no one seems to be able to cope with their past, least of all Hélène, an antique furniture saleswoman, her stepson Bernard, and her former lover Alphonse.
- DirectorDanny BoyleStarsJames McAvoyRosario DawsonVincent CasselAn art auctioneer mixed up with a group of criminals partners with a hypnotherapist in order to recover a lost painting.
- DirectorGyula GazdagStarsEvald SchormIstván IglódiLili MonoriTwo librettists, Mr. Rezso and Mr. Dezso arrive and pluck people living in a bare valley, in order to turn them into operetta characters. The two librettists come up with a plot in which selected young men and women are designated into two opposing groups, both claiming ownership and intending to take possession and restore a house in ruin. Their fierce battle is anticipated to turn into blissful love by the end. While the librettists attempt to shepherd judiciously the youngsters' relationships in the desired direction, the enactment is constantly derailed. Whenever the characters' instincts follow natural impulses, the creators relentlessly correct digressions, reverse undesired developments, sometimes by rewinding time and reenacting events, shaped into their liking. The Ageless Goddess of operetta appears and irons out the scheme by performing a Socialist Realist lullaby from 1947. Finally, all resemblance to the characters' original individuality is converted into clichés of operetta characters. The couples and their adversaries have been fixed into their happy matrimonial lives ever after.
- DirectorDarren AronofskyStarsNatalie PortmanMila KunisVincent CasselNina is a talented but unstable ballerina on the verge of stardom. Pushed to the breaking point by her artistic director and a seductive rival, Nina's grip on reality slips, plunging her into a waking nightmare.
- DirectorJack BondStarsJane ArdenDavid de KeyserAnn LynnSeparation concerns the inner life of a woman during a period of breakdown - marital, and possibly mental. Her past and (possible?) future are revealed through a fragmented narrative.
- DirectorJane ArdenStarsSheila AllenJane ArdenJack BondJane Arden's surreal take on a group of females in a therapy session.
- DirectorShawn LindenStarsCostas MandylorDarren WallEd O'RossA nameless assassin is hunted through the dark streets of an empty city, pursued by the mysterious man he had just killed...
- DirectorMarina de VanStarsSophie MarceauMonica BellucciAndrea Di StefanoA psychodrama about a photographer whose pictures tell a different story to that of her perception.
- DirectorFrançois OzonStarsCharlotte RamplingBruno CremerJacques NolotWhen her husband goes missing at the beach, a female professor begins to mentally disintegrate as her denial of his disappearance becomes delusional.
- DirectorMohsen MakhmalbafStarsShaghayeh DjodatHossein MoharamiRogheih MoharamiWhen an old couple washes their gabbeh - a type of Persian rug - a young woman magically appears and tells them her life story.
- DirectorMichel GondryStarsGael García BernalCharlotte GainsbourgMiou-MiouA man entranced by his dreams and imagination is love-struck with a French woman and feels he can show her his world.
- DirectorMichel GondryStarsRomain DurisAudrey TautouGad ElmalehWealthy, inventive bachelor Colin endeavors to find a cure for his lover Chloe after she's diagnosed with an unusual illness caused by a flower growing in her lungs.
- DirectorAlain Robbe-GrilletStarsFrançoise BrionJacques Doniol-ValcrozeGuido CelanoA sad man meets a beautiful, secretive woman who may or may not be involved in some conspiracy ring dealing in kidnapped women used as prostitutes. After several days of their sadly passionate relationship she disappears. The sad man is unable to locate her as all the local Turkish people pretend not to remember any such woman. He suddenly finds her again (she finds him?) and before she can explain her disappearance she is killed in a car crash while he is in the passenger seat. He replays the accident over and over in his mind trying to remember how she died if he caused the accident himself by grabbing the wheel.
- DirectorAlain Robbe-GrilletStarsCatherine JourdanPierre ZimmerRichard LeducA group of French students are drawn into the psychological and sexual games of a mysterious Dutchman. Once they sample his "fear powder" the students experience a series of hallucinations.
- DirectorAlain Robbe-GrilletStarsCatherine JourdanPierre ZimmerRichard LeducThis enigmatic narrative and its outre content are pushed several degrees closer to total madness which scrambles an already ambiguous chronology to the point of free form collage.
- DirectorAlain Robbe-GrilletStarsDaniel MesguichCyrielle ClairDaniel EmilforkWalter is told by his boss, Sara, to deliver an urgent letter to Henri de Corinthe. On the way he finds a beautiful woman he had been eying in a nightclub, lying in the road, bound up. He takes her to a villa to get a doctor, and ends up being locked in a bedroom with her. While she is making love to him, he has visions of surrealistic images from René Magritte's paintings. In the morning, the girl, Marie-Ange, has vanished, the villa looks derelict, and his neck is bleeding. Was it all just a nightmare?
- DirectorAlain Robbe-GrilletStarsAnicée AlvinaOlga Georges-PicotMichael LonsdaleA cult erotic drama from the perverse imagination of Alain Robbe-Grillet, SUCCESSIVE SLIDINGS OF PLEASURE delves into the twisted mind of a young woman suspected in the stabbing death of her roommate Nora.
- DirectorHélène CattetBruno ForzaniStarsCassandra ForêtCharlotte Eugène GuibeaudMarie BosAs a young girl Ana was a rebellious child. She was also tormented by images of death and a shadowy, ominous figure in black. Now an adult, she is once again tormented by shadowy, other-worldly forms.
- DirectorHélène CattetBruno ForzaniStarsKlaus TangeUrsula BedenaJoe KoenerReturning home from a business trip to discover his wife missing, a man delves deeper and deeper into a surreal kaleidoscope of half-baked leads, seduction, deceit, and murder. Does anyone in the building know something?
- DirectorNicolas Winding RefnStarsMads MikkelsenMaarten StevensonAlexander MortonForced for some time to be a fighting slave, a pagan warrior escapes his captors with a boy and joins a group of Crusaders on their quest to the Holy Land.
- DirectorPaul KingStarsEdward HoggSimon FarnabyVerónica EcheguiA young shut-in takes an imaginary road trip inside his apartment, based on mementos and memories of a European trek from years before.
- DirectorDominique AbelFiona GordonBruno RomyStarsLucy TulugarjukFiona GordonDominique AbelFiona, Julien and their two clone-like children live a life appropriate to the robots they have become, in a style-less, cheerless suburb somewhere in the flatlands of French-speaking Europe. Even the simple act of buttering and eating a roll takes on the appearance of an assembly line. When Fiona, who manages a fast-food restaurant, accidentally locks herself in the restaurant's walk-in freezer overnight, her family doesn't even miss her. She realizes how pointless her life has become and runs away; to seek happiness, put her life right again and perhaps to visit the icebergs with which she begins an obsession. On a bus trip to nowhere, she becomes friendly with an older lady, Fernande, who offers Fiona a place to stay and diversion in her seaside community. There, Fiona becomes attracted to René, who owns a small sailboat, and has been a deaf-mute since a fire in which his parents died. In time, the pair embark on a sailing voyage, unknowingly pursued by the persistent Julien, who has managed to track Fiona down. When the men squabble and fall overboard, Fiona sets sail for the polar regions with a vengeance, ultimately tearing the bottom out of the boat on - you guessed it - an iceberg! Miraculously, the three castaways are all fished out of the ocean by Lucy, an Inuit girl who operates a commercial fishing boat. The final resolution of the love triangle caps the farcical nature of this unusual film.
- DirectorJustin BensonAaron MoorheadStarsAaron MoorheadJustin BensonCallie HernandezAs kids, they escaped a UFO death cult. Now, two adult brothers seek answers after an old videotape surfaces and brings them back to where they began.
- DirectorGuy MaddinStarsIsabella RosselliniMark McKinneyMaria de MedeirosA musical of sorts set in Winnipeg during the Great Depression, where a beer baroness organizes a contest to find the saddest music in the world. Musicians from around the world descend on the city to try and win the $25,000 prize.
- DirectorBill WattersonStarsMeera Rohit KumbhaniNick ThuneAdam BuschDave, an artist who has yet to complete anything significant in his career, builds a fort in his living room out of pure frustration, only to wind up trapped by the fantastical pitfalls, booby traps, and critters of his own creation.
- DirectorChristopher SmithStarsMelissa GeorgeJoshua McIvorJack TaylorFive friends set sail and their yacht is overturned by a strange and sudden storm. A mysterious ship arrives to rescue them, and what happens next cannot be explained.
- DirectorShane CarruthStarsAmy SeimetzFrank MosleyShane CarruthA man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives.
- DirectorNicolas KlotzStarsMathieu AmalricMichael LonsdaleEdith ScobA psychologist discovers troubling links between Nazism and modern-day big business.
- DirectorGaspar NoéStarsNathaniel BrownPaz de la HuertaCyril RoyAn American drug dealer living in Tokyo is betrayed by his best friend and killed in a drug deal. His soul, observing the repercussions of his death, seeks resurrection.
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsAlisa FreyndlikhAleksandr KaydanovskiyAnatoliy SolonitsynA guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.
- DirectorAna Lily AmirpourStarsSheila VandArash MarandiMarshall ManeshIn the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.
- DirectorKrzysztof KieslowskiStarsIrène JacobWladyslaw KowalskiHalina GryglaszewskaTwo parallel stories about two identical women; one living in Poland, the other in France. They don't know each other, but their lives are nevertheless profoundly connected.
- DirectorLeos CaraxStarsDenis LavantEdith ScobEva MendesA man boards a limousine to be driven to his day's work: nine mysterious "appointments."
- DirectorAdrian LyneStarsTim RobbinsElizabeth PeñaDanny AielloMourning his dead child, a haunted Vietnam War veteran attempts to uncover his past while suffering from a severe case of dissociation. To do so, he must decipher reality and life from his own dreams, delusions, and perceptions of death.
- DirectorStefan UherStarsJolanta UmeckaLadislav MrkvickaOtakar JandaA group of artists meets a beautiful and mysterious woman called Anabella, and all of them experience passion, dreams and get inspired by her.
- DirectorRoy AnderssonStarsLars NordhStefan LarssonBengt C.W. CarlssonWhere are we humans going? A film poem inspired by the Peruvian poet César Vallejo. We meet people in the city. People trying to communicate, searching compassion and get the connection of small and large things.
- DirectorAlejandro JodorowskyStarsAlejandro JodorowskyHoracio SalinasZamira SaundersIn a corrupt, greed-fueled world, a powerful alchemist leads a messianic character and seven materialistic figures to the Holy Mountain, where they hope to achieve enlightenment.
- DirectorAlejandro JodorowskyStarsAxel JodorowskyBlanca GuerraGuy StockwellA former circus artist escapes from a mental hospital to rejoin his armless mother - the leader of a strange religious cult - and is forced to enact brutal murders in her name as he becomes "her arms".
- DirectorCharlie McDowellStarsMark DuplassElisabeth MossTed DansonA troubled couple vacate to a beautiful getaway, but bizarre circumstances further complicate their situation.
- DirectorAvery DanzigerSarah SteinThis film takes you on an extraordinary journey into the world of the Surrealists as the life and accomplishments of the surrealist collector, poet, and architect Edward James unfolds. For the last 20 years of his life, aided by 40 full time laborers and craftsmen, he built one of the biggest and yet least known architectural monuments of the 20th century,dedicated to Surrealism and hidden in the jungles of Mexico. He created over 36 extraordinary concrete structures, some over 100 feet high, at a personal cost exceeding 5 million dollars.
- DirectorMonte HellmanStarsTygh RunyanDominique SwainShannyn SossamonA young filmmaker gets wrapped up in a crime while shooting his new project on location.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsMatt DillonMickey RourkeDiane LaneAbsent-minded street thug Rusty James struggles to live up to his legendary older brother's reputation, and longs for the days of gang warfare.
- DirectorAnthony HopkinsStarsAnthony HopkinsStella HopkinsChristian SlaterAging screenwriter Felix Bonhoeffer has lived his life in two states of existence: in reality and his own interior world. While working on a murder mystery script, and unaware that his brain is on the verge of implosion, Felix is baffled when his characters start to appear in his life, and vice versa.
- DirectorPéter GothárStarsMárk ZalaKati LázárGyula Bodrogi
- DirectorSatoshi KonStarsJunko IwaoRica MatsumotoShinpachi TsujiA pop singer gives up her career to become an actress, but she slowly goes insane when she starts being stalked by an obsessed fan and what seems to be a ghost of her past.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsMax von SydowLiv UllmannGertrud FridhWhile vacationing on a remote German island with his younger pregnant wife, an artist has an emotional breakdown while confronting his repressed desires.
- DirectorAlain Robbe-GrilletStarsJames WilbyArielle DombasleDany Verissimo-PetitAn orientalist professor researching Delacroix's North African work becomes entangled in an S&M waking dream in Morocco.
- DirectorScott McGeheeDavid SiegelStarsDennis HaysbertMel HarrisSab ShimonoAfter his brother tries to kill him, a man survives only to find himself in another man's body.
- DirectorYuri IlyenkoStarsBoris KhmelnitskiyLarisa KadochnikovaYefim FridmanPiotr is a modest farmhand living in an impoverished village in some unspecified long ago era. He wants to marry the lovely Pidorka, but her stern father won't hear of it. Luckily, the mischievous demon Bassaruv is loose in the land, and offers him a deal.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsFernando ReyCarole BouquetÁngela MolinaRecounted in flashback are the romantic perils of Mathieu, a middle-aged French sophisticate as he falls for his nineteen-year-old former chambermaid Conchita.
- DirectorNicholas TomnayStarsDavid Hyde PierceClayne CrawfordNathaniel ParkerAn on-the-run convict looking for temporary cover finds it at the house of a very colorful character.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsClaude RichOlga Georges-PicotAnouk FerjacAfter attempting suicide, Claude is recruited for a time travel experiment, but, when the machine goes haywire, he may be trapped hurtling through his memories.
- DirectorJan NemecStarsLadislav JánskyAntonín KumberaIlse BischofovaTwo Jewish boys escape from a train transporting them from one concentration camp to another. The film goes beyond the themes of war and anti-Nazism and concerns itself with man's struggle to preserve human dignity.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsGriffin DunneRosanna ArquetteVerna BloomAn ordinary word processor has the worst night of his life after he agrees to visit a girl in Soho he met that evening at a coffee shop.