Lynchian Movies. Best Lynchian movies not directed by David Lynch himself.
Lynchian Movies. Best Lynchian movies not directed by David Lynch himself.
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1. Check out best Tarantino Like movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls015341630/[/link] .
2. Check out best Felliniesque movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls015216162/[/link] .
3. Check out best Lynchian movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls015263842/[/link] .
4. Check out best Hitchcockian movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls071418428/ [/link].
5. Check out best Lovecraftian movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls020140482/ [/link].
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His themes include the dark side of society that is barley hidden, the mechanical world created by industry, dream/nightmare like logic and feelings, and Americana.
His techniques include surrealist imagery, ambient noise, a mixed color palette, stylized costuming, and soft lighting.
Lynch hallmarks: body horror, sexual kinks, dark humor, beautiful cinematography, overall sense of dread, and that humming sound.
********
1. Check out best Tarantino Like movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls015341630/[/link] .
2. Check out best Felliniesque movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls015216162/[/link] .
3. Check out best Lynchian movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls015263842/[/link] .
4. Check out best Hitchcockian movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls071418428/ [/link].
5. Check out best Lovecraftian movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls020140482/ [/link].
********
His themes include the dark side of society that is barley hidden, the mechanical world created by industry, dream/nightmare like logic and feelings, and Americana.
His techniques include surrealist imagery, ambient noise, a mixed color palette, stylized costuming, and soft lighting.
Lynch hallmarks: body horror, sexual kinks, dark humor, beautiful cinematography, overall sense of dread, and that humming sound.
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- DirectorRichard KellyStarsJake GyllenhaalJena MaloneMary McDonnellAfter narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.Who made it? Richard Kelly, he became a cult star with “Donnie Darko”, a stylistic mystery movie which is original yet owing so much to other films and filmmakers.
What is it about? The movie is about a troubled teenager who is obsessed with visions of a large bunny rabbit that make him commit a series of crimes.
What is Lynchian about this movie? It is not impossible to think about Lynch’s three rabbits whenever you see the large mysterious bunny in “Donnie Darko”. Meanwhile, it is the overall sense of mystery and odd occurrences that make you feel you are watching a movie by David Lynch.
Richard Kelly interestingly built his story with enigmatic elements and dreams. The empty silent city is not much different from Lynchian cities in “Blue Velvet” and “Lost Highway”. What you may never forget after watching “Donnie Darko” are Donnie’s (Jake Gyllenhaal’s) eyes, he somehow looks like Kyle MacLachlan, but deadly sinister. - DirectorDarren AronofskyStarsSean GulletteMark MargolisBen ShenkmanA paranoid mathematician searches for a key number that will unlock the universal patterns found in nature.Who made it? Darren Aronofsky, who was 29 at the time when making the movie and now is considered one of the masters of contemporary American cinema with movies such as “Requiem for a Dream” and “Black Swan”.
What is it about? A math scientist discovers something mysterious about the number Pi that can change the world and now different groups of people want to get to this number.
What is Lynchian about this movie? Today Pi is a cult film like Eraserhead, but Aronofsky’s debut owes so much to David Lynch’s debut. Both films are shot in grainy black and white with the minimum imaginable budget. Both films managed to make a reputation for their young directors as future masters of composition.
Pi is not that dreamy, however the way it narrates the story of its main character and the way it leads to the final sequence in which he drills his head are so Lynchian that you just cannot forget about the Eraserhead ending. Aronofsky’s use of sounds is also another Lynchian element in the movie. - DirectorSpike JonzeStarsJohn CusackCameron DiazCatherine KeenerA puppeteer discovers a portal that leads literally into the head of movie star John Malkovich.Who made it? Charlie Kaufman (“Adaptation”) as the writer and Spike Jonze (“Her”) as the director.
What is it about? Craig Schwartz is an unemployed puppeteer who accidentally finds a way that can make him see the world from John Malkovich’s eyes.
What is Lynchian about this movie? The story is so crazy that you can only consider David Lynch as its director, however hard scriptwriter Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze try to make a movie that is as much as their own as it owes to Luis Bunuel and David Lynch.
The movie also has a scene where we see everyone as Malkovich, a funny yet unsettling scene that is so much Lynchian. The movie may not look like any particular movie of Lynch, but its overall mood is pure Lynchian. - DirectorShin'ya TsukamotoStarsTomorô TaguchiKei FujiwaraNobu KanaokaA businessman accidentally kills The Metal Fetishist, who gets his revenge by slowly turning the man into a grotesque hybrid of flesh and rusty metal.Who made it? Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto who once made “Tstsuo: Iron Man” and now famous for Tetsuo, its sequels and also “A Snake of June”.
What is it about? It is a story of a man named Metal Fetishist who likes to put metals into his body!
What is Lynchian about this movie? Like Pi, this movie (shot in 16mm) is also a grainy black and white movie with bizarre elements which are Lynchian (think about the surgical scenes of inserting metals in the flesh).
The bizarre story and its extremely graphic scenes (those so-called erotic ones and also the gore ones), which at some points are strangely funny, can only be understood if you decide that you are watching a Lynchian movie that is happening in a world of sick imaginations. - 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.Who made it? Satoshi Kon, who died prematurely at the age of 46 in 2010 and has made interesting animes such as “Paprika”.
What is it about? A pop idol leaves her band to become an actress.
What is Lynchian about this movie? The movie is made long before “Mulholland Drive.”, however both movies are so close thematically.
“Perfect Blue” is not so panoramic in its story-telling and only focuses on a single singer/actress, but its narrative strategy of an innocent singer turning to an actress of nude scene is so much close to Lynch’s ideology about Hollywood in “Mulholland Drive.” The interesting thing is that in “Perfect Blue” the line between reality and fiction, sanity and insanity is blurred in a way that is purely Lynchian. - DirectorPeter StricklandStarsToby JonesAntonio MancinoGuido AdorniA sound engineer's work for an Italian horror studio becomes a terrifying case of life imitating art.Who made it? Peter Strickland made it as his debut; he then made “The Duke of Burgundy” which was acclaimed by critics worldwide.
What is it about? A British sound engineer is employed to made sounds for a giallo movie.
What is Lynchian about this movie? “Berberian sound Studio” is a giallo movie without gore and it pays homage to giallo movies of the 1970’s.
However, the focus of the movie on its lonely sound engineer and its aesthetic emphasis (fine use of brown and red color) on colors and sounds make it like a giallo movie made by David Lynch. By the way, “Berberian Sound Studio” is about gradual madness in a claustrophobic environment much similar to what we see in Lynch movies. - DirectorTarsem SinghStarsJennifer LopezVince VaughnVincent D'OnofrioAn F.B.I. Agent persuades a social worker, who is adept with a new experimental technology, to enter the mind of a comatose serial killer in order to learn where he has hidden his latest kidnap victim.Who made it? Indian-American filmmaker Tarsem Singh, who is now famous for directing “Mirror Mirror”, made “The Cell” which brought him fame.
What is it about? Child psychologist Catherine Deane helps FBI to locate the last victim of a serial killer.
What is Lynchian about this movie? While the movie may look like long video clips with beautiful images, it is actually a movie about the labyrinth of a sick mind in which our journey is no different from what we take when watching Lynch’s dreamy scenes. - DirectorPhilip RidleyStarsViggo MortensenLindsay DuncanJeremy CooperIn the 1950s, a young boy living with his troublesome family in rural USA fantasizes that a neighboring widow is actually a vampire, responsible for a number of disappearances in the area.Who made it? The director and writer of this eerie film is British filmmaker Philip Ridely who is best known for writing “The Krays” for Peter Medak.
What is it about? Eight-year-old Steve thinks that a local widow is a vampire.
What is Lynchian about this movie? “The Reflecting Skin” is one of the forgotten movies of the 1990’s, a somehow surrealistic movie that shows the dark side of a rural city in a way that Lynch displays in “Blue Velvet”.
Ridely’s image may not be as subtle as Lynch’s compositions; however, his Freudian psychology is very close to Lynch’s notion of the relationship between men and women. Only few directors managed to change a young boy’s laughter to something sinister, Ridely has done this in “The Reflecting Sky”. Steve’s laughter is so much like Dennis Hopper’s laughter in “The Blue Velvet”. - 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.Who made it? “Jacob’s Ladder” is an odd choice for director Adrian Lyne who is famous for sexually charged movies such as “Fatal Attraction” and “9 ½ Weeks”.
What is it about? A Vietnam War veteran tries to remember his past in the days after the death of his child.
What is Lynchian about this movie? While the movie is in many ways biblical, its non-linear storytelling and the blurry line between reality and fiction owes so much to Lynch and his cinema. Something that makes this movie Lynchian is its homage to Fancis Bacon paintings, especially those scenes that deal with Jacob Singer’s headaches (yes, it’s like those transformation scenes in “Lost Highway”). - DirectorCameron CroweStarsTom CruisePenélope CruzCameron DiazA self-indulgent and vain publishing magnate finds his privileged life upended after a vehicular accident with a resentful lover.Who made it? Academy Award winner Cameron Crowe, who is known for “Jerry Maguire” and “Almost Famous”, made this movie which was hailed by critics.
What is it about? An accident changes the balanced world of David Aames, a publishing manager.
What is Lynchian about this movie? Though the movie is made based on Alejandro Amenabar’s “Open Your Eyes”, “Vanilla Sky” is not just a thriller like the original Spanish movie. “Vanilla Sky” defies psychological thriller rules and tries to be something more than a subtle studio production movie. The movie interestingly tries to show how dream is a better place than reality and how cinema manages to make a better world for us.
You may not find anything Lynchian about the movie at first glance, but there are certain sequences like David’s dream of wandering lonely in the city that makes you feel David Lynch was present when the movie was made. And also note how Lynch’s idea about blonde vs. brunette / femme fatale vs. innocent girl is present in the movie. - DirectorAlejandro AmenábarStarsEduardo NoriegaPenélope CruzChete LeraA very handsome man finds the love of his life, but he suffers an accident and needs to have his face rebuilt by surgery after it is severely disfigured.Vanilla sky is a remake of Open your eyes.
- DirectorDenis VilleneuveStarsJake GyllenhaalMélanie LaurentSarah GadonA man seeks out his exact look-alike after spotting him in a movie.Although it's Magical Realism rather than being tinged with Surrealism, you might catch a serious Lost Highway vibe from it.
- DirectorRichard AyoadeStarsJesse EisenbergMia WasikowskaWallace ShawnThe unenviable life of a government-agency clerk takes a horrific turn with the arrival of a new co-worker who is both his exact physical double and his opposite otherwise--he's a confident, charismatic ladies' man.
- DirectorStephan LacantStarsHanno KofflerMax RiemeltAttila BorlanA soon-to-be-father policeman falls for a gay fellow officer and his life starts falling apart.
- DirectorTakashi MiikeStarsYûta SoneKimika YoshinoShohei HinoA yakuza enforcer is ordered to secretly drive his beloved colleague to be assassinated. But when the colleague unceremoniously disappears en route, the trip that follows is a twisted, surreal and horrifying experience.
- DirectorNicolas Winding RefnStarsRyan GoslingKristin Scott ThomasVithaya PansringarmJulian, a drug-smuggler thriving in Bangkok's criminal underworld, sees his life get even more complicated when his mother compels him to find and kill whoever is responsible for his brother's recent death.
- DirectorNicolas Winding RefnStarsJohn TurturroDeborah Kara UngerStephen Eric McIntyreWhen his wife is killed in a seemingly random incident Harry (Turturro), prompted by mysterious visions, journeys to discover the true circumstances surrounding her murder.
- DirectorNeil JordanStarsStephen ReaJaye DavidsonForest WhitakerA British soldier kidnapped by the IRA soon befriends one of his captors, who then becomes drawn into the soldier's world.
- DirectorVincent GalloStarsVincent GalloChristina RicciBen GazzaraAfter being released from prison, Billy is set to visit his parents with his wife, whom he does not actually have. This provokes Billy to act out, as he kidnaps a girl and forces her to act as his wife for the visit.
- 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.Think of it as an americanized 'Perfect Blue'
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsJack NicholsonShelley DuvallDanny LloydA family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.David Lynch is a huge fan of Kubrick's and has been quoted in interviews as being influenced by his work. Kubrick showed Eraserhead to the cast and crew of The Shining and set out to capture a similar atmosphere of dread and fear. As much as The Shining is inherently Kubrickian, it is also intentionally Lynchian.
- DirectorRichard KellyStarsDwayne JohnsonSarah Michelle GellarSeann William ScottDuring a three-day heat wave just before a huge 4th of July celebration, an action star stricken with amnesia meets up with a porn star who is developing her own reality TV project, and a policeman who holds the key to a vast conspiracy.
- DirectorMartin DonovanStarsChristopher ReeveMarg HelgenbergerFionnula FlanaganDespite her husband's doubts, a woman reaches out to her dead daughter with a psychiatrist's help.
- DirectorMartin DonovanStarsAmanda DonohoeDalton JamesNatasha Gregson WagnerA high school substitute English teacher resorts to murder to protect her murderous dark past while seducing a student who begins to suspect her true identity.
- DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsPeter WellerJudy DavisIan HolmAfter developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally kills his wife and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in a port town in North Africa.Naked Lunch is a film about a guy who kills his wife on insect powder than goes on the run in a land where typewriters and have faces.