Surrealism in its best
A short list of the best surrealist films excluding kitsch and trash stylized as surreal.
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- 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.One of the best surrealistic masterpieces, very deep and suggestive, spiritual at the same time (which is rare combination with surreal), with a tangible touch of Zen - from cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky !
- DirectorAlejandro JodorowskyStarsAlejandro JodorowskyBrontis JodorowskyJosé LegarretaA mysterious black-clad gunfighter wanders a mystical Western landscape encountering multiple bizarre characters.A well-known, cult surrealistic western, rich with metaphors and symbols.
- 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".
- DirectorAlejandro JodorowskyStarsBrontis JodorowskyPamela FloresJeremias HerskovitsIn a little Chilean town, the son of an uprooted couple formed by a rigorous communist father and a loving but weak mother tries to pave his own path in a society that does not understand their Jewish-Ukrainian origins.
- DirectorAlejandro JodorowskyStarsTamara GarinaSergio KleinerDiana MariscalFando and his partially-paralyzed lover Lis search for the mythical city of Tar. Based on Jodorowsky's memories of a play by surrealist Fernando Arrabal.
- 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.
- DirectorMarc CaroJean-Pierre JeunetStarsRon PerlmanDaniel EmilforkJudith VittetA scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.Unsurpassed magnificent fusion of surrealism and steampunk! Flawless in every bit, from any side. A rare masterpiece!
- DirectorDave McKeanStarsStephanie LeonidasJason BarryRob BrydonIn a fantasy world of opposing kingdoms, a fifteen-year-old girl must find the fabled MirrorMask in order to save the kingdom and get home.Very cool and suggestive, a true feast for connoisseurs of spectacular artistic visuals.
- 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-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?
- DirectorFernando ArrabalStarsGerard BorlantJean ChalonFrançois ChateletRunning away from the police, Aden goes to the desert where he meets an uncivilized man who has a special link with Mother-Earth. He ends up by convincing the hermit to come along with him into another desert... the big town!Excellent movie created by maitre Arrabal himself. Zen-like narration with mystical overtones, and esoteric finale.
- DirectorFernando ArrabalStarsAnouk FerjacNúria EspertMahdi ChaouchDuring Spanish Civil War, young Fando navigates parents' clashing ideologies after father's arrest. Explores his imagination, friendships, views on sex and death amid family upheaval. Questions mother, seeks father's fate.
- DirectorStephen SayadianStarsMadeleine ReynalFox HarrisLaura AlbertThe granddaughter of an infamous doctor experiments with hormone and shock therapies at her asylum for the insane.Terribly underrated surrealistic-psychodelic masterpiece from M.Saydyan. Very colourful and quite bizarre. Back humour & dry wit developed around subconscious matters and psychiatry.
- DirectorTerry GilliamStarsJonathan PryceKim GreistRobert De NiroA bureaucrat in a dystopic society becomes an enemy of the state as he pursues the woman of his dreams.Very powerful, very picturesque, well-known and cult, dystopian, surreal movie from Terry Guilliam.
- DirectorAdan JodorowskyStarsAsia ArgentoAxel JodorowskyAndrés AbelWhen an opera singer loses her voice, her husband embarks on an odyssey through Miami's dark underworld to recover it through supernatural means.A little gem from Jodorowsky family.
- DirectorBen LewinStarsBob HoskinsJeff GoldblumNatasha RichardsonA farce, Hoskins plays a photographer who specializes in religious pictures who searches for a model for Jesus. He does a favor for a friend and finds himself doing a voice track for a porno movie with Natasha Richardson. Hoskins finds his model for Jesus in Jeff Goldblum and a romantic triangle begins in which Goldblum finds adoring crowds believing him to be Jesus and then begins to believe it himself.Excellent, trully one-of-a-kind, elegant & witty farce! Quite realistic visually, but totally surreal in the storyline, dialogues and most scenes.
- 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.Remarkable film based on few short stories of Bruno Schultz (aka "Polish Kafka"). The film is rather replete and rich in symbolism and meaning...
- DirectorMarc CaroJean-Pierre JeunetStarsMarie-Laure DougnacDominique PinonPascal BenezechPost-apocalyptic surrealist black comedy about the landlord of an apartment building who occasionally prepares a delicacy for his odd tenants.True masterpiece of absurdist surreal vision
. - 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.Superb creative adaptation of the cult novel (by Boris Vian) from Michael Gondry.
- 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.A nice elegant French film with rather cool 'stop-motion'-animated dreams.
- DirectorMarc RosenbushStarsDuane SharpKim ChanDebra MillerA nameless 'noir' detective, still mourning the loss of his wife, investigates a mysterious death in a Buddhist temple, but his logical, left-brained crime-solving skills are useless in the intuitive, non-linear world of Zen.A very nice surreal gem, which itself is somewhat made in the form of Zen koan !
- DirectorRichard ElfmanStarsGene CunninghamMarie-Pascale ElfmanVirginia RoseThe bizarre and musical tale of a girl who travels to another dimension through the gateway found in her family's basement.Bizarre extravanza done in esthetics of some surrealism and heavily flavoured with kitch...
- DirectorGeorgiy DaneliyaStarsStanislav LyubshinEvgeniy LeonovYuriy YakovlevTwo Russians push the wrong button on a strange device and end up on the telepathic planet Pluke with its strange societal norms.A very cool social satire in the form of absurd surrealistic scifi.
The film is very topical and relevant, as it shows the very absurdity & idiocy of modern "social values" and aspirations, leading to degradation and global ecological catastrophe... - DirectorGustav DeutschStarsStephanie CummingChristoph BachFlorentin GrollThe life of a fictional actress and the paintings of Edward Hopper illustrate 30 years of American history.A little slow and uneventful. Hopper's paintings in full.
- 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.