12 films that challenge your intellect

Metropolis

• Fiction, thriller, drama.
• Germany, 1927.
• Directed by Fritz Lang.
• Duration: 145 minutes.
• IMDb: 8,3.

Fritz Lang created the first film in the genre of dystopia. For its time special effects in the film were astounding. Imagine: in 1927 and in the frame the fantastic scenery, a futuristic metropolis and robots.

But it did not "Metropolis" legendary picture. Raised more important social problems that represents divided into two levels of the city. The creation Lang intertwine different motives (the biblical opposition of Heaven and Hell, artificial intelligence) that seamlessly flow into each other.

Un Chien Andalou

• Horror, fantasy.
• France, 1929.
• Directed by Luis Buñuel.
• Duration: 17 min.
• IMDb: 7,8.

The film dreams are Dali and Bunuel. The screen turns chaotic action: a man looks at the moon, then picks up the blade and cuts the eyes sitting near girls. Characters commit senseless acts between the events taking place is difficult to find a logical connection.

But the film is unconscious logic. Surrealistic method involves the creative reproduction of random images with the aim to give a voice to the unconscious. In the picture a lot of references to psychoanalysis.

citizen Kane

• Drama, Detective.
• United States, 1941.
• Director: Orson Welles.
• Duration: 119 minutes.
• IMDb: 8,4.

If the audience ratings of the best films in the history usually wins, "The Shawshank Redemption", the professional film critics in the charts first place often gets "Citizen Kane."

Movie - it's not just the story and the acting. Due to the composition, light and filling the frame "Citizen Kane" in its time was revolutionary film.

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Dizziness

• Thriller, Romance, Detective.
• USA, 1958.
• Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
• Duration: 129 minutes.
• IMDb: 8,4.

Hitchcock films appealing to a mass audience. "Vertigo" - excellent Detective story. But in every Hitchcock film, there are complex symbols.

In "Vertigo" is one and the same element - spiral - appears at different levels: visual, narrative, psychological. Motive constant repetition, motion from false to true and back permeates the film. The composition of the painting connects the starting point with the final between which the events of the film.

Visual dialectic Hitchcock's complex and ambiguous. This is supported by a dozen different interpretations of the film. See the movie and self-reflect on them.

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Breathless

• Drama, Crime.
• France, 1960.
• Director: Jean-Luc Godard.
• Duration: 90 min.
• IMDb: 7,9.

"Breathless" - one of the most prominent representatives of the French "New Wave" movement, which had been cultured author, a non-profit approach to filmmaking. It then began to experiment with camera angles, facial features characters that would later become the norm in the film industry.

In Godard's film can be seen innovative techniques that in the classical school of cinema could be assessed just as negligence: rough field joints, free treatment with the camera, switch it to the event row.

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8 and a half

• Drama, Fantasy.
• Italy, France, 1963.
• Director: Federico Fellini.
• Duration: 138 minutes.
• IMDb: 8,1.

The best works of many directors devoted to the theme of filmmaking. Perhaps because this topic is close to the director. The personal nature of the film "8 and a half" is obvious: the prototype of the hero Guido Anselmi - Fellini himself.

Film is an analysis of the creative process director. But it is not rational, logical analysis. Fellini tries to visually reflect the processes that remain outside of awareness, this explains the incoherence, the senselessness of many scenes.

Guido could not collect his film together, and Fellini's film is not something to be finished and decorated. Fellini did not create "8 and a half" as a film in the usual sense of the word. This is not the result of his search, and it is the very process of searching.

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Andrei Rublev

• Drama, Biography, History.
• USSR, 1966.
• Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky.
• Duration: 175 min.
• IMDb: 8,4.

"Andrei Rublev" - a film about Russia and her fate. When raised, these threads have the Russian people begin torments of conscience, mental anguish, there is awareness of the causes of the endless turmoil and doubt.

Russian soul does not know where he is and why it should move, and blames this ignorance itself. All this is read in the mood "Andrei Rublev". Tarkovsky offers his vision of Russian spirituality, but it is uncertain.

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2001: A Space Odyssey

• Fantasy adventure.
• United Kingdom, United States, 1968.
• Director: Stanley Kubrick.
• Duration: 149 minutes.
• IMDb: 8,3.

This film - a visual explanation of what movie, what is its unique feature as an aesthetic product. Slowness of events allows to enter the first cinematic language plan. When spaceships waltz against the backdrop of endless space, when the bright red eyes artificial intelligence recognized in the sense of fear, the viewer experiences a genuine thrill.

In terms of perspective, "2001: A Space Odyssey" is simply immense. This interpretation of the history of mankind, reflections on human nature, the beauty of the universe and the boundaries of reason.

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Zed and Two Noughts

• Drama, comedy.
• UK, Netherlands, 1985.
• Director: Peter Greenaway.
• Duration: 115 minutes.
• IMDb: 7,5.

Director handwriting is recognizable: the allocation of close-up, frame symmetry, musical minimalism. It seems that things Greenaway interested in more than the people. He continually demonstrates apples, dead shrimp, the music player. People here - a tribute to tradition, without which the movie will not be accepted.

That's the theme of "Zed and Two Noughts" selected unusual. Greenaway's not interested in death, traditionally opposed to life, and the expansion - the destruction of organic matter, the reverse process of natural development. Since the film - visual art, the director simply must explore a sanctuary of the story of a living organism, as an expansion.

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Dreams of Akira Kurosawa

• Drama, Fantasy.
• Japan, USA, 1990.
• Directed by: Akira Kurosawa, Honda Isiro.
• Duration: 119 minutes.
• IMDb: 7,8.

Kurosawa - original director. His paintings are interesting by the fact that they are imbued with Japanese folklore, ideology and beliefs. Therefore, the Western audience manage to see in the films of Kurosawa small part nested in them ideas.

"Akira Kurosawa's Dreams" - eight stories that do not involve a single storyline. They can be interpreted in different ways, but they are beautiful and look like animated paintings by Van Gogh. He, incidentally, is dedicated to one of the dreams.

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Mulholland Drive

• Thriller, Drama, Detective.
• France, USA, 2001.
• Director: David Lynch.
• Duration: 147 minutes.
• IMDb: 8,0.

After watching this movie, you'll be at a loss and found that something is missing. But if you again carefully review the "Mulholland Drive", will form part of the mosaic into a single dramatic history.

Playing with composition - is not just a whim of the director. Thanks to the original scenario, Lynch was able to demonstrate the work of the unconscious.

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Coffee and Cigarettes

• Drama, comedy.
• USA, Japan, Italy, 2003.
• Director: Jim Jarmusch.
• Duration: 95 min.
• IMDb: 7,1.

People come to the cafe, drink coffee, Smoking cigarettes and talking on everyday topics. Nothing happens, the story itself is not. Jarmusch film was made to satisfy the human need for beauty.

"Coffee and Cigarettes" - a beautiful film, which bears no special meaning. That's the kind of idea of ​​the picture is.

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What kind of auteur films memorable to you?