Songs from the Second Floor (2000)
Aug 19, 2001Surreal Vignettes
From Swedish director Roy Andersson, a series of plotless, surreal vignettes pitched with black humour
Arte France Cinema
Trouble Every Day (2001)
Jun 13, 2023Sex and Cannibalism
Acclaimed director Claire Denis makes a quite out there film in which people are obsessively driven to devour others during the act of sex
The PianoTuner of EarthQuakes (2005)
Nov 22, 2008Surrealism
The second feature film from the Quay Brothers, a bafflingly incomprehensible work of surrealism, strange designs and non-sequitir dialogue
Cold Souls (2009)
Mar 9, 2010Soul Extraction
Indie film in which Paul Giamatti goes to a company that specialises in removing the soul only to have his stolen. An SF film that feels like a Woody Allen comedy minus the one-liners
Antichrist (2009)
Nov 30, 2009Grief, Madness and Torture
Lars von Trier made this deeply unfathomable film after a bout of severe depression. Claimedly a work of misogyny, it features Willem Dafoe trying to deal with a deranged Charlotte Gainsbourg
Womb (2010)
May 5, 2020Cloning Film
The finest film made yet on the subject of cloning. A beautifully directed film that deals with the tricky ethical issues when Eva Green decides to give birth to a clone of her lover Matt Smith and raise him as her son.
Melancholia (2011)
Nov 20, 2011Depression and the End of the World
Lars von Trier’s exploration of his depression continues in this nihilistic end of the world film. It is bleak and relentless but the characters are opaque in their motivations. Somehow I prefer von Trier back in agent provocateur mode
Holy Motors (2012)
Oct 27, 2012Surrealism/Man's Cryptic Journey Through Various Disguises
Genuinely mind-screwing effort from Leos Carax. Imagine a version of Cosmopolis as hijacked by Alejandro Jodorowsky - a series of surreal vignettes that arrives at a major "huh?" ending
Witching and Bitching (2013)
Sep 12, 2014Town of Witches Comedy
Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia makes what is essentially a comedy version of From Dusk Till Dawn albeit with witches instead of vampires. This has one of the funniest openings I've seen in some time but thereafter dissipates into broadly farcical and overlong runnings around
April and the Extraordinary World (2015)
Nov 3, 2015Animation/Steampunk Alternate History Adventure
Animated film that takes place in a Steampunk alternate history. This brims over with an extraordinary degree of visual invention from the amazingly detailed vistas of the world to a script tossing in quirky twists and wacky inventions
The Red Turtle (2016)
Oct 10, 2016Animation/Castaway Befriends Turtle Woman
Studio Ghibli's first ever international co-production. A desert island castaway fantasy, this makes interesting comparison to the recent Robinson Crusoe/The Wild Life, even if both films are poles apart in style. This is dialogueless, spare and contained with a minimalism of plot and drama
Madame Hyde (2017)
Jul 13, 2020Gender-Reversed Jekyll and Hyde Film
A gender-flipped version of the Jekyll and Hyde story with Isabelle Huppert is a teacher who is walked over in every aspect of her life before she is changed by a strange electrical discharge
High Life (2018)
Apr 27, 2019Space Mission
The title suggests a film about stoners more than about a space mission. From acclaimed director Claire Denis, this is less the space realism of Gravity and more akin to Solaris and its mission crew falling apart
Dilili in Paris (2018)
May 24, 2021Animation/Journey Through Belle Epoque Paris
Michel Ocelot is one of the great underrated animators of the world. Here he makes an exquisite tribute to the Belle Epoque featuring appearances from names of the era and decked out in Steampunk inventions
Deerskin (2019)
Apr 25, 2021Man's Obsession With His Coat/Gonzo Comedy
Another of the strange surreal deadpan films from Quentin Dupieux about a man who buys a deerskin jacket that then speaks and urges him to eliminate everybody else who is wearing a jacket
Zombi Child (2019)
Nov 29, 2021Voodoo Film
An extraordinary French film that has nothing at all to do with flesh-eating zombies but delves into voodoo religion that expands out to makes contrasts with French colonialism with striking results
The Swarm (2020)
Jan 2, 2022Woman’s Obsession with Raising Killer Locusts
Not the classic Irwin Allen bad movie but a work of disturbed psychology about a woman who develops an unhealthy obsession with feeding locusts blood and turning them into a killer swarm
Titane (2021)
Oct 29, 2021Body Horror/Human-Machine Pregnancy
Julia Ducournau’s Cannes award-winning film is a challenging work that pushes boundaries into uncomfortable places. Not to mention comes with human and car sex scenes
Incredible But True (2022)
Apr 30, 2023Gonzo Comedy/Time Portal in the Basement
Another of Quentin Dupieux’s gonzo, surreal comedies where a married couple buy a house and find it has a portal that takes them twelve hours into the future, while making them younger