Rob Chiu recently uploaded an older fictional short film about innocent people displaced by war. Is it weird? Sufficiently. Is it great? Undoubtedly.
Tag Archives: 2005
SATURDAY SHORT: THE VISITOR (2005)
A solitary old woman senses that invisible presences surround her in this modern silent film with a strong, original piano score.
LIST CANDIDATE: LUNACY [SILENI] (2005)
Lunacy has been promoted onto the List of the 366 Weirdest Movies. Comments are closed. Please visit the official Certified Weird entry.
DIRECTED BY: Jan Svankmajer
FEATURING: Pavel Liska, Jan Tríska, Anna Geislerová
PLOT: A mentally unbalanced man meets a modern day Marquis de Sade, who convinces him to check himself into a bizarre asylum where the patients roam free.
![Still from Lunacy [Sileni] (2005)](https://i0.wp.com/366weirdmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/lunacy.jpg?resize=450%2C253 "Lunacy")
WHY IT MIGHT MAKE THE LIST: Readers may think I’m a lunatic myself for not inducting this tale involving the Marquis de Sade, an asylum run by chicken-farming lunatics, and animated steaks onto the List of the 366 Best Weird Movies on the first ballot. To tell the truth, Lunacy comes about as close as a movie can to being a first-ballot inductee without making it. In defense of my decision to leave it off the List for the time being, I point out that Lunacy may actually be Jan Svankajer’s most conventional movie. If you mentally remove the startling but inessential stop-animation transitions between scenes, then squint hard, it looks like just a regular horror movie; the director insists as much in his prologue to the film. Given that this is Svankmajer’s most “normal” and accessible movie, if Lunacy makes the List, then all the Czech director’s work should automatically make it.
COMMENTS: The trailer explains that ” Edgar Allan Poe + the Marquis de Sade + Jan Svankmajer = Lunacy.” It’s self-evident that combining these three uniquely perverse talents should produce something singularly strange; the fun in watching the movie is in seeing how they actually mix. Poe adds the least to the recipe, providing mere plot. Adaptations of two different stories by the doom-laden 19th century Romantic make appearances here; one is a digression from the main plotline that’s fun but unnecessary, while the other supplies the basic conceit for the entire second half of the movie. Because the first half of the film is devoted to a long introduction to the characters, with that excursion into an interesting but unrelated Poe tale, Lunacy‘s story doesn’t flow as well as it might; the plot doesn’t really get started in earnest until the movie hits the halfway mark on its run time. Other than basic story ideas, there is not much of a “Poe” feel to the rest of the film, except whatever lingering flavor comes from the passive, psychologically tormented protagonist Jean (stringy-haired, Continue reading LIST CANDIDATE: LUNACY [SILENI] (2005)
SATURDAY SHORT: FROM BEHIND (2005)
“From Behind” is the first episode in what is supposed to be a series of animated shorts titled WORKU. So far there has only been a trailer made for the second segment. The creators insist, though, that they have not given up on the project.
In this first episode, a drifter searches for an environment that suits him. Alas, the one he finds turns out to be less than satisfactory.
CAPSULE: THE QUIET (2005)
DIRECTED BY: Jamie Babbit
FEATURING: Elisha Cuthbert, Camilla Belle, Edie Falco, Martin Donovan, Katy Mixon
PLOT: A deaf girl becomes ensnared in her adoptive family’s amoral dysfunctions.
WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: The Quiet is an artfully produced, comparatively non-formulaic independent film, but it’s not a dramatic enough departure from the thriller genre to constitute a truly weird viewing experience.
COMMENTS: Strong sexual themes ground this strange tale of a family slowly going insane. After her father’s untimely death, deaf-mute teenager Dot (Belle) is taken in by her godparents (Donovan, Falco) who from outward appearances have a conventional, affluently idyllic suburban life along with their cheerleader daughter Nina (Cuthbert). Dot’s transition is derailed by increasingly disturbing conflicts and revelations. Her new family has dark secrets.
A sick, twisted dysfunctionality plagues the household. Trapped between an opiate addict mother, licentious father, homicidal sister, and perverted new beau, Dot struggles to keep her perspective. Unable to readily communicate, and with no outside party to turn to, Dot is at a disadvantage when her demented new family draws her into a sordid web of immorality and charade. The line between spider and fly becomes blurred, however, when it turns out that Dot harbors her own eerie enigma.
The Quiet rips the facade from blissful, suburban tranquility in the tradition of movies such as American Beauty and The Safety Of Objects. Less satirical than the former and not as convoluted as the later, The Quiet is a suspenseful drama with an hypnotic narrative tone reminiscent of One Day Like Rain and Make-Out with Violence.
The Quiet is a well produced film with a perverse story. It does not set out to be a black comedy, or a sophisticated social indictment of suburbia, although it contains some elements of both. Neither is it a movie with a message or mere exploitation. The Quiet is a simple, racy, psychological thriller. With some hauntingly memorable dialogue, it is arty yet lucid, brooding and visually dark. While more twists and turns would have provided greater depth, it is structurally complete enough to be worthwhile for patrons seeking a departure from blockbusters, crowd-pleasers, and annoying Lifetime Network potboilers.
Feminist director Jamie Babbit’s other films include But I’m A Cheerleader and Itty Bitty Titty Comittee. Viewers will recognize Cuthbert from the sensational The Girl Next Door.
The Quiet trailer