The burning human - car tyre coupled with 'the missing eye' scene in Oliver Stone's Savages, is pretty gross
That certainly is an extremely disturbing scene that is not easily forgotten.It is not so much its actual visual depiction....it is what it mentally conveys . That violence in itself... can at times, be the step-up and/or frustrated mask of Sex ( no puns intended)
In some ways it is more unsettling, than even the Alien series.If I am correct, there is discussion and contention that the released VHS copies had material , not in the later digital disc editions.
Antichrist is definitely disturbing even before the brutality sets in. I had rented this from Netflix, but I had to bail on the film when the scissors came out. Red, White And Blue is another I'd put in the disturbing category. The bats**t crazy violence at the end just seals the deal. Last House On The Left is the only film I saw in a theater that I walked out on. I found it just plane nasty and depraved. Yet, it pales in comparison to the two mentioned above.
A film I would nominate as unsettling and a 'burden ordeal' to watch , is All That Jazz. Here we have Bob Fosse the director no doubt , pouring out his own cinematic auto -biography and cynical outlook on Life. 'Doing A Fellini 8 and 1/2'... in many aspects. Towards the film's end, its depicted graphic heart operation surrounded with dancing musical fan girls, I found a bit too clever for the film's success.. No doubt it dropped 'like a stone'. Despite its big notable musical production numbers, the film is a heap of unresolved and unrelieved bitterness and misery
Can't decide between Dogville and A Serbian Film. Both films are highly stylized, well acted, and deeply disturbing.
All That Jazz was nominated for 9 Oscars and won 4; cost $12 million and made $37 million (a big hit for 1979); currently at 87% on RottenTomatoes. I'd say it's a far, far better film than you make it out to be, but I don't dispute it's got some tough moments. I thought it was an interesting film because it was such an unflinching look at a very unpleasant, flawed (but successful) director who had screwed up several relationships and alienated many people in his life. I remember it being very highly regarded when it was released in 1979.
The Japanese film 'Audition'. I had absolutely no idea what to expect. There are things in that film I still see occasionally.
That 8 minute long scene of unremitting (yet icy calm!) cruelty towards the end of the film ....is something one would like to forgot.
I have watched virtually every film of Von Trier since his very early cinematic days. In my own opinion, Von Trier's Dogville is a complete wank -conceptual laugh.. Each 'set' of the film .....reminding one : more of a collection of Trash & Treasure set-up hired -out spaces at some local under -roof market, erected for a hour or two. Von Trier 'as a director' is a constant never-ending attention seeker, screaming "Look at me...look at me. Gee! I am being outrageous, don't you think?" Someone tell him ...."Grow up!". The greatest amusement is -either watching or reading - alleged film critics no doubt, being intoxicated by his individual brand of pseudo-intellectual pretentiousness, do 'hand stands' over his continuing output.
All great art evokes feeling. So your post just demonstrates that. It is very complex why his set like a play approach works for me. Maybe having seen Our Town, as a kid it disturbingly evokes it, maybe because the set forces the story to the fore front. Maybe because of my "pseudo-intellectual pretentiousness". Yes, that's it. No one can sincerely enjoy a work of art that doesn't speak to you.
I haven't watched (nor will I) the more notorious films mentioned - Serbian, Centipede, House, Grave, etc. - but the rape scene in the original Swedish version of Girl With The Dragon Tattoo disturbed me some.
I think the most disturbing movies I have seen were Saving Private Ryan (the scene previously decribed with the German soldier being the most disturbing part), and Blue Velvet- though I liked both films. I know what kinds of films disturb me and avoid them- things like Saw and Centipede. I know there are a lot of fans of the Saw series, and it probably isn't that bad, but it just seems to be something I would not enjoy.
What truly gets my feelings up with VonTrier is....... (1) The relentless need for his childish ideas and forms, to be publicly accepted as 'being shocking', and cinema's Enfant Terrible (2) His constant amatuerish approaches and attempts to pull off his own unique brand of 'arty-farty'ideas. They are more a constant litany of hilarious / pathetic /and risible created situations, (3)Take Dancer in the Dark - with Bjork . Towards the end of the film, when she gives a singing performance (before she is hanged!) , only a VonTrier could induce a sense of disbelieving incredulous LOL mirth in this viewer. Clearly showing he has not the slighest idea how to use music / or some particular chosen form ot it ... nor where to introduce or edit it in a film. Look at the similar 'hanging' incident angle used and depicted in one constant juxtaposing sequence of the film Chicago . There it does not 'jar'. AND does ....what music is supposed to do in a film - carry some message or idea forward more quickly. (4)So then we had Von Trier run and grab Wagner 's Tristan & Isolde 'Love Death music and have pound out endlessly for Kirsten Dunst's deary dopey - depressed impression in Melancholia. It would have saved any viewer's valuable time to just have her charcter 'cark it' while immediately informing the audiences, the World was not coming to a close.. By nature I am sure that Von Trier - as an ultimate self accolade - privately ridicules and sniggers at people that take his 'artistry' seriously.
Looking for brutal and disturbing? Check on "Martyrs". I watch a lot of the kinds of films mentioned in this thread and Martyrs is still at the top of my list for brutal and disturbing, and it is quite thought provoking as well. Highly recommended.
Repulsion 1965, dir Polanski, stars Catherine Deneuve. one of the few movies I've ever watched that made me feel a bit ill, and it's not graphic by any means. The slow burn of someone loosing it can really pull you in.
you are not missing anything and are the better for it by not letting that S&^t into your head...because it never disappears from the mind....I can't find a reason for sick twisted swill like this.
Out of all the people who mentioned A Serbian Film, I wonder how many of them actually saw the fully uncut version? Unfortunately there are 2 different DVD releases of the movie floating around... an edited version was released in 2011, and then the uncut version was finally made available in 2012. It would be kinda funny if some of the people who were apparently so disturbed and repulsed by the movie had actually only seen the edited version.....
