Favourite 'mindbenders' and earliest examples...

MakeEmLaugh · 07-06-2013 10:05am #1

Cult podcast Filmspotting present two lists every week, personalised by its respective co-presenters, in which they rank their favourite films incorporating a particular theme e.g. 'Top 5 Male Bonding Movies', 'Top 5 Sidekicks', and so on.

When Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly was released in 2006, they named their 'Top 10 Mindbenders' i.e. films that are deliberately complex, unconventionally structured and may require repeat viewings.

Adam Kempenaar

1. Mulholland Drive
2. The Conversation
3. Brick
4. THX-1138
5. Donnie Darko
6. Blow Up
7. Solaris
8. Primer
9. Waking Life/Scanner Darkly
10. Eternal Sunshine/Being John Malkovich

Sam Van Hallgren

1. Mulholland Drive
2. Adaptation
3. La Jetée
4. Primer
5. THX-1138
6. Pi
7. Solaris
8. Eyes Wide Shut
9. Clean Shaven
10. 2001: A Spacey Odyssey

It was a fascinating list, though it made me wonder, are 'mindbenders' a relatively new phenomenon in cinema? The earliest example on either list was Chris Marker's La Jetée, released in 1962.

Can anyone name any earlier examples of 'mindbenders'? And what are your favourites?

Nichololas · 07-06-2013 12:06pm

Hmm, contentious list. I wouldn't call The Conversation, Brick or THX-1138 particularly mind-bending.. I do love The Conversation though, but it's no Mulholland Drive or Primer.

Rashomon (1950) is pretty mind-bending - or at least has an unconventional structure that requires (improves with) repeat viewings and is the earliest film I can think of.

Some other films off the top of my head from that era (50s/60s/70s) that are pretty weird; Rosemary's Baby, Persona, The Holy Mountain, Last Year at Marienbad ..

D.Q · 07-06-2013 12:08pm

Memento?

JP Liz V1 · 07-06-2013 3:31pm

D.Q wrote: »

Memento?

Yes thought that and Inception would make the list

delbertgrady · 07-06-2013 4:07pm

Head, the Monkees film, directed by Bob Rafelson, and written by him and Jack Nicholson.
Okay, it's basically vignettes, but sections of it do follow some sort of narrative thread and it does come full circle by the end.

mike65 · 07-06-2013 4:15pm

Ah the "Pretentious Moi?" list. :pac:

Passage to Marseille (1944) Dir Michael Curtiz Simply because of the flashback within a flashback within a flashback sequence. You have to pay attention!

Another one more properly involved is The Last of Sheila 1973 Directed by Herbert Ross. Stephen Sondheim co wrote with actor Anthony Perkins. They were both fans of crosswords and cooked up a whodunit full of oblique clues and mysterious motivations. Deffo one to see twice.

fryup · 07-06-2013 5:54pm

nearly all Ken Russell's movies

and one obscure one is how i won the war starring john lennon its an anti-war film and everyone speaks in jibberish from start to finish, completely whackey

Psychedelic · 07-06-2013 6:46pm

Good thread, mindbenders are the bread and butter of my film watching.

A few obvious ones would be Lynch's Inland Empire, Erasehead and Lost Highway. These are the epitome of mindbending films, bizarre and terrifying worlds featuring characters with deep psychological problems, and a dreamlike narrative and visuals.

Upstream Colour, by the director of Primer, is the most recently released mindbender I've seen. Berberian Sound Studio and Holy Motors are some other recent ones. Some good mid-00's films are Cache (Hidden) and Synecdoche, New York.

DazMarz · 07-06-2013 7:59pm

Maybe I'm just a simpleton, but I found these to be great mind"job" films (I'm censoring myself tonight). Not that they confused me, but that they made me think and/or required more concentration than your average flick and/or something else that made them a little more than your average.

The Matrix - Probably the first mindjob film I ever saw, at around 11 years old. It really makes you think about dream worlds and juxtapositions with reality and so on. It borrows incredibly liberally from other sources, but it is all done with such style, aplomb and panache that it matters not if it is totally original or not (the concept of mankind enslaved by machines is not new; but the twist of said machines pulling a digital wool over mankind's eyes to keep us all docile is [I think]).

Inception - dreams within dreams within dreams within dreams, with a side of lettuce on a sesame seed bun... Stunning visuals and a brilliant premise that I thoroughly enjoyed (even if some didn't). People got confused sometimes about which levels they're on or who's dream they're in and so on. I found that easy enough to follow, but it was just the concept that I found fascinating and I loved the spectacular visuals and the frenetic action sequences.

Jacob's Ladder - the weirdness and the unease of this film makes it one of those films that I love, but at the same time don't like to watch (if that makes any sense). The after effects of US dirty tricks used in Vietnam comes back to haunt a veteran. Visions and hallucinations become more and more violent and real as the film progresses. One of the most unnerving and brilliant films going.

JohnFalstaff · 07-06-2013 8:17pm

Bunuel's films are fairly mindbending and Un Chien Andalou was made in 1929 so there's no shortage of early examples of the genre.

Cabinet of Dr. Caligari even introduced the twist ending way back in 1920:

It was all a dream! Ha! Maybe it was original back then...

70's mindbenders are some of the best - Jodorowsky et al... must have been all the acid/peyote they were ingesting.

PirateShampoo · 07-06-2013 9:59pm

How is the "6th Sense" not on that list?

e_e · 07-06-2013 10:09pm

D.Q wrote: »

Memento?

It's in their list of favorite films, which makes it exempt from their top 5s because they'd just end up repeating themselves every show.

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Yes thought that and Inception would make the list

It was recorded in 2006.

PirateShampoo wrote: »

How is the "6th Sense" not on that list?

Wouldn't consider it a mindbender, pretty straightforward and when the twist is revealed it's pretty easy to work out.

e_e · 07-06-2013 10:13pm

Also Un Chien Anadalou and Meshes of the Afternoon would count as great early mindbenders, if we're counting pure surrealism.

goose2005 · 09-06-2013 6:43pm

I think Vertigo would qualify too. Also Celine and Julie Go Boating

MakeEmLaugh · 19-04-2015 3:35am

Nichololas wrote: »

Some other films off the top of my head from that era (50s/60s/70s) that are pretty weird; Rosemary's Baby, Persona, The Holy Mountain, Last Year at Marienbad ..

I saw Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad on the big screen today. I wish I had say I was swept up in its gliding camerawork and its hypnotic, repeated soliloquy describing the interior of the hotel in which the film is centred.

However, I was absolutely baffled by the film. I could not make head or tail of it. I felt frustrated upon its completion. Along with Jean Luc Godard's Contempt, which I watched last year, it made me feel that perhaps French cinema from the 1960s and earlier is lost on me.

shazzerman · 19-04-2015 11:47am

Another Resnais "puzzler": Je t'aime je t'taime (1968). Has's The Saragossa Manuscript (1965) is a good example as well.

Right Turn Clyde · 19-04-2015 12:10pm

The latest one for me is Jauja starring Vigo Mortensen, currently in cinemas. I don't even know how to summarise it. I seen it last weekend and I've been thinking about what it means all week.

Skerries · 20-04-2015 11:39pm

the recent Inherent Vice is one that would require several viewings and copious amounts of drugs to understand

Malicks work is in and of itself like Lynch's, a mindbenders wet dream

other works I can think of are The Fountain, The Zero Theorem, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Slaughterhouse 5

Ageyev · 16-07-2015 10:11pm

Soderbergh' Schizopolis might count as a mind bender or just a messy film with no plot.

I guess you could get smark and say that all films are mindbending as people were amazed when they first saw moving images projected in front of them!

Un Chien Andalou was an early surrealist film.

Man With a Movie Camera was a Russian montage documentary kind of about industrialism which utilised editing as a narrative device. Would've been mind bending at the time but boring by some people's standars today.

darkdubh · 17-07-2015 9:24am

A lot of movies by Nicolas Roeg would fit the bill.Don't Look Now,Performance,The Man Who Fell To Earth etc.

geecee · 18-07-2015 2:08pm

Predestination is a fairly recent movie - but fairly mindbending!

Also the twist in Fightclub makes you want to re-watch the whole thing again from the new perspective

18-07-2015 2:33pm

I watched an interesting one called Coherence on Netflix.

Rottentomatoes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEceDz1Rodc

tricky D · 18-07-2015 3:27pm

The Man from Earth is worth a watch. Gets interesting/ott towards the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mOIxyRTY5I

iomega · 18-07-2015 6:27pm

The Holy Mountain

ThisRegard · 19-07-2015 9:39am

Coherence is a good one, would be good to watch a second time knowing what you know after first viewing.

19-07-2015 12:10pm

ThisRegard wrote: »

Coherence is a good one, would be good to watch a second time knowing what you know after first viewing.

Good point! I might rewatch it soon! Surprisingly good!

splashthecash · 19-07-2015 12:47pm

Time Crimes is a very good watch, it's a Spanish film under a different which I can't quite remember. Pretty much anything relating to time travel will require multiple viewings.