Post by cactus on Sept 18, 2007 6:55:56 GMT -5
WARNING! VIOLENT AND POSSIBLY SEXUAL CONTENT AHEAD!
I figured I'd share some of my sources of inspiration. I'll be updating this topic every now and then with new stuff.
#1: David Lynch
Who is David Lynch? If you ask this question, then you are in for a treat. David Lynch is the best director I've ever had the pleasure of coming into acquaintance with.
The first of his works that I came across was Lost Highway. A dark movie with a soundtrack featuring Rammstein and Marilyn Manson, and some really messed up Jazz. The premise is so damn interesting you can't help but be amazed. A jazz musician and his wife lives peacefully in a beautiful mansion in the suburbs. One day they receive a package containing a video tape. On the video they see how someone has entered their home during the night and filmed them sleeping in their beds. And from there things get weirder and weirder, with some truly unforgettable scenes. I won't spoil more of the plot for you, and instead I'll give you a serious recommendation to go rent it.
However, the peak was yet to be reached. When I saw a commercial for Twin Peaks on the TV my parents got real excited and told me how the show had made them sit like glued in front of the television every week when it aired originally. I didn't get my hopes up, but watching this series might've been the finest experience I've had infront of a TV set. It's basically a detective story about the murder of a girl in a very small town out in the woods. An FBI agents gets sent to investigate as the murder seems to have connections to a prior case in a different state. It soon becomes clear that this is not a regular murder, and that agent cooper is not a typical FBI agent. I cannot recommend this series enough. Nothing can compare to the first eight episodes of this amazing show.
Lynch's other works include Wild at Heart, Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive (watch this one!), The Straight Story, Dune and The Elephant Man.
#2 - Shintaro Kago
Shintaro Kago is a japanese manga artist. He mainly focuses on short stories around 16 pages long. His themes always include sexuality and violence in one form or another. The characters in his stories always seem to act by a very warped sense of logic, and you can never predict how they'll respond to the situations they face. However, it's the bizarre nature of his stories that fascinate me the most. He has ideas that doesn't seem to come from this world, and sometimes can amaze with plots that are clearly the work of a genius. Still, the cliche saying that "there's a fine line between genius and insanity" really fits in here.
The first story I read was called "Springs", and is about people who get obsessed with 'em. A medical company is offering advanced surgery that allows people to make the eye-poppin' surprised grimace as seen in many cartoons in reality. However, the surgery is very dangerous and a few unlucky customers get the spring lodged into their brain instad. Other fantastic uses include springs for suicidals that helps push you over the edge of a building/bridge, springs that allow you to throw a longer and harder punch, springs that contract a womans vagina to make intercourse more comfortable, and that's only the tip of the iceberg.
Other favourites include "Oral Cavity Infectious Syndrome" where oral sex causes people's mouths to change shape depending on the shape of the sexual organ they've come into contact with. Might not sound that interesting untill you see what kind of shapes we're talking about. "Punctures" is another very inventive story, where people who fear holes of various kinds. I mean who wants to find a hole in your condom, or get a flat tire in the middle of the road? Well, Kago has certainly found a unique way of preventing that, and as usual he takes it a few steps beyond the initial idea.
#3 - El Topo
"El Topo" is an amazing film by Alejandro Jodorowsky. I saw Jodorowsky's "Santa Sangre" first, and it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. A vulgar tale about a circus family, with themes such as castration by sulfuric acid, elephants squirting blood out of their trunks, nuns being run over by bulldozers and deadly infidellity. Sounds like it could be good, but it was more than I could stommach, and the storyline wasn't all that. But when I heard that Jodorowsky had made a very famous western movie, that was supposedly his best, I hesitantly decided to give it a shot. And I'm really glad I did.
El Topo starts out with a gunman clad in black on a horse with a young kid by his side. He comes across a terrible man who leads a pack of lowlifes that treat humans like shit. The gunman decides to have his way with this cretins and as a result, the terrible man's woman gets infatuated with him. The woman wants the gunman to prove his skills by defeating the four legendary masters. He reluctantly decides to go along with this, even though he couldn't possibly win. That is, unless he cheats. And cheats he does. What makes the movie so great is not only the fascinating story of human corruption, but many bizarre details that enriches the journey. Among his many talents, the gunman's abillity to bring out water from a stone by shooting it is one of his finest. There's also cripples, dwarves and a whole manner of deformed figures to get acquainted with. And it's all told in a serious yet very exciting manner. Can't recommend it enough.
I figured I'd share some of my sources of inspiration. I'll be updating this topic every now and then with new stuff.
#1: David Lynch
Who is David Lynch? If you ask this question, then you are in for a treat. David Lynch is the best director I've ever had the pleasure of coming into acquaintance with.
The first of his works that I came across was Lost Highway. A dark movie with a soundtrack featuring Rammstein and Marilyn Manson, and some really messed up Jazz. The premise is so damn interesting you can't help but be amazed. A jazz musician and his wife lives peacefully in a beautiful mansion in the suburbs. One day they receive a package containing a video tape. On the video they see how someone has entered their home during the night and filmed them sleeping in their beds. And from there things get weirder and weirder, with some truly unforgettable scenes. I won't spoil more of the plot for you, and instead I'll give you a serious recommendation to go rent it.
However, the peak was yet to be reached. When I saw a commercial for Twin Peaks on the TV my parents got real excited and told me how the show had made them sit like glued in front of the television every week when it aired originally. I didn't get my hopes up, but watching this series might've been the finest experience I've had infront of a TV set. It's basically a detective story about the murder of a girl in a very small town out in the woods. An FBI agents gets sent to investigate as the murder seems to have connections to a prior case in a different state. It soon becomes clear that this is not a regular murder, and that agent cooper is not a typical FBI agent. I cannot recommend this series enough. Nothing can compare to the first eight episodes of this amazing show.
Lynch's other works include Wild at Heart, Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive (watch this one!), The Straight Story, Dune and The Elephant Man.
#2 - Shintaro Kago
Shintaro Kago is a japanese manga artist. He mainly focuses on short stories around 16 pages long. His themes always include sexuality and violence in one form or another. The characters in his stories always seem to act by a very warped sense of logic, and you can never predict how they'll respond to the situations they face. However, it's the bizarre nature of his stories that fascinate me the most. He has ideas that doesn't seem to come from this world, and sometimes can amaze with plots that are clearly the work of a genius. Still, the cliche saying that "there's a fine line between genius and insanity" really fits in here.
The first story I read was called "Springs", and is about people who get obsessed with 'em. A medical company is offering advanced surgery that allows people to make the eye-poppin' surprised grimace as seen in many cartoons in reality. However, the surgery is very dangerous and a few unlucky customers get the spring lodged into their brain instad. Other fantastic uses include springs for suicidals that helps push you over the edge of a building/bridge, springs that allow you to throw a longer and harder punch, springs that contract a womans vagina to make intercourse more comfortable, and that's only the tip of the iceberg.
Other favourites include "Oral Cavity Infectious Syndrome" where oral sex causes people's mouths to change shape depending on the shape of the sexual organ they've come into contact with. Might not sound that interesting untill you see what kind of shapes we're talking about. "Punctures" is another very inventive story, where people who fear holes of various kinds. I mean who wants to find a hole in your condom, or get a flat tire in the middle of the road? Well, Kago has certainly found a unique way of preventing that, and as usual he takes it a few steps beyond the initial idea.
#3 - El Topo
"El Topo" is an amazing film by Alejandro Jodorowsky. I saw Jodorowsky's "Santa Sangre" first, and it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. A vulgar tale about a circus family, with themes such as castration by sulfuric acid, elephants squirting blood out of their trunks, nuns being run over by bulldozers and deadly infidellity. Sounds like it could be good, but it was more than I could stommach, and the storyline wasn't all that. But when I heard that Jodorowsky had made a very famous western movie, that was supposedly his best, I hesitantly decided to give it a shot. And I'm really glad I did.
El Topo starts out with a gunman clad in black on a horse with a young kid by his side. He comes across a terrible man who leads a pack of lowlifes that treat humans like shit. The gunman decides to have his way with this cretins and as a result, the terrible man's woman gets infatuated with him. The woman wants the gunman to prove his skills by defeating the four legendary masters. He reluctantly decides to go along with this, even though he couldn't possibly win. That is, unless he cheats. And cheats he does. What makes the movie so great is not only the fascinating story of human corruption, but many bizarre details that enriches the journey. Among his many talents, the gunman's abillity to bring out water from a stone by shooting it is one of his finest. There's also cripples, dwarves and a whole manner of deformed figures to get acquainted with. And it's all told in a serious yet very exciting manner. Can't recommend it enough.