Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Ten Films about Alienation

Alienation: Separatedness, feeling of hostility, apathy, ...
  1. The Seventh Continent (Michael Haneke, 1989)
    (A prosperous, urbane family thinks of an alternative life)

  2. Mouchette (Robert Bresson, 1967)
    (A girl finds no empathy in the world)

  3. L'emploi du temps (Laurent Cantet, 2001)
    (A man starts living a false life after being fired)

  4. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorcese, 1976)
    (To invent meaning in a meaningless existence)

  5. Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman, 1962)
    (A priest confronts and reflects on his life, and his faith.)

  6. Animal Love (Ulrich Seidl, 1995)
    (The channeling of affection in a lonely world)

  7. The Girlfriend Experience (Steven Soderbergh, 2009)
    (A sex escort describes her life)

  8. Safe (Todd Haynes, 1995)
    (A woman has an unexplained reaction to "society")

  9. Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)
    (A salesman starts to live a life)

  10. Croupier (Mike Hodges, 1998)
    (A writer lives a dissociated life as a casino employee)
Any more suggestions?

13 comments:

Di said...

ek bhi nahi dekhi. Incidently I watched few minutes of "fight club" just few minutes ago...one scene where brad is asking other actor to hit him (just for the heck of it)....and I got terribly bored with that dumb scene and flipped the channel!

Always wanted to see taxi driver for Ms Foster in it....and of course young DeNero

Di said...

BTW, I love movies. And good movies. Which is quite subject.

:)

I love reading too.

Music and poetry mere palley nahi padta....

:(

Unknown said...

Any film of Takeshi "Beat" Kitano's (ビートたけし) earlier work, really. All fantastic films (except "Brother"… avoid that). Perhaps more specifically to alienation:

A Scene at the Sea - 1991 (あの夏、いちばん静かな海, Ano natsu, ichiban shizukana umi)
Kids Return - 1996 (キッズ・リターン, Kidzu ritān)
Hana-bi -1997 (花火)
Kikujiro's Summer - 1999 (菊次郎の夏, Kikujirō no natsu)
Dolls - 2002 (ドールズ, Dōruzu)

Di said...

BTW, did you like brokeback mountain?

It was on feeling of "missing" (according to the director).

But maybe sort of alienation too....

Aweeee and in my previous comment it should have been "subjective"....sorry I am a lazy when it comes to typing and proofreading.

Green Salaam said...

Persona is another highly alienated one, Midnight Cowboy another, not to mention Bimal Roy's Devdas.

Denticks, Naya Gaon said...

How about Synechdoche, the most enigmatic of the species?

Fluss, Bapu Dham said...

Silence of the Lambs and No Country for Old Men--alienates beyond redemption, the first a masterpiece?

Schlitie, Dhanaas said...

Kieslowski's Short Film about Killing( Decalogue series no. 5)

Emende, Panaji said...

Michael Clayton---alienation in the corporate world!

Harmanjit Singh said...

In fact many of Clooney's later films are about disillusionment and alienation: Three Kings, Syriana, Michael Clayton...

Unknown said...

Repulsion (1965, Roman Polanski), with Catherine Deneuve. Sexual repression (implications of childhood abuse), social withdrawal, paranoia, violence, murder.

Di said...

ahh....I see the connection bet. alienation and silence of the lambs....finally!

Di said...

Chocolat too....A woman alone in man's world, alienated and abandoned...I guess every movie will have some elements of alienation in it, at this rate...LOL