Mystery
Blue Velvet/1986/English
FiC Rating: 5/5
Dir: David Lynch
Why FiC recommends?
1) Eerie, but no horror; Bizarre, but not absurd; repulsive, but sticky; erotic, but no porn.
2) Blue velvet could serve as a classic start for the cine-buffs who want to explore David Lynch’s filmography. Elements of absurdity here is quite balanced, it’s not too much – not too less.
Inland Empire/2006/English
FiC Rating: 4.5/5
Dir: David Lynch
Why FiC recommends?
1) A three hours long psychotropic meditation, where you fail to comprehend it as a whole but you learn that something beautiful happening there which makes you stick to the screens
2) Like Mulholland Dr., there’s Hollywood here too (or I think it is about Hollywood) but there are other things which pop up here but God knows why! But all makes sense somehow, including those animals that talk in this film remain with you, like forever!
3)Is it the trippiest film by the director? Possibly ‘yes’!
Mulholland Drive/2001/English
FiC Rating: 5/5
Dir: David Lynch
Why FiC recommends?
1) Hardcore David Lynch fans might not consider Mulholland Drive to be his best creation. But this film brought the special genre psycho-sexual surrealism to the mainstream.
2) The mysterious relationship between Rita and Betty adds on to the delight of witnessing seemingly unconnected and surreal chain of events.
3) Even though understanding Mulholland Drive in the first (first few?!) watch is almost impossible, an involved viewer can sense that the film as a whole is trying to address something around the self-indulgent pop culture that has creeped into (and spoiling?) the Hollywood system.
The Third Murder/2017/Japanese
FiC Rating 4/5
Dir: Hirokazu Koreeda
Why FiC recommends?
1) This court room drama presents the slice of game about truth and perception.
2) The Third Murder is totally in different spectrum in comparision to Koreeda’s regular family drama.
3) the way Shigemori gets consumed by the case equally absorbs its viewers into its athematic tangle.
Honeygiver Among The Dogs/2016/Bhutan
FiC Rating 3.5/5
Dir: Dechen Roder
Why FiC Recommends?
1) Honeygiver Among The Dogs embraces the most obvious genre tropes of a film noir but ends up welding a surprising new layer of spirituality into it, the roots of which are deep seated in the Buddhist mysticism.
2) This visually arresting debut is fueled by corruption and authoritarian moral turpitude but a Zen like poise is written all over it that stems out of Bhutan’s mythical sensibilities
3) The jaw dropping cinematography with a strikingly gorgeous visual palette resonates with the lavish landscape tableaux of ‘The Land of Happiness’.
Labyrinth of Dreams (Yume no ginga)/ 1997 / Japanese
FiC Rating: 4/5
Dir: Sogo Ishii
Setting: Suburban/Small-town
Why FiC recommends?
1) The Labyrinth of Dreams is a very unusual film and a new phase in Sogo Ishii’s work, Inspired by a short story by Yumen Kyusaku , the experimental psychological-romantic/mystery as the title suggests, lulls you into a state similar to a paralyzing dream.
2) Deeply poignant film, depressing but beautiful!
Gali Guleiyan/2017/Hindi
FiC Rating: 4/5
Dir: Dipesh Jain
Setting: Urban
Why FiC recommends?
1) A voyeuristic gaze on the maze like alleyways of old Delhi’s underbelly and a breathtaking psychological study of the frigid characters imprisoned inside the strangulating universe longing to break free from this confinement
2) The semi cloistered lives represent the different shadowy corners of a turbulent social structure distantly sharing an excruciating existence amidst harrowing urban isolation. The silence is not empty, rather it’s the quietude before storm and often relentless emotion erupts out of the screen and engulfs you completely.
Confessions/2010/Japanese
FiC Rating: 4/5
Dir: Tetsuya Nakashima
Why FiC recommends?
1) To put it simply, this movie is about a mother looking for revenge for her daughter’s death. But nothing is as straightforward as it seems.After each Confession, an extra layer is peeled off and the viewer is left to switch sides and ponder upon who is the real culprit till the end.
2) The film takes no time to take off and certainly has one of the most intense psycologically thrilling first act out there.
Note: The Japanese Original Title is “Kokuhaku”
Possible Worlds (2000)
FiC Rating: 4.5/5
Dir: Robert Lepage
Why FiC recommends?
1) This one’s an example of ingenious film-making that inscribe brains over spectacle with some captivating and strong performances.
2) A must see for the artistic value to this unique Sci-fi that uses the visual narrative and some mind-bending cinematography.
Eyes Wide Shut/1999/American
FiC Rating: 4.5/5
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Setting: Urban
Why FiC recommends?
1) The film has a strange pace, it’s like every moment and every dialogue is like looking at a dripping faucet, every drop is coming out with same lifeless pace. But that’s a huge plus point to the narrative. The film becomes hypnotic and dreamy More like a drugged up hallucination.
2) The film took 400 days of continuous shooting! Director’s vision-
“People call me a highly stylized director, which I am, but I can’t forget the purpose of style in “Eyes wide shut”, style is a lens that gives my viewers a point of access to the material, and if my material is not perfect, I can not offer it to my viewers, it’s about the viewers and not the director, something that new film makers should keep in mind.”
– Stanley Kubrick
The Conversation/1974/American
FiC Rating: 4/5
Dir: Francis Ford Coppola
Setting: Urban
Why FiC recommends?
1) If you like the film especially when they explain everything and leave nothing up to your own intuition, this movie is one of the best movies you will ever see.
2) The film is made by one of the best directors in history when he was at the peak of his career, what are the odds?
Creep/2014/American
FiC Rating: 3.5/5
Dir: Patrick Brice
Setting: Town
Why FiC recommends?
1) Right from the first scene to the end, “Creep” primes viewers to suspect that nothing is what it seems. We keep guessing something and then something else happens, followed by some other, far more unexpected things.
2) The film does not play by the rules of the game they chose to play.
