mervyn-verstellung's - Traumatic Cinema List

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When Marcus (Vincent Cassel) and his girlfriend Alex (Monica Bellucci) decide to go to a party with their friend Pierre (Albert Dupontel), they are totally unaware that their world is about to be torn apart in the most unimaginably brutal way possible.

Plunged headlong into a nightmarish world of darkness, where an act of extreme sexual and physical violence will serve as the spark for yet more violence, Marcus and Pierre soon discover what they themselves are capable of.

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In rural Sweden around the turn of the century, three sisters reside in a vast manor house with their housekeeper. Agnes (Harriet Andersson) lives out the last days of her life in pain, hoping for companionship and affection.

Surrounded by her sisters, Karin (Ingrid Thulin) and Maria (Liv Ullmann), Agnes takes comfort in the fact that her remaining time can be spent with those close to her. However, dissatisfaction in their day-to-day-lives, and the estrangement that they feel from one another, causes the sisters to become increasingly self-absorbed.

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In the early 1970s a naive young girl, Bess (Emily Watson), living in a small community on the north west coast of Scotland, falls in love with oil-rig worker and man-of-the-world Jan (Stellan Skarsgård). Despite local opposition they marry and live out a brief but intense love life.

Jan returns to the rig, whilst Bess counts the days to his homecoming sure that their love is made in heaven. When an accident renders Jan paralysed he is worried that Bess will cut herself off from a normal life. Realising that he will be bedridden, he convinces her that she will aid his recovery by taking a lover and relating to him their sexual acts.

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Set in the picture-postcard small town environs of Lumberton, Kyle MacLachlan plays the clean cut Jeffrey Beaumont, who, whilst returning from a visit to his hospitalised father, makes the shocking discovery of a severed human ear.

After reporting his discovery to a local police detective, Jeffrey decides to pursue his own line of enquiry, aided by the detective's daughter, Sandy (Laura Dern). This sets Jeffrey on a voyage of discovery that takes him to the very heart of Lumberton's seedy and sinister underworld where he encounters a collection of misfits whose various chronic compulsions to engulf him in their twisted and nightmarish world.

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Onibaba is set during a brutal period in history, a Japan ravaged by civil war between rival shogunates.

Weary from combat, samurai are drawn towards the seven-foot-high susuku grass fields to hide and rest themselves, only to be ambushed and murdered by a ruthless team of mother (Nobuko Otowa) and daughter-in-law (Jitsuko Yoshimura). When Hachi (Kei Sato), a neighbour returning from the wars, brings bad news, he threatens the women's partnership.

Newly employed at a run-down London swimming baths, Mike (John Moulder-Brown) obsesses after his sassy and self-assured co-worker (Jane Asher) whilst collecting tips for the 'special services' he is expected to perform for clients (including Diana Dors).

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An intense and bizarre study of obsession that is by turns lyrical and disconcerting, Duffer (1971) tells the deranged story of a teenage boy torn between the womanly charms of a kindly prostitute, and the relentless, sadistic attentions of an older man.

The Moon Over the Alley (1975), from the writer-director team behind Duffer, explores the problems of the multicultural residents in a Notting Hill boarding house. Dark and disturbing, yet dreamlike and tender, this astonishing film includes surreal musical numbers by the award-winning composer of Hair, Galt MacDermot.

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Cassavetes' most commercially successful feature and a benchmark of American independent cinema, 'A Woman Under the Influence' is a devastating drama starring Gena Rowlands as Mabel Longhetti, a mother of three whose blue collar husband Nick (Peter Falk) toils as a construction worker.

Their simmering differences lead to a series of domestic dramas that eventually culminate in Mabel's nervous breakdown and six-month stay in a psychiatric hospital. Once released, Mabel and Nick must confront their uncertain futures.

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As mysterious deaths plague a small prairie town, eight-year-old Seth (Jeremy Cooper) comes to believe that the reclusive widow living next door (Lindsay Duncan) is a vampire.

Seth's worst nightmare comes true when his brother Cameron (Viggo Mortensen) returns home and falls in love with the widow - will he be next? The truth is more shocking than Seth could imagine.

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One of the most shocking and controversial films ever made, 'Christiane F.' tells the true story of a young girl's descent into the drug scene of 70's Berlin. Christiane (Natja Brunckhorst), lonely and alienated, lives with her divorced mother.

When a school friend takes her to a club where her hero David Bowie plays, she finds herself in another world, one she is desperate to be a part of. In her new environment drugs are commonplace and though frightened, her fears of rejection are greater. She begins with Valium, then LSD, until ultimately she discovers heroin. Soon addicted, she turns to prostitution to support her habit. Christiane is 14.

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Sandrine Bonnaire won a Best Actress Cesar for her portrayal as Mona - a young and defiant drifter in this tragic story. Using a largely non-professional cast Varda recollects Mona's story through flashbacks of those who encountered her, producing a splintered portrait of an enigmatic woman.

She's not a kind girl but courageous while wandering in the winter. She announces in 1984 the collective conciousness of homeless people dying from the cold.

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Selma (Björk) is a Czech immigrant, a single mother working in a factory in rural America. She escapes the hardships of her tough life through the films that inspired her childhood. In her imagination she sees the world as an all-singing all-dancing Hollywood musical.

But Selma harbours a secret: she is losing her eyesight and unless she can save enough money to pay for an operation her 10 year-old son will inherit her blindness. When a desperate neighbour falsely accuses Selma of stealing, her life begins to slip beyond her control and propels itself towards a tragic and numbing finale.

Un Chien Andalou is Bunuel's first film and collaboration with Salvador Dali, a surreal exploration of desire and passion. L'Age D'or is another collaboration with Dali, a surrealist dissection of civilised values.

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In seventeenth-century France, Father Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed) uses his power to protect the city of Loudun from destruction at the hands of the establishment.

Soon, he stands accused of the demonic possession of Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave), whose erotic obsession with him fuels the hysteria that sweeps through her convent.

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A young girl named Teresa Banks (Pamela Gidley) is found brutally murdered. The FBI agents leading the investigation are drawn into a bizarre and dangerous world, and then disappear. The case is handed to Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan).

He knows it is only a matter of time before the killer strikes again. Welcome to Twin Peaks, an idyllic part of small-town America, one year later. A picture postcard setting, but hiding beneath the surface of this tranquil town lies an evil force. One that is praying on the towns most popular and beautiful student. Her name is Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee).