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Cinema that defies convention! Join us as we explore films that broke new ground with their innovative techniques and storytelling. From a movie painted entirely in oil to a single-take journey through Russian history, these extraordinary works push the boundaries of what cinema can be. Which mind-bending masterpiece tops your list?
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for films that are visually or narratively groundbreaking,
00:13widely recognized as unique by critics and cinephiles, or are still influential years after release.
00:30A psychedelic and spiritual journey, the film from perpetual boundary pusher Alejandro Jodorowsky is as visually bizarre as it is thematically complex.
00:51Financed in large part by John Lennon, the film featured astounding sets and fantastic costuming, juxtaposing sacred symbolism with profane imagery.
01:00The film features literal human feces being transformed into gold by an alchemist played by Jodorowsky himself.
01:11Transgressive, sacrilegious, overtly sexual, and absurd, The Holy Mountain stunned and amazed audiences in its day,
01:18while its unique visuals, both beautiful and upsetting, remain impressive even now.
01:23I leave you my tower and my alchemical rooms.
01:27This your family and your people changed the world.
01:32Number 9. Mulholland Drive
01:34That girl is not in my film!
01:39It's not longer your film.
01:41Finding a David Lynch film that would be considered normal would honestly be harder than choosing one for this list.
01:46Right off the bat, his first feature, Eraserhead, became an instant entry into the Bizarro canon,
01:51but we think he topped himself with the masterpiece Mulholland Drive.
01:54This is the girl.
02:01Excellent choice.
02:04In true Lynch style, it features shifting surrealist narratives with actors in shifting roles,
02:08with a neo-noir plot and a Los Angeles setting.
02:11Describing the plot would be as fruitless as attempting to find a definitive meaning for the film,
02:15which is open to a multitude of interpretations.
02:18While many have speculated on the film's true meaning,
02:20Lynch refused to give any answers, preferring to let people come to their own conclusions.
02:24When things are concrete, very few variations in interpretation.
02:28Number 8. The Fall
02:30An existential look at the way we tell stories,
02:44and how we distort and bring our own interpretation to them,
02:46The Fall follows an injured stuntman telling a young girl a heroic tale.
02:50It sets its fantasy sequences apart by making them bold and colorful,
02:54with truly striking and memorable imagery.
02:57Who may I ask, are you?
02:59To most, I'm known as the Masked Bandit.
03:02The Scourge of the Southeast?
03:07That's the one.
03:09A painstaking process to film,
03:10the movie was shot over the course of four years,
03:13with shooting taking place in 24 countries.
03:15Few were able to take in the film's awe-inspiring visuals and profound story,
03:19as after a limited theatrical run,
03:21it was unavailable on streaming,
03:22and was out of print on DVD and Blu-ray.
03:24However, a 4K restoration and theatrical re-release from Mubi in 2024,
03:28finally made the film widely available.
03:31I put old man teeth there,
03:33because I think that mystic comes out of the tree,
03:39and it will grow a special orange tree.
03:42Number 7. Being John Malkovich
03:43The plot of Being John Malkovich,
03:45involves a struggling puppeteer discovering a portal,
03:48into the titular character actor's mind.
03:50The puppeteer soon devises a scheme,
03:52to charge people to experience life through Malkovich's eyes,
03:55in 15 minute chunks.
03:56And it takes you inside John Malkovich.
03:59You see the world through John Malkovich's eyes,
04:02and then after about 15 minutes,
04:04you're spit out,
04:05into a ditch on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike.
04:07The story, involving intersecting love triangles,
04:10and a group trying to achieve shared immortality,
04:12by using the actor as a vessel,
04:14only gets stranger from there.
04:15What really sets it apart, however,
04:17are the themes of identity,
04:18and self it tackles,
04:20with its existential motifs.
04:21It's just a phase.
04:23It's the thrill of seeing through somebody else's eyes.
04:26Okay? It'll pass.
04:28Don't stand in the way of my actualization as a man.
04:31It was the first film,
04:32for both screenwriter Charlie Kaufman,
04:34and director Spike Jonze.
04:35The former would continue exploring these ideas,
04:37in a unique way,
04:38with his screenplay for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
04:41I'm just...
04:44happy.
04:48I've never felt that before.
04:51Number 6, Dogville.
04:53Hey Tom,
04:54won't you come by every single day?
04:57Hmm?
04:58It'll be a lot more fun if somebody interesting appeared for a change.
05:02You know, I really am so lonesome in this town.
05:05There's minimalism,
05:06and then there's Dogville.
05:07The film uses limited props and set pieces,
05:09opting instead to have lines painted on the ground
05:12represent walls,
05:14streets,
05:14and entire buildings in a sterile soundstage.
05:17This makes the movie feel closer to a community theater play
05:19than a film starring Nicole Kidman.
05:21We all have the right to make the most of our lives.
05:25I'm sure that those ladies in those houses,
05:27they bring a lot of joy to a lot of men.
05:30It also means,
05:31that at any moment,
05:32we can see what the residents of the entire town are doing,
05:35with nothing to obstruct them,
05:36laying their deeds bare for the audience,
05:38to see all at once.
05:39Even the camera work and lighting are seemingly simplistic.
05:42Critics were divided on whether this approach was pretentious,
05:45or brilliant,
05:46but they were in agreement that nothing was like it.
05:48She quickly covered the distance to the dog pen,
05:50through what,
05:51now the buildings were gone,
05:53could scarcely be called a street,
05:55and certainly not Elm Street,
05:57as there wasn't a tree left on Dogville's little mountain ledge,
06:00let alone an elm.
06:02Number 5,
06:03Haosu.
06:03The plot of Haosu,
06:17also known as house in English-speaking countries,
06:19is nothing particularly out of the ordinary as far as horror films go.
06:22A group of teen girls visit a house possessed by evil spirits,
06:25that slowly picks them off.
06:26What really sets it apart,
06:28is the film's gonzo style.
06:29The film is a nightmare-inducing fever dream,
06:32with vivid colors,
06:33demonic cats,
06:34pianos that eat people,
06:35and cheesy,
06:36yet endearing special effects.
06:37And it's all wrapped up in an allegory,
06:51about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
06:53Despite commercial success in Japan,
06:55it was largely criticized by the country's film critics,
06:57and remained unreleased in America for decades.
07:00However,
07:00it has since gone on to become a cult hit,
07:02and a midnight movie classic.
07:07Christopher Nolan has gained fame in recent years,
07:26for his non-linear storytelling,
07:27employing a complex narrative structure,
07:29and manipulating time.
07:30But this early foray into the style,
07:32was his most interesting.
07:34Memento follows Leonard Shelby,
07:35who suffers from short-term memory loss,
07:37hunting down his wife's killer.
07:38There are things you know for sure.
07:40Such as?
07:43I know what that's gonna sound like,
07:44when I'm knocking it.
07:46I know what that's gonna feel like,
07:47when I pick it up.
07:49See?
07:50Certainties.
07:51It's the kind of memory you take for granted.
07:53His story plays out in two storylines,
07:55one moving forward,
07:56and the other in reverse.
07:57In the second,
07:58we move backward with Leonard,
07:59having forgotten what just occurred,
08:01meaning the sequence is as new to him,
08:02as it is to the viewer.
08:03Through the two narratives,
08:05Shelby's past and present are revealed,
08:07in a twisty noir ending,
08:08that recontextualizes everything that came before,
08:11or technically,
08:12after.
08:13I have to believe in a world outside my own mind.
08:16I have to believe that my actions still have meaning,
08:18even if I can't remember them.
08:22I have to believe that when my eyes are closed,
08:25the world's still there.
08:26Number 3.
08:27Russian Ark.
08:28There have been a number of movies that appear to be shot entirely in a single unbroken shot,
08:41including one by Alfred Hitchcock.
08:42While most of those films have used hidden cuts and other trickery,
08:45with the advent of digital photography,
08:47the ability to shoot truly long sequences became an option,
08:51and several films took advantage.
08:52None, however,
08:53has ever been as bold and ambitious as Russian Ark,
08:56shot in the historic Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.
08:59Look at this glass.
09:00I see, I see, I see.
09:02And around Empire.
09:03And here's Torxera Voronihina.
09:05Torxera, Torxera.
09:06Yeah, Torxera.
09:08The hour and a half film required a cast of 2,000,
09:11including three orchestras,
09:12to hit their marks as the camera wound through 33 rooms.
09:15After three failed attempts,
09:17and with the light fading,
09:18the filmmakers had one final chance,
09:20and this time,
09:20they got it.
09:21Look at the sea around.
09:32Number 2.
09:33Cloud Atlas.
09:34Based on a novel considered to be impossible to adapt for the big screen,
09:37Cloud Atlas is a truly ambitious film,
09:39set in six different time periods.
09:41No, no, no, no, no, that was the hotel register.
09:45Never mind, it's all academic.
09:48She's gonna make a heck of a dinner party story.
09:50Each setting also had its own genre,
09:53including detective fiction, sci-fi, and high-season adventure.
09:56While each plot featured unique characters,
09:58actors played multiple roles,
10:00using prosthetics to play wildly different parts.
10:02Do you think someone's gonna hear your prayer come down from the sky?
10:08Perhaps.
10:10Perhaps one day.
10:12One day, but a flea hole.
10:13This reinforced the theme that the circumstances of one's birth,
10:17such as race and gender,
10:19were little more than superficial differences,
10:21as we are all human.
10:22Seemingly small events end up rippling across history,
10:25having massive impacts,
10:26and with the recurring actors,
10:27we see the same souls meeting in different lives,
10:30with their love echoing across different lifetimes.
10:32Shilda, I forbid you from going anywhere with this madman.
10:37I've been afraid of you my whole life, father.
10:42I'm going with my husband.
10:45Before we unveil our top pick,
10:46here are a few honorable mentions.
10:48Primer.
10:48Loops within loops in a head-screaming indie time travel film.
10:51It travels forward normally.
10:52You gotta write this down.
10:54Aaron, there's nothing to write down.
10:55Well, then I'm writing it.
10:56Okay, fine.
10:56Look, it travels forward normally towards the B end,
10:58and when it gets there,
10:59the feed runs down parabolically until it's just stopped,
11:02but it doesn't.
11:02It curves back around towards the A end.
11:042001, A Space Odyssey.
11:06A sci-fi masterpiece that redefined the genre.
11:09But I can give you my complete assurance
11:11that my work will be back to normal.
11:16Persona.
11:16Ingmar Bergman's psychological horror about identity and art.
11:21Definitivt, då blev du rädd.
11:24Rädd för ansvar.
11:25Rädd för att bli bunden.
11:27Rädd för att komma bort från teatern.
11:29The Adventures of Prince Ahmed,
11:31the oldest surviving animated feature film,
11:33utilizes shadow puppets.
11:44The Red Shoes,
11:45an impressionistic masterpiece about performance and its toll.
11:51Before we continue,
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12:11Number 1, Loving Vincent.
12:16I have a letter from Vincent Van Gogh,
12:19a friend of my father's from all.
12:21Do you now?
12:24You know he's actually passed away.
12:26In telling the story of the life of the brilliant but troubled genius Vincent Van Gogh,
12:30this biopic made an animated film unlike anything ever attempted.
12:34Loving Vincent recreates the style of the famous artist in every moment,
12:38meaning that every single frame in the animated film was animated with an individual oil painting.
12:43So when you went to the river, that wasn't socializing?
12:46The river.
12:47The boatman says you took a boat together.
12:50He said it looked like you knew each other pretty well.
12:52Well, people think they see all sorts of things in this village.
12:55This gave it the distinction of being the first ever animated film to be fully painted,
12:59utilizing actors to capture the action and a team of 125 artists using rotoscope techniques.
13:05With nearly 900 scenes and a staggering 65,000 frames,
13:10the film is truly a work of art.
13:12For the moment I'm going to go to bed because it's late.
13:16And I wish you good night and good luck with a handshake.
13:21Your loving Vincent.
13:24What film have you watched that's unlike any other?
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