Any film plot or denoument you've never quite understood even after repeated viewings , but you are too embarrassed to ask lest you get thrown out of the Film Cineastes Club ?
LA Confidential, what the hell is that all about ?
Chinatown..............ditto
Basic Instinct...........is Ms. no-pants the murderer ?
I would hardly describe any of those lots as hard to understand - complex perhaps but easy to follow as long as you actually concentrate. They are certainly not easy-going, popcorn fodder, and sound like they are not your sort of movies to be honest.
Have not got the patience to explain them now, maybe someone else will...
Life is very very hard but so beautiful that even the ability to turn back time isn't acceptable - until you fall in love and the person you fall in love with dies.
There is so much technical language used in this time-travel movie, I was mostly flummoxed all the way through. Wikipedia states the director did this deliberately to avoid "dumbing down" which is fair enough, but Jesus, I think you need to a be a Physicist to understand this.
Agree with Total Recall. I have watched that movie so many times from differing points, yet each time my mind wanders before the end.
It was on a couple of weeks ago and I managed to catch it from the start determined to watch it the whole way through, but yet again my brain switched off in the last twenty minutes. Is it real or is it the implant?
Most people would say so, but as I recall it's actually left open. The final scene shows another ice-pick under her bed, but that doesn't mean anything given her known proclivities.
For me that is a film that isn't really self-contained. To understand what happened you need to go online and read about the Philosophy of Time Travel etc. At least in the original release - I gather the Director's Cut spells it out more clearly. The thing is, it's a better film for being left unclear, and the Director's Cut is generally reckoned to be worst than the original. This is partly because (in my opinion) Donny himself is trying to figure things out, and it's good to share his confusion.
The Blair Witch Project is another film which in my opinion does not stand alone. To understand what happened, you need to follow the online marketing, read Heather's Diary etc. Otherwise it is just one thing after another which is quite atmospheric and scary but doesn't have much meaning.
Where-as LA Confidential is a film that does make sense, but you have to pay attention. The Saw series are like that, too. They all hang together, but frankly I have to read up on Wikipedia in order to figure out who all the characters are and what they did. I'm especially hopeless with faces. I didn't really twig, for example,
that the one-legged chap in the ice-cube trap in Saw IV is the same detective who got caught in Saw II and is seen cutting his leg off in a flashback in Saw III. (Which is from memory so I hope I got it right that time.)
There are also films like Excalibur and Walkabout which I am sure make perfect sense, but I always fall asleep before the end.
Donnie avoiRAB being hit by the jet engine and goes on his adventures, the girl he loves gets killed in the car accident thing with Frank. Donnie then travels back in time to the point where the jet engine is about to fall but still has the knowledge of what happened the time he avoided it by getting up and decides not to get up and is killed
S. Darko is WAY more complicated because it has at least 2 different "undos" running through it!
I went on to Love the film, but i must admit took me few views before i could even say i got the jist of it..
I'd also add Donnie Darko to the list like a few people have already mentioned, even to this day i probably don't quite get it. I think thats kinda how that movie is suppose to be were your probably not really meant to completely understand whats gone on like someone has already said. It is a film that i really enjoyed watching nonetheless though.
