Surrealist films (Film Guide)

Source: Wikipedia. Commentary (films not included). Pages: 71. Chapters: Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Un Chien Andalou, Donnie Darko, Meshes of the Afternoon, Last Year at Marienbad, Inland Empire, Eraserhead, Synecdoche, New York, Lost Highway, The Phantom of Liberty, Videodrome, Suicide Club, The Trial, Jo Jo in the Stars, Ballet Mécanique, Santa Sangre, El Topo, That Obscure Object of Desire, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, 200 Motels, The Milky Way, Chronopolis, Fando y Lis, The Exterminating Angel, The Holy Mountain, The Short Films of David Lynch, L'Age d'Or, Dreams That Money Can Buy, The Blood of a Poet, Belle de Jour, Orpheus, Mondo Trasho, List of surrealist films, The Other Side of the Tracks, Simon of the Desert, Angel's Egg, The Seashell and the Clergyman, L'Étoile de mer, Black Moon, Entr'acte, At Land, Les Mystères du Château de Dé, Anemic Cinema, The Last Trick, Emak-Bakia, Darkened Room, Testament of Orpheus, Les têtes interverties, Le Retour à la Raison. Excerpt: Mulholland Drive is a 2001 American psychological thriller written and directed by David Lynch, starring Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring, and Justin Theroux. The surrealist film was highly acclaimed by many critics and earned Lynch the Prix de la mise en scène (Best Director Award) at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Director. Mulholland Drive launched the careers of Watts and Harring and was the last feature film to star veteran Hollywood actress Ann Miller. The film is widely regarded as one of Lynch's finest works, alongside Eraserhead (1977) and Blue Velvet (1986), and has been chosen by many critics as representing a significant perspective of the 2000s. Originally conceived as a television pilot, a large portion of the film was shot with Lynch's plan to keep it open-ended for a potential series. After viewing Lynch's version, however, television executives decided to reject it; Lynch then provided an ending to the project, making it a feature film. The half-pilot, half-feature result, along with Lynch's characteristic style, has left the general meaning of the movie's events open to interpretation. Lynch has declined to offer an explanation of his intentions for the narrative, leaving audiences, critics, and cast members to speculate on what transpires. The film tells the story of an aspiring actress named Betty Elms, newly arrived in Los Angeles, California, who meets and befriends an amnesiac hiding in her aunt's apartment. The story includes several other seemingly unrelated vignettes that eventually connect in various ways, as well as some surreal scenes and images that relate to the cryptic narrative. A.O. Scott of The New York Times writes that while some might consider the plot an "offense against narrative order ... the film is an intoxicating liberation from sense, with moments of feeling all the more powerful for seeming to emerge from the murky night world of the unconscious." The story may not be linear and exh