Mulholland Dr. and 4 Other Intelligent Movies That Will Make You Question Reality
These movies ask questions that we can't always find answers to.
Everyone talks about intellectual cinema, but what is it? Are intelligent films those that are hard to understand, or those that are impossible to watch without a special education? We searched for the best films in which originality of form is combined with non-trivial content.
1. Donnie Darko, 2001
Richard Kelly's script, which had been in the works for years, became one of Hollywood's most promising debut projects. Unfortunately, Kelly hasn't made much since, but Donnie Darko has become a cult classic.
The story centers on sleepwalking high school student Donnie, who one night has a plane turbine fall on his room and receives a sign of the coming end of the world. How can he prevent the apocalypse while dealing with school problems and first love?
2. Mulholland Dr., 2001
David Lynch's movie, released almost a quarter of a century ago, is unconditionally considered one of the best of the new century. Many can compete with it, and yet the movie has lost neither its charm nor its mystery.
Naomi Watts plays – at first glance – a woman who comes to Los Angeles dreaming of becoming an actress. Her destiny is changed by an unexpected encounter with another woman who has lost her memory. The two try to uncover the heroine's secret, but the truth threatens to be too terrible.
3. Persona, 1966
The actress Elisabet lost her voice – or rather, she refused to speak on stage. The doctors assigned the patient to nurse Alma, and the two women went to a house by the sea. Here, Elisabet relaxes while Alma tries to get her charge to talk, at the same time confiding her own, previously unspoken secrets.
Ingmar Bergman himself considered this film to be the most important in his oeuvre. More than half a century later, hardly anyone can say for sure what happened in Persona, but art-house cinema is unthinkable without this work.
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968
Stanley Kubrick's landmark film is a rare example of so-called hard science fiction and a forerunner of the entire space genre, including Christopher Nolan's Interstellar.
It is a profound reflection on what it means to be human, what it means to be a higher intelligence, and what contact with them might be like. And even all these years later, it is an unforgettable visual cinematic experience.
5. Memento, 2000
Christopher Nolan's Memento explores memory, plays with its unreliability, and experiments with narrative techniques. The movie is shot in reverse chronological order, interspersed with a series of flashbacks and interrupted by a counter-direct timeline.
It is a fascinating journey for both the author and the viewer. Nolan has proven himself to be a passionate experimenter and creator of intelligent films for a wide audience.