Long, Atmospheric Movies

I'm in the mood for some really long, dense, and atmospheric movies. What are your favorites? Bela Tarr is the most obvious director. Recently, I watched a movie called An Elephant Sitting Still by his deceased protege Hu Bo. It's a very soul crushing film about lower class burnouts in a soykafhole city with no future. It's four hours long, very repetitive, has multiple drawn out segments where nothing happens, and I never got bored!

Beyond The Black Rainbow

STALKER is such a movie. There is a 10 minute scene with nothing but sitting in a train watching the countryside go by. It's not an art film and yes it is tangentially related to the video game.

>>7438 In that vein, any of Tarkovskys movies. Also one of his apprentices keeps the dark thematic atmosphere and symbolic monologues in his own movies. Konstantin Lopushanskiy has several post apocalyptic movies that are reminiscent of STALKER, some have a few more special effects or more active stories, all of them long, dark and thematic. I also liked Avalon (2001), because of the thematic elements and epic soundtrack, coming from Mamoru oshii (from GitS) you have a dark cyberpunk epic about an illegal underground MMOFPS players whose lives revolve around a VR game. I like the contrast in color, and with multiple watches you notice more and more about the boundary between life and the game. Babel was a great movie too imo. It revolves around multiple story lines and cuts between the different lives of an American couple, two Arab boys, an elderly Mexican maid/nanny, and a deaf Japanese teen. The elements of the film and contrast in setting are both stimulating and relevant to the story. If you like foreign language movies that also include tasteful dialog and some romance, I would suggest wings of desire. It is a German movie with French and English throughout. It revolves around an immortal angel who falls in love with a human, and wishes to experience mortality and all of the wonders and joys of a finite existence. If you like more action oriented, you may like full metal jacket, especially the latter half of the movie. Stanley Kubrik is arguably the western challenger to Tarkovsky (in fact they seemed to compete and come out with similar movies at similar times) Solaris was almost a counter to 2001 A space Odyssy. Kubrik and Tarkovsky had drastically different approaches to story telling, but the outcome was the same, long stories with lots of captivating themes. Another good Vietnam movie is Apocalypse Now, about a soldier who must assassinate a rogue special forces operative who acts as a godlike figure in the middle of the jungle. Also Deer Hunter is a similar movie about severe PTSD and a few troops who leave an industrial town to go to the Vietnam War. One of the protagonists becomes addicted to Russian roulette which he was forced to play as a prisoner of war.

>>7439 >Solaris was almost a counter to 2001 Fantastic film. The USSR produced some surprisingly good sci fi and it's interesting to see how movies get made outside of capitalist influence during production. I like their movies for the same reason that it's often hard for me to watch them, they don't care too much about the audience and they focus more on the story and the experience. No western film would spend 10 minutes showing you the countryside in silence but in the USSR? Oh no I want you to be contemplative or even bored for a little while if that's what the story calls for. In the end it'll all be worth it but you have to be patient. The closest might be 2001 but even that never slows down the way that really good soviet cinema isn't afraid to.

>>7438 Good choice anon. This is a bit of an odd pick, but Night on the Galactic Railroad is the first thing to come to me. It's geared more towards children, seemingly, and isn't my favorite movie ever when it comes to the actual plot and payoff in the end. That being said, it has a really unique atmosphere unlike other anime films I've seen, especially in the first ~30 minutes or so before the protagonist boards the titular Galactic Railroad. It's also got a dark color pallet and interesting soundtrack that contrast well with the colorful anthropomorphic characters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTmJ3C0z3a4

>>7421 Hard to be a god (2013) It's about 3 hours but feels a lot longer with some very long takes and very vague guidance on the plot (I would've been lost if I hadn't also seen the earlier hard to be a god which was a lot more obvious about everything). I've watched it every year since I first saw it. The Falls (1980) Clocks in around 4 hours. Most of Greenaway wouldn't fit the elephant-sitting-still vibe but this one is very repetitive (Greenaway's most relentless attachment to lists is exhibited here) - not really long drawn out segments for this one. Winter's Sleep (2014) A little over 3 hours, a whole lot of talking while basically nothing happens. But the conversations themselves are very engaging and have their own rises and falls that you'd expect from actual plot. Under Electric Clouds (2015) The shortest of my mentions at about 2 and a half hours and probably the only one I didn't particularly enjoy enough to watch more than once. But it did look very good and took its time visually with the environments the scenes were in.

>>7470 >>7421 Oh I should probably also mention The Tribe (2014) About a school of mute students. So there is no dialogue but a lot of emotional, quiet walking around. Only about 2 hours.

>>7440 that's a terrible reading of Tarkovsky. You should watch Andrei Rublev to see what he really believed about the USSR.

>>7440 >No western film would spend 10 minutes showing you the countryside in silence but in the USSR You know that lengthy scene in Solaris where they are just driving through tunnels and on elevated freeways for several minutes... Tarkovsky decided that an affordable method of depicting a "futuristic" city to Russians would be to use present day (at the time) Tokyo. Kind of cute. >>7470 >Hard to be a god (2013) I just want to point out, there is a W.German movie from the 80s based on the same source material, only it's not this contemplative art movie, it's more of an 80s style science fantasy adventure like Krull... just so no one downloads the wrong film because they're not paying attention like me. Amazing how different directors and writers interpreted the same source so completely differently (though it's still a fun movie in its own right).

>>7438 Seconding stalker. Its a film like The Revemant where the setting itself feels like an integral character to the plot

Since everyone likes Stalker and Apocalypse Now, two more films that I always associate with them for a variety of reasons are Aguirre the Wrath of God and Valhalla Rising. Aguirre is a 70s film by Werner Herzog and has some conquistadors venturing deep into Amazonia. Valhalla is by Nicolas Winding Refn and has Mads Mikkelsen in it, taking place in about 1000 AD or so. If you watch these you will see how the four movies relate to each other, each has a physical journey which reveals something spiritual or metaphysical. DO NOT watch the trailer for Valhalla Rising first. It makes it look like 300 but with vikings instead. It's completely off. The reigning king of "long, dense, and atmospheric movies" though is Atanarjuat The Fast Runner. It was based on an ancient Inuit legend and the director took great pains to recreate daily life in the high Arctic centuries before contact with Europeans (technology, diet, society). You can ease into it so completely that at some points you forget that it is even fiction because it feels more like a documentary, and that has a lot to do with the film techniques used. There is a story arc though. The entire script is in the Inuktitut language, the first film to ever do so. English and French subs are on hand, dunno about others.

>>7421 Not quite long, but if you dig the stuff in this thread then you should definitely check out Pedro Costa's Colossal Youth and Horse Money. They are some of the most enigmatic films I've ever seen, very heavy stuff. O Thiasos definitely fits the bill as well.

>>7865 Third. Stalker + read Roadside Picnic + read Doomed City + play Shadow of Chernobyl + Misery Mod = well... just try it and see.

>>7870 Aguirre is the one where herzog threatened to kill the actor who wanted to quit halfway through, no?

>>7421 Possession (1981) by Andrzej Żuławski. Shit, Isabelle Adjani's performance is just brutal.

>>7874 Russian detected

The Behemoth of Greed (Full Documentary) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXAOnIrNsYs

>>8120 The story is from the filming of Aguirre, but somewhat exaggerated. Filming in a remote location, Kinski had gotten into an argument with another crew member and demanded that he be fired. Herzog refused to fire the crew member because he believed Kinski to be at fault in what was a petty argument. Kinski then packed his bags and threatened to leave with only a few days left to finish the film. Herzog told Kinski that if he got on the boat and left there would be 8 bullets in his head by the time he reached the river bend and the last one fired would be from him. That was said to show Kinski how selfish he was being and what a terrible mistake he would be making by letting down the entire crew, who had worked for so long in a difficult and remote location, over a petty argument. The threat was probably not sincere, but the story surrounding it took on a life of it's own.

>>7437 Thought this was confusing and pretentious.

>>7437 Really great movie, can very much recommend. Im suprised nobody had mentioned 'enter the void'.

>>7438 thirding stalker, that movies a classic. >>7421 if your ever in the mood for some more tarkovsky i highly recommend Mirror, its possibly his most personal and most surreal film. Szürkület (1990) isn't very long (about an hour and a half runtime) but its one of the best crime films i've seen so far. it gives off a lot of bela tarr vibes, which makes sense considering it was directed by the producer of satantango. Eureka (2000) is another film i cant recommend enough. 3+ hour runtime, really meditative, and gut wrenching in some scenes. give it a shot. >>7441 seconding this one, such a comfy movie