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Magical Movies

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09:57 / 13.11.01

Yes, yes, Magnolia, obviously - all that coincidental stuff, and the strange connections between all the characters (which led me, on one occassion, to develop a theory that they're all actually the same character - unfortunately I can't remember how I proved that now).

And The Game - of course! That scene where Michael Douglas comes to in that coffin in Mexico - marvellous stuff.

Right, the VG/faeries theory - well, in a nutshell (help, what am I doing in this nutshell, etc): the first character actually named in the movie is Jack Fairy - Ewan McGregor appears at one point dressed as Puck - there are several UFO/changeling references, there's that weird emerald brooch/pin thing which appears to be some kind of one ring-style magical power source, which finds its way from character to character throughout the film, and at one point Toni Colette makes a speech that's pure Terence McKenna - the idea of the future firing ingressions of novelty into the past &c.

I'd give you a fuller, more detailed explanation, but I'd have to be either stoned or too have drunk a lot more coffee than I have this morning...

The Sinister Haiku Bureau

09:57 / 13.11.01

oh, plus wrt the game: post-morrissonian- corporations as egregores thoery, with CRS (the company in the film) as the Trickster archetype....

The resistable rise of Reidcourchie

13:30 / 13.11.01

Populist and band wagony jumpy onny as it maybe Crouching Tiger? Though perhaps I'm confusing magick and beauty. Also there was something going on in Final Fantasy as well.

What's ninth gate about?

Professor Silly

13:58 / 13.11.01

The Ninth Gate concerns the searching out of copies of a book, which describes the method to unlock the gates of Hell. Langella's character represents a black brother--a satanist who has a limited understanding of the forces he wants to tap (what an idiot!!!). Corso, played by J. Depp, represents the perfect fool--everything goes his way as he unlocks each gate without knowing consciously what he's doing. He is, in this film, the Beast of the Book of Revelation, and only by opening the final gate (which is the Whore of Babylon Herself) does he come full circle and come face to face with God.
By the way, every satanist I know hated this film...and every white initiate I know loved it....

14:48 / 13.11.01

I second:

Pi

Wax or The Discovery of Television Among The Bees

Videodrome

and I add:

Twelve Monkeys

Jacobs Ladder (I maintain, there is something seriously fucked about that film - I wouldn't want to watch it again).

For what it's worth, I too have had nightmares about Alien(s) ever since I was quite small and saw the movie on TV.
Oddly though, they tend to focus less on the none-more-fruedian biological horror element and more on the running around being chased by monsters element.

15:03 / 13.11.01

quote:Originally posted by grant:

Actually, in some ways, the Alien could easily be mapped onto a nightmare of the Child King, Horus (or whoever you want to put in that slot).

Now that's fascinating.

Not wishing to derail this thread too much, but --

Get this nightmare I had last Good Friday (I kid you not - my best friend had an even crazier messiah/ressurection dream the same night):

I was with a bunch of space marine guys, just like in Aliens, and we were running around on an distant planet being chased by aliens and stuff. I look at this 'comrade' of mine, who's a little boy, and he starts to scream in pain and his head goes all lumpy .. and then he transforms completely into this twisted, bright orange flame creature, and the rest of the dream world fades away completely just leaving this flaming little boy creature morphing into different scary shapes .. and then, get this, it starts yelling about how it's the Son of God and is incredibly powerful and it going to destroy everything (a little bit like Tetsuo in Akira, but far more intense)..

..and then I wake up with the whole cold sweat, turn on the light deal..

That one went in my dream diary for sure.

16:04 / 13.11.01

velvetvandal: That's quite an interesting theory. I think that the magick hinges on the pin/brooch itself (on the tangible level) and the multiple meanings of the word fairy.

Oscar Wilde was the first to recieve the pin; it was during the 1890's – his rise and fall – that the modern concept of homosexuality as lifestyle starts to percolate into mainstream consciousness. (Before then, buggery was something one did, not a personal description.) The movie doesn't really spend a lot of time on OW, going straight to the 20th century, but presumably the pin goes underground until Jack Fairy finds it.

Then Brian steals it from Jack, to give it to Curt, who gives it to Arthur. Whoever has the pin has the mojo. And only "fairies" get to wear the emerald (Green being the color of Faery).

Alright, back to the movies.

16:21 / 13.11.01

Wow...I thought I was the only one who found Eyes wide shut to be a magical movie.
How about Speed-after Mason's invisibles interpretation (actually any one of Keanu Reeves movies are magically based in my opinion,but that's another thread...)Sphereand Cube(hee hee)
God,there are soooo many that have moved me in that direction.I have a list...me go find...me come back later.

16:33 / 13.11.01

Damn, most of the goodies are already listed. But a few missed:

Ghost in the Shell
Serial Experiments: Lain

Two anime that rock my world. I'm all over technological trancendence, uniting human consciousness with distributed computer systems to create a higher intelligence. Neuromancer had a lot of influence on my tender years

Then of course there's Evangellion. Giant quabalistic Cuthuloid angel mecha from outer space destroying the world. How can you go wrong with that?

My personal favorites:

Baron Munchhausen
Brazil
Time Bandits (yea, I dig Gilliam)
Pi
Matrix
Akira
Fight Club
American Beauty
Falling Down (the last 3 making a great triple feature)
Dark City
The Trueman Show (last two being really the same movie)
Excalibur
Star Wars: 4&5 (pretty blatently, at that)
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samauri
I *highly* recomend this one, by the way, if you dig the samauri mythos as applied to urban gangsters.
The Serpent and the Rainbow
2001
Natural Born Killers (fucking brilliant, that one)
The Muppet Movie
Dogma
Stigmata
The Fifth Element

Ok, that's enough.

21:45 / 13.11.01

Whoever has the pin has the mojo.

A prize to the 'lither who can somehow infiltrate the scriptwriting team for the next Austin Powers flick and slip this line into the dialogue somewhere!

12:05 / 14.11.01

hell, never mind that. i'm scared enough about the mental concept of the Pin and the Mojo!

12:08 / 14.11.01

oh, and as far as mary poppins is concerned, apparentlt p.l. travers, who wrote the books, was pissed off with disney for making the character less subversive. don't see it meself, but that's what i heard.

Pin

12:10 / 14.11.01

*makes swearing motions at Kooky*

I have some sense of self esteem. Well, had, at any rate.

What is this, anyway "Pick On Pin Day"?!

[ 14-11-2001: Message edited by: Pin ]

13:27 / 14.11.01

Naked Tango - (passion and rhythm).

Trigger Happy - (madness, truth, humour & Jeff Goldblum)

Cold Fever - (Shamanistic journey in Iceland).

Liquid Sky - (a film so bad it must mean something other than 'yeahaa, heroin')

Wake The Living - (if you haven't seen it, you'll never get it)

13:40 / 14.11.01

quote:Originally posted by Pin:
*makes swearing motions at Kooky*

I have some sense of self esteem. Well, had, at any rate.

i have no idea what you mean, here

quote:What is this, anyway "Pick On Pin Day"?!

that's every day, innit?

15:58 / 14.11.01

All right, since no one else has said it, what about the looked-very-stupid-but-I-didn't-see-it-even-though-I-thought-about-seeing-it-cause-it-has-two-gorgeous-women-in-it PRACTICAL MAGIC, with Ms. Kidman and Ms. Bullock?

Like I said, it looked very silly. But it certainly did address mainstream magic, I suppose, in some way. Did anyone see this movie?

And there's always the famous THE CRAFT.....

16:04 / 14.11.01

Has anyone seen:
'The nine lives of Tomas Katz'?.

Some production details and pictures

Well,some pictures.

[ 14-11-2001: Message edited by: kobol strom ]

Mister Remington Finn

17:54 / 14.11.01

I think The Green Mile is a very magical movie.
There are a lot of things that are refering to a lot of deep emotions, spituality and magick.
First off all the main characters are human, not stereotype. A stereotype prisonwarden would have fokked up the movie most seriously. I think that we can thank Mister Stephen King for these characters, but also the director for keeping them that wa. (interesting notion: Frank Darabont, the director also did The Shawshank Redemption, also a King story)

There are a lot of pointers
- The big guy is named John Coffey, heals people and brings a mouse back from the dead, his initials are J.C. Sounds familiar....?
-The executed (after been on old sparky) are rolled away on a gurney into a tunnel....
-John Coffey has no recollection how he got here and how he knows the things he knows. Like he was born yesterday.....
-Being on earth hurts John Coffey. The same thing was mentioned in an episode of Millenium, where Frank Black met this angel. The Angel said the same thing.

These are just some pointers. There must be others.....

18:42 / 14.11.01

How about Dark Man? Transformation by explosion (fire) and fiction suits. Or maybe Brazil? An identity crisis prehaps? Anyway, both are great visions.

20:01 / 14.11.01

Don Juan deMarco

quote:Don Juan: I would say that he has a rather limited and uncreative way of looking at the situation. Look, you want to know if I understand that this is a mental hospital? Yes, I understand that, but then how can I say that you are Don Octavio and I am a guest at your villa? Correct?
...
By seeing beyond what is visible to the eye. Now there are those, of course, who do not share my perceptions, it is true. When I say that all my woman are dazzling beauties, they object. The nose of this one is too large; the hips of another, they are too wide; perhaps the breasts of a third, they are too small. But I see these women for how they truly are...glorious, radiant, spectacular, and perfect...because I am not limited by my eyesight. Women react to me in the way they do, Don Octavio, because they sense that I search out the beauty that lies within until it overwhelms everything else. And then they cannot avoid their desire, to release that beauty and envelope me in it. So, to answer your question, I see as clear as day that this great edifice in which we find ourselves is your villa. It is your home and as for you, Don Octavio DeFlores, you are a great lover like myself, even though you may have lost your way and your accent. Shall I continue?

and

quote:
Don Juan: There are only four questions of value in life, Don Octavio. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for, and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same: only love.

20:34 / 14.11.01

Shit. How could I forget Slam? Saul Williams and Sonia Sohn reworking reality using language. There are some scenes in this that make you feel like you've been plugged into an electric socket: Saul's rhyming with his guy in the neighbouring cell, Sohn's incredible appearance at the open mic night, and that scene in the prison yard (empty handed insurrection). Saul openly talks about the spells he worked into the poetry used in the movie. I recommend this film to anyone and everyone, if you can find a copy. So far it's one of the few movies mentioned that I think genuinely had magical intent, as opposed to what we've added ourselves in the act of participation.

10:02 / 15.11.01

that kind of breaks magical movies down into two different categories :

films which were created with the intention of having a magickal effect.

and

films which are interpretted as having a magickal effect.

Its like Masons speech in the diner at the end of issue 1 volume 2 of the invisibles.

"...some movies are clearly being made by invisibles and they contain messages for other invisibles."

City-zen Rex : Eyes Wide Shut is like Kubricks final mindfuck... now THAT man was invisible, and he knew exactly what he was doing.

10:16 / 15.11.01

Hmm. Might have to get a copy of this Slam film, then. I already had Amethyst Rock Star down on my Yule list, 'cause I've been told it's quite good; now you've mentioned the guy hiding spells in his stuff I'm gonna have to crack the books and find out what correspondences amethyst has, as well...

I would have watched Practical Magic if Kidman and Bullock were, ahem, something other than sisters, but otherwise I couldn't be arsed.

And, oh yes, The Craft, I was just waiting for someone to mention that...Total b-movie pants but as an example of pre-Buffy high-school magic stories it's quite interesting. And it has Neve Campbell's thighs and Fairuza Balk's sulky expression in it, so one can't really complain...

14:14 / 15.11.01

Movies like The Craft and Practical Magic were fun in that they didn't have a magical effect on you, but it wasn't hard to learn some lessons from them. I mean, they were pretty obvious about what they were trying to say.

In a similar vein, one I missed: Memento. Man, that was a goodie. Its about a guy who has no short term memory, so his reality is defined entirely by is own notes about what is true and what isn't. It was rare in being a movie being about chaos magic techniques. Define your own reality. That sort of thing.

17:00 / 15.11.01

I really want to see Memento. But I don't have a video.

I saw the new Jack Nicholson movie on Sunday (The Pledge). While I wouldn't recommend it (a lot of artistic devices that just aren't quite pulled off), it's quite powerful as the old nutter goes off on a vision quest to track down a brutal child rapist. His train of conventionally rational thought deteriorates throughout the film, but his grasp of symbolic logic increases, bringing him within an inch of the killer by the end. It's a bizarrely spiritual film. Nicholson following his intriguing career path of examining madness with every role (very odd man to want to go so dark with every character). There's a fine line we walk, eh?

07:35 / 17.11.01

last year day after hallowe'en had the pleasure of watching an early Burroughs/Gysin collaboration applying cut-up/fold-in to the film cell. basically it involved the invisible man on a derive about the streets of new york . soundtrack basically just voices for like half an hour going 'Hello?' 'Yes?' 'helloyes?' 'yes?' 'Hello!' the effect upon the people in the room was physically apparent - frozen to our seats, last nights long-digested mushrooms suddenly very much at the front of our minds. best example to my mind of the 'films that manipulate you' definition above. if anyone has any idea what this piece is called, i'd be very grateful if you were to tell me.

04:01 / 18.11.01

dancers in the dark-bjork
moulin rouge
moonwalker-mj
a life less ordinary
the wiz
romeo & juliet (W/harold perrineau as mercutio - black guy, dreadlocks)
dark city
crouching tiger

and absolutly - barbarella!

07:37 / 18.11.01

Sleepy Hollow.

And Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was an evil scary movie.

13:20 / 18.11.01

*Ghost Busters
*The Dark Crystal
*Revenge of the killer bikini vampire girls 7
*Willow
*Evolution
*Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
*The Wizard of Oz

...I could go on. But I'm bored.

09:47 / 19.11.01

What about Beetlejuice? That movie was fun... anarchy... and magick (*ghost* magick, but...).

17:56 / 19.11.01

I'd like to maka another case for Jacobs Ladder, I just watched it again, its always been one of my favourites, but I hadnt seen it in years, so I was afraid I wouldnt like it as much.

Actually I did find myself liking it even more, and there was a some stuff I didnt pick up on. Which was definitely quite magical, especially the things that concerned death and mad me think of the egyptian and tibetan books of the dead.

It is fucked up, and almost evil in some places, but as the first time I saw it, it left me with a warm fuzzy feeling. So see it again, its good for your soul.

18:59 / 19.11.01

hmm. This thread has got me thinking. What about the difference between movies that are about magical/spiritual concepts, which use or may teach them, and movies that purposfully use said techniques to fuck with your head in order to bring about a specific desired state in the viewer?

An example of the later, Fight Club. Or, for a different effect, Princess Mononoke. What are some films that have broken you? Aliens came up alot under that category so far. I thought AI did this as well. I know 2001 broke a lot of people when it first came out. Kubric is The Man. The Matrix was also certainly engineered for an effect. Memmento had me dizzily reassessing the validity of my own memories and reality itself.

Continue with this thesis: Movies are are a form of ritual magic. Rather than just movies containing magic, what about films that have noticable altered your world view, and how? IE, movies you would put on for someone if you wanted to do something to their head by making them watch it.

19:38 / 19.11.01

I'm surprised no has mentioned 'Naked Lunch' or 'eXistenZ'. Those were two movies that really had quite an effect on how I percieve reality. Especially Naked Luch.

Also that Twin Peaks movie 'Fire, walk with me'. That was pretty odd. Full of thought forms manifesting and people becoming thought forms (out of the black lodge and into the black lodge)...

Pin

20:10 / 19.11.01

There's a film of Naked Lunch?!

Professor Silly

03:23 / 20.11.01

Has anyone mentioned Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?!? It's also a perfect movie for acid: drop during the CandyMan song--it should kick in 'round 'bout the time you see the inside of the factory.

I wonder how that might fit into an overall ritual....

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