Movies I’m Afraid Of: Introducing a New Column

In this weekly series, I watch good movies — or at least interesting ones — I’d avoided in the past for fear of being too freaked out by their stories, images, or both.  I don’t have a strong stomach; I’m easily made squeamish by blood, mutilated body parts, rape and sexual assault, etc.  Nor am I particularly well-equipped to deal with the tragedies of war, torture, and genocide; nor acts of overwhelming physical or even psychological violence.  I guess I don’t have the necessary strategies to emotionally detach from films, to shield myself from the devastation onscreen, but self-numbing detachment is also the last thing I want to feel when experiencing an artist’s work (unless, of course, that is what the artist is aiming for).  Hopefully, forcing myself to watch these movies will make me less afraid of these kinds of films and help me to gain an appreciation, or at least a greater knowledge, of directors whose work I normally avoid studiously, e.g., David Lynch, Michael Haneke, Lars von Trier.

I’m starting with David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, a movie I’ve avoided seeing for ten years.  A quickly brainstormed list for the coming weeks, in no particular order:

• Thirst (by Korean director Chan-wook Park)
• In the Realm of the Senses
• Crash (by David Cronenberg)
• Funny Games (1998)
• The White Ribbon
• Antichrist
• Memories of Murder
• Mother (by Joon-Ho Bong)
• M
• Mysterious Skin
• Carandiru
• Vidas Secas
• Dead Ringers
  

Suggestions of films whose nauseating qualities are compensated by the strength of their narratives are welcome.

July 23, 2010. Movies I'm Afraid Of.