Surrealist Overdose

O'Horten

December 2007 •Norwegian

Odd Horton is dependable and contained: he's a train driver retiring after 40 years of service, living a simple life. His idea of adventure is to fly from one city in Norway to another. Starting on the night of his retirement dinner, Odd has a series of dislocating experiences: a boy insists that Odd sit by his bedside while he falls asleep; misadventure causes Odd to miss his last run; he witnesses an arrest; he assists an old man and makes a friend; he takes a trip with a blindfolded driver; he adopts a dog; he takes stock late one night at the roundhouse; he revisits his mother's disappointment in him. How should he live the rest of his life?

The Tree of Life

May 2011 •English

The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

Hellraiser

September 1987 •English

Hedonist Frank Cotton finds a mysterious puzzle box that summons the Cenobites, who open the doors to a dominion where pain and pleasure are indivisible.

A Good Year

September 2006 •English

Failed London banker Max Skinner inherits his uncle's vineyard in Provence, where he spent many childhood holidays. Upon his arrival, he meets a woman from California who tells Max she is his long-lost cousin and that the property is hers.

Le Divorce

August 2003 •English

While visiting her sister in Paris, a young woman finds romance and learns her brother-in-law is a philanderer.

Suburbia

February 2019 •

From afar, the suburban lifestyle may appear as a sort of utopia; but be sure to gaze beyond the veil, for dire horrors and troubled intimacies will arise in the most unpleasant of forms.

My Jeopardy

April 2022 •English

A dream of three television shows and the narrator’s identity suspended between them in a loop is keeping the protagonist awake.

Sideways

October 2004 •English

Two middle-aged men embark on a spiritual journey through Californian wine country. One is an unpublished novelist suffering from depression, and the other is only days away from walking down the aisle.

Between You and You All

March 1970 •French

A chronicle of the lives of a couple and the gradual dissolution of their relationship.

After Hours

September 1985 •English

Desperate to escape his mind-numbing routine, uptown Manhattan office worker Paul Hackett ventures downtown for a hookup with a mystery woman.

Údolie večných karaván

February 1968 •Slovak

He Who Lives In Hidden Lakes

July 2021 •English

The fanatic beliefs of an internet mystic, a cult leader, and a rookie cop gone rogue are tested on the hunt for the "Hidden Man" -- an elusive forest-dwelling cryptid that terrorizes their idyllic suburb.

Son of the Mask

February 2005 •English

Tim Avery, an aspiring cartoonist, finds himself in a predicament when his dog stumbles upon the mask of Loki. Then after conceiving an infant son "born of the mask", he discovers just how looney child raising can be.

A Tale of Autumn

September 1998 •French

Magali, forty-something, is a winemaker and a widow: she loves her work but feels lonely. Her friends Rosine and Isabelle both want secretly to find a husband for Magali.

He Was a Quiet Man

November 2007 •English

An unhinged office worker who planned to go on a shooting spree at his workplace struggles with his newfound status as a hero after he ends up stopping a shooting spree instead.

The Eve of Ivan Kupalo

December 1968 •Ukrainian

Petro is a modest farmhand living in an impoverished village in some unspecified long-ago era. He wants to marry the lovely Pidorka, but her stern father won't hear of it. The mischievous demon Basavriuk, offers a deal, enticing Petro into crime for the sake of fortune. Based on Nikolai Gogol’s short story “The Eve of Ivan Kupala” (“St John’s Eve”) and Ukrainian folk tales.

Re/cycle

June 2019 •English

With input from actor and writer Jan Hlobil, director and cinematographer Rene Smaal presents a film in the true surrealist tradition, in the sense that only 'found' elements were used, and that it defies interpretation based on ordinary cause-and-effect time sequence.

The Holy Mountain

November 1973 •Spanish

The Alchemist assembles together a group of people from all walks of life to represent the planets in the solar system. The occult adept's intention is to put his recruits through strange mystical rites and divest them of their worldly baggage before embarking on a trip to Lotus Island. There they ascend the Holy Mountain to displace the immortal gods who secretly rule the universe.

The Paralysis

April 2022 •Spanish

After waking up with amnesia on the beach, the protagonist is pursued by the police to face the consequences of an unknown past. This soundscape uses tension as a tool to explore how uncertainty, anguish and urgency mobilize a body that would otherwise remain paralyzed in time.

The Cell

August 2000 •English

A psychotherapist journeys inside a comatose serial killer in the hopes of saving his latest victim.