Surrealism

The fascinating ‘Men & Chicken’ will make you laugh and cringe in equal measure

A horror-comedy that strives to disturb rather than scare, ‘Der Bunker’ meticulously creates a world of perverse pleasures.

Horse Money is an elusive entity, a picture of eerie dreamscapes and squalid urban degradation devoid of earthly logic. Our unknowing guide is a retired brick layer named Ventura, acting as a cipher for the displaced souls of the Cape Verdean immigrants, consorting us through a saprogenic world. Director Pedro Costa crafts a hallucinatory, soul-searching labyrinth out of the squalor and grime of the Lisbon slums, known to locals as Fontainhas. It’s almost soporific in its unending calmness, but it (mostly) avoids pretensions. Ventura drifts in a solipsistic daze through various scenes of displaced landscape and artifice. He does various non-activities with unvarying detachment: he meets his estranged ex-wife, and tries to make a call on a broken phone, and uses a urinal in a derelict bathroom, and visits a doctor. Each event is visually striking, yet completely uneventful (though a door does slam at one point). The lighting is hard and Costa works often in steep contrasts; Ventura moves in and out of shadows, disappearing and reappearing like the motif from a dream.

While Mirrormask has become something of a cult movie, Dave McKean is still better known for his work in illustration than his directorial efforts in film. McKean’s groundbreaking style consistently raised the bar in comic art; his contribution to the 1989 release of Arkham Asylum, written by Grant Morrison, helped change our understanding of the artform. McKean’s style seemed uniquely suited to the mind space of an asylum, his layered mixed media style reflective of thoughts and emotions in conflict. Perhaps his best known work is his contributions to the cover art for Neil Gaiman’s iconic Sandman series, once again cementing the phantasmagoric quality of McKean’s work. His collaboration with Gaiman highlighted the obscured landscape of nightmares which he frightfully recreated through superimposition, collage and drawing.

For those readers not familiar with Axe Cop here’s a little back story. The artist Ethan Nicolle started Axe Cop as a web-comic based on his then five year old brother Malachai’s imaginative creations. Axe Cop’s popularity grew as it spawned toys, t-shirts, an expansion to the popular cardgame Munchkin, and even an animated show on FOX.

The Grandmother Written by David Lynch Directed by David Lynch USA, 1970 Mrs Bates lived on inside Norman’s fractured psyche. Her continued residence compensated for the guilt her son felt following her murder. Ever present, her spectral presence kept watch in the guise of a maternal superego overlooking the Bates motel from close quarters. Psycho …

Ever fascinated by the American way of life, Lynch’s career is rooted in the American experience, be it small town life or the magical land of Hollywood. The contradiction of the sense of community, magic and folksiness with the underbelly of violence and perversion is at the heart of most of his projects. He explores …

Day 4: La Cité des Enfants Perdus (1995) Written by Gilles Adrien and Jean-Pierre Jeunet Directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet What’s it about? A little girl, Miette, and a carnival strong man, One, team up to look for One’s brother, Denree, who’s been kidnapped by a mad scientist attempting to steal children’s dreams. …