A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence (2014)

[Secret Executioner]

Figured this one should have a thread, at least for how strange it is.

The title of the 2014 Golden Lion winner at the Mostra in Venezia is strange, but it's actually probably the least weird element of this movie. It's essentially a bunch of little scenes (39 of them, according to IMDb) with no real narrative, though there are recurring characters, a pair of salesmen (a bit similar to Laurel & Hardy) trying to sell their comedy articles or displaying them to people they meet - a recurring element which somehow made laugh every time it happened. The scenes go from really dark humor (the first three scenes notably, which are called "meeting with Death #1, 2 and 3") to downright disturbing imagery (the lab monkey scene - called "Homo sapiens" - and the giant cylinder dream sequence notably) to muscial scenes (a flashback from 1943 sees a barmaid and soldiers singing) to Monty Python-esque absurdity (the two salesmen are in a bar, then King Karl XII and his army show up right out of nowhere and the king gets a drink on his way to a battle against Russia). There are also strange scenes like a scene with an apparently mentally challenged girl supposedly reciting a poem (she tells what it's about to an adult who's supervising the kid show or something and she's made to leave when her explanation is over), scenes where nothing happens (or that are just very puzzling), and there are A LOT of scenes with people on the phone saying they're glad to hear the person on the other end is doing fine.

A movie this weird naturally doesn't create enthusiasm among common folks - there must have been less than 5 persons in the theater at the screening I went to and one of the theater employees told me that they had had rather bad feedback on this movie, and many people would leave before it's over. I can understand why, this movie is weirder than stuff like Ken Russell's Tommy - a movie that also has a scene where you're not sure if it's real or a dream -, Frank Zappa's 200 Motels or Robert Wiene's The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, and those get really weird at times. But personally, I simply LOVED that film - the soundtrack, the characters, the aestethic (characters look very pale, the film itself has a lot of pale colors - it seems a bit lifeless), the cinematography (the camera is still and never moves, the actors speak in monotonous tones - which makes the occupation of the two leads even funnier cause they say they want to entertain people in a very lifeless manner -, the soundtrack is okay - I like the songs alot and I especially like that recurring tune you can hear in the trailer)... I found next to no flaw, except that it drags a bit towards the middle.

Here's the trailer:

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The Artifical Eye channel has a few sequences like the Karl XII sequence, the poem part or the 1943 flashback/musical.

[Secret Executioner]

Saw it again today, as the last screening for this one at the only theater around that plays it was this afternoon - only the third time I've seen it at the theater, don't think I've seen a movie that often at the theater (somehow, this makes me feel like our friend and movie enthusiast OKFC ).

Gotta say it's a movie that stands up to repeated viewings because you always find new things you hadn't spotted at first or you can get some trivia like the fact the phrase "happy to hear you're doing fine" is uttered 12 times in the pictures or the fact you know the name of only 8 characters (out of all the people seen in the film).

And I may get the poster from the theater:

I talked to an employee and he told me I could get a poster, but I need to check as they keep records on the movies they play. So I'll have to see if it's okay with the person in charge first.