Pete has put together a short introduction to the origins of psychedelic cinema and and picked his top 6 modern films from the genre. Its an excellent selection and I fully recommend to anyone wishing to explore a psychedelic state of mind through film.<\/em><\/p>\n Get your popcorn ready and enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n Over to Pete\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n As David Church remarks in his excellent essay The Doors of Reception<\/a>,<\/em> the word \u2018psychedelic\u2019 when applied to cinema is long and indeterminate. Firstly it can be used historically when ascribed to the immediate film experiments and avant- garde films from the 1960\u2019s that coincided with recreational drug use. His Church recounts, the word \u2018psychedelic\u2019 has been used to describe some formal experiments of filmmakers like Kenneth Anger, Jonas Mekas, Stan Brakhage and Jordan Belson in the 1960\u2019s; some being actively inspired by psychedelic drug experiences.<\/p>\n Avant-garde aesthetics in independent film of this period are dazzling: swirling geometric patterns, the use of paint on 16mm and 8mm (evoking a lurid flickering effect), figurative scenes that dissolve into abstracts shapes or colours, depictions of mythical figures and hallucinations and a strong absence of any linear narration. From the 1960\u2019s onward these formal experiences spilled into the mainstream in films like Kubrick\u2019s 2001 Space Odyssey<\/i> (1968) and Seconds <\/i>by Jonathan Frankenheimer (1966).<\/p>\n The stargate sequence from 2001<\/p><\/div>\n Yet the relationship between cinema and inner psychedelic experience isn\u2019t simple. How can cinema accurately or truthfully depict an experience on the influence of \u2018psychedelics\u2019? The idea that a highly subjective drug experience could be accurately depicted through images and text is problematic. As David remarks:<\/p>\n \u2018It is <\/i>precisely this phenomenology of drug-enhanced spectatorship \u2013 and the attendant proposition that no text has any inherent meaning outside one\u2019s subjective experience of it \u2013 that makes psychedelic cinema such a valuably challenging outpost in the \u201cantipodes\u201d of film analysis.\u2019\u00a0<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n However, there has been a resurgence in psychedelic film in 21st century cinema since around 2000. This might be suggestive of the long-term influence of the lurid psychedelic film experiments of the 1960\u2019s on narrative cinema. Interestingly, these films arrive at times of changing behaviours to film spectatorship \u2013 some of these films are now being watched under the influence of psychedelics (or taken after a trip) and their online responses being shared in online communities. Church gives examples of Gasper Noe\u2019s Enter the Void<\/i> having a strong online following and audience response in this regard. Could this signal a new branch of film spectatorship?<\/p>\n Below is a list of recommended modern films for those of you interested in this kind of spectatorship, or films that are somehow linked to psychedelic experiences. They contain surreal sequences; hallucinogenic dream-states that veer into abstraction, a languid pace, an over-emphasis on micro-details and some even depict the effects of psychedelic usage.<\/p>\n Richard Linklater takes a departure from his very wordy every-day dramas to make a very wordy animated investigation into dreams and consciousness. An unassuming protagonist roams around an unnamed American city, drifting between conversation (often mid-way) that muse on the nature of reality, time and the meaning of dreams. Is he witnessing a dream or a real conversation? Linklater \u2018rotoscoped\u2019 (traced animation) of each digitally-shot frame using computer animation. The resulting animated effect is gloriously surreal-\u00a0 more figurative than hand-drawn animation, yet strangely amorphic and unstable.<\/p>\n As director Ari Aster remarks, Midsommar <\/i>is\u00a0 \u201ca breakup movie dressed in the clothes of a folk horror film.\u2019 Set in the perpetual daylight of Summer Solstice in Sweden, Midsommar <\/i>is the story of Dani (Florence Pugh) and her self-regarding boyfriend Christian visiting a bizarre Swedish pagan cult for a summer research project. The film follows Dani\u2019s growing realisation of how much of a jerk her boyfriend is, while at the same time being subject to the\u00a0 cult\u2019s horrific and otherworldly rituals including sacrifice, chanting, incessant drinking and dancing.<\/p>\n The lengthy finale of the film is particularly striking, Dani is given a hefty dose of psychedelic drugs and becomes the \u2018Queen\u2019 of the cult\u2019s ritual- making the final sequence nightmarish. The sequence even more surreal and hallucinatory, by the warping of the frame ever-so slightly.The drug sequences in Midsommar emphasise the dramatic-downfall structure that is typical of the horror\u2019s genre; Dani\u2019s ethereal, blissful trip early on heavily contrasts with her garish and horrific trip in the films finale.<\/p>\n All of David Lynch\u2019s work embraces abstract, non-linear methods of storytelling, which is crystalised in the often-sublime \u2018Mulholland Drive. <\/i>David Lynch\u2019s L.A film \u2013 noir juxtaposes innocence and darkness in equal measure; a tale of two actresses, amnesia and loss of identity.<\/p>\n Mulholland Drive<\/i> begins in a\u00a0 familiar narrative path which eventually becomes darker, more allusive, more abstract as the film progresses. The imagery of Los Angeles night time boulevards and palm trees give a seductive, hypnotic quality in this film -a film recommended to be viewed late at night!<\/p>\n Thai director\u00a0Apichatpong Weerasethakul<\/a>, makes incredibly meditative films \u2013 set in very rural locations near the Thai, and Laos border, and are categorised as \u2018slow cinema\u2019. Uncle Boonme <\/i>concerns a man with an ailing kidney condition, who receives visitations of ghosts of his son and wife and hopes to reach them when he is reincarnated. Weerasethakul<\/a> films are interested in ideas about memory and \u2018objects and people that transform or hybridise\u201d.<\/p>\n While his films often delve into the supernatural and dream states as characters experience powerful incantations, the film’s surreal effects are always grounded in a very blissful realism; his films make use of long shots and languid sequences that make use of silence, natural sounds, and remote locations. Two of his earlier works, Tropical Malady<\/i> and Syndromes and a Century <\/i>are\u00a0also heavily recommended.<\/p>\n Embrace of Serpent is semi-historical black and white film, inspired by the diaries of real-life ethnographer Theodor Koch-Grunberg and ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes. The film follows two explorers\u2019 encounters with Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and last survivor of his tribe. Shot with non-actors and indegenous communities in the Columbian Amazon, the film explores the western discovery of rare psychedelic plant Psychotria Viridis, <\/i>and vividly depicts how such sacred indigenous plants can be abused by colonial interventions and interference.<\/p>\n Watch out for the poignant and illuminating colour sequence in which Evans is given a dose of Yakruna from a last surviving plant.<\/p>\n Gasper Noe\u2019s neon-tinged, Tokyo-set Enter the Void<\/i>, explores a young man called Oscar out-of-body experiences over one dramatic and fatal evening. Shot entirely from point-of-view, the film explores Oscar\u2019s intense experience when taking DMT, and the dramatic turn of events that follow. After a fatal encounter with police, Oscar experiences a range of flashbacks and out-of-body observations as his spirit drifts above various scenes.<\/p>\nAn Introduction to Psychedelic Cinema<\/b><\/h2>\n
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6 Awesome Modern Psychedelic Films<\/h1>\n
Spoiler alerts<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Waking Life<\/i> by Richard Linklater (2001)<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nMidsommar<\/em> by Ari Aster (2019)<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nMulholland Drive<\/i> by David Lynch (2001)<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nUncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives<\/em> by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (2011)<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nEmbrace of the Serpent<\/em> by Ciro Guerra (2015)<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nEnter the Void<\/i> by Gasper Noe (2009)<\/h2>\n
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