Fight Club

love all-ways,
mem

Interesting that "Jacobs Ladder" is the first one listed. Whenever I try to explain what it was like during my "dark night of the soul", I often recommend that very film as being representative of the horror in which I found myself. Also, that film suggests a way through the chapel: stop fighting, stop holding on, and let go. The chiropracter's paraphrase of my favorite Rhineland mystic is a brilliant summary of the fruitlessness of trying to fight one's way out of the chapel and how one must relinquish the false sense of control while accepting the chaos of thesituation.

How about Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me?
The Black Lodge= Chapel Perilous?

The film The Trial based off of Kafka's book.

I would also say THE TRIAL, as well as CITY OF LOST CHILDREN.
What an interesting thread!

pink floyd: the wall
to some point: v for vendetta

>>>EL TOPO by Alejandro Jodorowsky

Did you know that he also makes comic books?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incal

Would have loved to see his version of "Dune" with production design by HR Giger and Salvador Dali as the Padishaw Emperor....
www.duneinfo.com/unseen/jodorowsky.asp

Christopher Marker's "La Jetee"

Wizard of Oz

I'm pleased to see that someone has already mentioned PINK FLOYD THE WALL. I think it's one of the greatest of Chapel Perilous films.

Back in the early 1980s, the original album version of THE WALL provided my first introduction to the concept of Chapel Perilous. In fact, that album is such an eloquent document of Chapel Perilous that my response to many of the lessons I've learned about Chapel Perilous in the past quarter-century has been, "Ah, yes, just like that bit in THE WALL..."

Roger Waters knows Chapel Perilous extraordinarily well, and most of his best work is about it - not only THE WALL, but also WISH YOU WERE HERE, DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, the first side of THE FINAL CUT, and THE PROS AND CONS OF HITCHHIKING.

Oh, but wait - we were talking about movies, not music...

A few good ones that I haven't seen mentioned yet:

THE FISHER KING (Gilliam)

THE CONVERSATION (Coppola)

IKIRU (Kurosawa)

And of course one of the greatest Chapel Perilous films of all time is also one of the greatest martial arts films: Kihachi Okamoto's brilliantly bleak epic SWORD OF DOOM. Few actors do the "trapped in Chapel Perilous" look as perfectly as Tatsuya Nakadai does it.

Barton Fink
Ground Hog Day
Spirited Away
PI (another vote for this one)

Yes, Antero, I do believe you correct in surmising the Chapel's ubiquitous pearly presence of Peril, us. This is really strange, either my collect/view has gravitated towards this slant, or it is very very common for certain "artsy" genres..

PARTNER by Bernardo Bertolucci
PERSONA by Ingmar Bergman
BEAUTY & THE BEAST by Jean Cocteau
WEEKEND by Jean-Luc Godard
MY NAME IS IVAN by Andrei Tarkovsky
EARTH by Oleksandr Dovshenko
FANDO Y LIS & HOLY MOUNTAIN by Alejandro Jodorowsky
THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES by Sergei Paradjanov
LIQUID SKY by Slava Tsukerman
SATYRICON by Federico Fellini
GOYA IN BORDEAUX by Carlos Saura
SEX AND LUCIA by Julio Medem
TESIS & OPEN YOUR EYES by Alejandro Amenabar
(wow) THE SEA INSIDE by Alejandro Amenabar
CITY OF LOST CHILDREN by Jeunet & Caro
THE GREEN BUTCHERS by Anders Tomas Jensen
EVERYBODY'S FINE by Giuseppe Tornatore
DYING OF LAUGHTER by Alex de la Iglesia
SOYLENT GREEN by Richard Fleischer
LOGAN'S RUN by Michael Anderson
...every last single episode of THE PRISONER
BY BYE BRAZIL by Carlos Diegues
THE CITY by David Riker
BUS 174 by Jose Padilha
2LDK by Yukihiko Tsutsumi
SUICIDE CLUB by Sion Sono
SID & NANCY by Alex Cox
VISITOR Q by Takashi Miike
SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG by Melvin van Peebles

And anything by Pedro Almodovar, it's his special tea!
The Quay Brothers and Jan Svankmajer just live there & pay rent!!

On a more recent vibe & quasi-trendy, but still:
28 DAYS LATER by Danny Boyle (Big time!)
VELVET GOLDMINE by Todd Haynes
PARTY MONSTER by Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato
24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE by Michael Winterbottom
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS by Tim Burton
THE VILLAGE by M. Night Shyamalan

Honorable mentions:
THE ISLAND, GATTACA, BLADE RUNNER..
..ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, THE WARRIORS
-
Feel free to disagree with any of those above; not emotionally attached.
-
Now I'm all pumped up to watch a flick after all this..
..I think TETSUO: THE IRON MAN by Greg Nickson
(Haven't see it yet, but the story seems to be along these lines too..)
P'corn's ready, but dang, I am so excited that I need to have a smoke!

Thanks to all of you for making this lively thread start poppin'!`';o)
-
Big up-thumb-scratch to these already mentioned:
π (Pi) by Darren Aronofsky (was my immediate thought!)
WINGS OF DESIRE by Wim Wenders
(My favorite dialogues ever is the ending, just amazing.)
I LOVE YOU ALICE B. TOKLAS by Hy Averback
(For my peronal Peter Sellers vote.. wink! :)
STALKER by Andre Tarkovsky (Freakin' whoah!)
JULIET OF ThE SPIRITS by Fellini (Just.. just, omgawrsh!)
..and hot dams to: DONNIE DARKO by Richard Kelly
CITY OF GOD by Fernando Meirelles (Total mindblower, I fell in love.)
THE BICYCLE THIEF by Vittorio de Sica
Plus a big *baby, baby, baby..* to LA JETEE by Chris Marker!!
..oh yeah, and DARK CITY by Alex Proyas

Toodles. :)

Cesar

p/s Yes I am a film-a-holic and a muse/music-haul-ic too!
There... I feel better, admitting it to all of you.. group hug?

..larf.

..now I'll be quiet, excuse me eating up your bandwidth, please.
Cheers.

So many good flicks on the list... so I'm just gonna add one that I didn't see listed yet...

Richard Elfman's Forbidden Zone.

Dark Side of Oz

I'm getting the feeling that Chapel Perilous resonates with life.

2046
www.imdb.com/title/tt0212712/

not totally sure if it applies, but why not. Has anyone else seen it - want to comment?

I actually liked In the Mood for Love, also directed by Kar Wai Wong, much more but it feels less Chapel Perilous.

Lynch - most are beyond the norm idea-wise (he could channel the weirdest ideas, with the heaviest feels)
etc...

and those european, "too deep for me" type flicks...

A Scanner Darkly (now on DVD)

Yes, Blue Velvet, most amazing film ever

just cuz i haven't seen it mentioned and just watched it again the other night:

eyes wide shut - kubrick

and oh yeah

fantastic planet
video.google.com/videoplay

this is a great thread! we're always looking for new avenues to explore the mind, films that are sobering and psychedelic simultaneously--
we watched "a scanner darkly" last night, very waking life, a little close to home in regards to the many friends or fiends still hopelessly addicted to meth and the others...

more recommendations:

Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man
Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate

Just saw PAN'S LABYRINTH by Guillermo Del Toro -- a "fairy tale for adults," it is a dark tale taking place somewhere in Spain, 1944, during WWII. Much of the film takes place in imagination of an 11 year old girl, but it is a film that is NOT for children and not for the feint of heart. There is some gruesome imagery and dark content, but the impact is unmistakeably profound and seems suggestive of only a small crack through which "escape" from chapel perilous can be achieved -- if but momentarily.

first post here.
i've got a movie called "cinema paradiso", both versions, theres a cut version and the full uncut (as the director wanted it but italian censoring at the time..). one of my favourite movies without a doubt. can't recommend it highly enough.
one a few people i know swear is the best thing they've seen is a french movie called "the beat that my heart skipped".
tho i'm an atheist pier paolo's "the gospel of st matthew" is another one to look into. it's really heavy, not in the mel gibson fashion, but the atmosphere in it could crush.

*this bit in dr strangelove never ceases to be funny. it's the bit where the russian in the bowler hat is trying to stop laughing at peter sellers smashing his arm.
www.youtube.com/watch