There are loads of these films. I was thinking of this category the other day. Persona is a great example as it is about lots and lots of things with clear themes and subplots but no real overall message / plot. Yet it is undoubtedly one of the greatest films ever made, the performances are sublime, the direction and sense of paranoia, isolation, confusion and self doubt is brilliantly managed by Bergman and the cinematography by Nyqvist is off the charts.
Can you describe what it is about in one short sentence? I can't. It would be very lazy just to pigeon hole it and say "It's about mental illness". Because it would do the film a disservice. Some of David Lynch's cinema is similar. I'm not saying it's impossible to describe these films. Just that I find it very difficult as they exist in a sort of ethereal, poetic sub-genre that I find absolutely intoxicating.
Other films I have really enjoyed but would have a very difficult time explaining what they are about in a short sentence:
-Upstream Color
-The Double Life of Veronique
-Werckmeister Harmonies
-Woman in the Dunes
-Underground
-Maborosi
-The Passenger
-Code Unknown
-Beau Travail
-Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... And Spring
-On Body and Soul
-Apples
-The Fountain
-Uzak
-The Banishment
-An Elephant Sitting Still
-Drive my Car
-Kaili Blues
-Long Day's Journey into Night
-Taste of Cherry
-Most of Achipatpong Weeraseethkul's films
-Meshes of the Afternoon
-Carnival of Souls
-The Color of Pomegranates
-The White Ribbon
-Eternity and a Day
Can you describe what it is about in one short sentence? I can't. It would be very lazy just to pigeon hole it and say "It's about mental illness". Because it would do the film a disservice. Some of David Lynch's cinema is similar. I'm not saying it's impossible to describe these films. Just that I find it very difficult as they exist in a sort of ethereal, poetic sub-genre that I find absolutely intoxicating.
Other films I have really enjoyed but would have a very difficult time explaining what they are about in a short sentence:
-Upstream Color
-The Double Life of Veronique
-Werckmeister Harmonies
-Woman in the Dunes
-Underground
-Maborosi
-The Passenger
-Code Unknown
-Beau Travail
-Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... And Spring
-On Body and Soul
-Apples
-The Fountain
-Uzak
-The Banishment
-An Elephant Sitting Still
-Drive my Car
-Kaili Blues
-Long Day's Journey into Night
-Taste of Cherry
-Most of Achipatpong Weeraseethkul's films
-Meshes of the Afternoon
-Carnival of Souls
-The Color of Pomegranates
-The White Ribbon
-Eternity and a Day