Highest-Rated Movies about 'Absurdism'

Woman in the Dunes (1964), PK (2014), Crna macka, beli macor (1998), The Executioner (1963), Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Saragossa Manuscript (1965), Brazil (1985), Harold and Maude (1971) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Absurdism movies.

#16. Adaptation. (2002)

Storyline: While his latest movie Being John Malkovich (1999) is in production, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is hired by Valerie Thomas to adapt Susan Orlean's non-fiction book "The Orchid Thief" for the screen. Thomas bought the movie rights before Orlean wrote the book, when it was only an article in The New Yorker. The book details the story of rare orchid hunter John Laroche, whose passion for orchids and horticulture made Orlean discover passion and beauty for the first time in her life. Charlie wants to be faithful to the book in his adaptation, but despite Laroche himself being an interesting character in his own right, Charlie is having difficulty finding enough material in Laroche to fill a movie, while equally not having enough to say cinematically about the beauty of orchids. At the same time, Charlie is going through other issues in his life. His insecurity as a person doesn't allow him to act upon his feelings for Amelia Kavan, who is interested in him as a man. And Charlie's twin ...

Plot Keywords: metafilm, self-referential, identity crisis, psychological drama, black comedy, existentialism, twins ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#18. Bread and Chocolate (1974)

Storyline: Italian immigrant tries to become a member of Swiss society but fails as a waiter and even as a chicken plucker. He then becomes involved with shady wealthy character and tries to hide his Italian identity. He refuses to give up no matter how awful his situation.—Bill Smith <bsmith30@ix.netcom.com>

Plot Keywords: comedy, drama, immigration, social satire, italian cinema, working class, cultural clash ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#19. Mystery Train (1989)

Storyline: A Japanese couple obsessed with 1950s America goes to Memphis because the male half of the couple emulates Carl Perkins. Chance encounters link three different stories in the city, with the common thread being the seedy hotel where they are all staying.

Plot Keywords: independent film, american film, black comedy, multi-narrative, surrealism, alienation, existentialism ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#20. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)

Storyline: The wife of a barbaric crime boss engages in a secretive romance with a gentle bookseller between meals at her husband's restaurant. Food, colour coding, sex, murder, torture and cannibalism are the exotic fare in this beautifully filmed but brutally uncompromising modern fable which has been interpreted as an allegory for Thatcherism.

Plot Keywords: crime, drama, thriller, black comedy, erotic, revenge, violence ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#21. Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Storyline: Theater director Caden Cotard is mounting a new play. Fresh off of a successful production of Death of a Salesman, he has traded in the suburban blue-hairs and regional theater of Schenectady for the cultured audiences and bright footlights of Broadway. Armed with a MacArthur grant and determined to create a piece of brutal realism and honesty, something into which he can put his whole self, he gathers an ensemble cast into a warehouse in Manhattan's theater district. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a small mock-up of the city outside. As the city inside the warehouse grows, Caden's own life veers wildly off the tracks. The shadow of his ex-wife Adele, a celebrated painter who left him years ago for Germany's art scene, sneers at him from every corner. Somewhere in Berlin, his daughter Olive is growing up under the questionable guidance of Adele's friend, Maria. He's helplessly driving his marriage to actress ...

Plot Keywords: existentialism, surrealism, psychological drama, metafilm, identity crisis, artistic creation, passage of time ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#22. The Meaning of Life (1983)

Storyline: Why are we here, what's it all about? The Monty Python-team is trying to sort out the most important question on Earth: what is the meaning of life? They do so by exploring the various stages of life, starting with birth. A doctor seems more interested in his equipment than in delivering the baby or caring for the mother, a Roman Catholic couple have quite a lot of children because 'every sperm is sacred'. In the growing and learning part of life, catholic schoolboys attend a rather strange church service and ditto sex education lesson. Onto war, where an officer's plan to attack is thwarted by his underlings wanting to celebrate his birthday and an officer's leg is bitten off by presumably an African tiger. At middle age a couple orders 'philosophy' at a restaurant, after which the film continues with live organ transplants. The autumn years are played in a restaurant, which, after being treated to the song 'Isn't It Awfully Nice to Have a Penis?' by an entertainer, sees the arrival ...

Plot Keywords: comedy, absurd, satire, musical, black comedy, philosophical, meaning of life ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#24. Whisky Romeo Zulu (2004)

Storyline: The film tells the story prior to the accident LAPA Boeing 737 on 31 August 1999 after hitting an embankment in central Buenos Aires, killing 67 people. Directed and performed by a former pilot of the same company, this film reveals a complex web of complicity between the Air Force and the company to circumvent security controls in order to obtain greater economic benefit in operations.

Plot Keywords: drama, comedy, black comedy, workplace, social satire, independent film, low budget ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#25. King of Hearts (1966)

Storyline: During the latter part of World War I, Private Charles Plumpick is chosen to go into the French town of Marville and disconnect a bomb that the German Army has planted. However, Charles is chased by some Germans, and finds himself holed up at the local insane asylum, where the inmates are convinced that he is the "King of Hearts". Feeling obligated to help the inmates, Charles attempts to lead them out of town, but they are afraid to leave, and frolic about the streets in gay costumes.—Rick Gregory <rag.apa@email.apa.org>

Plot Keywords: war, comedy, absurd, anti-war, french film, black comedy, mental asylum ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#26. The Visit (1964)

Storyline: Karla Zachanassian had a child by Serge Miller as a teenager. When Serge refused to marry her, she was driven out of town. By her own wit and cunning, she has returned as a millionairess for a visit. The town lays out the red carpet expecting big things from Karla, only to learn that her sole purpose is to see Serge Miller killed...—Dave Kocsis <david.kocsis@delta-air.com>

Plot Keywords: psychological thriller, family dynamics, rural setting, black comedy, social satire, class conflict, moral dilemma ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#27. Diary of a Chambermaid (1964)

Storyline: Celestine, the chambermaid, has new job on the country. The Monteils, who she works for are a group of strange people. The wife is frigid, her husband is always hunting (both animals and women) and her father is a shoe-fetishist. Joseph, the farm-labourer is a fascist and sexually attracted to Celestine. Celestine settles herself and talks to the neighbour, an ex-officer, who likes damaging his neighbour's things. After the death of the old man, she quits her job, but because of the rape and murder of a child 'Little Claire' she decides to stay, believing that Joseph is the murderer. To get his confession she sleeps with him and promises to marry him. In spite of her engagement she fakes evidence to implicate him in the murder. He is arrested, but is released because the evidence is inconclusive. She marries the ex-officer and takes on a housewife role similar to that of Madame Monteil.—Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de>

Plot Keywords: drama, french film, literary adaptation, black comedy, social satire, class conflict, psychological drama ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#28. Knife in the Water (1962)

Storyline: Well off Andrzej and Krystyna's marriage is at a stage where familiarity breeds contempt, that contempt which is outwardly shown only behind closed doors and only when an incident of some sort sets off one or the other. While driving through the countryside on a Sunday on their way to the lake to embark on an overnight sailing excursion, they almost run over a young male hitchhiker. Despite the antagonism between Andrzej and the hitchhiker, Andrzej offers him a ride as far as the marina. By the time they reach the lake, their antagonism has dissipated enough that Andrzej asks if he would like to join them on their sailing trip. The hitchhiker accepts despite knowing nothing about sailing. As the sailing trip progresses, the antagonism between the two men begins to increase again, fueled on both sides as each strives to be the alpha male. Andrzej needs to show his superiority, while the hitchhiker needs to show that his young age and inexperience, not only with sailing but with life in...

Plot Keywords: thriller, psychological, marriage, love triangle, suspense, polish cinema, black and white ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#29. You, the Living (2007)

Storyline: A series of scenes that focus specially on a single idea, emotion or act us. In the absence of interfering qualities this film is able to take one factoring influence and amplify it to absurd and hilarious proportions. Each scene gives us an uninterrupted view at some of the more unglamorous characteristics that in the end determine who we are, both as individuals and as a thread in the patchwork of the collective human unconscious.

Plot Keywords: drama, comedy, black comedy, swedish film, surrealism, absurd, slice of life ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#30. The Boss of It All (2006)

Storyline: For years, company director Ravn (Peter Gantzler) leads his staff to believe that the head of the firm is an absentee director named Svend. Now Ravn wants to sell out to Finnur (Fridrik Thór Fridriksson), but Finnur will deal only with Svend. Ravn hires Kristoffer (Jens Albinus), an actor, to portray Svend so the deal can go through, but complications arise when Kristoffer must extend the performance.

Plot Keywords: comedy, satire, workplace, danish film, absurd, black comedy, power struggle ...

Movie Details Click Here !