Beyond the Black Rainbow : Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

I just saw the film and absolutely loved it. I'm gonna go ahead and throw it out there - this may just be the Eraserhead of our time. It definitely reminded me of certain cult films that, in my opinion, might have been influences. I'm listing mine below and would love to read what yours are
1. Phantasm (the music)
2. Altered States (similar subject & Barry totally rocked the William Hurt look)
3. Blade Runner (leather suit/eye gouging similar to Roy Batty; music; style)
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey (same level of trippy-ness and visionary style)
5. Firestarter (young female heroine with psychic powers)

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

I see Holy Mountain in there somewhere or any other Jodorowsky film.

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Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Enter the void and even easy rider (trip scene)

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

I'm pretty sure Panos said that scene was based on Begotten (1990).

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Begotten *shudder*

That movie was scary as s**t when I was 15. I have wanted to see it again since then, but also kinda not wanted to.

Other movies that have scared the crap out of me (I don't scare easily, most horror films don't even make me jump):

Sleepaway Camp (the ending)
Megan is Missing
Eraserhead
Mulholland drive (just one part)

That's pretty much it
and Begotten, of course. :p

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Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Just in general style, content, and technique, no particular order:
1. Blue Sunshine
2. Cosmos (Sagan PBS series)
3. Suspiria (and a bunch of other Argento)
4. Altered States (and a bunch of other Russell)
5. Manhunter



Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Blue Sunshine, definitely.

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

As far as visual influences go, I kept thinking of this music video, another Canadian product:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtqIlvg3wsw

A perfect fit with regards to time period.

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Definitely "2001" and "THX 1138".

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

What about Akira? Didn't anyone think it a bit like less apocalyptic Akira?

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

1) 2001 of course
2) John Carpenter's apocalypse cycle (They Live, Prince of Darkness, In the Mouth of Madness)
3) Early Cronenberg like Videodrome and Scanners
4) William S Burroughs (Benway Pharmacy anyone?)
5) David Lynchof course

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Finally! I seem to be the only person amongst my friend pointing out the "Benway pharmacy" connection. You hit the nail on the head with influences as well, there are more, can't really pack his range of influences into a top 5.

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Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Plenty of The Empire Strikes Back in some of the scenes with the nurse.

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

1. Christmas Vacation ("I don't know, Margo.")

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

1. Soundtrack owed a lot to both GOBLIN and Tangerine Dream. Jeremy Schmidt's song "Triangle" and the accompanying visuals with the cloud drifting down from the ceiling reminded me a lot of Michael Mann's The Keep, which was scored by Tangerine Dream and had some very similar otherworldly visuals.

2. Cronenberg. The plot seems to owe a bit to Cronenberg's passive-aggressive stab at new age psychobabble in The Brood, and the characters had a very cold, detached demeanor which was common of his '80s films. Scanners would be another strong reference point.

3. Kubrick. Whether intentional or not, the set design was reminiscent of 2001.

4. From Beyond. Humanity ascending to a higher form, and the trouble that, that can cause. Nyle even ends looking like Tillinghast's evolved form by the end of the film minus the third eye.

5. Begotten. The black and white visuals of Nyle's rebirth echo Begotten's hallucinatory visuals.

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Ohgood call on "Begotten!"

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Definitely felt like 2001, Scanners, Videodrome, THX 1138, and Suspiria were all big influences in both style and feel for this film.

One way I've described this film is "throwing all of those films (mentioned above) in a blender and putting it on the slowest setting".

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (A slow paced, trip fest that's out of this world)
2. Cronenberg's dark, sci-fi groove (They're incredibly strange but always leave an impression on you)
3. Eraserhead (The surreal and disjointed, yet meaningful, narrative structure and style)
4. David Lynch (He has a knack for using themes and images that are almost incomprehensible unless you give them deep thought)
5. Altered States (The same general "mad scientist" idea)

^ Either that, or The Shining for it's geometrical design and "spiraling down into madness" theme


You mean Norman Bates Jr. is the baby daddy?

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

how did NOONE say "Portal"? baffling.

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Top 5 likely influences:
1. Firestarter(female heroine,shadowy organization The Company)
2. 2001 (lighting, color for moods and Sentouranut? uniform)
3. Japanese anime + Synth Pop (AKIRA, Daft Punk)
4. Altered States (indoctrination ceremony and the rebirth of Dr.Nyles)
5. Cronenberg (Videodrome,Scanners)

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Immediately I thought this film is like when record collectors form a band and make their own music but with movie fans instead, anyway 2001 for obvious reasons, but also Scanners (death of the nurse) and Eraserhead (narrative style).

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

The alienness of it all, for me, harkens back to the original (Tarkovsky) Solaris. Also, as someone else said, Jodorovsky, most specifically the Holy Mountain.

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Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

"The Man Who Fell To Earth"- Nyle exposing himself without his "appliances," much like the scene where David Bowie's character reveals his alien form

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

I forgot about this one definitely.

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Yes, the two films I thought while watching this about was definitely "The Man Who Fell To Earth" and "Altered states". The scene with the lenses must be a reference to Bowies alien. Also the overall feel is quite similar.

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences


this thread is amusing, but also accurate: Beyond the Black Rainbow was influenced by a bunch of films that are WAY out of its league. in any other context, this film would be out of place in a discussion including Kubrick or Tarkovsky


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Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Here's my five

1. Phase IV (1974): the hyper-stylized 70's-80's grainy New Age look
2. Altered States (1980): Dr. Barry Nyle's flashback scenes comes off like a homage to Dr. Jessup's hallucination from the root mixture in the caves.
3. THX 1138 (1971): Dr. Barry Nyle's patient, Elena, ironically tries to escape from the Aboria institute, which somewhat resembles the cold prison-like city that THX and LUH are trying to escape from.
4. Blade Runner (1982): Dr. Barry Nyle's car resembles the vehicles driven and ridden by Rick Decker. Both of them are alleged human beings with supernatural abilities (Decker a possible replicant, Nyle a telepath).
5. Sunshine (2007): Dr. Barry Nyle's transformation resembles Pinbacker. They both stalk and slash their victims in the third act.

and i'll add a sixth

6. 1984 (1984): Director Panos Cosmatos set the film in 1983. Obvious reference to George Orwell and thus the film adaptation.


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Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Let me add "The Brood" by David Cronenberg

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Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

(in no particular order)
1. Kubrick, 2001 , A Clockwork Orange, and The Shining (cinematography, set design, soundtrack)
2. Michael Mann, The Keep and Manhunter (cinematography, special effects/visuals, soundtrack, general atmosphere)
3. Andrei Tarkovsky, Solaris and Stalker (general pace, cinematography, psychological theme, general atmosphere)
4. David Cronenberg, Scanners, Videodrome, and Dead Ringers (paranoia, telekinesis, psychological themes, general atmosphere)
5. David Lynch, Eraserhead, Lost Highway, and Mulholland Drive (general pace, surreal, disturbing visuals and themes, general atmosphere)

Not to mention things like George Lucas's THX 1138 (paranoia theme, set design), Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain (cinematography, general atmosphere), From Beyond (general atmosphere), Argento's Suspiria (cinematography, soundtrack), Kenneth Anger's "Rising" films (cinematography, general atmosphere), etc.

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Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences


(in no particular order)
1. Kubrick, 2001


^^This.

I'd say this is definitely the most accurate & thorough list of BtBR's influences. Good job bennyshambles78

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Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

I haven't seen such awesome use of color since Argento, but this film also showed a masterful use of texture, which is something I've never experienced before in a movie. I was disappointed at first with the lack of details and sudden ending, but then I found myself laughing, and after I laughed, I started thinking

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

I'd go with directors instead:

1. Kubrick
2. Yoshida
3. Cronenberg
4. Lynch
5. Sono

Tarkovsky should probably be on the list to some degree too.

Edit: I see someone mentioned Argento/Suspia. Didn't think of that, but spot on!

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Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Kubrick: 2001, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining

Lynch: Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive

Gaspar Noe: Enter the Void

Michael Mann: Manhunter (especially musically)

David Cronenberg Scanners, The Brood

Also THX1138, and I thought the sterilized white panel walls resembled some of the sets from Brandon Cronenberg's Antiviral, though it was made 2 years after. Maybe the younger Cronenberg was influenced by BTBR.

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

All of the above and THX 1138, Suspiria, and Akira. There was very little originality on display, bored me through out.

Gesundheit.

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Everyone seems to have forgotten Gary Numanspecifically the Living Ornaments live concerts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaF9KTH0SEg

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

I love Gary Numan, especially the early Tubeway Army albums. The set design for his Living Ornaments tour is definitely along the same aesthetic lines as certain scenes from Beyond the Black Rainbow, but I think the OP was referring to specifically cinematic/film influences. If musical influences were on the table, I'd say Tangerine Dream, Kalys Schulze, and other electronic and/or *beep* artists would be mentioned.

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Maybe this was mentioned but Kenneth Anger's Lucifer Rising must've been an influence. Go check it out on youtube, specially if you liked BTBR.

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Maybe this was mentioned but Kenneth Anger's Lucifer Rising must've been an influence. Go check it out on youtube, specially if you liked BTBR. Also Valhalla Rising has the same vibes.

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

Logan's Run

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

If you start Pink Floyds "Dark Side of the Moon" at the same time as BTBR, it synths together.

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

I see a lot of early Cronenberg in the sterility of the Institute.

-
"It's better not to know so much about what things mean." David Lynch

Re: Beyond the Black Rainbow - Your top 5 likely influences

I haven't seen anybody mention Android (1982) yet but it was definitely an influence. Barry removing his hair then running around bald attacking people is much like Max 404 in Android.
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