Looking for far out, fantastical and otherworldly films with an emphasis on practical sets and minimal CGI.

[/u/SkeletonicIllus]

Hey there, folks. Over the past year, I found myself gravitating towards many films that fit the description above. Release date and genre vary but here’s a few of my recent favourites: Mad Max Fury Road, Fitzcarraldo, Brazil, The Crow, Dark City, City of Lost Children, Apocalypse Now and Big Trouble in Little China. Each film has a distinct visual language, usually in which an Outsider navigates and loses themselves within a strange world. I think the key thing that ties these films is, save for some CGI in the more recent movies, each film has a set or setting that’s actually THERE. Maybe not so much for the desert storm in Fury Road, but the dunes and rocky cliffs were, with some minimal digital touches here and there. The city in Dark City definitely has some weathered CGI, but the sets are real and capture that noir moody atmosphere fantastically. Even Fitzcarraldo had that bit with the model boat, but I’ll be damned if Herzog didn’t genuinely get a real steamboat lugged up a mountain in the Amazons. I’m impressed by good special effects for sure, but nowadays I’m even moreso blown away when a film captures something that’s actual there, and manages to create a surreal far-out world by, mostly, being practical. All CGI will age eventually, but the real world settings and elaborately crafted sets stay fresh forever. With that said, do you have any favourites that fit this mould?

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