Has a particular fascination with the circus world. The story is full of color and mystery. Although it is very tender, I noted with surprise that this subject has attracted many filmmakers. The topic has been exploited mainly in horror movies, but there were some precious directors have made some memorable movies.
Some of them are very old, but even so no litter dust on them and if you are truly passionate about movies say it is worth to give them a chance. These are my recommendations for movies about the circus world.
10. Carnivale
Ok, I cheated a bit and I put a TV series. But it is one of the few series that I watched with a big interes, so I thought it deserved to mention. The action takes place in 1930, and follows a traveling circus that hides all sorts of strange characters who have some fantastic stories that go beyond.
09. Firecracker
It is the best movie from the top, and admits that I watched only because I was curious to see it on Mike Patton, Faith No More vocalist band, in double role. Half black, half color, the movie is a detective story, mystery murder, dark atmosfere, abusive relationships and a traveling circus run by an evil boss.
08. Wings of Desire
Wings of Desire is another black and white movie, that this time directed by German filmmaker Wim Wenders. It’s fantastic story of an angel (Peter Falk) who falls in love for a circus and trapezist from coming to earth to be with her. Wenders’s movie earned him an award at Cannes for Best Director, plus a lot of important nominations.
07. Big Fish
There is a movie whose action takes place in the world necessarily circus, but rather it is a fantastic movie that speaks about a traveling circus. Tim Burton tells the story of a man who, before dying, her son all the happenings fantastic story which he passed in his youth. It is a moving story with Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney, who was nominated for an Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globes.
06. The Elephant Man
David Lynch tells the story of a man struck by fate, who must endure the humiliation of untell that was born with an abnormality that makes him to look like a monster. He is obliged to give performances in an ambualnt circus, until it is saved by a doctor (Anthony Hopkins) who discovers that behind a monster mask hides an intelligent and sensitive. A disturbing black and white movie with eight Oscar nominations.
05. Santa Sangre
Alejandro Jodorowsky is a Chilean cult director whose filmography leaves you without words. Makes clear in the category of directors that you love or hate them. There is no middle ground. Santa Sangre is a surreal movie with horror overtones, which tells the story of a son of a circus with a traumatic past that is released from a mental institution and wants to avenge his mother. The movie is a strange combination of psychological drama, black comedy and horror movie.
04. Ballad of Sad Trumpet
Alex de Iglesia with a bizarre parabolic, winning 4 times at the Venice movie Festival. It is a movie not recommended for children under 18, but recommended to collectors of oddities. The story begins in Spain during the Civil War and ends up in 1973, becoming ever more grotesque, absurd, violent but in the same time, funny. In the forefront of the story are two clowns – the sad clown and the cheerful clown who are rivals and fight for the same woman. The movie is a kind of parallel to the history of Spain, made in a way that seems to be a unique combination between Fellini and Tarantino. Sad trumpet ballad is still on our screens.
03. La Strada
The street is a touching drama directed by Fellini, with Giuletta in the role of a child-woman sold to a circus to be paired with a strong man, but unscrupulous. The two traveled with a circus and have a lot of problems because of the impulsive nature of man (played by Anthony Quinn) and because of extreme sensitivity of the woman.
02. Freaks
A cult movie directed by Tod Browning, even now is considered one of the most disturbing movies for the reason that the actors who appeared in this movie are true “oddities” (some would say even monsters) taken from traveling circuses. Siam, a human, half woman, half man, dwarf without hands and legs, are real.
01. Water for Elephants
It is a romantic drama that appears Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz, and is the most commercial movie in the top. Water for Elephants is an adaptation by Sara Gruen after a novel of the same name and shows us Robert Pattinson in the role of a veterinary student who falls in love for an artist from the circus where he works and who is also the beloved of employer.
