These controversial scenes blew our minds when we first saw them and they did again when we heard behind the scenes. Yes, that disturbing scene was realistic. No simulation, no acting. On the screen, we saw the purest reality. Double shock!
These are some of the scenes that crossed the barrier of what is socially permitted for the mere love of art, although we don't know if they deserve a standing ovation for the dedication of the actors and directors or some tomatoes for their excessive provocation.
The Brown Bunny
Chloe Sevigny was the actress in question who gave fe***tio to Vincent Gallo, who was also the director of the film and who at the time was said to be the actress's partner in real life.
The decision was made to give the film more realism, something that caused displeasure and booing from those attending the premiere in Cannes. The critic Roger Ebert described it as "the worst movie", something that logically did not please Gallo, who became insulted by him.
For her part, Sevigny was fired from her agency, to which she responded by defending the scene. «It bothers me the way everyone trivializes it. It is a really intense and romantic scene, very beautiful It has been the most difficult thing I have ever done but Vincent was very careful of my needs. It was one take."
Eating a live octopus (Oldboy)
In one scene, the protagonist goes to a sushi restaurant asking to eat something alive. Next, he takes an octopus in his hand and puts it in his mouth, ripping off its head and gulping down the rest bit by bit as the tentacles wriggle and fight not to be swallowed.
Many thought that the octopus was made by computer, but no. Choi Min-Sik, the actor who starred in the scene, had to eat not one, but four live octopuses to get the shot. To add insult to injury, he was a Buddhist, so he prayed and asked the octopuses for forgiveness every time.
The Murder of the Turtle (Cannibal Holocaust)
Cannibal Holocaust is one of the most controversial movies of all time. Shot like a documentary, director Ruggero Deodato was taken to prison until he proved that every single person involved (and massacred in the film) was alive.
Luckily for him, the animals were not counted as many were killed for filming. Among them, one of the most shocking scenes corresponds to the death of the turtle.
In it, the tribesmen capture a very large turtle in the water, take it to the shore, decapitate it, and cut off its limbs to finally remove its shell and cook it.
Eating dog poop (Pink Flamingos)
If you thought eating a live octopus was too much, get ready for this. Pink Flamingos is a controversial, depraved, and twisted film, created as an experiment by its director, John Waters, in how much he would have to "bother" people until they were horrified.
It contains scenes of incest, hermaphrodites, and animal murder, but the most shocking was the final scene in which Divine, its protagonist, eats dog poop.
To achieve this, Divine chased the aforementioned animal for three days, until he finally did his thing and she... well, hers. After performing it, Harris Milstead (Divine's true identity) called 911 asking for the consequences of ingesting such a thing. He knew then that there were no effects that put him at risk.
Drownings (Noah's Ark)
This is a bit different. In the 1928 version of Noah's Ark, director Michael Curtiz decided to flood the set with fifteen thousand tons of water, rather than do the same with a model.
As a result, pieces of the set broke and fell on the extras, several people were injured, one lost a leg and three died. Sort of like the true Biblical story.
