A film review: "Tag der Idioten" [1981, West Germany]

Werner Schroeter's films are pretty much like the man himself, less talked about but theatrical and larger than life in person. Among his last films acknowledged as part of the Neuer Deutscher Film canon, "Tag der Idioten" [Eng. Title: Day of the Idiots] is an exploration of people's fear of accepting their own eccentricities, idiosyncrasies and imperfections in a conformist world.











Carole (Carole Bouquet) snaps one day, unsure anymore of everything she had cared about thus far; her boyfriend, job, and standing in society. Frustrated with the real world, she leaves home, and after flushing the contents from her handbag down the toilet, orders three Viennese coffees for herself at a posh cafe, only to smear them all over her face and the table. "I need to breathe...", an angst-ridden Carole mutters.

She gets herself declared clinically insane after accusing a neighbour of being a terrorist and leading police on a wild goose chase. In order to avoid prison, she voluntarily checks into Dr. Laura's (Ingrid Caven) Victorian-era asylum; the doctor is aware that Carole isn't insane in a conventional sense, but nevertheless accepts her as a patient. She'd been experimenting on patients 'healing themselves' through anti-psychiatry and hopes it might help Carole too.

Carole finds the patients in the asylum simultaneously fascinating and repulsive, and notices among them the very woman she'd reported as being a terrorist. She 'escapes' the asylum more than once, but turns herself in each time, for she's no longer sure if the world outside is any more saner than the asylum. Carole isn't happy with either worlds and begins to find the very idea of living meaningless...

The impressionistic melodrama however abandons any attempt at making a point and gets consumed by its own madness, by becoming a voyeur to the excess on screen. The film isn't nearly as depraved as some of the exploitation films of the era, but will regardless shock viewers unaccustomed to seeing scenes of urophilia (golden showers) in mainstream cinema.

The relative obscurity of the film, despite the director's auteur-credentials and featuring a then current 'Bond girl' in a starring role, has prevented one of Carole Bouquet's most memorable performances from being seen by a wider audience. The film also features an ensemble cast that include Schroeter's long term muse and collaborator Magdalena Montezuma, the beautiful Christine Kaufmann, and Ida Di Benedetto. This might not be one of Shcroeter's masterpieces, but his signature style and feminist message is written all over the film, and for that at least, it is Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon.de 2-DVD Link
Willow Springs, Tag der Idioten [PAL]

 

The Nudity: Carole Bouquet, Mostefa Djadjam, Dana Medrická, Magdalena Montezuma, Ida Di Benedetto, and others
The film begins with a long scene of a stunning Carole Bouquet pacing up and down the room completely in the nude as her oblivious boyfriend (Mostefa Djadjam) sleeps. She appears nude in two other scenes later in the film. Czech actress Dana Medrická appears topless on a few occasions as a patient with an urge to flash in front of others. Magdalena Montezuma walks nude into a party, asking to be placed in prison for an imagined crime. Ida Di Benedetto, who plays a deeply religious nurse, is briefly seen topless while punishing herself. There is further nudity in a bathroom scene where for probably the first time in mainstream cinema, an actor is shown actually urinating on another (unlike 'Salo, or 120 Days of Sodom' where everything was simulated). The scene is nonsexual, but the shock value is in the banal manner of its presentation.



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A brief film review: "La pelle" [1981 Italy]

Liliana Cavani:
Veteran Italian director Liliana Cavani's films aren't always easy to love because they tend to tackle subjects that are often skirted around during mainstream discourse, and because they make for uncomfortable viewing and also leave behind a bitter aftertaste. Perhaps best known outside her native Italy for the controversial The Night Porter and the more recent Ripley's Game, Cavani's films nevertheless form a unique strand within the broader tradition of commedia all'italiana.












"La pelle" [Eng. Title: The Skin], based on a novel of the same name by writer, journalist, and diplomat Curzio Malaparte (whose villa was also famously featured in Jean-Luc Godard's unforgettable Le Mépris), is Cavani's attempt at a narrative of the Second World War from the losing side, particularly those women and children who not only became a commodity for sexual exploitation in wartime Naples, but also an essential engine of the local economy.

Set towards the end of Italy's active participation in the war, an American regiment has recently arrived to firstly liberate the city before marching on to Rome. The film follows Malaparte himself (Marcello Mastroianni), hired by the US General Mark Clark (Burt Lancaster) as his chief interpreter and liaison officer. He is also helping out with the logistics, and befriends young US officer Jimmy (Ken Marshall) in the process.

Events are woven around three central female characters in the film, each of contrasting circumstances and standing, to compare and analyse the consequences for women during the time of war; Principessa Consuelo Caracciolo (Claudia Cardinale), a woman of independent means and occasional lover of Malaparte, Deborah Wyatt (Alexandra King), a pioneering American aviator and powerful US senator's wife who insists upon joining the war effort and gets her way, and young working class lass Maria Concetta (Liliana Tari) that Jimmy befriends and falls in love with.

Part of Gen. Clark's brief to Malaparte is to accompany, entertain, and somehow persuade Ms. Wyatt to return back to the US. Malaparte does show her, to little effect, the seedier side to Naples, the suffering, and the chaos in the city, but it will take an apocalyptic event to finally make her change her mind. For Caracciolo and Concetta however, the same event will nevertheless be liberating, albeit in slightly different ways.

Cavani's film is not as much a political statement as a well-reasoned argument against generalisations in history and the need to examine the sociological impact on all sides during conflict; it opines that war is messy, extreme situations change people's values and allow them to do the otherwise unthinkable, and that trauma of war isn't merely restricted to the combatants. Cavani doesn't flinch from using shock when necessary to make her point. Some scenes verge on the graphic, like the unsuspecting final sequence when the audience are mostly waiting for the end credits to roll, where the director uses a shocking accident to make a plea against 'whitewashing' history for whatever it is worth. A difficult film in typical Cavani-style, but Highly Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon DVD Link [PAL] | Amazon Blu-ray Link

 

The Nudity: Rosaria della Femmina, Liliana Tari, and others
Apart from one scene where poverty forces the father of Maria Concetta to exhibit his daughter to American soldiers as the 'virgin of Naples' (an outraged Jimmy effectively succeeds in stopping the show from happening again), nudity in the film is largely fleeting and nonsexual. Alexandra King (Ms. Wyatt) has her dress torn while making an emergency landing on her plane. Rosaria della Femmina, in a scene tame when compared to her other film, plays a onetime society girl looking for a meal ticket. It is humorously illustrated when she compliments Jimmy's 'rump' in bed while eyeing the leg of ham he'd brought for her. Blonde merkins, apparently worn to attract black US soldiers, are randomly flashed by 'working women' in the streets. So, there's something frequently happening in this department throughout the film. :-)



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A film review: "Plemya" [2014, Ukraine]

Miroslav Slaboshpytskiy makes an assured feature film début with his astonishing film, "Plemya" [Eng. Title: the Tribe]. With dialogues entirely in Ukrainian sign-language (which the director himself is not fluent in) and presented without subtitles, voice-overs, or even background music, it forces the viewer to approach the film in the form in which it was originally invented - as a motion picture rather than a talking picture. All the film's main cast are deaf, and use sign language in their day-to-day lives.











Thankfully for us, the storyline isn't complicated, and anyone who'd seen Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" and Larry Clark's "Kids" would readily try and identify connections with the film. It begins with young Sergey (Grygoriy Fesenko) arriving to join a boarding school for the deaf. On the very same day, he is also introduced to the school's own violent crime gang who call themselves 'The Tribe'.

After passing through his initiation rituals, Sergey will begin participating in the gang's assorted acts of thuggery and drug-dealing. He will also become the replacement pimp for two of his fellow students from school, Anya (Yana Novikova) and Svetka (Roza Babiy), and help ply their prostitution trade at a night-time truck-stop.

His troubles begin when Sergey falls in love with Anya despite knowing that she's also the boss's girlfriend. He pays for having sex with her initially, but after Anya reciprocates his feelings, their love affair becomes earnest. When she discovers that she's become pregnant however, she wastes little time in having it terminated through an off-duty midwife. Unaware of this, a showdown with the 'boss' will loom large for Sergey who finds out that preparations are being made for Anya to be trafficked to Italy. More brutality ensues after Sergey is forced into conflict with the entire tribe in his quest to protect his love interest...

What marks the film apart is not just the detail that all cast members in the film happen to be deaf in real life as well, but also because it challenges the viewer at many levels; in bringing a generally 'marginalised' community into sharp 'mainstream' focus, in stating that people with disabilities are just as capable of adapting, behaving, and forming violent gangs as anyone else in wider society, and in demonstrating that what people with disabilities require is not sympathy, but empathy.

The film was in my must-watch list at last year's London Film festival after it deservedly swept through many awards at Cannes earlier that year. Watching it again more recently on DVD, I realise that there is not a single close-up shot used in the film - most scenes are shot from a distance in a 'detached' Antonioni style. Regardless, we are still privy to characters' thoughts and feelings at any given moment. The frantic gestures that they use in their sign language, whilst baffling at the beginning, start making sense as we delve into the way they communicate, which while remaining notionally silent, nevertheless convey their feelings in as clear and precise a manner as possible. Characters display the attitude of typical teenagers; they could be sarcastic, silly, and use swear 'words'. They could also be argumentative, reflective, and moving.

The film is equally challenging in its artistic and technical fronts. Most of the scenes are shot using long takes that require a great degree of coordination and direction to pull off, using what's essentially a non-professional cast. Having said that, the actors are totally convincing in their respective roles, and it is hard to believe that they've never acted in film before. Yana Novikova in particular shines in a role that is demanding not just physically, but also emotionally. This is the first seriously artistic film I've seen made in Ukraine, and was pleasantly surprised that the Ukrainian State Film Agency was as forthcoming in partly funding a film that isn't particularly uplifting, even though greatly thought-provoking. Highly Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon DVD Link [PAL]

 

The Nudity: Yana Novikova and Grygoriy Fesenko
The film features extensive nudity and sex from the main protagonists. All of these scenes were accomplished with long takes using a single camera. There is also a disturbing scene where Yana Novikova's character is partially nude as she undergoes, in real-time, an abortion procedure.



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A film review: "Baixio das Bestas" [2006 Brazil]

"That stench you feel is that of a rotting world", exclaims Heitor to his neighbour and friend Mario, referring to falling standards of honour and respect within society. He ticks off a 'permissive' culture with 'loose morals', and castigates skimpily clad hostesses appearing on TV. He alleges that these occurrences are due to the lack of 'real men' with a sense of shame and authority. It is the same Heitor who will also display his teenage granddaughter naked to paying strangers at a truck stop. It is the same Heitor who gropes and treats the motherless child as slave, and it is the same monster who's also her biological father.

In "Baixio das Bestas" [Eng. Title: Bog of Beasts], Cláudio Assis pulls no punches in giving his tuppence-worth concerning sexual exploitation in the hinterlands of northern Brazil - a land of sugar plantations, poverty-stricken labourers, and denuded industry. The place is so poor that even prostitutes struggle to make a living; they'd put up with the worst kind of psychos to get by, because whatever business there is, is frequently siphoned off by pubescent (and younger) girls newly sold into slavery, often by family. It is the perfect playground for bored rich kids from city to indulge their misogyny in over their weekends. The film loosely follows two sub-plots that converge towards the end, but they're not the main focus because we mostly see them as faceless, voiceless people going about their lives - exploiting or suffering.










Fifteen year old Auxiliadora (played by a twenty one year old Mariah Teixeira) is the breadwinner for Heitor (played by Fernando Teixeira - and no relation to the former). Apart from cooking and 'looking after' her grandfather, she offers a mobile laundry service for townspeople, and is also the weekly strip show attraction at a highway truck-stop, overseen by Heitor himself.

Auxiliadora doesn't speak very much. True to her cruelly ironic name, which refers to someone who protects and helps, we watch her stoically go about her errands with an efficient, noble, almost automated fluency without as much as uttering a word. But her story is telling; she speaks for numerous souls in the same predicament as hers, almost everywhere even today. Circumstances will conspire to force her already desperate existence through hell and beyond, before she eventually discovers a way to survive.

Cicero (Caio Blat) is the son of an industrialist living and studying in Recife, only returning to his home town during weekends and holidays. After lazing around all day at home where a self-absorbed mother fails to establish any authority, he spends evenings and nights out with fellow-rich kid Everardo (Matheus Nachtergaele) who he's also in awe with, and who along with other layabouts, terrorise the neighbourhood and its brothels.

Their secret haunt is a disused cinema, owned by one of the gang members' father. They drink, pore over strewn film cuttings from porn films (there's apparently a lot to study from 70's pornochanchada), talk politics, play with guns, and viciously abuse prostitutes naive enough to visit their lair. The cinema aspect of the narrative also presents director Assis opportunities to expand on his symbolisms. "The best thing about cinema, is that you can do whatever you want", says Everardo, pointedly breaking the fifth wall during a passage of play. True, these guys can indeed get away with anything..!

The film is among the more brutal ones you're likely to come across. It is depressing as it is distressing, and there won't be a Hollywood-style finale even if you wait for the end-credits to finish rolling. Assis has a difficult subject to work with, and while it's not nearly as nuanced as his later films, it has a raging fire inside it - burning in solidarity with the people and the region that he too hails from. Almost every main character in the film symbolise something - they may be of the extreme kind, but they're also real - some of the horrendous scenes even mirror what we read in news bulletins these days, when we momentarily feel ashamed for belonging to the human race. It looks like nothing much has changed.

There are iconographic characterisations in the film, like the one played by Irandhir Santos as a cesspit/grave digger, who's in love but helpless in rescuing Auxiliadora from her grandfather - he represents a conscientious and aspirational Brazil that whistles its way through adversity and yet manages to party whenever it can. The cane plantations too are a film-character, and its burning towards the end represents regeneration and new life. Scenes featuring the region's native folk art of maracatu signify values and traditions that are maintained, against many odds.

The film scores very well in its technical values, and includes some of Assis' signature tracking shots courtesy of Walter Carvalho's engaging camera work. It has an eclectic but memorable soundtrack and the vibrant maracatu beats transport you across the ocean, to a more ancient time. The performances are real - disturbingly so, and many of the actors have since gone on to become household names - not because of this film, of course. Watching it is anything but pleasant - it is shocking and it will make you angry, but it is also a reality that needs to be told, an issue that needs to be addressed by society as a whole, and is naturally Highly Recommended Viewing..!

DVD Enquiry Link [NTSC]
This was among the pricier DVD's ordered recently through a Brazilian friend of mine. For a modern film, it is also inexplicably letterboxed-widescreen, but it does include English subtitles. Regardless, this film's crying out for a proper re-authoring!

 

The Nudity: Mariah Teixeira, Hermila Guedes, Matheus Nachtergaele, Dira Paes, and Caio Blat
The film features scenes of gang rape and other appalling forms of abuse, and no 'balanced' individual will enjoy watching it. The victims' pain and humiliation is plain to see even if one must have a degree of imagination to actually feel it themselves. These actors - either the abusers or the abused, must surely have gone through a bit of soul-searching before and after the film-shoot. Director Assis too appears (uncredited) as one of the gropers during a strip scene.



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A review: "Heli" [2013 Mexico]

Amat Escalante is no stranger to controversy. One of the bad boys of the Mexican New Wave, his films, alongside that of close friend Carlos Reygadas (who incidentally is also often his producer), provoke and shock audiences through searing observations of human behaviour that's more closely associated with the likes of Michael Haneke and Bruno Dumont. But it's the uncompromising visual audacity, and the common - often banal nature of his subjects that set his films apart. The unexpected brutality evidenced in his earlier works such like Sangre (2005) and Los Bastardos (2008) would ruffle even the jaded of viewers.

Escalante's latest offering "Heli", is a contemporary drug-war drama set somewhere in northern Mexico. Heli (Armando Espitia) is a young lad living with a family consisting of his father, twelve year old sister Estella (Andrea Vergara), young wife Sabrina (Linda González), and their six-month old baby. Working for a nearby car assembly plant, Heli is by no means rich, but he gets by, and his family is also generally happy. School-going Estella is in love with seventeen year old special forces cadet Beto (Juan Eduardo Palacio). And it is Beto's poor judgement on one occasion that'll turn the family's world into hell. In hoping to finance his elopement with Estella, Beto steals a significant amount of police-confiscated cocaine and hides it in the water tank on top of Heli's house. Upon discovering it, Heli impulsively destroys the stash because he felt that was the right thing to do. But how wrong was he..!

It would trigger a chain of horrific events, part of which will also make up the film's opening sequence, when we see a gagged and beaten up Beto being lynched from a footbridge. There is an extended torture scene that precedes it - shown halfway into the film, where Beto and Heli are strung in the living room of a family home and first beaten with what looks like a cricket bat (didn't know they play cricket in Mexico). The kids, interrupted from their Wii, join in by taking turns with the bat while being watched with mild disapproval from the kitchen by their mother. After the beatings, Beto's genitals are dowsed in petrol and set alight. The banal domesticity of the surroundings and the casual savagery presented within it is what makes the scene all the more shocking.

Heli is however spared a similar fate - he is allowed to limp back home, but his nightmare has hardly ended - his sister too had been picked up but has not yet returned. He looses his job, and his relationship with Sabrina hits rough weather. Added to his misery is the corruption among the police investigating his father's murder and Estella's kidnapping - with one of them, a supposedly sympathetic female detective, even demanding sexual favours from him. His wife and child were lucky to have been out of town on that fateful day, and the scene when Sabrina returns home with the baby to find it ransacked with a trail of blood on the floor, is one of the very few scenes where Escalante shows any sympathy towards his audience - the scene is also classically shot.

Otherwise, the film is relentlessly unforgiving, and even though the end leaves us with a ray of hope for the family that we've come to care about, it is a damning indictment of a country fighting for its soul, with a corrupt establishment in collusion with drug cartels. While this may just be one aspect of Mexican life, confined to certain parts of the country, the director nevertheless raises some probing questions about the state of affairs, and asks why 'normal' life should remain a bit of a lottery for some people who're not even involved in the drugs trade. Escalante won the best director's award at Cannes, and the film was also nominated for Palme d'Or. It is also Mexico's official entry for the forthcoming Academy Awards. Highly Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon.com DVD Link [NTSC]

 

The Nudity: Linda González, Reina Torres, and Armando Espitia
As Sabrina, Linda González is briefly nude during a shower scene, and in two sex scenes that follow, one of which also involves nudity from Armando Espitia as protagonist Heli. Reina Torres plays police detective Maribel, who in a scene seeks sexual favours from Heli in a none too subtle way.



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Mina Orfanou in "Strella" [2009 Greece]

I've had the DVD of this Panos H. Koutras drama, "Strella" [Eng. Title: A Woman's Way] for well over a year now. It is also one of the most poignant and radical films I'd seen during the time, one that I'd been itching to post but whose time has probably only just about arrived...

It's films like these that make European cinema every once in a while so unique and revolutionary. In terms of story and screenplay, it certainly covers new ground by tackling a subject that's taboo in most cultures with great sensitivity and care. And it is also refreshing to see a film like this made not in the traditional heartland of European cinema like France, Germany, or Italy, but a largely conservative Greece. No wonder it raised a few eyebrows there when it was released. This post is also a coming-of-age of sorts for the blog - while I'd discussed films dealing with transsexual themes before, this is the first one that doesn't involve a female actress playing the part - this is as kosher as they come!

Storyline:
It is a challenging task to write a storyline for this without giving too much away - there's nothing like discovering this strange story by yourself as the film progresses, experiencing its shocking twists and turns, and then reflecting back on what you just saw to realise how well the film has actually been conceived. But I shall try. ;)
Yiorgos arrives at Athens after serving a fourteen year sentence for murder. Along with the world outside, he too has 'adapted', but had lost contact with the only member of his family, his son who was nine before he was sent to prison. Through directory enquiries, he goes around cancelling out every person in town who has his son's name to try and locate him. Meanwhile he meets Strella (a nickname for the name 'Stella' mixed with the word 'Trella' which means madness), a transsexual prostitute at his hotel, falls in love, and pretty soon moves in with her. When he eventually meets his son, the reunion will be quite beyond what anyone would have hoped for. Yiorgos will yet again have to adapt and learn to find peace and love under altered circumstances...

More than anything else, this challenging but deeply moving film is about exploring how broad a brush could be used to describe 'love'. How important is paternal love, and what is it that a child expects the most from his father. There are some lines from the film that will make you see things in different light, they will be challenging, but are also magical and deeply touching. The film is very well done, and it may come as a surprise to some that the extraordinary performance by the transsexual actress playing Strella, Mina Orfanou had never acted in film before. Perhaps for women like her, acting on film must only be an extension of their everyday lives, thinking and living like someone they weren't born as. Notwithstanding her undoubted skills, what makes her character in the film that spectacular however is the fine direction and careful editing, one that you'll appreciate when you watch it for the second time with full knowledge of the story. Not unlike Almodóvar and Fassbinder before him, Koutras has treated a subject concerning a people who are typically stereotyped and used as fodder for jokes with dignity, focusing on their rarely shown humanity and inner beauty. This gem of a film will only go unappreciated by the narrow minded and frivolous. Highly Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon DVD Link
English Subtitles




Compilation: Mina Orfanou and Yannis Kokiasmenos
I've kept the graphics relatively low-key as it may otherwise be misleading. Those who can follow Greek may encounter some major spoilers here. I also hope people read the full post before deciding on watching it..! :)



Scene Guide:

• While staying at a motel, Yiorgos gets invited by prostitute Strella, for a drink in her room. He realises that she's different from other women but nevertheless decides to goes 'all' the way. Strella is played by a beautiful Mina Orfanou, and Yiorgos by Yannis Kokiasmenos.
• The director scores some creative points by showing Yiorgos' recurrent dream of a squirrel - we'll discover its significance later in the film. Meanwhile Strella wakes up to see Yiorgos sleeping naked next to her, but she had to leave in a hurry.
• No nudity, but nevertheless an interesting pass of play where Strella asks Yiorgos what is it that he likes about her the most.
• This is magical scene - romantic, erotic but also touching - when Yiorgos surprises Strella by fixing a lantern that wouldn't work until then. When Strella approaches to thank him, he asks her to take off the towel.
• An argument ensues while Strella prepares to leave to see a customer. Yiorgos wants her to stop pursuing her trade. She refuses. The conversation is outrageous but I can't describe it as it contains important plot give-aways.

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Michele Valley & Meredyth Herold in "Singapore Sling" [1990 Greece]

Nikos Nikolaidis is a very interesting director indeed - I've seen only two films of his to date, and if these are anything to go by, one's in for a treat going through his filmography.

When I first saw his drama "Singapore Sling - O Anthropos pou agapise ena Ptoma" [Eng. title: Singapore Sling] it was one of the most grossest films I'd ever seen. That was four years ago, but how wrong I was! I'm so glad to have drawn the courage to watch it again having bought the DVD - this is actually an important film, a cinematic classic even, very stylishly done. But let's make one thing clear - this is not a great film that a normal couple could sit together and enjoy, but a great film that a cinephile can delight in after his/her better half had gone to bed.




Storyline:
The film starts with the protagonist's voice-over as we watch two women digging a grave in their garden, in pouring rain and in the middle of the night. They address themselves as mother and daughter, and are burying their latest victim - their new chauffeur. Still alive - kind off, and his entrails dropping off his shirt, his hand desperately grasps one of the woman's Wellington's - a desperate cry for mercy, until the other woman puts him off his misery with a final blow from her spade. We see the protagonist now - a detective definitely past his prime, already wasted with a gun-shot wound to his shoulder. Where was he coming from? One thing we do know, he's looking for a Laura, the woman he's in love with, and after three years of search, this is where his trail had led him.

He soon finds himself captive, and is informed that Laura is dead, killed by the mother-daughter, his captors. But in his state of mind, he sees Laura's resemblance in the daughter, and tries to get her out of the house. Is she really Laura, and are the psychopathic duo really mother and daughter..?

A clue to understanding the film lies in the Greek title, which roughly means "The man who loved a Corpse". "You better watch out McPherson, or you'll end up in a psychiatric ward. I don't think they've ever had a patient who fell in love with a corpse", says Waldo Lydecker to the detective from Otto Preminger's 1944 film-noire, "Laura". It's a Laura there that the protagonist - a detective as well, searches for in that film. Additional clues point to the portrait hanging on the wall in both that and this film. This film could be a homage of sorts not just to the aforementioned Hollywood classic, but to film-noire itself - the stunning black and white cinematography from Aris Stavrou and the exquisite lighting are there to hammer home the point. But then again Mr. Nikolaidis may also be parodying popular American culture. There's an instance in the film where "two servant rules' are reiterated by the mother-daughter duo, which strangely echoes a dialogue from a recent American film sci-fi film, "I, Robot" about the laws among robots. I discovered later that it is attributed to science fiction guru Isaac Asimov, upon whose book the film (I, Robot) was partly based. Another feature of the film is that the 'fourth wall' is frequently broken through when characters pause to speak to the camera. It's incredibly difficult to classify this film as a black comedy, horror, or erotic thriller - it probably is all..!

Whatever the case - parody, homage, or downright nastiness, there's no denying the fact that this is a beautifully executed piece of cinema that is both repulsive and fascinating at the same time - the gorgeous costumes and art direction would have done a Marco Ferreri proud, the cinematography is sumptuous, editing and direction sublime, the soundtrack exceptional, and the performances by the two female leads - absolutely riveting - it would have won many an accolade if only the subject wasn't as shocking. Needless to say, dear cinephiles - Highly Recommended Viewing..!

I'm glad that the DVD included the original trailer, which I think is very well done, and was surprised to see that it included some awesome shots strangely not included in the main feature.

Amazon DVD Link




Compilation: Meredyth Herold and Michele Valley
This is only a sampling of the nude scenes from the film - several more scenes not included.



Scene Guide:

• Mother and daughter busy doing graveyard duties - the mother is played by a fine actress and Nikolaidis regular, the stunning Michele Valley, and the daughter by the exceptionally daring Meredyth Herold.
• Incestuous overtones - mother and daughter playing their favourite game, Laura's first visit to their house looking to be employed as their secretary (housekeeper).
• Daughter remembering her dead father..! :)
• Now here's a revelation - in more ways than one - is that really the mother..?
• The detective trying to buy time after he barges in uninvited into the home. It doesn't work - the daughter had to drag him in. Meredyth sure isn't shy of giving us some generous upskirts.
• But she couldn't contain her excitement of having someone new in the house - the impetuous girl takes advantage of the guy when her mother attends a phone.
• Mother soon tells her off, but they make up in the only way they know.
• At night, the daughter slips out of the bed to rendezvous with the captive stranger. She shows him her assets and gets down to business - she just couldn't help regurgitating while reaching climax..!
• Mother and daughter questioning the detective - he's henceforth called 'Singapore Sling', after the cocktail recipe he'd written down in his note pad.
• The 'questioning' becomes intense with electric shocks, culminating in the mother's bodily release of fluids - you'll know what I mean when you see it..!
• The feast - this is a long scene cut short - because to watch it you should've first digested "La Grande Bouffe" and "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and her Lover"..! :)
• Followed by some hysteric call-for-attention from a jealous daughter - awesome composition and cinematography - a classic..!
• There's only brief nudity here with the mother wearing a transparent black top, but it is incredibly sexy as she teaches a hapless Singapore Sling the vowels and some nursery rhymes - this is some classy kink..!
• The mother had become quite friendly with Singapore Sling much to the daughter's chagrin.
• She vents her frustrations on an unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on your view point) kiwi fruit in the most explicit manner possible - as far as I can see - there ain't no body double involved, Meredith or the kiwi..! :D
• Singapore Sling is now digging a grave - whose will it be - intercut with the daughter being tortured by him - it soon turns out to be a full-on threesome among mother, daughter, and the lucky b*stard - thoroughly kinky, and if you're into BDSM or bondage, you'll simply love this long scene.
• Later that night, Singapore Sling decides to leave...

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Monica Bellucci in Gaspar Noé's "Irréversible" [2002 France]

Sometimes I feel watching Gaspar Noé films is akin to paying someone to get yourself slapped. That is certainly the case with the shocking drama "Irréversible" [Eng. Title: Irreversible]. To describe the film as provocative would indeed be an understatement. If his earlier feature "Seul Contre Tous" shook you up, "Irréversible" will hit you with a sledgehammer. M. Noé had declared himself the moral conscience of world cinema.

But contrary to some misconceptions, this film is not about violence - sexual or otherwise. So what is it about? At its heart, the film questions rationale behind the deep-seated human instinct for revenge and the desire for retribution. Because the consequences of our actions, whether intended or not, would be irreversible. Some of the most violent imagery ever put to film has actually been used to convey a deeply pacifist message. Noé's hatred of violence is crying out for everyone to see in the very manner in which these scenes are filmed. Not only does the screenplay run in reverse to show the effects of one's actions before they're committed, there's also a conscious albeit futile effort in every scene to stop certain things from happening. No matter how you see it, this is superlative scripting. There's a whole 'bloody' lot to soak from the film, which makes it necessary to watch it more than once, unpleasant scenes notwithstanding.

Some telling passages of play occur during conversations in the train and later at the discotheque that not only sheds light on the three main characters - Alex, Marcus, and Pierre, but also on the precarious nature of their relationship - at least two of them shouldn't stay friends. Marcus and Pierre have been friends for years. Alex and Marcus are a couple, but before that she was in a relationship with Pierre for four years. Pierre still loves Alex and finds it difficult to move on, Alex is aware of this but cruelly flirts with him, only to later ask him not to torture himself by harbouring feelings for her. They're at a party organised by Pierre's friends. After getting fed up with Marcus for making a fool of himself following drugs and alcohol, Alex leaves, alone. At a subway road crossing, she's randomly attacked by a gay thug in one of the most horrific rape scenes captured in cinema. But this is just the beginning of an orgy of violence that ensues.

Granted, one wouldn't normally place Monica Bellucci who plays Alex in the same acting pedestal as, say a Meryl Streep. But in terms of physicality she's up there among the very best actresses in the industry. Every now and again, she pulls out all stops to deliver some of the most harrowing scenes, like in the all-female lynching scene from Giuseppe Tornatore's "Malèna". She surpasses that here to the extent that during the shoot, her battered face apparently even made her co-star, co-producer and future husband Vincent Cassel (who plays Marcus) cry on set.

Right from the titles to the end credits, there is so much to write about this gem of a film. Gaspar Noé's sense of humour is also amply evident on several occasions - like his choice and style of typography for the credits. The film also starts interestingly with the butcher from "Seul Contre Tous" making a shocking confession from his flat. The camera then pans downstairs to show men pouring out of 'Rectum', the infamous gay bar where some more violent scenes are played out. Apart from scripting and directing the film, M. Noé also handles the cinematography and editing, both thoroughly disorientating. Add to this the unnerving sound mix, and you now have a dizzying unpleasant ride ahead - unpleasant acts to witness, profound truths to unravel, and our incomplete evolution as human beings to reflect on. Needless to say, Highly Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon DVD Link




Compilation: Monica Bellucci
Taken from some of the more humane scenes from the film.



Scene Guide:

• A long post-coital scene where we get to know more about the relationship between Alex and Marcus as they make their plans for the evening's party organised by Pierre, their friend, but who was once also Alex's partner. Alex is of course played by the legendary Italian bombshell Monica Bellucci.
• Alex discovers she's pregnant.
• At the party, Alex tries to keep Pierre company as Marcus flirts with the other girls. She soon gets fed up and leaves, setting off a chain of events.

Scene: Monica Bellucci
This is the infamous rape scene that no one in their right mind would watch for pleasure. Download at your own discretion. And I'm also not going to glorify this scene with any custom graphics.





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Amanda Plummer & Saskia Reeves in "Butterfly Kiss" [1995 UK]

Michael Winterbottom is in brilliant form in this 1995 neo-noir, "Butterfly Kiss" - about two Lancastrian women of contrasting character who meet and discover a harmony of sorts between them. But the hardboiled 'road-movie' is anything but easy-viewing - it is far too realistic for that, thanks to the exceptionally dark characterisation, and the extraordinary performances by its chief protagonists, Eunice (Eu) and Miriam (Mi).

Storyline:
Eunice, psychotic, unkempt, wearing chains around her body as some kind of penitence, scores through highway petrol stations looking for one 'Judith', and meets lonely soul Miriam, an attendant at one of the stores. It becomes obvious they're an odd couple - as much as Eunice is selfish and mean, Miriam is generous and kind, but they hit it off. By the time Miriam discovers Eunice has killed someone, she'd already fallen in love. She takes it upon herself to stick around with Eunice, and "make her into a good person".

Mr. Winterbottom purposely avoids revealing Eunice's past as that might seek to justify her despicable deeds - the objective of the film would be lost. It is clear however that Eunice is tortured by her past, and desperately wants to end it all - killing people because she feels angry, abandoned - by the world, and by God itself. Miriam on the other hand wants to be the one to 'rescue' Eunice, but gets infected with Eunice's bloody mindedness instead. It is interesting to note that all events in the film are shown as a recollection by Miriam, from a detached perspective, talking to the camera. It was ingenious of the director to have shot Miriam's narration in black and white - this could either be Miriam giving testimony to authorities, or a cinematic depiction of Miriam reflecting on her own conscience - he lets us interpret it our own way. But there's a telling comment from Miriam to the camera when she talks about Eunice, "...it's like the things she did, everyone wants to do them really... the difference is that she did it, you know... she wasn't scared."

Contrary to some perceptions, the film is not about lesbian love - that's merely coincidental - it is more about love and loss. Exceedingly well constructed with stunning albeit bleak cinematography, it is supported by an intelligent script, and an aptly chosen sound track mix that include the likes of Cranberries and Bjork. The screenplay and direction is flawless, and the actresses playing Eunice and Miriam - Amanda Pummer and Saskia Reeves respectively, fascinating. The American Ms. Plummer in particular gives a master-class in acting. This is also one of Michael Winterbottom's finest films, and therefore, Highly Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon DVD Link (a good deal still going)




Compilation: Amanda Plummer and Saskia Reeves
Made from the best blog-related scenes, but I've also included some additional footage which you may also find interesting.



Scene Guide:

• Miriam invites a homeless Eunice to her home, who quotes the Bible as she introduces herself to a shocked Miriam and her grandma.
• The only erotic scene in the film where Eunice gives Miriam her first experience of sexual intimacy.
• The following morning, Eunice shoots off with an unfortunate van driver, who gets unwittingly drawn into her web. Some extra footage.
• Miriam catches up with Eunice and they get into their next victim's car - a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman. Eunice entices him with the prospect of a threesome, and they end up in a hotel room. Unpleasant scene towards the end.
• Eunice asks Miriam to release her from her chains. Free at last.

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Ingrid Thulin in "Vargtimmen" [1968, Sweden]

Ingmar Bergman ventures into horror genre in this 1968 classic, "Vargtimmen" [Eng. Title: The Hour of the Wolf]. Versatile though the great man is, as ever, he doesn't for a frame forego his meticulous attention to detail. You don't have impressive special effects here - he instead gives us a master class in editing and cinematography which in itself is more than enough to trigger the audience imagination into conjuring up the ensuing horror.

The film can be seen from two angles - as a study of neurosis and the manner in which it could spread to people close to the person suffering from it, or as a study of the effects of an artist's torment. I personally prefer the former as it is illustrated magnificently on its own without the need for additional reference points from other works.

The hour of the wolf alludes to that time of night when death (or birth) occurs, as do nightmares for restless people. Landscape painter Johan relocates to a secluded island with his wife Alma - the only other occupants there are the owners of the island - Baron von Merkens and his family. Johan prefers solitude, and Alma, very much in love with her husband, agrees to the move - she is also pregnant. We observe their daily rituals and gradually get a picture of Johan - who surely appears to have a few skeletons in his closet. These are only revealed during the last half hour of the film as it explodes into a series of dramatic events. By the time the film finishes, we are left with our mouth wide open wondering what the hell just happened - as always - Bergman strikes us clinically giving us little time to prepare ourselves for what's about to happen.

The film is studded with impressive surreal imagery but don't get distracted by it - most of it is purely atmospheric, like the images of the raven and the flight of pigeons - that is cinematographer Sven Nykvist showing off and teasing us. What is impressive however is the manner in which Bergman builds Johan's character and gives us as a vivid portrait of his advancing mental illness. Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann who plays Alma is absolutely gorgeous in this film - she was also actually pregnant (with Bergman's child) during the filming - there must be something about pregnancy that brings out this special glow in women I suppose - you find it in her, and it is simply beautiful. The DVD extras include some insightful interviews with Bergman, Ullmann, and Erland Josephson about the film's making - simply precious and revealing. Needless to say, Highly Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon DVD Link




Compilation: Ingrid Thulin



Scene Guide:

• Troubled artist Johan notices a ghost from his past - Veronica Vogler, a married woman he once had a torrid affair with, turn up in the island where least expected, complaining about the marks he left on her the night before - she's apparently a relative of the island's owners. Veronica is played by a younger looking and sensuous Ingrid Thulin.
• A surreal scene towards the end where Johan sees Veronica 'rise from the dead', to taunt him, along with her decadent relatives.

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Lucia Mascino & Anna Mascino in "L'eredità di Caino" [2007 Italy]

I revisited Sebastiano Montresor's directorial debut, "L'eredità di Caino" [Eng. Title: The Heritage of Cain"] with some more background information about the work. The title alludes to a collection of works by Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, and the film is an interpretation of one of his novellas "Venus in Furs" (Ger. Venus im Pelz).

I haven't read 'Venus in Furs' - so my only knowledge of the story in whatever form is through a Jesus Franco film by the same name.

But Montresor's interpretation is a different animal altogether, ambitious in its scope and experimental in the way it discards traditional story-telling methods, and deconstructs the characters into exaggerated - even distorted versions of themselves in order to portray the 'supersensualism' of Lui the protagonist, as he debases himself in front of the 'Venus' he so covets.

Here's what I gathered from the film. As part of an arrangement, Lui degrades himself in order to win the affections of Wanda (Venus, Mistress), in the same manner he becomes a willing slave of prostitute Anna - his goal - shall we say is 'sexual bliss', symbolised by a naked woman whose face is encased in a gas mask. We see Lui realising the truth about himself and the object of his fetish as the film progresses.

The film has a claustrophobic feel about it, shot entirely within a chequered black and white space. Some of the visual elements are reminiscent of a Peter Greenaway, but while I am unsure of some of the symbolism - like Wanda in a bathtub filled with milk and some rather unsavoury flies - they contain striking imagery nevertheless. There are also a couple of unpleasant scenes where Lui (uninhibitedly played by Filippo Trini) performs some degrading acts upon himself, looked on by a plainly unmoved Wanda, and the ever-present masked woman. One could reasonably assume the film is highly stylised, with Montresor pulling out all stops to make his scenes as he puts it, 'hyper-realistic' - even if it means resorting to theatrics.

The film is however beautifully composed, with some interesting editing and sound. This sure is a unique film, with some bold performances by actors depicting some shockingly perverse acts. I've made a couple of compilations for this post (with a degree of trepidation nevertheless), featuring Lucia Mascino who plays Wanda, and Anna Mascino who plays prostitute Anna. More about the film can be found in the official website.




Compilation 1: Lucia Mascino
It includes scenes of Lui debasing himself in front of Wanda, as it turns out, for no apparent benefit. The girl in the mask is played by 'Heidee'.








Compilation 2: Anna Mascino
Scenes of Lui with the prostitute Anna. There's also some naked dancing to rock and roll..!





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Scenes from "Satanás" [2007 Colombia, Mexico]

You'd be forgiven for assuming that any Latin American film titled "Satanás" must be a nunsploitation flick from a bygone age. As it turns out, this 2007 drama is a recreation of a shocking 1986 massacre in Colombia when a Vietnam vet killed 29 people including his own mother, before turning the gun on himself. For a feature-length directorial debut, Andréz Baiz had constructed a brilliant crime drama indeed. He makes us follow not just the protagonist but some of the victims before the they find themselves at the restaurant where the final act happens.

When I bought the film, I thought it was a psychological thriller, that this was a crime drama inspired by true events was a revelation. Damián Alcázar gives a restrained performance as the soft spoken Eliseo, an English professor and former soldier in the US Army, getting lonelier and depressed by the day, until he finally snaps. The screenplay is particularly well written - we see some of the victims even interact innocently with Eliseo days earlier, and that is not all - some background stories not directly related to the massacre, but may have contributed to the victims being in the wrong place at the wrong time were also conjured up to give us a bigger picture. It is cinema of high calibre along the lines of early Gaspar Noé works, and I'm surprised that so little is known about this film outside Spanish-speaking countries. The direction, dialogues, editing, cinematography and set design are all of high quality, including the performances by all the main characters. Needless to say, Highly Recommended Viewing..!




Compilation 1: Patricia Castañeda, Isabel Gaona, and Marcela Valencia



Scene Guide:

• Eliseo visits a brothel and picks Valeria, played by Patricia Castañeda. But he quickly changes his mind and leaves in a hurry.
• Priest Ernesto is having an illicit relationship with his maid Irene. After torturing himself for having 'sinned', he decides to quit priesthood in order to live with her. Irene is played by señorita caliente Isabel Gaona - can't help commenting on that awesome ass of hers - muy impresionante..!
• Alicia is serving time for murdering her three children - she just couldn't afford to feed them. When the priest visits her in prison, she tries to seduce him, claiming to be possessed by the devil. We are later shown a bizarre scene of her urinating while reading the bible, and tearing one of the pages to clean herself afterwards. Alicia is played by Marcela Valencia.

Compilation 2: Marcela Mar
This compilation contains only brief nudity and includes an unpleasant rape scene, the reason why I compiled these separately. Paola is a con-artist working for a gang. One night, she herself becomes the target of another gang, who upon finding no money on her person, decide to rape her for all their trouble. I've also added Paola's retribution towards the end to balance things.
Paola is played by the talented Colombian actress Marcela Mar.





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Sylviane Godé in "C'est arrive pres de chez vous" aka "Man Bites Dog" [1993 Belgium]

Benoît Poelvoorde, Rémy Belvaux, and André Bonzel shot this seminal shocker with a shoestring budget, acting, writing and directing - they also used friends and family members to make up the cast. What emerged is a fantastic piece of cinema, even if the film itself is disturbing to say the least. Benoît Poelvoorde plays the protagonist - a compulsive serial killer and burglar who a documentary film crew follow during all his exploits. Even if they don't realise it at first, the crew get sucked into Ben's world of twisted morals, and before long they become his willing accomplices.

Unless you're a keen cinema lover and are not disturbed by depiction of extreme brutality, you're better off giving this a miss. But it is a gem of a film - written, acted, directed and edited with great panache.

The scene depicted here is plainly revolting, and since my intention of adding this here is only for the nudity and the filmmaking - certainly not to titilate, I've left the full scene intact - so download the clip at your own discretion.

 

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