A film with this title is unlikely to be traditional in its telling. And this is as unique as you can get. For a film to be involving, there usually needs to be an even slightly linear storyline, or identifiable characters, or some kind of plot thread. 'The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears' possesses none of these things.
Deliberately obfuscating the usual elements of storytelling, this milieu of stark architecture, close-ups on various body parts, teased gore and muddled sex appears to concentrate upon Dan (Klaus Tange) and his search for his missing wife. Tange has a slight look of Klaus Kinski about him, and his journey through 102 minutes of apparently giallo-influenced imagery is incomprehensible. But it looks splendid. Rather like 'Don't Look Now (1973)', the colour red is used to great effect – some scenes are visually tinged with red, others are framed by it. There is a striking woman whose crisp, violent red clothes are at contrast with the magnificently ornate architecture around her.
The highly experimental project is a Belgian, French and Luxembourgian collaboration, and is technically stunning. The running time is too long to sustain such discernible logic and the attention is firmly focused on the visual imagery once it becomes apparent there is no storyline to engage an audience. The soundtrack (my favourite aspect of this project) has been lifted mainly from various 60s and 70s European horror films and works very well in bringing to life the confounding events.
This film is frustrating to me because there is no progression, no reason to continue watching once it is clear there is no real story. Beautiful imagery and occasional moments of sex and violence don't sustain. Things start off strangely and remain so until well there isn't really an ending. Things just stop.
Baffling, ponderous but relentless.
Deliberately obfuscating the usual elements of storytelling, this milieu of stark architecture, close-ups on various body parts, teased gore and muddled sex appears to concentrate upon Dan (Klaus Tange) and his search for his missing wife. Tange has a slight look of Klaus Kinski about him, and his journey through 102 minutes of apparently giallo-influenced imagery is incomprehensible. But it looks splendid. Rather like 'Don't Look Now (1973)', the colour red is used to great effect – some scenes are visually tinged with red, others are framed by it. There is a striking woman whose crisp, violent red clothes are at contrast with the magnificently ornate architecture around her.
The highly experimental project is a Belgian, French and Luxembourgian collaboration, and is technically stunning. The running time is too long to sustain such discernible logic and the attention is firmly focused on the visual imagery once it becomes apparent there is no storyline to engage an audience. The soundtrack (my favourite aspect of this project) has been lifted mainly from various 60s and 70s European horror films and works very well in bringing to life the confounding events.
This film is frustrating to me because there is no progression, no reason to continue watching once it is clear there is no real story. Beautiful imagery and occasional moments of sex and violence don't sustain. Things start off strangely and remain so until well there isn't really an ending. Things just stop.
Baffling, ponderous but relentless.