Well, for a really long time, i wanted to share my thoughts about this obscure movie. So what better time than now to introduce this film. Also, with "Amok" i've reached a baby milestone of 300 reviews on IMDB. "Amok" is directed by Kote Marjanishvili, one of my favourite filmmakers from the silent era along with Germaine Dulac, Esfir Shub, Daisuke Itô, László Moholy-Nagy, Lois Weber, Wancang Bu, Sidney Peterson, Juan Bustillo Oro, Hans Steinhoff, Aleksandr Dovzhenko, Phil Goldstone, Rochus Gliese, Alexander Alexeieff, Claire Parker, Willard Maas, Franciszka and Stefan Themerson who in my opinion are relatively unknown (to mainstream silent era audiences). Also, i will include Man Ray, Lev Kuleshov, Paul Wegner, Kenneth MacPherson, Abel Gance, Tomu Uchida, Francesco Bertolini, Giuseppe de Liguoro, Adolfo Padovan, Victor Halperin, Gregory La Cava, Wladyslaw Starewicz, Robert Reinert, Arthur Robison, Eugene Deslaw, F. W. Murnau, Teinosuke Kinugasa, Erich von Stroheim, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Robert Wiene, Hans Richter, Georges Méliès, Mikhail Kalatozov, Benjamin Christensen who are by no means an unknown name to the fans of the silent era films.
Coming back to this film, it is an adaptation of Stefan Zweig's famous short story "Amok", in which a Physician arriving in an Indian village (British Colony) from Europe kills time by drinking liquor and smoking opium. He encounters an English women who seeks to take his help for an abortion. The physician denies to terminate the unwanted pregnancy, after sometime the Physician's hallucinogenic, passion-filled descent into madness begins to haunt him, as he becomes a victim to his own vices and not realising what he has done until it is too late. There's lot of chases as questions pile up in the course of the plot. The Physician doesn't escape from the bustle of the noise in his head as Kote Marjanishvili adapts avant-garde techniques and elements of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis in this story. He warmly embraces surrealism that disguises itself in chameleonic forms through psychic walls and brilliant editing which looks way ahead of its time. Most of the avant-garde scenes truly follow the "expect the unexpected" and hence why "Amok" would have easily induced negative reactions upon first watch and faded into obscurity. Hopefully it will finally reach the audience it deserves.
Coming back to this film, it is an adaptation of Stefan Zweig's famous short story "Amok", in which a Physician arriving in an Indian village (British Colony) from Europe kills time by drinking liquor and smoking opium. He encounters an English women who seeks to take his help for an abortion. The physician denies to terminate the unwanted pregnancy, after sometime the Physician's hallucinogenic, passion-filled descent into madness begins to haunt him, as he becomes a victim to his own vices and not realising what he has done until it is too late. There's lot of chases as questions pile up in the course of the plot. The Physician doesn't escape from the bustle of the noise in his head as Kote Marjanishvili adapts avant-garde techniques and elements of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis in this story. He warmly embraces surrealism that disguises itself in chameleonic forms through psychic walls and brilliant editing which looks way ahead of its time. Most of the avant-garde scenes truly follow the "expect the unexpected" and hence why "Amok" would have easily induced negative reactions upon first watch and faded into obscurity. Hopefully it will finally reach the audience it deserves.
