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La vie d'Adèle (2013)
A pan-sexual painting of beauty
This is one of those films which might be considered 'Challenging,' because it's three hours long and it's sub-titled. It's in French, while I'm English but European. I'm not bi-sexual but I can appreciate the human form in all shapes, both male and female.
All of humanity is on show here, albeit in the forms of aesthetically beautiful people. Opposites are attracted, though differences in music, food, culture, education, and sexuality (gender and presentation). It's art but it doesn't talk down.
Instead it takes us by the hand, and the spirit, into worlds we'd only explore if we had a guide to make us feel safe. It's voyeuristic but by invitation; it's argumentative, but by social democracy. If I strip away the the gloss of the art exhibitionism and the wrappers of the artists who hide behind their true characters, I'm left with bare naked humanity.
It may well be Adèle Exarchopoulos' mesmeric and almost unreal beauty which allowed me to last three hours, but there were sub-titles to read as well.
This is a film about taking your clothes off, losing your inhibitions and being a free human.
Magnolia (1999)
The Music of Chance
What got me into this film was the prologue, and the story of the suicide / murder coincidence, which I knew to be true as I'd read it in Fortean Times.
Wild coincidences really do happen, as Paul Auster pointed out in True Tales of American Life. Fact is often stranger than fiction, and for some reason many of us give thanks to on high when that happens. But it really does.
Then he who won't be proved ends the thing with a twist.
This reminded me of Paul Auster, who wrote The Music of Chance. No other director has told a story like he can, until now.
Loved it!
The Squid and the Whale (2005)
Worth 81 minutes of anyone's time...
I picked this up from a trailer on another DVD. It's quite a little gem:
"I've never read any of dad's books."
"I have, they're pretty dense..."
This film is all of 81 minutes, but it could comfortably be three times that. Every single line is perfect, as it disassembles the human condition with growing tragic hilarity. It's about people, battling as much with themselves as those around them, when each is a part of the other. It's centred around the children of two writers, and it transcends the bubble of being one. Probably my perfect film, but it's a film for anyone.
Pure, honest and introverted genius. A film after my own heart x
Hugo (2011)
Clockwork magic
If you ever want a different Christmas film, try a bit of fairy tale steam punk escapism, suitable for all ages (directed by Martin Scorsese, no less, produced by Johnny Depp). Look out for Ray Winstone (and many others) too, having a bit of a ball in their roles...
And if you need a box of tissues for something like ET, get a laundry room for this, for laughing and crying. It's got books, old cinema, automata, a lot of France and a whole load of magic.
This is as close to perfection as I've seen. It would be perfect in a double-bill with The City of Lost Children.
Love (2011)
Intelligent, artistic sci-fi
There are two ways to see this film: To get it or not.
If you understand quantum entanglement. If you get that gods and aliens are interchangeable. And if you can see that we are all made from the universe, then this film will hit you like a wonderful bolt of vindication in your thinking. Because William Eubank gets that.
Some say it's slow: It's only 84 minutes. There's a build-up, then a crescendo of one quite unbelievable thing after another. Many will give up and dismiss it as something they don't get.
But if you understand that everything's connected, that knowledge comes with death's release, and that someone else might think that too, watch this (and read my book, Cyrus Song). It's not just physics which makes all our worlds go round.
August Underground's Mordum (2003)
Does what it sets out to do
Having seen most of the "video nasties" which fell victim to the Video Recordings Act of 1984 and having not been scared or disturbed by any of them, I set out to find films which would affect me.
I watched a few Hong Kong Cat 3 titles which were good but not particularly affecting. I watched the first couple of Guinea Pig titles and although their pseudo-snuff take is nasty, they're not truly disturbing. One film that has affected me so far is Men Behind the Sun: it has a story and builds characters that you care about. It also has some extremely shocking scenes and as a whole is very affecting. It's not a film I'll forget.
Wondering if Guinea Pig and Men Behind the Sun represented the "ultimate" in "nasties", I asked in various forums whether there were any other titles I might seek out. I was pointed toward August Underground's self-titled original and Mordum.
Although I've yet to see the former, Mordum achieves what it sets out to do: to disgust.
Mordum is an unrated film and is in the pseudo-snuff, exploitation genre. Others have described the various sequences within the film so I shall merely generalise about the film as a whole. In a word, it is sick.
The makers are to be commended on their use of effects and the film does disturb in its sheer debauchery. At 77 minutes though, it's just too much and grows tedious.
I certainly won't forget this film as its imagery is so disgusting. It was uncomfortable viewing but the viewer becomes desensitised through its length and it loses its effectiveness. There is no story; just a group of deranged nymphomaniac, necrophiliac individuals getting off on completely dominating their victims.
Mordum is disgusting but not really shocking. It is memorable but not affecting.
Hei tai yang 731 (1988)
Savage cinema
Men Behind the Sun deals with the torture of Chinese POWs by their Japanese captors: Air Squadron 731, at the latter's snow-bound concentration camp.
I've seen a lot of extreme cinema in my time: not because I'm a "gorehound" or am constantly seeking the "ultimate nasty" but because I want a film to affect me. I'm very much of the "it's just a film" school and it therefore takes a well-made, strong film in order to allow me to suspend my disbelief.
I've seen most of the so-called "nasties", including Cannibal Holocaust and some of the Guinea Pig series. I didn't find the latter terribly effective and Cannibal holocaust is a gut-munching gore fest in its uncut form but Men Behind the Sun completely eclipses it for sheer brutality.
What makes Men Behind the Sun so effective for me is the relative realism. Zombie movies don't disturb me simply because zombies are fantasy. To a lesser extent, so are cannibals. Both genres have "yuck" moments and on first viewing, Cannibal Holocaust shocked me slightly with its relentless gore. Men Behind the Sun is somehow more calculated.
Why am I making comparisons with Cannibal Holocaust? The majority of film viewers will be familiar with the so-called "video nasties" and will probably have seen some of them. Cannibal Holocaust is generally considered to be the strongest of the video nasties but Men Behind the Sun is in a different league, in my opinion. Men Behind the Sun is to Cannibal Holocaust as Cannibal Holocaust is to say, The Exorcist.
What makes Men Behind the Sun so effective is its realism: humans, not zombies, cannibals or monsters. It deals with what atrocities humans are capable of committing upon their own kind.
Guinea Pig: The Devil's Experiment is a similar study but it has all characterisation and plot stripped away, leaving just the torture. Because of this, there are no characters to engage or empathise with. Certain scenes are very graphic but without context and therefore not affecting.
Men Behind the Sun has characters and plot and most of the film is just that: a film. The torture and experiment scenes are intense sequences set within what is otherwise a normal film. And there lies the film's effectiveness: because it builds characters, we are drawn in. Because the film deals with real life, we are able to suspend our disbelief and become immersed in it.
The torture and experiment scenes in Men Behind the Sun are intense for their unstinting focus and graphic depiction of cruelty. They are disturbing but compelling; like looking at a car crash when you know you shouldn't. The imagery is so graphic and realistic that the scenes stay with you, long after viewing the film.
*** Possible spoilers ***
Even before the gory torture and experiment scenes, we witness utter inhumanity near the beginning of the film, as a mother is robbed of her baby. A Japanese officer simply takes the baby from the mother and tosses it into the snow. As the mother weeps, the officer muffles the baby's cries by kicking snow over it.
Later in the film, we see the mother tied to a wooden structure in the freezing outdoors. An officer approaches her, treading on her baby's body as he does so. Her already frost-bitten arms are doused in cold water several times, before she's taken inside. There, her arms are dipped in a solution of some kind and I shan't describe what follows. To do so would deny any potential viewer one of the biggest shocks of the film. Be prepared.
Continuing the frostbite theme, we see a Chinese man forced to place his arms into a dry ice container. They emerge frozen solid and are then hacked off by a Japanese soldier, breaking like china.
The infamous decompression chamber sequence is where the director is alleged to have used a real cadaver. I can't confirm or deny that but the scene is another shocking one: a Chinese man is placed inside the chamber and the pressure gradually reduced. Eventually, the pressure is so little that the man's colon falls out of his anus.
Another notorious scene is the live autopsy: a deaf, mute Chinese boy, whom the viewer grows to like, is tricked into lying on an operating trolley. There he is anaesthetised with ether before being dissected. Rumours abound that this scene also used a real cadaver but personally I doubt that. I am convinced from the camera cuts that this sequence is just very good special effects. Once done with the boy, the Japanese simply throw his crumpled body into a trailer before he's taken away for incineration: completely inhuman and affecting.
The sequence involving the cat is the one probably most often thought to be real. I can't be absolutely sure but I don't believe this to be the case. Rather, I believe that the cat could have been drugged and certainly think the blood to be fake. In any case, the cat being eaten alive by rats is a very disturbing scene.
*** End of spoilers ***
Overall, this is a strong piece of film-making, in every sense. The story is a worthy one and the unpleasant imagery serves to drive home the message that the film carries. These are not images that are easily erased from one's mind. This film certainly affected me.
I would recommend this film as advised viewing. I wouldn't say to anyone, "If you want to see something really nasty...", or "You have to see this film because it's really gory." Rather, I would advise watching it, with caution and preparedness for what lies within, as a good, powerful film.
This film will stay with me for a long time: savage, powerful and unforgettable
Guinea Pig: Ginî piggu - Akuma no jikken (1985)
Not particularly disturbing
I recently watched the first Guinea Pig film, The Devil's Experiment, and I must admit to being disappointed.
This film is invariably included in any list of the "nastiest" films and maybe I was expecting more because of the hype. The truth is though, I don't rate it.
If I'd been watching it believing the opening text to be true ("I found this tape..."), I might have been a bit disturbed by it, thinking it was real. Even without the benefit of knowing it not to be real though, I think I'd have worked out that it indeed wasn't.
Throughout the film, the girl's reactions to what is being done to her just aren't what they should be. She should be screaming like a banshee in pain. The fact that she isn't means that it's obviously not real. I wouldn't want to watch it if it were real but if she were to be more convincing in her acting, the film would be more disturbing.
And then there are the notorious scenes: nothing affected me at all up until the scalpel in the hand. The hot oil, maggots and innards just didn't bother me. I'm not saying I'm "hard"; just that I wasn't able to suspend my disbelief, partly because of the girl's inaction.
The scalpel made me wince a little but the hammer to the hand just made the hand look rubber. And the final scene with the eye was again a little wincing but nothing more. I didn't want to look away and neither did I feel nauseous.
Perhaps it's because the film is twenty-odd years old, or perhaps I'm just jaded. The truth is, I didn't find this film at all disturbing.
It's the kind of thing you might expect to see playing on a loop as a modern art installation and as an exercise in stripping away characters, story etc. and just leaving the torture, it works on some levels. As a disturbing piece of film though, it didn't work for me at least.
I watched Guinea Pig with my wife, who is of the "it's just a film" bent and she wondered what all the fuss was about. We got to discussing why I watch these films and my reasons are many but include a desire to be affected by a film. She said that she didn't think any film could be so convincing as to disturb her and challenged me to do exactly that. I played her the fire extinguisher scene from Irreversible and she was indeed disturbed.
I'm not sure I have a point, other than that both of us were more disturbed by a scene in a non-horror genre film than any film thus far which sets out to disturb.