After having made two short films, David Cronenberg made his directorial debut with this experimental film very little known to the public. This is a film that instead of being something simple, here Cronenberg decided to do something that anyone would not be able to process. The film is completely silent, without a soundtrack and without sound. The only thing that is heard is the narrator recounting the experimental process to which the subjects are exposed. It is a film that relies on narration and also on the gestures and mimicry of the characters while the narrator gives context to the scenes. As this is Cronenberg's first feature film and was made experimentally, it is obviously not a gem or a film that anyone can watch because it can be so boring. This film is like a painting in a museum that is only seen for its visual aspect. That the photography is in black and white makes the film look quite abstract, adding to the lack of sound and the way the footage was edited. Although it may be quite tedious, there is one point in its favor and that is that the film uses elements that are oriented towards psychology and psychoanalysis. The film's title refers to the solidity and three-dimensionality of the test subjects during their development. The concept of telekinesis and parapsychology is used in the experiment as a kind of treatment. At the beginning, Gesalt psychology is mentioned, which is known for breaking one of the paradigms of psychology composed of behaviorism. The experiment seen in this film proposes a similar method, which is to break a kind of barrier through telepathy and parapsychology, but it goes further when it touches on the topic of sexuality, emphasizing that society has been conditioning the human being in a way almost similar to behaviorism. With the topic of sexuality in the film, something is raised that is totally correct, but that society refuses to accept. What is proposed is that sexual attraction plays a very important role in the interaction between human beings, and that, furthermore, this attraction has no gender. Near the last minute it is implied that male-female attraction is only valid for reproduction, but since human beings are designed to feel pleasure by any means possible, then attraction towards the opposite sex or the same sex is something natural and essential for human interaction. The film itself confirms this and at the same time suggests that this desire for pleasure can be satisfied by any means other than just physical or biological contact. On that side, the film is oriented towards Freud's psychoanalysis, which states that we all have to satisfy our libido depending on the person or object to which we have deposited our amount of affection. In conclusion, Stereo is an experimental film that, more than being a film, is rather an exercise in psychology and psychoanalysis linked to the social ties of human beings. My final rating for this movie is a 5/10.
Review of Stereo
