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Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (1975)
I leaned forward in disgust,, but in doing so it does its job
As the name quite clearly suggests, this is not a family film. Banned for several years in several countries and being named one of the great 'video nasties' in cinematic history, Salo as one can imagine is quite rough.
Set in a post Mussollini Italy, four high powered, affluent Fascist libertines marry each others daughters and then retreat to a large home in the country where they sexually mentally and physically abuse and torture 18 teenage boys and girls (9 of each).
It is disgusting. I leaned forward in disgust. I felt guilty watching it because I could not stop thinking about how wrong what happens in the film is. It is graphic beyond all belief. But it does so for two reasons and those are its comments.
Firstly it comments on Fascism and further more Nazism. In doing so it shows the brutality of an authoritarian, totalitarian state as clearly seen in the holocaust. It degrades the human condition and the physical being so badly that it hurt to watch. Putting the teens on leashes and making them beg like dogs for food made me cringe. I think the film also makes a comment on post war effects, and how war degrades society. I think the film also makes a comment on the upper class, seeing as the libertines are all wealthy and highly powered and all of the teens/ victims are from the lower class, making a statement about self proclaimed superiority. Perhaps this is even an allusion to the Nazi's and the Jews? Self empowerment over a seemingly weaker or less dominant population?
The second is the degradation of sex. This is drawn from society's weakening conservative views on sex and what sex is and what it's meant to be. For example, no sex in the film is done in private and always in front of other people. Sexual contact is abrupt and without requited consent. All of the teens are almost completely nude throughout the entire movie, commenting on a lack of sexual conservation (from it being voluntary and being comfortable with it like in adult magazines, to forced and degrading). Sex is never done as an act of intimacy, purely to satisfy an impulsive desire (a comment on how society views sex and contextually suited to the emergence of pornography). No foreplay is ever conducted, degrading sex from something f intimacy and an expression of love to something done for the hell of i - intimate sex is punished with torture and death. All the teens are degarded physically by being challenged sexually e.g. being masturbated involuntarily or being made to bend over in a line to be judged on who has the best bottom). Sex is always sodomy, which in itself is 'impure' as such. The teens are all fondled sexually and forced to engage in sexual activity without mutual consent. Rape is conducted for pleasure. And lastly, sexual fetishes such as coprophagia (cosumption of feces which lasts for a good 15min in the film in the second chapter) shows us how society is degrading sex to a filthy and meaningless act, instead of being conducted sensually and intimately.
The final few scenes of torture some up quite well the brutality of a fascist regime and an abuse of power and ultimately the degradation of a selfish society whose values have been lost through destroying the meaning of what we find sacred.
It is not for children, and certainly most people will find it upsetting and repugnant. It is repulsive, and it crossed various lines that should never have been crossed, but for its cause it needed to break those barriers. It did a sterling job in carrying its commentary, and although disgusting, it shocks the audience into hopefully understanding what kind of a society we have become.
If you can stomach it, watch it. It is an important film and the after effects are somewhat less disgusting and more incredible than the content.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
The most beautiful Film ever made
I have never cried in a film before. I have become weak in films before, but never have i actually been brought to tears. This film managed to do it on four separate occasions.
I found this movie on TV late one night and decided to watch it not knowing what to expect. It killed me inside. It haunted me. There was not a moment for the next week when i did not think about this film. It drew me into the complexity of Jack and Ennis' romance and the shear beauty and sadness of their relationship and it still hasn't let me go two months later.
The way in which Jack and Ennis express their love shattered me. The pure passion mixed with aggression, doubt, confusion and sadness drained me. So a huge thumbs up to Jake G and Heath L for outstanding performances.
The story is simple, but complex. Two straight men are sent off into the mountains where they are intended to managed herds of sheep and whilst there a romance forms between them.
FIRSTLY let me start off by saying this is not a feel good gay romance story. In fact the purpose of the film is not even to comment on homosexuality. The film uses the romance that forms between Jack and Ennis to express the sublimity of love. And it did it flawlessly. The film explains that love knows no sex or boundaries, that it is a force that emerges without warning.
Honestly, Titanic could learn something from this film. I only cried because it was so devastating to see how madly in love Jack and Ennis were with each other, and yet society forbid their romance. Okay so maybe the film does make a comment about homosexuality, but the side that no-one ever sees really. It explores the possibility of same sex relationships that ensue without warning, and how it entraps the two in a truly saddening relationship.
The camera work is beautiful and so is the soundtrack particularly in the opening scene. However, there was one technical fault as such, where the rule known as the "180 degree line" was "broken" and Jack and Ennis were walking away from each other and due to the camera work it looked like they were walking the same way.
Okay so the part you've hopefully been waiting for... the parts when i cried. Basically i cried at the parts when the true nature of their relationship was revealed e.g. when they made out passionately but almost frustratedly after not having seen each other for four years and when Ennis said (in the most amazing line i've ever heard) "I wish I could quit you." And of course when the most horrible thing in th history of film ever happens which i can't put in this review because it needs to be experienced.
If you take the time to dive further into the film, you realise just how sad the story is. The fact that they have to live false lives for twenty years because of what society says made me both depressed and enraged. The fact that they still maintained their relationship through the years even though it was evident that both were unhappy and needed each other hurt me on the inside.
This film hit far too close to home for me. It expresses love in the most true and devastatingly beautiful way imaginably. No other artistic piece describes love the way this film does. It doesn't matter if you are gay or straight, the movie isn't about gay people, it's about expressing the most complex part of the human condition through a relationship between two straight men in love.
It destroys me to think that there are people in the world whom are secretly in love and oppressed because of the one emotion that no person to date understands. And believe you me, this film would have been nothing had it been between two straight people. The movie was as powerful as it was because of the fact that it was between to men.
Thank the lord for this film. It is breathtaking. It will linger with you for days after watching it. This is something every person needs to experience. One of the best films i have ever seen, and by far the most powerful and beautiful film i will possibly ever see.
Antichrist (2009)
One of the best films i have ever seen
What an amazing film this is. It makes me sad to see how people continue to bash this film because I think hardly anyone apart from a minute population of people actually get what the movie was trying to achieve.
The film is very melodramatic, especially in the prologue. The film itself starts off with an extremely graphic sex scene that leaves little to the imagination. During this scene, an infant jumps out of a second story window and splatters on the snow below him. This is nothing compared to what follows.
The rest of the film takes place in an isolated wood cottage in the middle of a misty forest, where the mother of the child (who is now in a state of depression) is explored psychologically by her psychiatrist husband.
The cinematography is bewildering. It is intoxicatingly beautiful, as is the soundtrack.
The content on the other hand is quite the opposite. Sexual mutilation like you cannot imagine and gore that levels unbearable kind of dominate the entire film BUT are done for a reason.
The entire film is basically an allegory that alludes very strongly to Christianity and following that the relationship between the sexes as represented in the bible and in a modern context. Basically from what i understood from watching the film and from doing research on it, the movie centers around the idea that the man is the Antichrist (the embodiment of death, despair, pain etc) by driving his wife into destruction, who martyrs herself for the cause of saving his own sanity and self purpose. That is just the basics. I had to watch it twice and read up about it further before I got the basics down.
The gore and sexual violence relate to Christian abstinence values and the virgin Mary from what I can gather. Basically I looked for clues that alluded to the bible and i think that once one has the gist of what the film is trying to get at then i think that this film will blow you away.
The sexual violence grossed me beyond comprehension. It is certainly not for the faint hearted or weak stomached because it is not only extremely graphic, it is also aberrant and weakening. It disturbed the hell out of me. The violence however related to the film's purpose e.g. when Charlotte removes her genitalia with scissors or when she violently engages in intercourse with Willem. Each of these sexual acts represent something different in the film's concept.
It is a masterpiece of artistic cinema that needs more attention and praise than what it's received thus far. Dafoe and Gainsburg performed brilliantly and the story flowed wonderfully. The overall presentation I felt was beautiful even though the content itself was hard and uncensored.
Overall I loved this film. I think it's an intensely deep film that no-one other than Lars von Trier himself understands and I am still working to try and discover what all this amazing film has to offer.
It is disgustingly brutal, and emotionally draining but it's beautiful and artistically drenched. It is totally worth the watch if you're willing to sit through it, and the ending ties the film up brilliantly.
I recommend that you watch it because i think that it has a lot to offer the world of film and it totally blew me away. It is without a doubt one of the best films i have ever seen in my life.
The Strangers (2008)
The scariest film I have EVER seen
Spoilers ALERT I have an unusually high tolerance for horror films. I have seen so many that only a few actually get to me. The Strangers for me, was the most brutally terrifying one to date.
The setting and story are simple, a man and his girl return to his family summer home after a friend's wedding reception where they are tormented by three masked strangers.
At first I didn't get this film. The lack of a decent plot threw me off what the film was trying to achieve. However, and to those who complained about the lack of a plot, the film doesn't need a story. The film doesn't need sustained progression. It simply desires to poison what we would refer to as "home" - the feeling of being safe and secure, hence the chilling answer to Kristen's question near the end of the film as follows: Kristen: "Why are you doing this to us?" Pin-up Girl: "Because you were home." This simply means that they were attacked because they were in a place in which they felt secure, hence no place is truly home.
The soundtrack was amazing, and contributed very well to the film i believe (for example when Kristen is alone and one of the strangers knocks on the door the words of the song playing are "Should we go outside?")
Bertino plotted the movie and thought it through thoroughly because I think he did a sterling job in creating genuine fear without using cheap scare tactics like frights, or the face-in-the-bathroom-mirror. Most of the scare tactics were actually quite subtle I thought, especially in the first part of the film. The one shot which truly frightened me was the shot where Kristen is standing in the house in silence and the male stranger emerges behind her and watches her without her noticing.
The movie had a sadistic, playful atmosphere which made it even more discomforting for me (e.g. when the Pin-Up Girl was sitting on the swing, and the fact that the masks all had smiles on the faces). Technically i thought it held its ground and I loved the lighting, particularly in the opening scene when Kristen and James are driving to his summer home.
I think what really got to me though, and once again i give props to Bertino for his work, was the fact that there were three strangers and that you never knew where they were, but you knew that they were there (e.g. when Kristen discovers the fire-detector has been reassembled but we heard and saw nothing)
The strangers themselves were really frightening. Their movement was usually subtle but threatening in that same way which frightened me senseless. All of the masks represented some kind of childlike playfulness as well(the "cartoon" pin-up girl, the "doll's" face, and the home made smiley sack face) which added to the playful atmosphere and made Kristen and James seem like toys. It even made the entire ordeal feel like a children's game in the strangers actions (e.g. the pin-up girl on the swing) and obviously the fact that all the masks had smiles on them (implying enjoyment).
And of course we have the masks which I have yet to get over, which I believe dehumanises them because it hides the only true physical quality which makes us human - our faces. But the masks themselves resemble human expressions and faces but distorts them (a doll's face and a cartoon face represent human faces but are not real faces as such) allowing us to never leave the fact that they are people, but the falseness of their expression implies the lack of true emotions, and more importantly sympathy.
Overall i think The Strangers is really underrated because I think that its purpose is misinterpreted. It may not be the world's finest film, but it did a fantastic job of scaring me silly. It didn't follow the boobs and blood route like most other slashers and i thought it was really well directed and thoroughly thought out.
If you're willing to give it a chance then please do, you might be surprised. It will scare you senseless.