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Reviews
Martyrs (2008)
Horror fan? Possess a brain? Don't miss.
For fans of French horror of the past decade or so, this is not to be missed. I put off watching it for quite some time, partly due to wanting to savour this genre over as long as possible, but also based on the description alone I knew I'd have to steel myself to finally sit down and watch it.
Martyrs never lets you go for a minute, but I must admit, is strongest and most jarring during the first half. Once you're in the second half, there is still a sense of dead, but you know it can't really get any worse. The final lead up ventures more into cerebral, even philosophical or religious territory.
One small gripe for those wanting perfect realism, technology or physics wise: shotgun blasts don't send people flying backwards like a projectile, makes for an impressive effect though!
Here's the plot: two girls (Anna and Lucie) meet and befriend one another at an orphanage. One of the girls (Lucie) escaped from captivity where she was subject to extreme mistreatment by a cult obsessed with the experience of life after death. Once grown into (excessively beautiful and exotic, for those of you for whom that's important) women 15 years later, Lucie locates her former tormenters, and draws Anna into an episode of vengeance and depravity from which neither can escape.
Again, some horror can have 'light' moments, where the viewer can even revel, be joyous, even at some of the violence, which may appear as righteous given the circumstances. Not so with Martyrs. There are no winners here, from start to finish - true horror.
Baise-moi (2000)
Someone's gotta make the crazy films!
If you are a fan of 'extreme' cinema, especially of the French variety, chances are you've already heard of or seen 'Baise Moi', and if you're not, then it probably won't be too high on your list of films to see, if it is at all. Hopefully you know what to expect at least!
BM is somewhat like 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer', but with a pair of seemingly psychologically 'normal' women, who one day lose it and commit murder on impulse, happen to bump into one another before going postal for a few days before it all unravels tragically at the end.
What BM offers that most 'extreme' films don't, is a large proportion of the cast and directors being from the pornographic industry, and of course, actual unsimulated sex scenes. That and the the fact that women are ones committing reckless acts of murder, often in brutal and creative ways, with the sex and the violence interspersed evenly and casually throughout, does serve to earn the film its controversial reputation.
A common criticism is the loose storytelling, and yes, the first few scenes are unusual, and very random, snippets of street/bar scenes, conversations, yet all tinged with a sense of menace. Tension between man and woman is palpable from early on, before any of the characters are properly introduced.
The first lead is Nadine, a lady of the night, played by the stunning (and sadly departed) Karen Lancaume, demure and polite in public, super casual at home, where she constantly fends off her bickering housemate. The second is Manu (Rafaella Anderson), younger and gutsier, and actually more believable as a killer or a criminal than Nadine.
The manner of their meeting and subsequent bonding is somewhat rushed and artificial. Probably not what the directors wanted to focus on, in preference for getting to the action as soon as possible.
The violence will satisfy most extremophiles, it is more of the gritty and realistic variety than the cartoonish gore Kill Bill variety. However, I never truly bought Nadine as a sadistic killer the way I did with Manu. Manu just seems like a dangerous street kid capable of anything, with Nadine it feels she is more just coming along for the ride, and is too jaded about life to care or take much pleasure in the brutality. Her speaking and mannerisms are too sedate and measured, even aloof; I am thinking her first mainstream role should not have been as radical as this.
BM finishes with Manu killed, and Nadine forced to deal with her loss, whom she mourns as she would a sister (after only having met her a few days prior). So, not even after so much carnage does she lose her ability to feel, or love, she is finally presented as a tragic character, not a monster.
And perhaps, after being used to seeing psychopaths commit these acts on our screens, Nadine's 'human' story adds to BM being so hard to stomach for the censors, given the monstrous acts she previously committed.
I know of no other film as violent with frequent unsimulated sex scenes, especially not ones where the murderers and participants in said sex scenes are one and the same! Given that the film is now 13 years old, in the world of extreme, that has to count for something!
Camp 14: Total Control Zone (2012)
Reveals the darkest parts of the human condition and an amazing story of survival
Camp 14: Total Control Zone documents the harrowing details of 'life' in North Korea's forced labour camps from 3 perspectives, a former inmate born within one of the camps who managed to escape, a former guard, and a former member of the secret police.
I do not want to give the story away for those who have yet to see it, but what these stories reveal is a world where a level of cruelty and disregard for human life exists that struggles to be dreamt up in infamous works of fiction by Pasolini or de Sade (some details a chilling reminder of scenes from 1975's 'Salo').
The police and guards, who are the purveyors of this cruelty (and there must be a lot of them given the claimed 200,000 interned) can't all statistically be psychopaths. Operating under a ruthless system, they'd doubtlessly be users of the Nuremberg Defence.
We read about the actions of the psychopath serial killer, which are a conundrum in themselves, but when this sort of behaviour manifests itself across a whole society, it becomes ... well, I can't find the right word.
What sort of fear and desperation would lead to a society being created based on force feeding the populace lies and leader worship, ignorance replacing civic dialogue, with forced labour, torture and death being the only solution to needing a justice system (and for that matter, unemployment)?
Only through a miraculous if not morbid event does the protagonist (Shin Dong-Hyuk) manage to escape the camp, and we are thankful he does, in order to experience freedom and provide the rest of the world with a brief but revealing peek into the horror show.
Some of his revelations will prompt the viewer question the nature of human instincts. Seemingly we are born with no emotional attachment to our family or fellow human beings, only the will to survive appears to be firmly ingrained in us.
As Camp 14 draws to a close, we get a sense of ennui and confusion from Shin at his new surroundings. He appears far from joyful at having left the life he was born into, inexplicable to the rest of us, as inexplicable and impenetrable as the conditions in which he was born into.
Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (1975)
An immense film
First of all, don't pay any attention to those lunatics who think this film isn't disturbing enough to fulfill their desires for on screen violence. It's the very essence of disturbing, the very essence of not only perversion, but humans destroying other humans.
I won't go into the plot in any great detail, as it's been done hundreds of times before. Everyone going into this film basically knows the deal: as fascist rule in northern Italy comes to a close near the end of WWII, 8 bourgeois men and women kidnap a number of youths before using them for sexual gratification and sadomasochism. Why, simply, because they can.
The men, going by the names of President, Duke, Magistrate, etc, would be among the best film villains of all time, without question, neither being moral not immoral, simply amoral. The women are equally villainous, but do not participate directly in the violence, acting instead as storytellers, and recounting tales of debauchery with great verve and abandon, in a number of very entertaining sequences.
As the men peruse a group of boys for selection and one of them asks for mercy, one of the captors merely remarks: "Don't expect me to be the one to deflower you". Basically saying you might wish it was me, but it won't be necessarily. The fact that you'll be deflowered is of course well known to you, and of course it's also something you're hoping for. So viewers, the next time you're feeling small and helpless, maybe in front of your boss at work who's needling you over impossible to meet productivity targets, or a bully co worker, just harness that uncompromising ruthlessness and tell them (in your head): "Don't expect ME to be the one to deflower you, could be me, could be the next guy for all I care. Whoever's turn it is... you know?" Guaranteed to make your day better and put a grin on your face. Give the fascists a taste of their own medicine. Heck, even say it out loud, just expect to have a backup plan ;) There is a lot of metaphor in Salo. There is the infamous "sh*t eating", which could be construed as a metaphor for the excrement of consumerist culture/fast food, but probably is more along the lines of "being kept in the dark and fed sh*t", like mushrooms, as the peasants under a fascist regime. When the captors join in on the feast, it is much like them starting to consume, or believe, their own sh*t. The victims are also encouraged to snitch on each other to the authorities, much as in a fascism and war situation. Double standards are also enforced, no sexual intercourse being allowed between the victims, but of course sex between captor and victim is compulsory.
In the closing scene, each captor is given the chance to view the torture and executions of the victims, through binoculars, thereby being granted complete control, to watch or not to watch, to focus on one scene but not another, to still regard but be distant from the proceedings, to be spared whatever odors or blood spatter that may be present, and finally, no screams are heard, but in the background a wireless plays music and fascist propaganda. Reality altered to suit the captor's taste.
Two young guards, in a moment of boredom, switch the radio to jazz, and begin a dance. 'What's your girlfriend's name?' 'Margherita'.
Regardless of your personal opinion of Salo, it will be a great challenge to cast from your mind. More or less a once in a lifetime experience!
Into the Abyss (2011)
necessary filmmaking
One thing that separates humanity from the rest of the animal kingdom is the fact that we are aware of our own mortality. Those scheduled for execution know not only that they will die but the exact time, place and method of their departure.
While many movies use different tactics to shock and dramatise violence and death, very rarely are we confronted with such an urgent and intimate picture, where Herzog visits the town of Conroe, Texas, to explore the fallout from a triple murder 10 years back.
Police footage offers a glimpse into a night of casual destruction at the hands of Michael Perry, death row inmate scheduled for execution within days, and Jason Burkett, his accomplice serving a life sentence. A woman and two boys become their victims because they are simply barriers in their plan to steal a performance vehicle.
Everyone Herzog interviews appears to be deeply affected by death, be it as a chaplain, victim or executioner. Everyone, that is, except for the perpetrators themselves, who appear equally perplexed concerning their crimes as we are, and for whom death, even their own, is merely an afterthought, a simple matter of fact. Are individuals capable of such detachment sent from another planet, or are they humans just like us? Are all humans afraid of death? Is the delusion of religion merely to mask the realisation that our final day is really the end? 'Into the Abyss' does not seek to explore these questions, but they are never far from the surface.
Toward the end Herzog meets Melyssa, who married Jason after his conviction. That a woman would of her own free will negate any possibility of a healthy, supportive family life and bring a child into the world who's father is a convicted murderer serving a life sentence is another reminder of the strange justice of this world. Life will persist where logic would dictate it should never.
One of the most poignant and revealing interviews is with a retired executioner for the state who participated in the executions of over 120 individuals. For a man who remained professional and detached for so long, he resigned, unable to continue, and now stands against the state sanctioned taking of human life. One can't help but notice the dimly lit, slightly claustrophobic room in which the interview takes place, apparently the room where inmates spend their final hours before being taken to the gurney. The word 'dream' in carved wooden letters appears on the mantelpiece. Will dreams come to me in my eternal sleep? 'Into the Abyss' will most certainly leave few viewers unchanged. A necessary film.