CRog

Mr Harvey dropped by the other night to introduce us to some great pieces of film.  He had found a DVD with two short experimental movies in what he called a Satanic Disco Store in Brooklyn.  The first one was in black and white, and showed a group of people in a forest covering a man in mud and then letting him emerge from in, as if resurrected. It felt as if the cast of Intolerance had taken mushrooms on a break between takes.  The other one was a more colorful interpretation of an LSD trip inside a small room full of radiant people being filmed through a distorting lens or in a distorting mirror.

The next visual delight came in the form of “La Belle Captive”, by Alain Robbe-Grillet.  I wouldn’t recommend reading the IMDB page about this one, as it is quite poor, but read this excellent review right here. “La Belle Captive”, as you may know, is also the name of a Magritte painting, reproduced here in poor colors.

The film is full of references to this idea of the frame within a frame.

But more than that, it seems to be a precursor of the work of geniuses such as Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch. There is a scene in a bar that is very similar to the conversation Jack Nicholson is having with the ghost bartender in “The Shining”,

The Shining

and another that will not fail to remind of the orgy scene in “Eyes wide shut”.

And then the whole shifting of dimensions of reality that happens in “La Belle Captive” clearly will remind you of Lynch’s work, mostly in movies like “Lost Highway” and “Mulholland Drive”.

Mulholland Drive

Then there is the eroticism and visual taste displayed in “La Belle Captive”.  Taste is a tricky issue when discussing works of art, but in this case, I feel that the elegance and visual decisions made in this movie are of the highest level.  Take this image of “Sara Zeitgeist” (interesting name, Zeitgeist being german for”The spirit of the times”), and compare if to Kenneth Anger’s “Scorpio Rising”, or even to the work of Guy Bourdin.

Sara Zeitgeist

Guy Bourdin

The editing style is amazing, with the kind of repetitions that almost serve the craziness of the storytelling rather than attempting to “break narrative codes”.  The scene with the bicycle rider telling the main character about the house where he thinks he spent the night is a new editing classic for me.

And finally, the music.  The use of Wagner’s prelude to “Das Rheingold”, in the Nibelungen trilogy, is fantastic.  This opening has this slow, fascinating elevation, making you want the strings to keep on rising and rising until they carry you above and beyond, but they never do in “La Belle Captive”.  Herzog used it in his version of “Nosferatu”, but with less parcimony.

Die Nibelungen (Wagner’s “Lord of the rings”)

My global feeling was of having scene an extremely “contemporary” piece.  Something that does not grow old, that will keep surprising, regardless of when it is seen.  That is the power of great works.  And in this one, you can add the pleasure one has when hearing an original after having heard the samples over and over again. It feels like a source you can drink from.

If you like this kind of work, I would recommend getting your hands on “Last year in Marienbad”, another masterpiece that was, this time, written by Robbe-Grillet.

Thanks Alain.

Alex