disturbing films

Started by NEON MERCURY, August 16, 2003, 11:39:56 PM

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ono

The thing I'm trying to zero in on here is the fact that whenever sex is portrayed as positive, it is censored.  Whenever it is seedy and wrought with consequences, or never portrayed healthily (a la American Pie), it's allowed a pass.  I didn't say they're afraid of it, but they glamorize violence over sex if anything, in my opinion.

The classic example IS the horror film where only virgins survive, but I'm thinking more along the lines of the drama where a little boobie gets an R rating, and Heaven forbid they show male genetalia, but you can blow off as many heads (I know how that sounds -- get your mind out of the gutter) or say as many naughty words as you want, and still get a PG-13 (unless it's fuck -- which, uh-oh, is sexual).  Unfortunately, I am reminded of Halloween (a horrible movie, but that's beside the point).  Michael's sister is getting it on with her boyfriend, Mikey sees this and goes apeshit, and we're subjected to a plethora of these movies on the shaky premise that sex is bad, even sex in a healthy relationship is bad, and the only good sex, is that which is seedy, done in the night shadows of neon lights and such.  Oh, and you'll be killed by an unstoppable demon if you don't cease and desist.

We have these conventions, is all, where nothing normally considered healthy is praised, yet it is usually the most normal-seeming, inwardly-fucked-up people who cast these aspersions on others as to how they think they should behave.

modage

Halloween is good.  That is all.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

MacGuffin

Film on Cat Torture Draws Protesters in Toronto

Protesters urged ticket-holders outside a Toronto cinema on Tuesday to boycott a documentary about a vicious animal cruelty case in which three friends filmed the skinning of a live cat as an alleged art project.

Freedom for Animals, a Toronto group, has organized daily protests at the Toronto International Film Festival. Nearly 100 animal lovers went to Tuesday's demonstration when "Casuistry: The Art of Killing a Cat" made its world premiere.

The 91-minute documentary contains interviews with the three cat killers -- Jesse Power, Anthony Wennekers and Matt Kaczorowski -- as well as animal activists, artists, police and journalists. It does not show the cat's mutilation and death.

Power enlisted Wennekers and Kaczorowski in May 2001 to make a video that Power, an ex-vegetarian, said was an artistic statement about the suffering of animals used for meat.

They filmed a cat as they tempted it with a mouse, then skinned and decapitated and disemboweled it, and left its body dangling from the ceiling. Power intended to eat the cat, but never got the chance. The skinned cat was found in the beer fridge of the house where he lived.

"I never got to eat this cat, but a lot of other people are feasting off it," Power said in "Casuistry" -- which means misleadingly subtle reasoning.

The three eventually pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and mischief charges. Animal rights activists were incensed when they received minimal jail time.

Leading up to the film festival, animal rights activists had demanded that "Casuistry" be pulled from the program.

"This so-called 'documentary', is again shocking people because it is giving a platform to Mr. Power," said Suzanne Lahaie, Freedom for Animals co-founder.

But festival co-director Noah Cowan rejected the calls. "Film festivals exist, in part, to generate intelligent, reasoned discussion, not to stifle it," he said in a statement before the festival began.

Organizers said the two scheduled screenings will go ahead despite a phone threat to a staff member to "skin him alive" and "shove knives in his eyes."

Passersby looked on with curiosity at Tuesday's protest, while that very curiosity convinced some to buy tickets.

Michelle Dent, a psychology student, said she wanted to see the story behind the "anti-social and violent act" even if none of the graphic footage from Power's 17-minute video is shown.

Director Zev Asher chose to show the transcript of the court text of the videotape in sections throughout the film.

He told Reuters this way would be "more effective in evoking the stark horror that these guys were involved in."

Asher said he didn't believe his documentary glorified the so-called art project, but he made the film because he was fascinated by the international media attention it caused.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Jeremy Blackman

Of course it was a stupid and disgusting thing to do. Why don't we just skin a human being alive to artistically represent the suffering of human beings...

But let the movie be seen... I doubt the protestors even know if the documentary glorifies the act (that would be pretty hard to do).

coffeebeetle

Quote from: ono.Felt like I'd bump this thread for the hell of it.  There's something to be said about a well-made art film that portrays either sex or violence in an interesting, compelling way.  There lies the intrigue, and when it works, it's memorable.

The thing to note is, very rarely will you find sex being portrayed as a good thing in America, or violence as a positive thing, well, anywhere else.  That's how backwards our country is.  But then again, you have to wonder about certain other countries, and realize that we all have our hangups, especially after seeing a film as bad as Gojitmal (Lies).  Seeing this film did a few things for me - reminded me of the wonderfulness of The Dreamers, even if it was clunky in places, and the horridness of Ai no corrida, and reminded me that man, some Asians are into freaky shit.  And sadly, if you see Lies, you'll learn that when I say "shit," no pun is intended.

The film centers around a relationship between a 38-year-old man and an 18-year-old schoolgirl.  Their relationship gets closer, they have phone sex, meet, have sex in various hotels, and engage in S/M.  The film lacks any sort of real plot other than their escapades and attempts to avoid the girl's brother.  Most of the time is spent concentrating on them beating each other with the homemade tools they've fashioned -- whips, twigs, sawed-down broom handles, etc.  It's all just very boring, and really serves no point.  The director made the film based on a novel which was also banned in South Korea, just like this film.  He almost got charges brought against him.  He wanted to challenge their way of thinking, but offered nothing to think about.  There's manic camera movement, inserts of audition tapes to lend to a feel of reality, along with the fact that these two are amateurs, as well as voiceovers from the man, who is reading from the novel the book is based on.  This all serves no purpose

The question I pose here is, why?  Why make a film like this, giving credence to the belief that sex in cinema is boring, pointless, and too salacious to ever have a valid reason in showing, and why even post about such an awful movie anyway?  Other than The Dreamers, let's face it, I've never seen a movie with sex as a focus that really did a good job at entertaining.  Boogie Nights doesn't count because it dances around the more graphic elements quite nicely, and I think that is the heart of the issue really.  You can't have it both ways - you can't have this suspension of disbelief and then bring such realistic elements into a film such as graphic human sexuality.  At least -- I've never seen it work too well.

Like I said, in America, people are afraid of sex.  Violence is rarely portrayed as a good thing anywhere, and when it is, it's usually satirical as in American Psycho.  Go down the list of films rates NC-17 for another, and the violent ones you can usually write off as exploitative or just not very good.  Ditto for the sexual-based ones, save maybe Happiness.  Then again, the sexuality in that film didn't have all that much to do with the body, but with ideas that were too dangerous for the MPAA to let pass, and with good reason - a woman sleeping around, a pervert calling women and "coming" up with new adhesives, a boy learning to masturbate, and a father with a serious "Michael Jackson"-level problem, to put it lightly.

The difference, I think, is in a movie like Scarlet Diva, which, while it may be no Citizen Kane, it is admirable in its own right, because the lead bore her body and soul (irony not being lost on us for Anna's comment that she doesn't want to be an actress as she's constantly asked to show her tits), and was able to even talk with her family about it.  It shows the differences between American and European cultures - how they're comfortable with that kind of sexuality, and we simply are not.

Well put Ono.  However, one film comes to mind that uses sex to advance the plot and add at least a modicum of depth to the characters: Secretary.  I'll add this though: some people might not find what those characters do explicit, in which case this film doesn't count.
more than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. one path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. the other, to total extinction. let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
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Pubrick

Quote from: Jeremy BlackmanBut let the movie be seen... I doubt the protestors even know if the documentary glorifies the act (that would be pretty hard to do).
of course, we don't hav a choice do we. if it's made, it must be shown.

really tho, sum ppl are just too ____ to live.
under the paving stones.

03

men behind the sun
hell house
the short films of the vienna aktionists

Myxo

I'd like to nominate a scene..

American History X.. the curbing..

Dtm115300

That was a pretty powerful scene.

cine

talk about curbing your attitude..  :yabbse-lipsrsealed:

socketlevel

Quote from: MyxomatosisI'd like to nominate a scene..

American History X.. the curbing..

we call that smiley, cause you'll have a perma smile afterward.

-sl-
the one last hit that spent you...

Jeremy Blackman

Quote from: socketlevelwe call that smiley, cause you'll have a perma smile afterward.
Who's "we"? Nazis?

SiliasRuby

I just watched Irreversible last night. I borrowed it from a from a good friend of mine. God, it blew me away and scared the living shit out of me. The only other film that scared me and made me not want to go to bed right away was eraserhead. Gummo was really disturbing but I really didn't like it and of course A Clockwork Orange is Genius. I also was really impressed with American History X but it has been a while since I've seen it.
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There was a FISH in the perkalater!!!

My Collection

Thrindle

Bastard Out of Carolina.  Ugh.  There are scenes that are permanently etched into my brain.  One movie I wish I never saw.
Classic.

Finn

Then something tells me the dvd cover doesn't exactly depict the movie appropriately...

Typical US Mother: "Remember what the MPAA says; Horrific, Deplorable violence is okay, as long as people don't say any naughty words."