Manage to catch this relatively unknown Raul Ruiz film at the national museum today. Of all of Ruiz’s films that i’ve watched, i think this is the only other one that manages to recreate that chance induced freeform surrealism of City of Pirates, which is no doubt one of the most bizarre film experiences ever. He spins multiple disorientating narratives (or rather… moments) within various motifs and spaces. In this one… anthropology, linguistics, ghost house. He manages to retain a gloomy and evil atmosphere throughout the film. Best moments:
Psychotic, bet making slave driver caretaker of two indians from an ancient tribe commits suicide by cutting his tongue.
Both indians educated and cultured by a marxist mom. Conducts discourses on Mozart, Beethoven, Hegel and so on.
Little girl articulately argues for gender essentialism, refuting her mother who claims it is a linguistic fallacy
Girl’s dad touches her stomach as she regresses into primitivism, letting out a repetitive scream that resembles the sound of a newborn baby. Such an effective use of a non-digetic element that seems magically connected to the scene in a perverse manner.
Never ending gunfire in the background.
What a psycho film that critiques the uses of anthropology yet celebrates the surrealistic potential of this academic discipline. Brings to mind Breton and gang’s obsession with ethnographic detail.
