Begotten (1991) Review

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(More customer reviews)Is it compelling? Very. Is it arty? Often. Is it atmospheric? Indubitably. Is it entertaining? Rarely, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. "Begotten," a wildly inventive low budget film imagined and subsequently lensed by E. Elias Merhige will leave a lasting scar on anyone who watches his nightmarish vision. The celluloid equivalent of a bad dream best forgotten, Merhige's pet project continues to mark its viewers; I occasionally hear people discussing this movie even though it came out over ten years ago. No matter what you come away with after watching "Begotten," you will remember it for ages to come. Nothing approaches its visceral power, its unshakable commitment to weirdness, and its disgustingly haunting imagery. Yes, "Begotten" is all of these things to some and much less to many. I have seen it and still cannot define exactly what I saw or successfully integrate the various scenes into a coherent whole. Perhaps subsequent viewings will uncover a few more details, but I somehow rather doubt that it will. I hope it will be enough to cryptically smile and nod sagely in lieu of explaining the plot the next time someone I know mentions this film. If I ever have to explicate on Merhige's monster to save my life, I could be in a heap of trouble.
What is "Begotten"? It is roughly eighty minutes of a black and white movie showing scenes of mutilation, madness, and murder. The whole thing deals with a sort of primordial or futuristic creation/death ritual carried out between the gods and mankind, or at least I think it does from the few articles I have read about the movie. Probably the easiest scenes to discern are the opening ones, where the camera reveals a twitching creature with a substance disturbingly comparable to blood pouring out of its mouth. With some sort of razor, the being cuts open its own abdomen (in chunky detail) in order to give birth to a new life form. This new goddess and a weird creation coughing up what looks like a piece of meat go forth to encounter shambling primitives who eventually beat these creatures to death. The whole film moves at a snail's pace, with many of the later scenes nearly impenetrable to the eye even on a DVD transfer.
Far from being filmed in glaring color reminiscent of an episode of the Brady Bunch, "Begotten" uses a complicated technique to create a type of black and white picture rarely if ever seen by this viewer. The film employs deliberate scratches on the negative and some sort of treatment that makes the unearthly images contained within glow with a sickly light. There isn't a whit of discernable dialogue in the whole movie, with the only sounds being a discordant drone punctuated by occasional rattles, labored breathing, chimes, and the sounds of water. The sun rises and sets with alarming regularity, but this hint at the passage of time provides no respite for the viewer as the nightmare unfolds onscreen. I could so easily dismiss "Begotten" as utter garbage except for one niggling concern: I could rarely take my eyes off the television screen. What IS going on here? Who knows, but it carries an appeal similar to a car accident on the freeway.
Merhige should receive a compliment for at least trying to accomplish something different with this movie. I'm not surprised in the least to learn that Marilyn Manson retained his services to direct one of his music videos, either. In short, if "Begotten" isn't the strangest, eeriest thing you will ever watch, you have explored bleaker vistas than I. I should conclude with an apology for speaking about this film by using so many superlatives, but watch it and see why I did so.

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BEGOTTEN is the creation myth brought to life, the story of no less than the violent death of God and the (re)birth of nature on a barren earth.Astounding and baffling critics and audiences alike, BEGOTTEN was named one of the Ten Best Pictures of 1991 by Time Magazine. Time's Richard Corliss wrote: "Nobody will get through BEGOTTEN without being marked... BEGOTTEN is a spectacular one-of-a-kind (you wouldn't want there to be two), filmed in speckled chiaroscuro so that each image is a seductive mystery, a Rorschach test for the adventurous eye."In production notes for the film, director Merhige commented, "Each shot in the film went through hours of preparation to achieve the look you will experience when viewing... the etheral "pulse" that hypnotically permeates the film. It took over ten hours to re-photograph less than one minute of selected takes." The BEGOTTEN DVD special features include: a souvenir booklet; interactive menus; scene access; the original theatrical trailer; and rare, never-before-seen stills and color production photos.USA, 1991, 78 mins., black & white, digital sound, full format.Unrated.Suggested retail $29.95.

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Twin Peaks - The First Season (Special Edition) (1990) Review

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(More customer reviews)In the spring of 1990, the ABC network treated it's viewers to a most unusual viewing experience; the David Lynch and Mark Frost creation "Twin Peaks". A hybrid murder/mystery, primetime soap opera, darkly funny comedy and super- natural thriller...Twin Peaks was all of these and yet at the same time none. It would use what on other shows would be clichés to create a richly woven tapestry so original, thought provoking and emotionally truthful that it re- defined what television at it's best could truly be. At times it was hilarious and absurd, other times it was heart-wrenching in it's honesty of human emotion and suffering, and still other times it was deeply chilling and disturbing with images you can't easily shake off days after...and sometimes it was all these things at once. There had never been anything even remotely like it on TV before and (so far) nothing like it since. It's influence can be seen in countless other programs...but only elements, no one has achieved the true artistry that "Twin Peaks" had. Being a mid-season replacement series, the whole of it's first season was only 7 episodes and had much of America asking the question "Who killed Laura Palmer?".
The series' was set in the fictional, northwestern town of Twin Peaks, where the murdered body of local homecoming queen, Laura Palmer is found on a beach wrapped in plastic. This event sets the stage for the arrival of FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) and the subsequent investigation as to the identity of her killer. It is this investigation that will uncover the quiet trappings of this small mountain town to reveal dark secrets hidden within and and even darker things lurking without. He will encounter a remarkable cast of characters, all with their own personal agendas.
"Twin Peaks" was and still remains groundbreaking television of the first order. It was stylistically cinematic, each episode looks very much like an hour long feature film with an equally impressive soundtrack presentation. It was incredibly well written (with so many quotable lines the mind boggles at them all) with fabulous characters, a wonderful sense of humor and a shadowy (and sometimes very scary) sense of mystery. The large ensemble cast of MacLachlan, Michael Ontkean, Piper Laurie, Sherylynn Fenn, Laura Flynn Boyle, Peggy Lipton, Miquel Ferrer, Ray Wise, Joan Chen and far too many more to list here are all uniformly excellent in their respective rolls.
For "Twin Peaks"' debut on DVD, Artisan Home Entertainment has put together a very nice set featuring episodes 1 thru 7 (unfortunately the 2 hr. pilot is missing due to rights issues, originally owned by Warner Bros. it is now owned by Paramount). The packaging is a slick fold-out design with transparent slip case, much like the design of Fox's X-Files box sets. 4 discs are included.
With only 2 episodes per disc, these transfers are mastered at a very high bit rate and the results are stunning. Having been used to the soft, grainy picture afforded by the previous video versions of the series, I was quite unprepared for the unbelievable picture quality delivered on this release. These new high definition, re-mastered transfers are breathtaking, with colors rendered perfectly (the green opening titles nearly leap off the screen). Blacks are solid with excellent shadow detail, flesh tones are accurately reproduced and the show's red color schemes have never looked better (without a trace of bleeding). No digital artifacts are present and I never noticed any signs of edge enhancement, all in all an incredible job.
The same can be said for the sound presentation here, you can choose between Dolby digital 5.1 surround and 2.0 surround or (in a first for any television DVD product) DTS digital surround. These are very good mixes, the DTS surround being the best. The surround elements are reserved mostly to ambient sounds and Angelo Badalamenti's brilliant music, dialogue is placed mostly in the center and is clear and intelligible. This is television and not a Hollywood action spectacular so don't expect reference quality surround use, but a detailed sound mix perfectly suited to the show. Badalamenti's score is especially well presented here.
I would suggest to first time viewers to try and get hold of the pilot episode. Although it has an alternate ending filmed as a possible "closed" ending for European markets, it is actually an uncut version of Cooper's dream in episode 2. You can also purchase an import DVD of the pilot from Amazon.com which is the original broadcast version, the video and audio is not as pleasing as on the set reviewed here but still it is acceptably good. Artisan has included a booklet with the season 1 set explaining the events of the pilot but I would suggest viewing it if possible before viewing ep.1 thru 7. With each show being a day in the investigation, viewers will likely be lost without the events of the pilot to start from.
Overall a very impressive set from Artisan. If you missed this extraordinary show before, don't miss it this time. And please hurry up with Season 2.

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Item Name: Twin Peaks - The First Season (Special Edition); Studio:Republic Pictures

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Synecdoche New York (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)The question for this complex and weird film is whether writer-director Charlie Kaufman's artistic ambition will ultimately frustrate viewer patience. When I saw the film, a couple in front of me walked out halfway through. You will probably love or hate this film; reviews have been sharply divided.
Philip Seymour Hofmann stars as Caden Cotard, a theater director mired in all the midlife crises, real and imagined, of body, mind and spirit. The film begins conventionally enough, or so it seems, but there are telltale signs early-on that Kaufman is going to play with reality itself -- a cartoon on the family TV features Caden as a character, and a realtor walks a client through a house that is permanemtly on fire. Those are two ominous metaphors.
The giveway is that the name "Cotard" bears a striking resemblance to that of the French postmodernist Jean-Francois Lyotard. We shouldn't be surprised when Caden quits his career doing theater among the "blue hairs" in suburban Schenectady, New York, where his latest production was "Death of a Salesman," and with the help of a MacArthur genius grant (a cruel irony given his circumstances) moves to a cavernous warehouse in New York City and recreates his confused life through what eventually becomes a cast of hundreds of characters. Yes, life is a stage and we're the actors.
In his book The Post-Modern Condition (1979), Lyotard made (in)famous the notion of "incredulity toward meta-narrrative," a fancy way of saying that there are no truly universal or absolute meanings or truths in life, and that all meaning is a personal or social construction. This is exactly what Caden tries to do -- he creates meaning in his life through characters who portray his life. He keeps changing the name of the play, one of which is "Simulacrum" (= an insubstantial semblance of something). He keeps saying that he "finally" knows how he wants to direct the play. Indeed, the play is never finished but is instead a building project that piles floor upon floor of sets; it never ends. For Kaufman there's a very thin line between authenticity and absurdity, genuine reality and mere representation, living life and playing roles, healthy self-awareness (however painful) and oppressive self-consciousness, and between true life and certain death.
Does Caden's effort to manufacture even the barest micro-meaning make any sense? The last line of the movie offers a glimmer of hope. Maybe.

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From Charlie Kaufman, comes a visual and philosophic adventure, Synechdoche, New York. As he did with his groundbreaking scripts for Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kaufman twists and subverts form and language as he delves into the mind of a man who, obsessed with his own mortality, sets out to construct a massive artistic enterprise that could give some meaning to his life. Theater director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is mounting a new play. His life catering to suburban blue-hairs at the local regional theater in Schenectady, New York is looking bleak. His wife Adele (Catherine Keener) has left him to pursue her painting in Berlin, taking their young daughter Olive with her. His therapist, Madeleine Gravis (Hope Davis), is better at plugging her best-seller than she is at counseling him. A new relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel (Samantha Morton) has prematurely run aground. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his autonomic functions, one by one. Worried about the transience of his life, he leaves his home behind. He gathers an ensemble cast into a warehouse in New York City, hoping to create a work of brutal honesty. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a growing mockup of the city outside. The years rapidly fold into each other, and Caden buries himself deeper into his masterpiece, but the textured tangle of real and theatrical relationships blurs the line between the world of the play and that of Caden's own deteriorating reality.

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