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Post by Fickle81 on Sept 8, 2005 14:27:22 GMT -5
I finally recieved my long awaited second taste of writer/director Alejandro Jodorowsky last night with argubly his most celebrated film...Santa Sangre
I loved it,plain and simple. Jodorowsky continues to impress the hell out of me with his style and his ideas.
Contrary to popular belief,Santa Sangre really isn't that surreal or difficult of a film to figure out. In fact,its as a straight forward a film as you're probably gonna get with Jodorowsky. Thats not to say there isn't any bizarre imagery,there most certainly is...the thing is though that none of the surreal images are really open to interpretation. There is a method behind most of them.
Even if you don't like surreal films by say Jodorowsky or Lynch,Santa Sangre is very easy to get into. If I was to say what famous classic movie Jodorowsky was making his own interpretation of in this film,it would ruin the movie so I'll just keep quiet about that...
As of this writting,I'm not gonna give a rating for the film. There are some potential flaws in the movie that I want to go over with a fine tooth comb to even make sure they're really flaws at all with another viewing or two before I give a final score.
Watch this thread for an eventual rating...
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Post by Fickle81 on Sept 9, 2005 19:11:36 GMT -5
Alright,after giving it another viewing,I found 3 potential flaws,1 of which can be open to interpretation. For those who haven't seen the film,it would be in your best interest to just scroll down to the designated end spoilers area as this is gonna get kinda in depth
Spoilers begin here
Flaw #1: The part where the deaf mute was running out of her house,stopping along the way to interact with the stranger on the street who ripped off his ear and shoved it in her face. Unless I missed some kind of hidden meaning (doubt it),this scene was not needed and contributed nothing.
Flaw#2: When the deaf mute enters the home of Felix and his overbearing psychotic mother,she is wearing a purple dress as she begins to paint her face white so Felix would recognise her. When Felix finds her,she is in a black dress similar to the one she wore when her and Felix were children,complete with a headpiece. Where did she find these clothes? Could she possibly have found it in the house? This is the flaw thats still up in the air.
Flaw #3: The biggest one. Near the end its established that the image of Felix's mother was all in his head and that he was merely controling a giant puppet likeness of her complete with a moveable mouth. Now,I don't know all that much about ventriloquism,but I'm pretty sure that you need to use one of your hands to be able to control the moveable mouth. Both of Felix's hands acted as arms for the mother likeness,neither controling the device that moves the mouth...and yet the puppet's mouth moved on its own?
End spoilers:
I'm giving this the same rating as I gave Holy Mountain,eventhough I DO like this movie a little more due to its coheirent storyline and ease of viewing.
4.5/5
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Count Dragula
Untouchable
completely baffled by a backward indication
Posts: 99
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Post by Count Dragula on Sept 10, 2005 12:23:19 GMT -5
It's deffinetly loaded with surreal imagery, but your right. It's pretty much straight foward and easy to get the grasp of what's going on or has already happened.
Great flick, i'd say your rating of 4.5 is dead on..
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relsh
Untouchable
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Post by relsh on Jan 22, 2006 1:19:11 GMT -5
i saw both el topo and Holy mountain before this........and i was honestly disappointed in this. it was enjoyable (visually it's far too good to not enjoy), no doubt.....but not on a 4.5/5 level......i'd give it a 3.5/5.
i think the surrealist compositions were inconsistant in quality in terms of how they jived with the narrative and flow of the film. the scene where Felix sort of "mimics" the invisible man (which he was watching on tv) was brilliant....subtle but completely revealing to his state of being controlled and the statement the film makes on organized religion..........but scenes like the one where he kills the lady wrestler and the bird rising from the grave of his victim were laughably cheesy.....................i can excuse these things if the structure was less straight-forward (like in the other two films i mentioned where the story is told in a more disjointed succession of surreal "episodes" and thus easier to isolate, regard, or disregard without effecting the overall experience of the film). but within the context of a relatively conventional narrative, many of the scenes felt unnecessarily exagerrated.
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Post by Fickle81 on Jan 22, 2006 3:42:47 GMT -5
i saw both el topo and Holy mountain before this........and i was honestly disappointed in this. it was enjoyable (visually it's far too good to not enjoy), no doubt.....but not on a 4.5/5 level......i'd give it a 3.5/5. i think the surrealist compositions were inconsistant in quality in terms of how they jived with the narrative and flow of the film. the scene where Felix sort of "mimics" the invisible man (which he was watching on tv) was brilliant....subtle but completely revealing to his state of being controlled and the statement the film makes on organized religion..........but scenes like the one where he kills the lady wrestler and the bird rising from the grave of his victim were laughably cheesy.....................i can excuse these things if the structure was less straight-forward (like in the other two films i mentioned where the story is told in a more disjointed succession of surreal "episodes" and thus easier to isolate, regard, or disregard without effecting the overall experience of the film). but within the context of a relatively conventional narrative, many of the scenes felt unnecessarily exagerrated. ... Tits...
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