Released in 2021 this Brazilian film was directed by Larissa Anzoategui and is entirely without dialogue. My quandary was how to tackle and explain it here. As such I decided to reproduce the IMDb summary first of all:
"Haunted by the darkness as she wanders through a dead city, our young, doomed heroine Angelique is stricken with hallucinatory visions as she learns the story of a cruel and loveless vampiress. Her visions are of the bizarre rituals that imprison a group of Satanic worshippers in a cycle of dying passion, and who seek to survive beyond the grave. In Angelique's ears, only the music of the gothic atmosphere flows to augment her quest into the horror and the passion of the dead - and no voice can rise above it. A haunting, enigmatic tribute to the classic Euro-Horror works of Jean Rollin and Jess Franco. Brazilian filmmaker Larissa Anzoategui created a film inspired by authors Lord Byron and the Brazilian Álvares de Azevedo and Anzoategui's passion for expressionist aesthetics. The cast and crew was composed completely of women under the direction of Larissa Anzoategui ("Astaroth") in her sophomore film."
 |
| opening scene |
It is quite the summary and so let us break it down. It starts with Angelique, played by Larissa Anzoategui, walking through the city and then, having seen (and tried to follow) a(n animated) crow, checks into a hotel. We do not see the desk clerk – just a creepy hand is in view – and we also get a cloaked figure operating a switchboard. She clearly feels the presence of something following her and rushes to her room. In there she has a series of visions, which make up the bulk of the film and includes a vampire themed one (I’ll get to that I promise).
 |
| bloody mouth |
Getting back to the summary and the citing it as a tribute to Franco and Rollin. This can be problematic, as a citation for influence generally, and sometimes a disservice. If we take Franco for a moment it needs to be said that the photography displayed in this was superior to anything Franco produced (though not as recognisably idiosyncratic). On the other hand, this may have been a tribute to Rollin but it did not capture the essence of his work – to be fair, you could probably draw an inspiration line from Two Orphan Vampires, with the various visions in this like the orphans meeting the Outcast, but without Rolin's depth of overarching narrative. However, there was another film that struck me as I watched…
 |
| hrebalist |
And I am loathe to say this, as they are two different beasts, but I was less struck with a connection to Eurohorror and more to the Edward D Wood Jr written Orgy of the Dead. Very unfair, in many respects; Orgy was an exploitation flick with Criswell hamming it beyond the pale, this was an art film where mini-stories were expressed with seriousness using expressions and (sometimes) dance. Yet I couldn’t shake the underlying feeling, and so can only apologise.
 |
| the vampire |
As for the vampire section, we have previously seen a herbalist create a poisonous concoction which, having looked at a heart locket with her face and that of another woman in it, she drinks. The scene cuts to a vampire woman sat on a throne with a woman by her side sat on the floor – it is the woman from the locket. She offers her neck and the vampire bites her, drinking her blood. The herbalist comes in and offers the vampire her wrist – which she bites and dies poisoned and the herbalist falls (presumably dying also). The woman from the locket takes the throne and reveals her new fangs.
 |
| cat witch |
It is a simply constructed story that is told without dialogue. Other sections have more gore at times and more nudity at times (the vampire section is modest in that regard). Mostly they take themselves very seriously – with the exception of a scenario with a witch who puts her cat in her cauldron, turns herself into a cat creature and gets furballs… at first…
 |
| offering her wrist |
The reason for not looking at this as a review is that it is simply a performance piece put to film, rather than a narrative film – and whilst not all art films are narratively constructed, this seems so performance above narrative that to score it would be unfair.
The imdb page is here.
No comments:
Post a Comment