Why Modern Extreme Cinema Has Nothing On European Arthouse
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Let's get it out of the way right off. I think the most of what is today described as Extreme Cinema lurches around like a sulking adolescent trying to hard top shock its parents. Much of what is churned out is puerile nonsense, that's less shocking than accidentally catching granny in her underwear. Without the panache of self-referential earlier exploitation cinema, Extreme Cinema slops around in its own buckets of blood, ranging from eye-gougingly awful to mainstream wannabe wastes of celluloid. Much of Japanese torture porn has no impact, having been done a million times before, its lost all its impact. New French Extreme, to be fair, has produced some brilliant films. But shocking, "extreme", disturbing? The majority seriously miss the mark. Oh and then you have the found footage films like August Underground. Please, stop making pathetic school boy schlock horror movies and go get a proper job. Both the Human Centipede films? The first surely was supposed to be seen as a modern take on a Carry On... film, a laugh out loud comedy. No? Just me that saw it like that? The second? Tried way too hard! Antichrist? Well that's by Lars Von Trier, who originated from European arthouse cinema, so does know how to make a film that has disturbing elements as a part of the cinematic narrative, not as the central role of the film. And I guess that's my point here.
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And that point is, that the best of truly extreme and genuinely disturbing cinema has mostly come out of European arthouse cinema. The one film that in recent years, and by that I mean this century, that has had any impact on me whatsoever is A Serbian Film. That's the only film I've seen that I have ever advised people not to watch. A film that if you aren't of a certain psychological make-up, may actually cause you damage. There's not enough "mind bleach" in the world to help you un-watch it. Now that's impressive for any film to achieve. Again though, A Serbian Film can be said to be from the same European arthouse traditions of Lars Von Trier. And forget Lars's whole reinventing the rule-book "Dogma" thing, he's absolutely part of the arthouse tradition of European cinema. Oh and let's not forget Marian Dora, who in his short directorial out-put has produced some genuinely disturbing pieces of European cinema.
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Apart from those mentioned, almost everything post millennial is boring at best, trying too hard at worst. Therefore I contend that truly disturbing cinema comes from arthouse pre-2000 European cinema. Now before cinema fans on the other side of the Atlantic start shouting, yeah you guys knocked out some pretty classic Body Horror movies in the 70s and 80s, but they didn't push boundaries far enough. So well done, good try, but no cigar. So to prove my point, I obviously have to list off a bunch of films that I consider disturbing enough to out-weigh all those that I have trash-talked. Before I do, I have just one thing I'd like detractors to keep in mind. That some of these films may not seem so shocking or disturbing now. I actually think most of them still are by the way. But some have lost their edge with the passage of time. Many have to understood within the political, social and philosophical context they were created. But hey that's all subjective, so let's just get on with the list shall we? There are no favourites, or best of here, so they are presented chronologically.
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Maria-Empfängnis-Aktion (Maria-Conception-Action) (1969). Okay so let's just get something straight, yes I know this performance art, and yes it is only a short film. But all the same, it is a film and it fits into what can be called European arthouse. It's by Hermann Nitsch, known as a main player in the violent art movement Viennese Actionism. So what do we have here? We have disembowelment of animals, a woman fucking the entrails of the dead animals, crucifixion of the woman, more entrails, more blood, her being fucked by the artist, and everyone rolling around in entrails and buckets of blood. Sound like a crappy piece of Extreme Cinema I described earlier? Well difference here is, it was done in 1969, in front of an audience and done for real. No fake blood, nothing simulated, this is real sex, violence and blasphemy as art.
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Vase de Noces (The Pig Fucking Movie) (1974). Belgian film directed by Thierry Zéno. One of the most infamous banned and obscure films ever made, and hardly scene outside festivals or by die-hard fans of arthouse cinema. The film is weird from the start, as it follows the main protagonist as he bottles his own piss and shit, and shows an unnatural affection towards a pig. Which he graphically rapes. The pig gives birth to piglets, that he feels are rejecting him as their "father" so he hangs them, when the pig sees her dead piglets hanging she goes crazy and falling into deep mud she drowns. After a failed attempt to kill himself, the man runs around smashing things up, drinks a mixture of his own piss and shit before hanging himself. Much of the animal slaughter in the film is real, as is the coprophagia, and the bestiality.
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Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom) (1975). The infamous film by Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini, based on the Marquis de Sade book. It regularly features on lists of the most controversial, disturbing, shocking, whatever adjective you want to apply to a notorious film like Salò. The film was banned around the world almost the day it came out, and still is in some parts of the world. It depicts graphic scenes of rape, torture, coprophagia and murder. Mainly aimed at the teenagers who have been taken to the palace of Salò, to be used as slaves by the powerful and wealthy who are staying there. Pasolini was brutally murdered the same month the film was released.
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Tras el cristal (In a Glass Cage) (1987). A Spanish film written and directed by Agustí Villaronga. The story focused around a Nazi and child abuser, torturer and murderer that it now trapped in an iron lung, and requires constant care. The young carer that comes to look after him, is one of his victims, with whom he had a sick sadomasochistic relationship. The is controversial because of its handling of sadism, paedophilia, homosexuality and Nazism. The film is really disturbing, not for being extremely graphic, but for the disturbing way it handles the psychological themes. It's a stark and unremittingly bleak film, and a very uneasy one to sit through.
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Singapore Sling: The Man Who Loved a Corpse (1990). A film by Greek director Nikos Nikolaidis. That despite vomit, masturbation, incest, sadomasochism, all manner of weird sex acts, and a murder involving a kitchen knife strapped to a man's penis. Now all that in and of itself would be disturbing enough, especially if the film was in colour. But it is filmed in a surreal noir style black-and-white, which if anything adds to the horror of the whole thing. As it's visually fascinating, almost beautiful in its cinematic style. Which actually adds, rather than takes away from the horrors being committed on-screen. Singapore Sling is one of those films you come away from wondering what it is you have just seen.
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Aftermath (1994). A short Spanish film by director Nacho Cerdà. Probably most disturbing because of the fact that the whole film happens without dialogue and is beautifully and lovingly filmed. A woman's body is brought into a mortician's. Sexually excited by the dead body, her undresses her, cuts to top of her skull and removes her brain, then proceeds to mutilate her vagina with a knife. He cuts her open, and soon starts to masturbate while playing with her breasts and innards. Too excited to control himself any longer, he climbs on the mutilated body and commits necrophilia. When finished he cleans up and goes home, taking her heart with him. At home he blends the heart and feeds it to his pet dog. The film is the second of a trilogy that Cerdà made. The first being The Awakening in 1990, and followed by Genesis in 1998. But it is 1994's Aftermath that is most well known.
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So there you go, just six among many other examples of European cinema from the 1960s, through to the turn of the century. Films that I hope show in some small way that the true horror of cinema lies not in the gore-fests of new Extreme Cinema, but in the often little known gems of the European arthouse.
Begotten: Once Seen Never Forgotten - Often described as one of the most disturbing films ever made, Begotten is an utterly stunning piece of film-making. A must see for any cult film fan.
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Special Discretion Required: The Controversial Channel 4 Film Season - Between 1986 and 1987 Channel 4 screened the "red triangle" season of controversial films. Here's the list.
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