Mental 📸: Mailer, Possession (1981), Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
I didn’t include it in this list because I just started it, but Dark seems promising. It was presented to me as a blend of Stranger Things and Twin Peaks, which is quite a combination, so I’m going in with high expectations (at least based on the first and final TP seasons; the stuff in the middle was too much for even a Lynch fanatic like myself).
🍿Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
Along with Faces of Death, this one had been something of an urban legend for me. I saw they had it on Kanopy and finally got around to watching it.
It’s famously controversial for its potential racism and authentic mutilation of animals. Despite its best efforts, it certainly reflects the biases of its time, and it’s hard for me to justify the torture of animals for the sake of art. At the same time, the film’s anger is palpable, and I can understand the rage that could lead to the use of grotesque measures to underscore the grotesquerie of Western arrogance, ignorance, and violence. From a cinematic standpoint, its help in pioneering the modern found footage approach to cinema was more innovative than I’d expected.
🍿Possession (1981)
I’m unusually patient with maximalist art that fails from overreach. This one weaves together many of my pet tastes: the Soviet bloc, body horror, doppelgangers, impressionistic representations of mental health challenges, etc. It feels genuinely deranged, which is part of its artistic merit but also makes it uncomfortable to watch. Even I felt like it started to get a little top-heavy, and any film that tries to do that much is bound to spread itself thin. I guess I ended up being of two minds about it; it might be worth watching it again.
I was surprised to see that this Massive Attack video pays homage to the film’s subway scene. Pretty cool!
📚The Naked and the Dead (1948)
I finally finished off this one. I thought the final scenes were deftly handled, and Hearn’s death in particular was superbly rendered. The sections in which the men carry Wilson down the mountain were some of the strongest of the entire novel. In the end, the book’s cynicism felt earned, and I found it to be genuinely disheartening. Passages like the following hit hard:
Only…for an instant when he [Cummings] heard the news of Hearn’s death, it had hurt him, wrenched his heart with a cruel fist. He had almost grieved for Hearn, and then it had been covered by something else, something more complex. For days whenever Cummings thought of the Lieutenant he would feel mingled pain and satisfaction.
Hot dog, indeed.