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MIFF ‘06 film review: Lunacy

Sunday 6 August 2006, 10:07 pm

The Editor

Categories: Arts, Film, MIFF '06

Film rating: 1/5
Walkouts: 4/5
Pretentious clapping at credits: 3/5
BPM sighting: No

Master of surreal cinema Jan Svankmajer’s new feature film is a joyous trip, an explication of his firmly held belief that life is lunacy and the lunatics have taken over the asylum. Loosely based on two short stories by Edgar Allen Poe, with a leading character inspired by the Marquis de Sade, Lunacy is an allegory for the crazy world we live in. Young Jean, plagued by maddening nightmares after his mother’s funeral, is invited by a Marquis to spend the night in his castle. After helping him conquer his fears through a blasphemous orgy and a ‘therapeutic’ funeral, the Marquis takes his guest to an asylum where the situation is unstable, at best…

A gradual descent into celluloid lunacy, not helped by the atrocious seating arrangements at the Regent theatre where anybody sub-two metres is guaranteed to have some dick’s head blocking the subtitles. A truly disappointing movie experience. Make no mistake: Ed’s cool with silliness on screen, but he’d prefer it to have a tad more meaning than this.

4 Comments

weez (Tuesday 8 August 2006, 9:09 am) #

Call me crazy, but I don’t ever again want to feel like someone has stolen 93 minutes of my life, the way I have after seeing some fillums.

You’re a brave man with time to spare, obviously. ;)
The Editor (Tuesday 8 August 2006, 11:17 am) #

Trust me, Weez, there are other things I really should be doing with this time but I just can’t resist the festival each year. For every couple of dog films there’s always an absolute gem that I’d never see otherwise. As bad as this film was I’ve seen infinitely worse at the multiplex.
J,The (Tuesday 8 August 2006, 12:36 pm) #

Ah well, Ed. What kind of a MIFF would it be without at least one 1/5 film? I am scheduled to see “Three Times” tonight but I think I may be getting close to being all MIFF’d out and may have to pass on yet another soulful exploration of human fragility. Is that wrong of me?
The Editor (Tuesday 8 August 2006, 5:17 pm) #

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