22. Diary of a Country Priest (1951)

I have decided to deviate from the alphabetical list as Filmspotting is doing a Robert Bresson marathon and 4 of the 5 films they are watching are in the 1001 list. Seemed silly not to join in with their mini marathon.

First up is the first in Bresson's 'prison trilogy'. It tells the story of a young priest who, despite being gravely ill, takes up priestly duties in the country parish of Ambricourt. Here he tries fecklessly to convert the godless parishioners back to faith. He becomes involved in the complex relationships of a local count, his wife, his mistress and his daughter.

It's an intensely personal tale of the priest's solitude and his personal prison. There isn't a great deal of dialogue and the story is narrated by the priest through excerpts from his diary. Several time he enters houses and then the scene is cut back to him leaving, with more exposition about what went on inside.
The soundtrack is sparse too. There is little music, but a great use of sound effects. The film is actually verging on a silent movie. There is an awful lot of mugging.

I get that it all adds to the solitude of the priest, but it was all a bit much for me and I found it largely tedious. I can appreciate the look of the film though and I'm just hoping his later works are a little less somnolent!

21. Ai No Corrida/In the Realm of the Senses(1976)

Former street prostitute, Sada, gets a job as a serving girl in a reputable tea house. Not before long, she begins an illicit affair with the Madam's husband, Kichi-zo. They carry out this affair at another house, where their sexual trysts become more and more brazen. They shag in public, she gets him to shag an old serving woman, geishas join them, there's an interesting disappearing egg trick! Mind boggling.

He is besotted with her and her youth. She is pretty much besotted with his cock and becomes extremely possessive of this side of him, forbidding him to have sexual relations with his wife. Her jealousy gets the better of her and she threatens to cut off his member and keep it inside her. Meanwhile, their sex games are becoming more and more profane and they delve into asphyxiation games. Eventually these are taken too far and she strangles him, with his encouragement. She then cuts off his penis and places it inside her for keepsakes!

These scenes are filmed very graphically, but it is all lit and shown quite beautifully never diverging from the director's (Nagisa Oshima) mis-en-scene. In fact the whole glowing pallet and the tiny room locations add to the sexual frenzy, though the extreme relationship is never sexy.

As l'amour fou themes go, this is on the clinically insane side of the scale. It's certainly worth a watch, just for it's brazen, warts and all look. What makes it all the more bonkers is the fact that it's based on a true story!

She's only gone and done it!

20. Aguirre:The Wrath of God (1972)

Or; A Mutiny on the Amazon; Flotilla the Hun or One Goes Mad in a Boat.

After conquering Peru, a splinter army of Spanish soldiers decide to descend the Andes and follow the Amazon on a quest to find El Dorado, the mythical city of gold.
Mutiny and madness descend upon them, especially Aguirre, the second-in-command, who incites the mutiny. He's the wrath of God dontyaknow?! He's also a rather overbearing and pervy father. Eventually the group is picked off by the jungle through fever and starvation, but mostly by the cannibal natives who are rather handy with a spear.

It took me a good while to watch this film and the only enjoyment I was getting was from the naps it provided, but once it gets going, it's an enjoyable study of a megalomaniac moving into Bonkersville. To be fair, he never really lived that far away from there!

Herzog's eye for nature is prevalent throughout as the jungle slowly envelops the flotilla. The location shoot was apparently fraught with disaster and real life mutiny. Klaus Kinski threatened to walk. Werner Herzog threatened to shoot him if he did. Such real life drama has only added to the intensity of the film and the performances.

A degree of suspension of disbelief is necessary to cope with some ludicrousies. The two women in the group are spotless with whiter than white lacy frills to boot! A few of these 'spaniards' have a very Aryan look about them. Especially Kinski. Also when a captured native seems to be aware of the location of El Dorado and even points in the direction of the river bank he came from, they kill him because he drops the bible they try to convert him with (a bit harsh), then they just carry on down the river.

So, have patience. It is a slow start, but it's worth it in the end.

...and so's my wife!