THANATAMORPHOSE

THANATAMORPHOSE

According to a contributor over at the Internet Movie Database, the title is a French term which refers to "the visible signs of an organism's decomposition caused by death".

It's hardly a snappy title. Presumably Monster Pictures think this way too, and so they've packaged their DVD in some of the most provocative cover artwork in recent memory.

The film itself begins in psychedelic style, with deliberately obscured images of a couple engaged in sex. Afterwards, we meet the unnamed female participant (Emile Beaudry) more intimately.

She's just moved into a new apartment. It's a little run down, what with damp walls, a gaping wound in the bedroom ceiling and huge metal spikes tending to protrude from the joins in the laminate flooring. Small wonder, then, that her boyfriend doesn't stick around for long after having had his wicked way with her.

Shortly after her beau has left, the woman starts to experience disturbing physical discomfort. She wakes the following morning with an unexplained bruise on her chin; when she takes a shower, a couple of her fingernails fall off with little prompting.

And yet, initially at least, she doesn't really question her disposition. Rather, she wallows in her solitude until the time comes for a small group of friends to visit for a housewarming party. But this goes badly: a pal (Roch-Denis Gagnon) makes unwelcome advances towards her in the kitchen; her landlord turns up after a short while to complain about the noise and kick her guests out.

With her physical condition worsening and her boyfriend proving to be more distant than ever, this act by the landlord is significant in that it throws the woman further into a state of isolation. Her time is whiled away more laboriously than even Bill Murray's in the tedious LOST IN TRANSLATION.

What ensues is a systematic series of lonely, drawn-out set-pieces - all set within the confines of the woman's increasingly rancid apartment - in which she progressively rots from the inside out.

If it sounds grim, that's because it is. With its meditation on sex and death - it could be argued that writer-director Eric Falardeau is delivering a literal depiction of the French term for orgasm, "la petite mort" - and lo-fi arthouse aesthetics, THANATAMORPHOSE comes on like a distant cousin of NEKROMANTIK. To further associate it with Jorg Buttgereit, it's easy to liken the occasional cutaways to close-ups of a decaying corpse (in this instance, a dog's) to a gimmick used in DER TODESKING.

Actually, whether intentional or not, THANATAMORPHOSE (rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?!) had me recalling quite a few films.

The manner in which the lead protagonist degenerates physically, largely in isolation, brought to mind Cronenberg's THE FLY. Watching Beaudry slowly crack up within the confines of her decaying four walls (oh yes, I spotted the vaginal cavity in her bedroom ceiling that grows ever more cancerous) to the point that she turns murderous against her suitors couldn't help but evoke REPULSION. I doubt SIMON KILLER could've been an influence but the way Falardeau directs slow scenes with very little dialogue and focuses his camera on seemingly inconsequential, inanimate objects definitely echoed the aforementioned film's style.

The cheap, psychedelic montage that makes up the first few minutes of the film have more in common with the early works of Nick Zedd (take WHOREGASM as an example). It doesn't end there: how about the way in which the film is broken into portentous chapters ("Despair" etc) and the manner in which its sparse dialogue focuses on risible philosophising over the meaningless of being? For me, these facets evoked Lars von Trier's ANTICHRIST quite blatantly.

Oh, and the body horror degeneration of the female lead will obviously point more generally towards early Cronenberg, especially when the implication of a basis in sexual activity is implied. As the film progressed and Beaudry's character adapted to her condition (even in death, masturbation is a comfort ...), I found myself recognising elements of Marina De Van's underrated IN MY SKIN ...

In its favour, I will say that THANATAMORPHOSE retains its own character despite recalling so many other films. There are obvious artistic allusions which imply what you're seeing shouldn't be taken at face value alone. Yes, the film is very gory once it gets going - hammer murder, bloody knifings, bodies literally falling apart in bloody puddles - but there's a slowness and an arty edit to procedures that scream "Take us seriously! There's more than meets the eye here!".

But is there? I don't know. Is THANATAMORPHOSE an AIDS allegory? If so, it was beaten to the post some 30 years ago by the amazingly prescient CAFE FLESH. Perhaps it's a feminist piece, demonstrating a woman who discovers her true self by losing all vanity and material worth? But, if so, why are we invited to view her in the buff - surely objectifying her, contrary to any self-discovery she's expected to attain - for the duration of the film?

It's a difficult situation to assess. The only things I took from Falardeau's film, thematically, were that the lead protagonist was joyless from the start: it seems to me that she was dead on the inside long before the symptoms began to show on the outside; modern society is uncaring, and all to ready to let people fester or die in their homes without regular visits or concern for their welfare.

For some, it will be enough to know that THANATAMORPHOSE is very gory and contains a lot of female full-frontal nudity. For those who are that way inclined, I should warn you: the film doesn't aim to titillate with either. I don't know what it aims to do, to be honest. So while I respect its attempts at being something different and wanting to be taken 'seriously', I find it impossible to gauge how successful it's been.

A friend of mine read the film's title and asked, rather cynically, "is it 'clever'?". My response was "yeah, it tries to be ...".

Monster Pictures' DVD presents the film uncut in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The transfer has been 16x9 enhanced, and looks pretty good. Clearly shot on HD cameras but with a shoestring budget, the film can only appear as good as its source. Colours are warm, detail is agreeable but darker scenes do suffer from the natural noise that recording in higher definition can bring.

English audio is provided in a satisfying but unchallenged 2.0 mix.

A static main menu gives way to an animated scene-selection menu allowing access to the film via 8 chapters.

Of the bonus features on offer, the best is a 23-minute Making Of documentary which comes pillar-boxed and with VHS video quality. Still, it proffers an interesting insight into what appears to have been a fairly intense shoot. English subtitles are provided for the segments where the filmmakers speak in their native tongue.

Two of Falardeau's early short films are presented in all their uncensored glory too: CREPUSCULE, a 19-minute cross between THE CROODS and a Tool video with claymation sex leading into even more bizarre, alien-related territory, and PURGATORY - a 16-minute troubler that can't help but bring to mind the works of Jan Svankmajer. Both look decent, and are valuable additions to this disc.

An original trailer for THANATAMORPHOSE runs for a breakneck 82 seconds, and does a fair job of warning potential viewers what they're in for.

We also get trailers for MIDNIGHT SON, ALL SUPERHEROES MUST DIE, EXCISION, THE ABC'S OF DEATH, THE DISCO EXORCIST and THE INSIDE.

THANATAMORPHOSE is an arty, slow and somewhat pretentious film that nevertheless provides a lot of exploitation ingredients for those with the patience to sit through it. You do get a lot of nudity, a whole heap of gore and possibly the least erotic blowjob ever filmed. And yet it doesn't resonate to the same level as any of the films I've likened it to above, which is what ultimately makes me suspicious of it.

Still, it gets a highly credible DVD release from Monster Pictures UK

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Monster Pictures
Region 2 PAL
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
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