#thestrangecolorofyourbodystears

[doomonfilm]

Thoughts : The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears (2013)

The more I crawl down my Netflix DVD queue, the less sense it makes.  It sometimes takes me so long to cull through this queue that I’ve often forgot where the recommendations came from by the time I get to enjoy the films recommended.  The one consistent thing, thankfully, has been the stellar quality of the films in this queue, and last night I was introduced to another winner in the form of The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears. 

While on a business trip, Dan Kristensen (Klaus Tange) is unable to reach his wife Edwidge (Ursula Bedena).  Upon returning from his trip, he finds his apartment locked by the chain from the inside, and after breaking in, finds the apartment empty.  After a brief alcohol-induced fit, Dan begins troubling his neighbors for information, including Dora (Birgit Yew), the mysterious woman on the 7th floor and the intriguing Barbara (Anna D'Annunzio).  An inspector (Jean-Michel Vovk) takes Dan’s case, but after the discovery of Edwidge’s severed head, Dan is presented with more questions and mysteries than answers.

As much as I am into Italian film, I was unfamiliar with the term “giallo film” until I began researching The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears, but now that I am familiar with it, it makes sense why it brings to mind films like Repulsion, Suspiria, L'Avventura, Blow Up and many more films of the “pulp mystery” genre.  The film very much utilizes a throwback look and feel to dislodge itself from a fixed time or era, similar to Beyond the Black Rainbow.  The mystery, at its root a missing person case, is a simple enough launching point for a story, but The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears quickly propels itself light years from its point of entry in as many directions as it possibly can, much to the amplification and enrichment of the film’s mysterious nature.

Much of the mystery is built through giving the viewer the most disjointed perspective possible.  To try and pin down the style of this film is similar to trying to coarse a drove of hares.  Husband and wife team Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani mix ideas, looks, style and symbolism like a DJ, or a movie fan with a short attention span and total recall for cinematic stimulus.  Films like these feel like linchpins or junction points for multitudes of films, as the way they pay homage to a range of films in turn creates new awareness for the unaware and a sense of nostalgia for those that recognize the homage.

This film oozes more style than many directors dream of including in an entire film career.  Deep blacks play as foundation for stark colors from across the entire spectrum, creating a highly artistic look to the live action.  The visual and sound editing is wonderfully schizophrenic, clearly taking delight in doling out scattered pieces of sensory information to the viewers with little to no context in regards to bigger picture relevance.  The narrative is extremely patient in its abstract nature, taking care not to indulge in the steady diet of stylistic changes, heightened realities and contemplative moments presented.  The direction of Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani is tight and deliberate, with no wasted moments or movements in our march towards the resolution of the narrative.

Klaus Tange is given blind trust to essentially take the ball and run with it, carrying the viewer through the lion’s share of the experience with the right balance between attempting poise and going to pieces, which keeps viewers on the edge of their seats and unsure of who or what to trust.  Birgit Yew and Anna D’Annunzio both channel a deep sense of dignity, floating through their scenes as if carried by a greater force at most appearances.  Jean-Michel Vovk provides a solid baseline of comparison for the slowly unraveling Tange.  Ursula Bedena sets a stark and mysterious presence, with additional textural presence provided by Sam Louwyck, Joe Koener, Hans De Munter, Manon Beuchot, Romain Roll and Lolita Oosterlynck.

I love these mind-altering, psychedelic, style-shifting films for their visceral experiences provided and the way that they shift my perspective on both film and the world at large.  One often can find themselves feeling the redundancy of mass-scale creativity when wading through films for a living, but then a film like The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears comes along and gives that shock to the senses needed to shake things up and make them feel fresh once again. 

[andreablythe]

#wihmxchallenge Day 16 – Strange and Unusual: The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears (2013) directed by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani. This movie is surreal, strange, and beautifully shot — although the plot admittedly doesn’t make much sense. . . . . . #womeninhorrormonth #WiHM #WiHMx #helenecattet #womendirectors #thestrangecolorofyourbodystears #womeninhorror #hororrmovies #horrorart #horrorwriters #horrorfan #womenfilmmakers #womeninfilm #horror #hororchick #horrorfan #horrorlover https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt9RsYGF_-m/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1sq6sk9ypen3y

[horrorpaingoredeath]

#thestrangecolorofyourbodystears #bluray #giallo #mystery #2013 #frenchgiallo #justok #strandreleasing (at Horror Pain Gore Death Productions HQ) https://www.instagram.com/p/BpgDi13Bdze/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=iwuc1o44v3a2

[1931productions]

A Strange Color of Modern Horror

A brutal concoction of sound, color, sex and fury, The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears has big ambitions and, for the most part, succeeds in bringing those ambitions to the screen. Few horror films in recent memory have been so intricately crafted and even fewer have had such brazen and fearless style. While on more than one occasion the film loses its way and dangerously straddles the line between the avant garde and the pretentious, filmmakers Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani have enough tricks up their sleeves to create both a loving homage to the giallo classics of yore as well as a full blooded horror film with a distinctive style of its own.

  The nightmarish visuals are tied together with a fairly simple story about a man, Dan (Klaus Tange), searching for his missing wife in the mysterious depths of their strange apartment building. With little to go on other than cryptic rumors from strange neighbors, Dan discovers a secret world of fetish and bloodshed of which his wife is a willing participant. This admittedly bare narrative serves more as a device to express what Cattet and Foranzi describe as a “cinematic orgasm”, an intense collage of specific sound design, erotic images and graphic violence. It is difficult to fully understand what is on display here without seeing it in motion; The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears embraces the obvious influence of giallo masters like Dario Argento but many of the stylistic choices are unique to Cattet, Foranzi and cinematographer Manuel Dacosse. Distorted photography, extreme close-ups, slow motion and a vast color palette all lend to creating a truly surreal visual style that both sells the films deeper themes of fetishism while also working on a simple, professionally polished level.

  This is not to say that such polish and style come without a price; the precisely crafted approach that is the film’s supreme asset is also its weakness. Some scenes are too buried in frantic editing or loud Italian rock music to make any real impact, even considering the flourishes one expects from such a film. There are no real characters here, only ciphers and while it works for the most part, there is no emotional core to the film. Unlike many typical giallo, there is no focus on a Hitchcockian style mystery and any revelations coming from Dan’s search are pretty obvious from the outset. The viewer’s experience is mostly dependent on a willingness to embrace style over nuance, if not necessarily substance. But…what style it is, and for every misstep, The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears recovers with a tense, beautifully orchestrated set piece full of energy. I was able to look passed the many warts but not everyone may be so forgiving.

  So few horror films these days strive to offer more than the minimum requirements of the genre. The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears shows a fearless commitment to play by its own rules while evoking a bygone era; that fact alone makes it impossible not to recommend to horror fans.