And
you thought that "Eraserhead" or "The Kafka
Effekt" were minimalistic uncomprehensible flicks? Nothing
if compared to the weirdness of a black and white flick, showing scenes
of mutilation, madness, and murder and telling an ancestral story of
the world's genesis. The whole thing deals with a sort of primordial
or futuristic creation/death ritual carried out between the gods and
mankind; the easiest scenes to discern are the opening ones, where the
camera reveals a twitching creature with a substance disturbingly comparable
to blood pouring out of its mouth. With some sort of razor, that creature,
God, kills himself by cutting open its own abdomen (in chunky morbid
and bloody detail) in order to give birth to a new life form. This new
goddess (Mother Earth) admires the decomposing skeleton of her creator,
buries it and later on gives birth on barren earth to a weird twitching
and convulsing mutant male (Jesus or probably the first man devoid of
Eve) being made of clay first and at dawn of flesh and bones; he coughes
up what looks like a piece of meat, and afterwards is masturbated, put
into a sack, and tied in a desert - according to certain rituals - by
shambling primitives (Druids?) who eventually beat him and his mother
to death. The whole film moves at a snail's pace, the way impressionistic
movies of the early 20th century used to do, with many of the later
scenes nearly impenetrable to the eye even on what appears to be a fundamental
DVD transfer. Some may find it boring, dismiss it as utter boring garbage
except for one niggling concern: you can rarely take your eyes off the
television screen. That is the proof we're indeed in front of a hypnotic
movie, and surely not one of those to watch while doing something else,
yet one you can enjoy alone or in company, hoping the other(s) won't
fall asleep or try to fast forward some scenes!
Is it compelling? Very. Is it arty? Often. Is it atmospheric? Indubitably.
Is it entertaining? Rarely, but that isn't a bad thing at all, hugely
surmounting the standards of Hollywood crap or any movie that tries
to overtly dialogue with the public. Symbolism is strongly used all
along the rich, surrealistic and occult (until you read the titles at
the end of the DVD/VHS) imagery is there in a perverse way. It evokes
dreams I have had that seem to touch something inside me that is too
painful to confront. The Jungian concept of cultural symbols that show
up in the "Collective Subconscious" seems to be expressed here.
"Begotten" makes me think of the passages in Jung's "Man And
His Symbols" regarding a little girl who had dreams with religious
images that were distorted and disturbing, but the child seemed to be
fascinated by what she had 'learned' and wanted to share it with others
through drawings. Passages of James Frazer's "The Golden Bough"
and writings of Joseph Campbell also come to mind. "Begotten,"
a wildly inventive low budget film imagined and subsequently lensed
by Edward Elias Merhige will leave a lasting scar on anyone who watches
his nightmarish vision. The celluloid equivalent of a bad dream best
forgotten, the director's pet project continues to mark its viewers;
I occasionally hear people discussing that even though it came out over
10 years ago. No matter what you come away with after watching it, you
will remember it for ages to come. Nothing approaches its visceral power,
its unshakable commitment to eerieness, and its disgustingly haunting
imagery. I have seen it twice and still cannot define exactly everything
that I saw or successfully integrate the various scenes into a coherent
whole. Unfortunately, subsequent viewings will NOT uncover more details,
so you can only open yourself to discussions about different interpretations
with other spectators. But the right and complete one will never come
out and this is what Mehrige wished.
Far from being filmed in glaring color reminiscent of an episode of
the Brady Bunch, "Begotten" uses a complicated technique of abstraction
to create a type of black and white picture rarely if ever seen. The
film employs deliberate grains and scratches on the inverse negative
and some sort of treatment that makes the unearthly images contained
within glow with a sickly light (technically called 'speckled chiaroscuro').
Low budget movie we said, but long-time was necessary so as to obtain
this appearantly easy result, as from the director's very words commenting
on that: "Each shot in the film went through hours of preparation
to achieve the look you will experience when viewing... the etheral
'pulse' that hypnotically permeates the film. It took over ten hours
to re-photograph less than one minute of selected takes." Every
photography and cinema class ought to employ it as a well-representative
pattern. 
Moreover, there isn't a whit of discernable dialogue in the whole movie,
with the only natural sounds being a discordant drone punctuated by
occasional rattles, laboured breathing, chimes, and sounds of drops
of water. The sun rises and sets with alarming regularity to mark the
staticity of the action, but this hint at the passage of time provides
no respite for the viewer as the nightmare unfolds onscreen.
What IS going on here? Who knows, but it carries an appeal similar to
a car accident on the freeway. Merhige should receive a compliment for
at least trying to accomplish something different . I'm not either surprised
in the least to learn that Marilyn Manson retained his services to direct
one of his music videos (the marvellous "Cryptorchid"
and the song is excellent too). In short, if "Begotten" isn't
the strangest, eeriest thing you will ever watch, you belong to an elite
who have explored bleaker vistas than I. I should conclude with an apology
for speaking about this film by using so many superlatives, but watch
it and see why I did so. Of course, the DVD version is recommended to
distinguish the later scenes as said above and also because of the special
features: a souvenir booklet; interactive menus; scene access; the original
theatrical trailer; and rare, never-before-seen stills and color production
photos.
One of the first questions I asked just after the end was why Mother
Earth was so insensitive to her son, and maybe that might be intended
as I did, that is as a cruel mother letting selection prevaricate: the
weak and the deformed are quickly engulfed, ruled and eliminated by
the strong, especially if the latter are a multitude. Men killing other
men, the history of mankind, of the whole natural and vegetal world
too. By killing other men, man kills himself, his own blood and breed
and it will always do so, as our maker did to himself and created its
spawn, us, to its damned image. The Earth watched her own Son dying
carelessly, so why should She get worried when a natural catastrophe
occurs nowadays, aware that other sons will however survive bring the
human species over through the millennia till the end of the world?
Imagery is a means to match a pale connection with the viewer, and Mehrige
wants to share this abominous destiny with the likes of him.
If our makers did exist and were so, then we shouldn't be surprised
why Hell is on Earth and they like to watch our doom as we do when observing
ants; consequently, we shouldn't be afraid of death; should another
world/dimension exist, that couldn't be worse than ours (Hell). In an
otherworldy dimension there could be nothing or there could be a better
place/state, therefore my interpretation is a nihlistic one. If existance
were pleasant, we'd go to the unconscious state unhappy and we'd go
away from it happy, but it happens just the opposite and Mehrige wanted
us to reflect about our lives, destinies and origins of sorrow if we
haven't done before.
That's why I must say thanks to the crafter of such a therapeutical
remarkable work of images..
MARKUS GANZHERRLICH
- 1st April 2005
