This is one of those films that must be hard to fund -- films like the Woodsman, The Magdalene Sisters, War Zone (by Tim Roth) or Monster -- but which, when made, distributed, and seen, recoups any expense and undresses any doubt. The problem with films like this is that they involve inappropriate undressing, be it by pedophiles, institutions, families, or serial killers. The appeal of the genre is in some ways the unthinkable, unacceptable, the distasteful and the unwatchable. It's that last part, the unwatchable, that creates tension, serving as a kind of off-screen reference that anchors the film's story and becomes its power for not being seen.
(Herzog's Grizzly Man reveled in this, for it was a film about a guy who was eaten, along with his girlfriend, by the very Grizzlies he believed himself to be protecting, and everybody knew it. That was the whole catch: to know something that is not going to be shown, to be compelled by it, and to rent and watch this film knowing that it's a long set up to a final act we will not be allowed to see. Can it be that a film such as that prepares us for something horrible? Do we become complicit with it then, as consumers of that preparation?)
Complicitness. This film shows us what happens. It is simple in its presentation, and for that complicates its subject matter. Because it does not plant a stake in the ground and draw clear, distinct and straightforward lines between right and wrong. Those are the films that are hard to fund. But better to watch. For they complicate their concepts, distribute perspectives and motivations, and sometimes even put the viewer harm's way.
(Herzog's Grizzly Man reveled in this, for it was a film about a guy who was eaten, along with his girlfriend, by the very Grizzlies he believed himself to be protecting, and everybody knew it. That was the whole catch: to know something that is not going to be shown, to be compelled by it, and to rent and watch this film knowing that it's a long set up to a final act we will not be allowed to see. Can it be that a film such as that prepares us for something horrible? Do we become complicit with it then, as consumers of that preparation?)
Complicitness. This film shows us what happens. It is simple in its presentation, and for that complicates its subject matter. Because it does not plant a stake in the ground and draw clear, distinct and straightforward lines between right and wrong. Those are the films that are hard to fund. But better to watch. For they complicate their concepts, distribute perspectives and motivations, and sometimes even put the viewer harm's way.