fedor8 This degenerate twaddle is merely another example of shock cinema, with the usual blend of perversion and fake profundity. If movies had a stupid-scene alarm, this film would be ringing constantly. And the "symbolism"! This movie has more skulls than the booklet of a Manowar album.I pity every fool who was suckered into financing this. I pity the fool who wrote and directed this. I pity the fools who agreed to make asses of themselves in front of the sperm-stained camera-lens in this. But most of all, I pity the fools who actually enjoy this crap. (These are the people who walk around children's parks in large coats – and those who fantasize about doing that.) Whose more foolish, the fool who makes a foolish film or the fool who believes him that's it's a piece of art?Then again, I also envy any fool who enjoys this flick. Fools have it easy: they live in a Disney bubble.A stupid movie title that sounds like a pompous indie rock album? Check. Two men defecating together? Check. A man biting off the heads of chickens? Check. A mother lighting up her son's erection? Check. A small boy's penis having nails thrown at it? Check. A boy watching her mother get spat on during sex and then getting an epileptic seizure? Check. A woman getting cum all over her face? Check. A man putting on his mother's lingerie and then "giving birth" to a skull? Check. A man eating sand and goat turds? Check. A noble-savage midget with god-like powers? Check. A midget collecting goat urine? Check. A women getting her tongue nailed to a table? Check. Another woman later on having her tongue pulled? Check. (Probably "symbolizes" censorship or some such Marxist fetish topic.) A boy playing with the erection on a wooden doll? Check. A woman cumming all over legs after her young son bites her on the shoulder? Check. A rooster getting its head lopped off for this shitty film? Check. White-clad priests wearing gas-masks dancing stupidly in a desert? Check. A naked woman French-kissing a skeleton? Check. Fake testicles and penis attached to a naked actress's body? Check. Close-up of a penis urinating? Check. A guy killing a prostitute because she refuses to have sex with a bad-smelling virgin midget? Check. Cannibalism? Check. A dwarf sticking a flower between a woman's bum-cheeks? Check. The dwarf pulling out the flower from her ass, seeing that its petal is dung-stained and eating the dung? Check. Idiotic Nazi songs played over random scenes? Check. A man getting quartered by camels while a kindergarten song doodles? Check. Naked men being rolled in a large plastic bubble by angry church-goers? Check. Imbecilic religious imagery thrown in completely randomly throughout the movie? Check. A man devouring photos and letters? Check. A man counting the number of a midget's nail-clippings? Check. A midget spontaneously offering to chop off his finger to prove his friendship to a guy he just met? Check. Me shaking my head at tons of Euro-trash nonsense posing as profound art? Triple-check.Pretentious pseudo-philosophical left-wing propaganda thrown in every 30 minutes to try and convince dupable morons (hipsters and film students) that this isn't just a cheap snuff film? Check.Now take into consideration that the movie only lasts under 90 minutes and you get some idea what a cluster-duck of random "arty" scenes this movie is. Every hipster's wet dream personified. This idiotic trash offers the self-loathing modern wimpy male (the hipster) an endless possibility of film essays. He can weave poetic for years, writing up delusional gibberish about what this movie allegedly means and even more importantly how it helped him get through a very emotional and turbulent part of his life (like the time his pizza came an hour late).If the list of "checks" I gave you make you watch this dumb film instead of warning you not to, I both pity and envy you. Keep enjoying the bubble.

Rapeman In this, the third entry in Arrabal's surrealist trilogy, he steers away from the socio-political aspects that were so dominant in his previous two films, and focuses more on satirizing the modern world, along with his habitual penchant for the degradation of all things religious and themes of incest.The basic plot outline is as follows: Aden Rey is on the run from the police after instigating the death of his mother. He eventually finds himself in the desert where he meets a curious dwarf who can communicate with and control nature. In the desert Aden gets in touch with his inner-mystic with the help of Marvel the dwarf. After hanging out with goats and camels in the desert and ultimately becoming obsessed with Marvel, Aden decides to bring him back to civilisation and show him the world.Marvel is some kind of messianic figure. He has lived for 10,000 years and can turn night into day, make blind people see and command bees and goats to do his bidding. When the pair return to Paris (along with Marvel's goat, Therese) Aden introduces Marvel to women, tea, fancy apartments and cigars, all of which he finds incomprehensible and hilarious - regarding an old man puffing on a cigar: "He is like an infant suckling at the breast!".At one point during the film Marvel is tricked into joining the circus where his act consists of dancing to rock 'n' roll while the crowd points and laughs, but instead of feeling humiliated he enjoys himself to no end. Halfway through his act he climbs into the lion cage and plays with the beast, then innocently frees it into the audience.Throughout their adventures Aden suffers from constant flashbacks of his childhood, which reveals his mother to be a domineering, abusive woman who allowed him no contact with the outside world and with whom he was unhealthily in love with. He visits her home and dresses in her lingerie, then, in a nightmarish sequence, messily gives birth to a skull.Unlike Arrabal's two earlier features I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse is not set during the Spanish Civil War but in Paris in the early 70s, so modernism is the subject of constant parody. We frequently see gasmasked people having sex and involved in bizarre rituals. Marvel's running commentary on the absurdity and pointlessness of things is more often than not on point.As is to be expected all of Arrabal's grotesque imagery is present, from penis mutilation to some repulsive cannibalism at the end, Arrabal never fails to disgust with his particular brand of surrealism.

happyreflex This film really straddles the line between art and pornography. I feel the need to praise it for its uniqueness and beautiful surrealism, but I don't think I would want to watch this film again. Between these two points of view, I'll never forget this film.There are some great images: a skeleton in a nest at the top of a steel pole; sex between two people wearing gas masks; the protagonists being rolled around in a plastic sphere.Then there are some absolutely unpleasant images. The midget places a rose into a woman's crack, pulls it out covered in s--t, and licks it clean. This and similar scenes have done nothing but disturb me. This fascination with human waste seems fetishistic and pornographic rather than artistic. Also, the film features some oedipal scenes that just feel uncomfortable. I have to reflect that Un Chien Andalou, which is considered a masterpiece of its genre, deliberately went for shock value in its day, so I forgive this film somewhat. But at the same time, I feel unwilling to see it again.Some scenes have me on the fence. In a nativity scene, the Christ child has his genitals skewered. A young boy gets shot to death by a firing squad. There is a scene of cannibalism. The scenes are both artistically striking and difficult to watch.I wrote in an earlier review for Blockbuster.com, "This film really is a troublesome one. It is at turns a sublime menagerie of images and a grotesque carnival geek show. The director is at turns a genius and a pervert. The works of genius make the film worth seeing." As before, you have the right to be curious.

Afracious Three years after Viva la Muerte, Fernando Arrabal created J'Irai Comme Un Cheval Fou (I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse), another masterly piece of cinematic surrealism. It follows two men, Aden and Marvel. Aden is sought by the police and on the run after the death of his mother, when he meets the appropriately named Marvel, a mystical loner who lives in the desert with his goat. One of his Marvel's skills is turning day immediately into night (and vice versa) with the click off his thumbs. Aden falls in love with Marvel, and decides to show him the big city. This is where Arrabal shows us the chaos of humanity. Many memorable images ensue. This is imperative viewing for any people interested in surrealism in film. I can't recommend it enough.