Well, perhaps “care” isn’t the right term as the presumably psychotic doctor takes perverse pleasure in probing the girl with drugs and bizarre questions in an attempt to unravel whatever psychological issues she may or may not have. Barry Nyle (a deeply creepy Michael Rogers). She’s been imprisoned by Arborin, an institution with mysterious motivations and is under the care of Dr. Set in a fictionalized 1983 as designed by 70s filmmakers fantasizing about a dystopian future, Eva Allan stars as Elena a seemingly innocent young girl trapped in a white-walled sell under heavy sedation. There is ostensibly a plot to the film even if it can be at times nearly impossible to follow. The film is made to be experienced rather than understood and it’s really a shame that the midnight movie market no longer exists, because this thing would be an instant sensation with that audience who demanded little more than a movie than being able to mumble “far out” as they stumbled out of the theater in a daze. It’s as if Alejandro Jodorowsky had made a film comprised of leftover scenes and ideas from THX 1138, Scanners, and Altered States designed to tingle the brains of his chemically enhanced audience. Panos Cosmatos’ debut feature recreates the head-trip sci-fi movies of that era with an almost fetishistic attention to detail that captures the grainy cinematography, found location future, handmade special effects, enigmatic sound design, and gleefully confounding tone of that specific genre with eerie accuracy. I won’t spoil it for any of you reading this, because without the story there is really only one other reason to watch “BtBR,” it’s visual style.If you were to stumble into a screening of Beyond the Black Rainbow told by devious friends that it is an undiscovered midnight movie from the late 70s, you would instantly believe it. Nyle has become, setting out to find and return Elena to the institution. It is at this time we learn just how obsessed with the young lady Dr. ![]() We learn that she also has some sort of ESP or telekenetic powers, which are dampened or cancelled out by technology within the institution.ĭuring the course of the film, Elena is able to sneak out of her cell and journey into the depths of the building to hopefully find an escape route. ![]() He often questions Elena during what appear to be counseling sessions, and it becomes clear that Elena is quite unresponsive and despondent to the whole affair. Barry Nyle, our antagonist, keeps a young woman by the name of Elena under lock and key. That said, we begin by learning a bit about the Arboria Institute, a quasi-futuristic asylum of sorts in which Dr. Are you ready, my friend?”Ĭosmatos has said that he doesn’t neccesarily concern himself too much with deep storytelling through writing, rather he prefers to let the movie speak for itself in that regard. “You are about to embark on a great journey. ![]() Perhaps that’s a me problem, but I can only tell you that things became much more clear to me once I read the Wikipedia entry that detailed more of the story. However, where “Mandy” was a bit more accessible in terms of story and motives, “BtBR” obfuscates much of the relationship between it’s characters. Typically, I can handle a slower paced movie indeed, “Mandy” didn’t exactly burn through it’s approximately two hours of run-time either. To say that the film moves at a glacial pace would be an insult to icebergs. But if “Mandy” could be described as the cinematic equivelant of dropping acid, “Beyond the Black Rainbow” is then more like a lethargic nightmare from which you cannot wake. Cosmatos’ films, the outstanding “Mandy”, I had high hopes for “Beyond the Black Rainbow,” or “BtBR.” Panos Cosmatos’ dreamlike and intensely artistic storytelling style appealed to me greatly in his second film, so it was with much eagerness I sat down to watch this film. Coming hot off the heels of watching another of Mr.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |