We're talking seriously bizarre here. Quite by chance I attended a screening which was introduced by the director who asked us not to try to figure it out but just immerse ourselves in it. Some may say that that was a cop out but don't look at me, I never said a word. I don't know the source material - a short story by Franz Wedekind - so I don't know how much help it would be in making sense of what plot there is. The only way to deal with it is to describe it and if that includes Spoilers so be it. After an ambiguous opening shot held for about 30 seconds which could be an underwater shot of an empty jacuzzi in full spate or stryofoam melting under a gentle flame, lungs filling with liquid or practically anything you like we cut to a room empty except for a coffin on a trestle. In a moment about five pairs of legs surround the coffin. The legs are all female, mini-skirted and the owners have an average age of around 8 to 10 years. It's a paedophile's wet dream in spades. One of the girls produces a golden key and unlocks the coffin. Inside is another girl of roughly the same age, apparently dead. After a beat she opens her eyes and the other girls help her out and tell her that this is her new home. So now we're thinking Afterlife-lite, Heaven or Hell, the choice is yours. Once we see the girls in full shot the most startling thing is their costume; identical white tops and white miniskirts which, over the intervening days, weeks, months, whatever, NEVER get dirty. The House -if that is what it - is appears to be in the center of a forest complete with lake and rowboat and a road about one color grade down from Yellow Brick that leads we know not where. It COULD be a girl's boarding school but the only lessons we ever see involve physical exercise and/or dance. Of the three adults on the scene one is a middle aged woman who seems to be a combination cook-housekeeper and the other two younger women seem to be, for want of a better word, choreographers. One girl attempts to row the boat to whatever outside world exists and it fills with water, a second scales the wall and lights out for the territory. The others are told that she did 'something bad' and they won't be seeing her again. The girls are kitted out with butterfly wings and taken to the stage of a theater that appears to be part of the house. The audience in the shadows seems to be solely male and the housekeeper figure tells the girls that these 'shows' help pay the freight. It's perhaps important to emphasise that there is absolutely nothing about the dancing that could be described as even suggestive let alone salacious or pornographic, which means that it's all in the minds of the male audience. There's also a mysterious woman who appears once a year to 'choose' a girl who will be allowed to leave with her. Eventually the two choreographers lead the girls through the theater and down into an endless underground tunnel which terminates in a railway platform where a train is waiting. They take their seats and the train delivers them to a sunlit plaza up to its ass in fountains. The girls frolic in the fountains. One of the girls sees a golden lad probably around 20 through the fountain. He gives her a dazzling smile. And that's it. Back to the opening shot - whatever that was. And there you have it. Stunning! Breathtaking! Pretentious crap.
Take your choice. I know what I think.
Take your choice. I know what I think.