31 October 2005

Nuit Noire (Belgium, 2004)


Surrealist director Olivier Smolders wanted to make a film similiar to Lynch's Eraserhead, a masterpiece in the surrealist cinema movement. And if you watch closely, there are quite a lot of things in common between both films, especially the dark scenes and lurky soundtrack. I'll try to explain the plot: the director of a museum for natural science, let's call him Jean, finds a woman in his bedroom one day. She is sick, and soon we discover she is pregnant. Meanwhile, we also learn Jean has some serious pscychological problems. He is obsessed by the fact that his sister died and was attacked by lions. We see some gory scenes which correspond to his nightmares. Jean decides to make a cocoon out of the sick woman. After several days of "incubation", a new woman is born, who becomes his new girlfriend. All along the way, Jean's sister appears and talks to him. What is the connection between his sister's violent death and the new-born girlfriend? It's up to you to find out.

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