Cinema Abattoir releases their third installment of avant-garde and occultish noir short film collection titled A Rebours. 

This was released last year and I finally had time to really sit down with it and examine it in a more thoughtful and reviewing manner. I had the chance of watching it with some friends previous to writing this and was really impressed with the selections. As usual, some are sensual and evoking of emotions, while others can be repulsive and shocking. Leave no reaction unturned when you watch a collection in its entirety.

  The title taken from occult writer J. K. Huysmans, a French author of the early 1900's who wrote about his esoteric experiences in novel form and has grown cult status ever since. The title, A Rebours, which can be translated as "Against the Current" expresses much of what you will see in this set. It remarks not only of its distance from popular films, both Hollywood and Independent, but also a larger scope of what people call the "social norms". The DVD itself is completely black and is symbolic of the Black Sun used in Alchemical literature to suggest Gold of the dark kind - in other words, a refining or uprising of our repressed powers and have them come to being in full view. Philosophically speaking, it is the experience when one knowingly becomes what they have rejected within, but soon succumbs and accepts the quality as a point of intgration of ourselves. In the words of Cinema Abattoir's website, "Transgressive short films DVD compilation emanating from the Void, from sexual atomisation and a Black eternally Blacker than Black."

The DVD menu might leave one confused as you come to a strange screen with only an 'X' placed to the left side of an image. Pressing your play button will enter to the short films. If you felt like you were cheated, its an easy fix as you click the right arrow and the 'X' moves to the other side of the screen, which you get the second set of films. There is no selections in terms of choosing which short to watch, unless you use your chapter button, which leaps from film to film.

WASHING MACHINE CA CA CA (2007)

A series of close-ups and quick edits in a dank apartment with a naked man and woman set to alternating tones of ambient sounds. There is so much happening in this 5-minute film, directed by CA CA CA Organization.

The woman is constantly being subjected to various types of masochistic type behavior, while the man is inflicting it upon her. Her joy never seems to shine through, so I question there is pleasure in any of this. The editing at times is too quick to concretize anything absolute, nor does the film want you to make any real firm ideas. Some of the scatology will offend even the most ardent cult and porn fan out there, and this is no exception.

In the short time in this world, we see the woman tied up to an exercise bike, with a ribbon tied to a washing machine as it spins, somehow effecting her, but we do not get all the information. Later she is drenched underneath the shower head, then pushed, face first, into a cake (only to be eaten by the man). Finally, she is pushed into a bathtub  full of water.

Some nice transitions fading to a “blurry white”, along with some effects of reversing the playback. I believe its blood that is going down the drain, however, being shot in black and white, it is undetermined. I am going on the brighter side and sticking with blood.

While there are some visually striking image, such as the slow motion when the female is getting wet in the shower. The photography is a lush black and white with nice textures throughout. Overall, I am not entirely sure what was suggested. Regardless, this 5-minute film was a curious entry point for Cinema Abbatoir’s latest collection that seems right on target.


MAN SPEICHT DEUTSCH - Allemange (2001)

The breakdown of a painting over a long period of time. How weathered the paint becomes by showing the lines of sepration and crusty edges. The colors become mute and almost homogenous. As it flickers, the movement of the film comes off the reel itself as if to suggest the deterioration of film as a medium to reflect the deterioration of the painting in a similar course.

Very simple, but elegantly stated. This 2-minute short film does not build anything up nor introduce you, it just is. Just as a painting that has no pretenses about what its tries to be, so does this film. The title does not seem to reveal anything, other than perhaps what the image on the screen is, which could have been almost any image and have a similar effect. It looks like Russian Constructivism in its style and choice of image.

SACRE-COUER DE SATAN - Serge De Cotret (2008)

Christian and Nazi iconography collide with the sounds and infrared visuals of a woman pleasureing herself with a cross is one way of grabbing someone’s attention. Meanwhile, some demonic faces come into play into a sort of montage that one might immediately wonder if this is just shock value at its most cliche, or if there is a deeper art at work here. Maybe if she were moaning “Oh God”, it might be more ironic, but that does not happen. Then our visuals gets swiped by some 90’s screensaver, and then it becomes more focused on Naziism with Adolf in view with “Seig Heil” in the back ground to the finish of the film.

I wonder if director Serge De Cotret wanted to arouse the audience by being seeing Christian and Nazi symbols, while also seeing dark images of a woman masturbating (not always clear on whats happening though). Although I found the film interesting to watch, the mysteries remain a mystery and little is illuminated through the dark and heavily filtered camera work. From the previous films, BABY DOLL and THEOCORDIS, there is a theme emerging, and the most obvious is the harsh collision of religion and sex as well as pain and pleasure. But what do these films have to say about this? Perhaps its less of the film that speaks, but more in how one reacts that gives its answer. But does it provoke dialogue? A call to action? A solution?

The swastika, in ancient cultures, is considered a cross, sometimes referred as a “bent cross” or “equilateral cross” or even “twisted cross”. In the Kabbalah, it is revered as the highest point of the Tree of Life, associated with Kether, or “Crown” which suggests the “whirling motions” which was meant as the beginning of life, the “Primum Mobile”. Hitler took this sacred symbol and flipped it around, mocking the spiritual significance. It is suggested that the swastika was a symbol of Hitler's own beliefs in the Thule Society. In one of the images from the film, there is Hitler in a robe with a traditional cross around his neck.

So, just as Hitler mocks the swastika, here the woman masturbating with the Christian cross is also making a similar point of sacrilege. However, I like her version better. But it does demonstrate (or at least raise the possibility) how one version of the cross brought pain, while the other brings pleasure.


YELLOW FEVER - Lamashtu (2008)

In some infrared environment of highways and fields, enveloped in heavily saturated sounds of discontent, then punctuated by faces, mouths and lips in a staccato like editing style of an Asian woman giving a blowjob, then being ejaculated on.

There are no moving images, but a stop motion style of photographs of, what looks like, a cork board with cut-up images of mouths pinned down. The music gets more intense and vibratory that follows the transitions.

I felt a little unsettled watching this one with the photos that seemed to get more and more degraded in both imagery and the actual image itself, that might have blood splattered, or the edges burned. The sound, when it gets intense, blurs out any sense of rhythm and it cracks and drowns itself, loses me like a trance would. Trancing can have a pleasant or unpleasant experience, and for me, this kind of trance is the latter form.

J. - Alexandre Larose & Salomon Nagler (2008)

In a minimalist Philip Glass-like style, a haunting soundtrack opens to a stark and high contrasted, black and white image of a young woman descending a staircase. The images shift from grainy, worn out film stock, replete with texture of dust and particles, to scratches and deterioration that contribute to its mysterious setting. A man in a hat looks upon her in a bed. What does he want? Do they know each other? Is she just a young girl or is she a woman? Is he a pedophile or a lover? Is it sexual or caring?

There are some nice visual moments, such as the mouth whispering in the ear lends to something romantic and adds to the mystery by asking “what is she saying?” The other girl seems to be looking on the woman and man dancing, either in jealousy or curiosity.

Sometimes the contrast is too great and so you are left with a lot of darkness. In some cases this is ok, but it seems there is an over abundance of this losing its cohesion, at least in a narrative sense. I really enjoyed this piece, but at the same time a little frustrated as I wanted to see more! I was curious about what I was watching, but I felt locked out most of the time. I did not see a relationship between the man and woman, and had to really put my own projection into this film.

PASSAGE - Karl Lemieux (2007)

Director Karl Lemieux, whose previous works (Sunset and Ki from the previous Abattoir releases) are some of my favorites in the Abattoir line. This entry is a departure from his other stuff, and as well the collection in general. It is, perhaps, the only real straight forward narrative that deals strictly with emotional reactions between a group of four friends, two girls and two guys, on a road trip who stop into a motel and have drink and sex. A near foursome emerges, but one of the girls suddenly feels rejected as both boys focus on the other girl. This is where the emotions really start to pour out as the girl singled out takes a time out into the bathroom and reflects whole-heartedly on the situation.

In the car ride to the motel, we can see initially that she is treated with playful disrespect, but its a type of passive aggressiveness that sets up the problem. The music is also the key thread here that slowly builds up in a type of rock bolero. Once they get to kissing each other more intensely at the hotel, the main girl is left out and we see her like a lost puppy looking for attention, but not getting any. She retreats to the bathroom trying to normalize the situation, but then stares into the mirror intently upon herself, perhaps judging, rationalizing, meanwhile prettying herself for re-entry into the party. We are keenly aware of her self-consciousness. It is uncomfortable to watch her, especially as she emerges from the bathroom to see everyone on the bed - no one remembering she is even there. Now, completely out of the loop she decides to go off on her own. What can you do in such an awkward situation but leave? We are left wondering what she did in that time.

The following morning, back in the car is a quiet ride, no one seems to be enjoying the trip. Our girl is silently agonizing over the previous nights situation and does not want to say anything. So the secrets of her feelings become evident to her and the audience, but unaware to her friends. There is a quiet and unsettling beauty in this film that has an authenticity to the emotions, which I might think are in fact real. The people are not so much characters, but people in a situation which makes it so human. Quite beautiful!

As an incidental note, IMDB has the character names, however, the film is without words.

End of Part 1
At this point we see all 6 films in reverse sped up to less than a minute total and back to the original menu. Onto the second part.

HYMN TO PAN - Francois Miron (2007)

Grainy black and white film and stop motion exposure of a woman practicing ballet while being filmed, set to a hypnotic rhythm. The pace of the editing is consistent throughout, but never really tells us anything about what is happening. The film looks nice, yet there is nothing really told here. Even the title does not offer much which Pan as we know is the goat-headed devil-like god of nature. The relationship between the cameraman and the ballet dancer is always separate and they show no intimacy, not even in the camera work. Maybe my understanding of Pan is incorrect. Accordingly, Pan is a tempter of desire, part man part goat often with an erect phallus. If we were to follow that line of thinking, it might be an easy association to think of the camera as that penetrative symbol. Still, we are only the observer in this arrangement that remains the camera as seducer and the dancer as seductress. I get the feeling the audience is not part of this equation.

DREAM OF SAMARRA - Usama Alshaibi (2007)

A short one-minute film in what looks like a recorded image off of television where we get those strong vertical streaks that vibrate intensely. Here with a saturation of color creates an intensity which at first is glaring, but soon comes to a type of focus. Samarra is a Mosque in Iraq that spirals upward, almost like a Tower of Babel, where one can walk up its path around to the top of the spiral. This short film is more of a gesture or idea than something complete in its form. However, it does have allusions to a dream-state, even if cursorily. I do not feel the film demonstrates enough to get more than a curiosity from it because nothing really happens besides people ascending the structure, but even that is suggested where the film focuses in and out, moving from the top to the base and back up. Despite its short length and inquisitive look at this ancient structure, I found the images stark enough to capture something from it.

SATAN BOUCH UN COIN - Jean-Pierre Bouyxou (1968)

An interesting entry into this collection is Jean-Pierre Bouyxou’s short film from 1968. Bouyxou has more experience as an actor in such celebrated cult films as Jesus Franco’s FEMALE VAMPIRE, Jean Rollin’s THE DEMONIACS, THE GRAPES OF DEATH, THE KILLING CAR and THE LIVING DEAD GIRL. Here is one of his few entries as director, writer, cinematographer and producer in similar vane as his cult film work suggests.

While certainly more experimental in style than his feature film work, we are presented with a trashy style side-show of an elusive carnival barker as he puts a bare breasted woman on stage for exhibition. Our audience, in this bizarre circus of horrors, are normal people. We see a normal little girl reacting as if she just saw 100 clowns exit a car. Then head shots of a guy and a girl, spliced with a penis.

The atmosphere is surreal and strange at the very least. The guy and girl who we see leave the show into this mountainous exterior at dusk gives way to a blue sky while the ground and figures are in silhouette. Back to the carnival is a man playing with a voodoo doll as he pokes it with pins - but this doll bleeds!

There is a weird excitement in all of this. Who is excited is up for debate. If these scenes had dialogue, I bet they would talk romantically about strange things like good and evil, death and life, and philosophize about sex and nature.

In 1968, this film probably was more shocking than it is currently, but it still has a good vibe to it that gives it more of an entertaining quality than a pretentious experimental film might offer.

DEAD MAN II: RETURN OF THE DEAD MAN - Aryan Kaganof

I must say, the opening scene to this film is absolutely revolting. My head jerked back and shied away from what I was seeing, to hide myself from having those images in my  brain. Seeing a man engaged in a gagging fellatio followed by vomiting into the mouth of the other, is nothing but disgusting. It is shot in dirty environment that one might think this is scum at its lowest.

I am not familiar with the director Aryan Kaganof’s other works, but apparently is reputable with a style unlike this short film. The film seems to only want to shock us in disgust. There are some elements that suggest control of his medium where I would be curious to see his other works, however, not if it consists more of this kind of content.

After the initial scene, it has more of symbolic nature, but again, maintains a sexual carnival of weird perversions. An old man approaches a fat woman who hikes up her skirt and says in a raspy, thunderous voice, “I am God”. Followed by, what looks like the Waco camp in Texas burning.

Back to the old man at the bar is a pregnant woman who stands on the bar top and pees. Yep! An abrupt cut, we see the old man again, in a washed out infrared image with a woman in some field. Cut to silence - barren fields, derelict factories, and a quiet wind. Otherwise there is not much else to the film as it seems to tread off into boredom.

This film, the longest in this collection at 25 minutes, stands as the one hardest to watch - intellectually or otherwise. It's not entertaining and very little to meditate upon. Ultimately the opening scene is what you will remember, and it is unfortunate that such a scene has the biggest impression as I really do not think it serves anything else in the film besides a layer of grossness that taints the rest of the film.

__ - Lucia Fezzuoglio (2007)

Is that Grace Kelly? or Lana Turner? Or is it just someone that resembles them? These are photographic stills from what looks like an old film shown in an artistic light. This is definitely less about content of what you see (although presumably chosen for a purpose), but more with the intent of playing with images and effects.

I am going on the assumption that there is no title to this piece, so the author does not want to give any real point of view to attach to, or make up any idea about what the artist is trying to attempt, but let the images live in their own existence and speak on their own terms. But am I giving too much credit to the artist and fooling myself that there is something deeper at work here? Without a title could equally give any point of view the audience wishes.

THE OTHER AMERICAN DREAM - Enrique Arroyo (2004)

Dream? Not really, but understood in its irony when you see a young woman in a car with some guy video taping her looking for her to show herself off. She flashes her breasts innocently, but then, for a few more dollars is willing to give some head. But the guy has other things in mind. His temper is easily agitated and he becomes abusive, handcuffing her in the car. Her reactions are real and frightening. We live with her throughout this whole scenario. Who she is? How did she get there? Where is she going? What will happen to her?

Its not pretty, but we get the sense that this is far more common than anyone is aware. Young girls stolen to be left nameless, sold off in Mexico as property for either prostitution or body parts.

Its very sad and watching this film (which is made unbelievably real that you think this is a snuff film of sorts) is depressing that humans can have no regard for peoples lives and treat them in this manner. Even the worst criminals in prisons are treated at least with the dignity to maintain a life, even if its not freedom.

This short film is definitely a crying out for awareness and makes unsettling attention to the fact that there is underhanded business that is not being dealt with. Americans seem to be more permissive of violence than sex and drugs that we have wars on drugs and a censorship of nudity and sexuality. In addition is art which is largely censored if they include drugs or sex, however, a film rated PG can include explosions, killings, and people beating each other up. But a notice of a breast, something we all grow up seeing, is something to be averted.

THE PACKAGE

As usual, Cinema Abattoir goes the extra mile to give you a very cool and very limited package. Here, the package is full black, covered with real chicken wire. It takes a little handling closing the case, but it manages well otherwise. There is an insert which lists the titles and an art piece in the middle. No other liner notes. Like the first release, this set is limited to only 500 copies. Currently they are only available at the Cinema Abattoir website and I will be getting them for sale here on this site shortly.

If you missed the first one, Cinema Abattoir's site has sold out completely and I have only a few copies left for sale in our RareOOPDVDs Store. Also available is the second release, Incarnation, also nicely packaged. For full reviews of both sets, check them out here: L'Erotisme and Incarnation.