Creatures

I'm not sure I can say that I enjoyed any of these three films, but I did find them interesting. Although I was uncomfortable and disoriented throughout the session, I was fully awake and actively watching the films (which is sometimes a rare occurrence) I was particularly perplexed by "Flaming Creatures" because it was so over the top. Up to this point, the films we've seen have often been crude and violent with nudity and sex abounds, but it has never been this level of obscenity. Many films we've seen in this course could be taken as offensive (such as Un Chien or Intercourse) to a middle class American citizen who watched only Hollywood movies. But "Flaming Creatures" is a film that I have a hard time believing that anyone could watch with out being a little uncomfortable and offended. I don't think this is a flaw, per say, because shock value is of artistic merit. The film was created to be anti-hollywood, and it accomplishes this very well because it is everything that hollywood is not. It is also a celebration because of its excess of sex, violence, makeup, drama, non-narrativity, emotion. Everything is BIG; there is no room for subtleties. It is impossible to watch this film and not feel something, so it is a celebration of basic human emotions and motivations. "Flaming Creatures" is a passionate film that sets out to explore the barbaric and animalistic creatures that live inside every human being through means and measures that have never been taken before. I think that its long history of being confiscated and banned has proven its worth in film making history because it is clear that this film is a trail blazer that creates new rules for what can be done in film.