I have no idea if this belongs in world cinema or here. I think the allusions to horror cinema probably mark it out as a horror, but I'd be hard pressed to give definitive reasons as to why it's a horror.
If you haven't seen it the film's about a Belgian cabaret style singer who on a trip south finds his van breaking down in a mist shrouded village. The local innkeeper puts him up and offers to fix the van, but soon develops an unhealthy obsession with the singer.
I would say that saying anything was going into spoiler territory but I honestly don't think there's much to spoil. The film abandons most of the pretense of narrative in its second half and just becomes increasingly weird as it goes on. There are some horrible things implied in the film (crucifixion, rape) but the film is oddly tame for the rating it got over here. What makes the film interesting is how surreal it is, the entire movie has this hazy dreamlike quality and there are some uniquely bizarre moments. At one point the camera lingers on a group of children dressed like the dwarf from Don't Look Now, they don't have any impact on the narrative, nobody mentions them and they're never brought up again. In another scene a bunch of burly villagers suddenly start doing a Bela Tarrish dance after one of them starts to violently play the piano.
What this oddness does is put you at unease for the majority of the film, the fact that there's very little payoff to the oddness is one of the films few weaknesses. It's main strength is it's beautiful cinematrography, by the guy who shot Irreversible, and their are some genuinely interesting camera movements and shots. One in particular passes through the windscreen of a car and back out again almost seamlessly, whilst a rotating camera during a christmas lunch scene creates a palapable sense of dread.
If you haven't seen it the film's about a Belgian cabaret style singer who on a trip south finds his van breaking down in a mist shrouded village. The local innkeeper puts him up and offers to fix the van, but soon develops an unhealthy obsession with the singer.
I would say that saying anything was going into spoiler territory but I honestly don't think there's much to spoil. The film abandons most of the pretense of narrative in its second half and just becomes increasingly weird as it goes on. There are some horrible things implied in the film (crucifixion, rape) but the film is oddly tame for the rating it got over here. What makes the film interesting is how surreal it is, the entire movie has this hazy dreamlike quality and there are some uniquely bizarre moments. At one point the camera lingers on a group of children dressed like the dwarf from Don't Look Now, they don't have any impact on the narrative, nobody mentions them and they're never brought up again. In another scene a bunch of burly villagers suddenly start doing a Bela Tarrish dance after one of them starts to violently play the piano.
What this oddness does is put you at unease for the majority of the film, the fact that there's very little payoff to the oddness is one of the films few weaknesses. It's main strength is it's beautiful cinematrography, by the guy who shot Irreversible, and their are some genuinely interesting camera movements and shots. One in particular passes through the windscreen of a car and back out again almost seamlessly, whilst a rotating camera during a christmas lunch scene creates a palapable sense of dread.
