Beyond the Black Rainbow
Synopsis
In 1983, a young mute woman with psychic abilities is held captive within the Arboria Institute, a secluded futuristic facility overseen by a sinister doctor with an unraveling mind and a growing obsession with her.
Director
Cast
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Ronald Reagan
Self (archive footage)
Marilyn Norry
Rosemary Nyle
Scott Hylands
Mercurio Arboria
Chris Gauthier
Fat Hesher
Eva Bourne
Elena
Michael J Rogers
Barry Nyle
Other Reviews
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Cosmatos decides to give zero fucks and go beyond the sane limits of the film spectrum! It's hard to explain this film. This movie feels like what philistines would imagine a modern art film would be like - if we were to conceptualize directly from their brain their idea of a flashy high-art film into a film, this would be that film.
'Beyond the Black Rainbow' is an overcooked, cynic, and out of focus, both literally (technically) and metaphorically, take on an intriguing premise.
So, what strikes here, big time, are the visuals. Cosmatos has a soft spot for film grain as he also uses it in his later film 'Mandy.' But here, he crosses the line sometimes by going from an exceptional stylistic aesthetic to what looks like poor film tape quality. So much so that sometimes you can't tell what you're watching. The images are so unfocused it's physically painful to watch. And I don't know what's the idea behind that because sometimes you would have an image that's so blurred you can barely tell what you're watching, then, after shot-reverse-shot, you'd get back to the same frame, and it'd be on focus. It's like they shot this while being on some weird drug and weren't putting much attention in adjusting the lenses because more than a stylistic choice, this feels like a technical mistake. It's baffling!
Yet, despite this film being visually messy and incoherent, there's something in it that while watching it makes you doubt its fallacy. It's infuriating the way the movie flirts with your intuition, making you ask yourself: "Wait a sec, am I missing something, or is this a self-indulgent pretentious mess?" But that question pops because you've never watched something like this before. When something is as terrible as this, it puzzles you. - The idea of how the French cheese makers created their cheese "masterpieces" from rotten cheese consumes the mind, and you wonder if Cosmatos is doing the same thing here. :p - But at the end of the film, it's clear that there's no substance here. Apart from some stunning visuals - there are some unbelievable beautiful shots here and there -, there is nothing here. The film it's edited poorly. It has these long, drawn-out episodes that become monotonous in the second half and turn the movie into an insufferably tiresome experience. It's like they stretched a short subject movie to an almost two-hour-long film without making any changes to the script. On top of all that, the acting is awful. It is ridiculous! The performance of the guy that plays the scientist might be the worst I've ever seen.
I am surprised that I made it to the end of the movie. The only way to watch this film and not get bored out of your mind and maybe even enjoy what you're watching is to think of it as a comedy (the upper mentioned performance would help you at that). 'Beyond the Black Rainbow' is the dictionary definition of style over substance. When I started watching it, the film grain and the overall aesthetics instantly brought to mind Tarkovsky's 'Solaris,' but this fell too short in delivering as much as the tenth of 'Solaris' ingenuity. Too naive for hopping for more, I guess.
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shaban
Cosmatos decides to give zero fucks and go beyond the sane limits of the film spectrum! It's hard to explain this film. This movie feels like what philistines would imagine a modern art film would be like - if we were to conceptualize directly from their brain their idea of a flashy high-art film into a film, this would be that film.
'Beyond the Black Rainbow' is an overcooked, cynic, and out of focus, both literally (technically) and metaphorically, take on an intriguing premise.
So, what strikes here, big time, are the visuals. Cosmatos has a soft spot for film grain as he also uses it in his later film 'Mandy.' But here, he crosses the line sometimes by going from an exceptional stylistic aesthetic to what looks like poor film tape quality. So much so that sometimes you can't tell what you're watching. The images are so unfocused it's physically painful to watch. And I don't know what's the idea behind that because sometimes you would have an image that's so blurred you can barely tell what you're watching, then, after shot-reverse-shot, you'd get back to the same frame, and it'd be on focus. It's like they shot this while being on some weird drug and weren't putting much attention in adjusting the lenses because more than a stylistic choice, this feels like a technical mistake. It's baffling!
Yet, despite this film being visually messy and incoherent, there's something in it that while watching it makes you doubt its fallacy. It's infuriating the way the movie flirts with your intuition, making you ask yourself: "Wait a sec, am I missing something, or is this a self-indulgent pretentious mess?" But that question pops because you've never watched something like this before. When something is as terrible as this, it puzzles you. - The idea of how the French cheese makers created their cheese "masterpieces" from rotten cheese consumes the mind, and you wonder if Cosmatos is doing the same thing here. :p - But at the end of the film, it's clear that there's no substance here. Apart from some stunning visuals - there are some unbelievable beautiful shots here and there -, there is nothing here. The film it's edited poorly. It has these long, drawn-out episodes that become monotonous in the second half and turn the movie into an insufferably tiresome experience. It's like they stretched a short subject movie to an almost two-hour-long film without making any changes to the script. On top of all that, the acting is awful. It is ridiculous! The performance of the guy that plays the scientist might be the worst I've ever seen.
I am surprised that I made it to the end of the movie. The only way to watch this film and not get bored out of your mind and maybe even enjoy what you're watching is to think of it as a comedy (the upper mentioned performance would help you at that). 'Beyond the Black Rainbow' is the dictionary definition of style over substance. When I started watching it, the film grain and the overall aesthetics instantly brought to mind Tarkovsky's 'Solaris,' but this fell too short in delivering as much as the tenth of 'Solaris' ingenuity. Too naive for hopping for more, I guess.
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shaban
5 y