Day 28: Pascal Laugiers Martyrs (2008) Can something be absolutely nightmarish and tragically beautiful at the same time? Can revulsion and enlightenment exist in the same image? Can lifes ultimate question be answered in a horror film? I watched Martyrs for the first time on a Tuesday morning in March 2011. I was sitting on my ass at the dealership I worked at wasting away another 13 hour day in the purgatory I called job. Thankfully, the film was subtitled, so I didnt need sound to follow the story and was able to fake doing work while I saw something that took me completely off guard. Ninety some minutes after it began, I got up from my desk, went to the mens room, locked the door and cried for a few minutes. When I finally composed myself, I walked out back in to a place I hated with hope for the future. A few months later, I was unceremoniously put out of my misery by the schizophrenic owner when I was released without cause, finally freeing me from my misery. Any one else sense the irony? A young girl believes she has tracked down the people who had imprisoned her as a child. She talks a friend in to accompanying her to the lavish suburban home where they may reside. As the friend waits in the car, the girl goes to the front door which is answered by a typical housewife whos family is enjoying breakfast before taking the kids off to school. She recognizes them as her former captors and kills them all with a shotgun. This is only the beginning. After much torture, bloodshed, and nightmarish imagery, Laugier asks the greatest question in the history of mankind. In subsequent interviews about the film, he said that he himself doesnt know the answer and purposely left the ending ambiguous, letting the viewer draw their own conclusions (how very French of him). Some people have said that the film is nihilistic and revels in desperation and utter darkness. I see quite the opposite. I see an analogy that for all the suffering in our lives, those that face it with a pure heart will be ultimately rewarded. Watch it and draw your own conclusions as writer/director Laugier intended. After Suspiria, its my favorite film of all time. Mademoiselle: Martyrs are exceptional people. They survive pain, they survive total deprivation. They bear all the sins of the earth. They give themselves up. They transcend themselves... they are transfigured.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 19:46:35 +0000
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