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Rather than surreptitiously subverting convention these films deliberately shock the audience to make their points; often twisting narrative conventions and exploring the unthinkable and taboo as a way of reflecting society. Alejandro Jodorowsky, the godfather of the midnight movie, assaults the viewer with sacrilegious imagery to present tales of self-discovery. The absurdist playwright Fernando Arrabal used his films to violently condemn fascism. Jans Svankmajer used animation to show the dark heart of children’s fables. At the forefront of the new guard, Hungarian György Pálfi turns the grotesque into the truly beautiful. To quote Jodorowsky: “Open your soul, and I will inseminate you.”
Controversial playwright, novelist, poet, filmmaker, essayist and provocateur, Fernando Arrabal’s surreal work at once beautiful and disgusting, insightful and absurd, humane and violent, breathtaking and politically potent.
A tale of three generations of one family: a disgusting orderly, a jealous speed-eating champion, and a thin taxidermist who dreams of immortality. Creating a visceral and confronting world of magical realism the cinematography transforms the vulgarity onscreen into beautiful art.
