existentialism is a film

108. Her (Ferlinghetti, 1960)
Genre: surrealism, the irritating kind
Rating: 1

It begins as a surreal vision of sexual obsession, in which the outmoded conceptual dichotomy of form and content is dissolved, and in the resulting mire, the flesh, both of the Self and the Other, is conflated with Being. But it quickly abandons this subject and devolves into insipid free association, sequences of images devoid of emotional or intellectual content, tired mixtures of crudeness and flowery poetics. It’s steeped in a tone of tepid worldliness, a self-awareness that avoids taking anything seriously, glibly reducing everything to superficial cliches (e.g., attraction to an ideal of femininity and sexuality rather than to an actual woman). Abysmal and obnoxious.

Quote: I see God grips the genitals to catch illusionary me stunned down in air of death’s insanity to kiss me off he plays the deepsea catch he reels me in

109. The Holy Terrors (Les Enfants Terribles) (Cocteau, 1929)
Genre: tragedy of enchantment
Rating: 7

Two siblings isolate and eventually destroy themselves with their own world of whimsy, dragging a few people in with them. The story operates in a realm of fantasy, of myth that it repeatedly refers to, of spontaneous, unreflective emotions removed from reality. For much of the book’s length, that atmosphere is enchanting, but as the story moves into tragedy, and the characters into manipulation and self-destruction, it’s made somewhat silly by its weightlessness and the wispy unreality of the characters.

Quote: The world owes its enchantment to these curious creatures and their fancies; but its multiple complicity rejects them. Thistledown spirits, tragic, heartrending in their evanescence, they must go blowing headlong to perdition.

110. The Story of O (Pauline Réage, 1954)
Genre: erotica
Rating: 3

Erotica devoid of sensuality, character, and characters. A bland cataloguing of dominance and submission, with no insight into them.

Quote: “If you do tie her up from time to time, or whip her just a little, and she begins to like it, that’s no good … you have to get past the pleasure stage, until you reach the stage of tears.”

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