One's humble presence can be nothing except appalled with such a journey beyond a normal and common heart beating. This monumental inwards masterpiece is with no doubt, what I consider to be the ultimate step into an exercise of self analysis through visual stimulation, due to its primal concept and symbolic arquetype power. It is like drinking a chalice filled with broken glass, but in this case, the shattered shine does not cut you deep. No. Instead of that flesh related consequence, you ascend through the spiritual pain reflected by a dead God. Only then the real consequences are born, and only then your soul begins to be molested and raped by a monochromatic assembly of subconscious terror. This IS a living nightmare. Being this enlightening torment strongly influenced by a near death situation experienced by its creator, my fascination before it, shapes into forms which words fail to describe. Before this visual anthem noir, the amount of dedication, effort and blood work is immensely obvious. It becomes even more frightening, to be aware that this is a result of a deeply thought intension, and not just a random sequence of pain. This is an unpleasant experience, the way a deep journey into a godless abyss should be. It shakes the walls of the common things which infect this world. In the aftermath (if you do make it until the end), if the only thing you can take from this experience is nothing but an insufficient bidimensional perspective of it.....it probably means that you are just that. This is nothing but a superb accomplishment, in creating a psychic mirror through a visual manifesto.
Less than a movie, and more a poem, Begotten cuts you open and lets you marvel at what you see there, even if you don't get the references or connotations.
Mother Nature impregnates herself with the dead genetalia of God after he commits suicide - This is probably the most famous sequence from the film and it hits you in the face right from the start. Why then is the rest never really explored? Probably because this scene alone is excruciatingly long and repetitive and many have not finished watching the whole film. Every scene is, really. I did enjoy a section where the Mother (Nature?) caries the maybe crippled, maybe-"too innocent to walk" child through the forest on her back, but most of the film required serious effort on my part to complete it.
It's obvious Begotten has some heart to it, anything that designs itself a creation myth usually has something to say about humanity and the world we live in, but it strikes me as attempting to be shocking for shock's sake, enigmatic for enigma's sake and ultimately long (despite only being 78 minutes) for length's sake. There is no dialogue, only the sound of the wind, the animals and the characters in their many shades of agony.
Begotten fails, but not completely. I would call it neither brilliant nor complete garbage. If it were a 10-20 minute short, its plot would not appear so thin, and its gore would be far more bold and shocking than monotonous.
The method they used to make the movie however is fascinating, it was filmed in black and white reversals, then every frame was rephotographed and put back together on negatives through a number of filters, so you get this really intense polarization of lit and darkened space. The film looks and sounds like it was shot on the spot at the beginning of time and whatever remains of the "documentary" is all there is to see. If nothing else, it's aesthetically mesmerizing.
If you enjoy lengthy rape scenes in grainy high-contrast, this might be the film for you! Also, if you like to sit for over an hour in complete dumbfounded silence, as there is no music and little to no sound.
Unlike anything I have ever seen, except maybe early Lynch, Tetsuo, or Nosferatu--and even those comparisons do not quite match it. The attempt to create an elemental work of art lacking any context is admirable, and visually, this should be, by all means, my perfect film. But the scenes go on too long. Rather than enhance the strange feel, it detracts. I found myself actually getting bored (and trust me, I'm not the sort of viewer who asks for a thrill a minute). The overall length is roughly 45 minutes; it could have been docked to 15 and worked perfectly. Even so, I recommend this to anyone who likes bizarre and daring art films (like the ones I mention above).
This is quite possibly the most disgusting, disturbing thing I have ever watched. It's also quite possibly one of the most wretched things I've ever watched. Despite only being a little over an hour in length, it still drags on too damn long with no dialogue or music and very little sound, and yet, due to the stark, bleak, black and white visuals with the contrast jacked up, and because of the shocking things that happen, you just can't look away! I'm not even going to attempt to make sense of it. It's like a slow, violent, almost Biblical nightmare burned straight from a horribly drugged mind onto film. I think a piece of my brain fell off...
Disturbing? Sure. I hear people compare this movie to Eraserhead, maybe only because there's nothing else to compare it to and it's in black and white. Not a terrible film showing the creation of the world, but not extraordinary. Better than Eraserhead? Maybe if my diet only consisted of cough syrup.
great experimental movie i watched it by first time when i was 16 years old i bought it in 2002 someone borrowed it from me :( borrow soooo funny way to say steal pppffff
A very interesting take on the cycle of life and the creation of mankind. More interesting than that, however, is the way it's filmed in a style reminiscent of early cinema and the fact it lacks words - it only has well placed and well planned sound effects.
Even too disturbing for me, and if you know me that's saying something. I'm not saying this as a challenge, please don't see this, it's too disturbing.
Interesting, to say the least. I was not bored, though I was not entertained either. I was intrigued. It is definitely a movie that is meant to be appreciated more than entertain people. I'm pretty sure I've figured out what was going on, though it took some thought, and no doubt a second viewing would help but I don't know if I could sit through it again. At 72 minutes, it's far too long for it's own good. It would have been a much better film if Elias had shortened it down around the 30 minute mark, which he easily could have done. I was dangerously close to losing any interest in the movie during multiple scenes, and I am a person who can sit through some pretty boring films, so the normal viewer would probably turn this off after the first 20 or so minutes.
Why humans persist in touting their own superiority over God is beyond me. Everything we make fails, and still we think "hey, we're the higher power!" Whateva.
Be forewarned: Begotten is not a traditional movie with a beginning, middle, and end. Think of it as a celluloid Rorschach test, in which you must reconcile the strange and eerie images flashed before you.
Visually stunning but thoroughly self-indulgent piece that straddles the line between art and tripe. "Begotten" is one of those films critics love, mostly because it makes no sense, but they don't want to look unsophisticated, so they call it brilliant. Eh, maybe. Director Merhige, who later went on to make the excellent "Shadow of the Vampire," fills the screen with image and sound, along with a supposed story built around the creation myth and the death of God. Whatever. Forget the whole set-up and just watch this mind-blowing film. Not everyone will enjoy it, and I am not sure I did. All I know is it is very unique.
"Very dark, brutal and beautiful in a lot of ways; the closest thing to the Ring video you will ever see. Incedibly original in presenting a seemingly horrific series of events that add up to a sincerely uplifting messege."
One of the few truly comicly satanic films that I have every seen - a bloody, birthing dysteleological surd in a universe that aborts itself. Excellent film not to watch, ever.
MCT:July 20, 2008
MCT:June 19, 2008
MCT:February 10, 2008
MCT:December 8, 2007
MCT:October 28, 2007
MCT:August 24, 2007
MCT:August 24, 2007
MCT:June 26, 2007
MCT:March 9, 2007
MCT:February 26, 2007
