Monday, 17 September 2012

Destricted (2006)



Destricted is not a film. Nor is it porn. It’s both. Or neither. Or something. I’m not sure quite what it’s trying to be really. It styles itself as an art-house collection of shorts that explore where pornography and art meet. It’s very sexually explicit. But it’s not erotic. Not really.

Notice the short sentences. I haven’t really had time to digest it yet and all I have is the vague feeling that I’ve just wasted a couple of hours of my life. Some of the shorts are barely more complex or arty than simply watching someone masturbate for a few minutes. Death Valley is a good example of one of those. It’s directed by Sam Taylor-Wood who also directed Nowhere Boy (Yeah – I bet that surprised you!). A more obvious director for such a genre is Gaspar Noé. No prizes for guessing which one he directs though. It’s exactly the same as Irreversible, right down to the weird background noise and the strobe lights. It does neglect to include the violent fire extinguisher murder though so that’s something.

Another of the films is a weird comedy-type thing about Balkan folk-law that involves various people in ‘traditional’ costume prancing about with their genitals on display. While it rains. And there’s a bit of animation there too for good measure.

This is definitely a contender for the weirdest film I’ve seen this year, if not ever. And it’s got some company. Irreversible, Dogtooth, Possession, Shortbus – knocks them all out of the park. The only strong competition I can think of is Missing. Korean cake-rape does class quite highly on the weird ratings. It makes me slightly long for the sweet innocent days of thinking Requiem for a Dream was fucked up.

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