Saturday, October 15, 2011

The white sound (Das Weiße Rauschen) : The soundtrack of a paranoid schizophrenic









Lukas takes a trip on magic mushrooms. Lukas is not coming back.










Driving through the countryside, Kati, Jochen and Lukas take some magic mushrooms. One of them, Lukas, is not coming down from them. Hearing voices like multiple different low turned radio programs, changing and mixing altogether. The diagnosis of the physician: paranoid schizophrenia. Not able to filter and interpret the sensations presented he encounters fear, inner voices, paranoia and is drifting away from reality.














The film does not become a clinical case study, but tells an interesting story about a young man, Lukas, who moves to Cologne to share a flat with his older sister Kati  and her friend Jochen. At first everything is going fine; they spend their days full of recreation, but when he abandons his university studies on the first day just because he can't find the enrollment office ,and when a date with a girl goes a little bit wrong the audience begins to suspect that there's something wrong with Lukas. Lukas' schizophrenia attacks become almost physically tangible through very clever use of camera and sound. Whenever he is about to have one, the coloured footage moves to black and white. After the schizophrenia first breaks out, the movie becomes a very intense experience (similar to the films of Darren Aronofsky or even to "Das Experiment"), because on the sound track you hear the same cacophony of voices that begin to torment Lukas...











Monday, October 10, 2011

Cat Ladies: (Clinically) Mad about cats










The image of the typical cat lady is a portrait of severe mental disturbance, often used comedically like in “The Simpsons,” where Springfield’s unshowered feline connoisseur leaps into action, using kittens as throwing stars as she clears the room with her garbled ranting. Of course, there’s a dark side to this lifestyle, a portrayal offered a brief but harrowing spotlight in the spellbinding documentary “Cat Ladies.”






In this documentary we are introduced to four women who have an obsession with feline ownership. For Margot, three cats is her limit, showering the felines with love and attention while her personal life turns to stone. Troubled Jenny is a quick-witted 35-year-old single lady who depends on her 16 cats for comfort, pushing her dangerously close to the “crazy cat lady” brand she fears. Diane once had a potent personal life, but a disruption of her career led her to seek out stray cats, with over 100 felines taking up residence in her home. Sigi has the same hording problem as Diane, only she views the mass cat population as caped heroism, trapping feral cats to feed her God complex, imagining herself as the only savior these little furry creatures have.







These are passionate women feeling comfortable enough to allow cameras to capture their shame, bringing the viewer into these hot zones of kitten play. It’s easy to be horrified by these women, and to mock their litter-box-lined lifestyle.





“Cat Ladies” is not a cheap joke. It’s a touching, unforgettable decent into various degrees of mental illness and outright loneliness, looking to probe cat fascination beyond the tempting cliches.




Swallow the pill







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