Where to begin with this occult little gem? To be very honest, I haven't quite figured out what it is yet. Dementia stands as a strange experiment and worth analyzing, that's for sure. I'm probably giving it too much honor now, but I risk to say it's a dared and surrealist highlight of expressionism and no-budget cinema-making
. BUT, in constant combination with amateurism and wannabe-psychology. You might even say it looks like and Ed Wood film while he had a moment of clarity and ingenious brilliancy.
For not more than an hour, we follow around a lonely and seemly anti-social woman in a cruel neighborhood of prostitution, orgies and murder. She suffers from visions of childhood trauma's while she's filling up with fury and hatred towards a rich, ignorant man. She kills him and flees chased by the police and haunted by her own morbid imagination. Keeping in mind this film was made in 1953, it becomes even more interesting! The US censorship didn't like it at all and the film barely received showings No surprises there because, even though the film doesn't contain explicit violence, it's very unpleasant and disturbing to look at. Every character that walks through the screen is unsympathetic and someone you don't want to run into in a dark alley. The atmosphere this film breathes feels like David Lynch's Eraserhead avant-la-lettre, and I wouldn't be surprised if he found some of his inspiration and enthusiasm in Dementia. This film is perhaps a little too weak and messy to refer to as avant-garde, but it does float somewhere between that and cheap B-cinema. Up to you to decide where it's categorized best! One thing is sure, though Dementia is food for thought at film-Academies. I saw the original version of this lost film at a festival, on the big screen and guided by a life-orchestra of cello's and a piano. The film itself doesn't contain any dialogues and therefore this chilling music brought it up to an almost unbearable cult-experience.
For not more than an hour, we follow around a lonely and seemly anti-social woman in a cruel neighborhood of prostitution, orgies and murder. She suffers from visions of childhood trauma's while she's filling up with fury and hatred towards a rich, ignorant man. She kills him and flees chased by the police and haunted by her own morbid imagination. Keeping in mind this film was made in 1953, it becomes even more interesting! The US censorship didn't like it at all and the film barely received showings No surprises there because, even though the film doesn't contain explicit violence, it's very unpleasant and disturbing to look at. Every character that walks through the screen is unsympathetic and someone you don't want to run into in a dark alley. The atmosphere this film breathes feels like David Lynch's Eraserhead avant-la-lettre, and I wouldn't be surprised if he found some of his inspiration and enthusiasm in Dementia. This film is perhaps a little too weak and messy to refer to as avant-garde, but it does float somewhere between that and cheap B-cinema. Up to you to decide where it's categorized best! One thing is sure, though Dementia is food for thought at film-Academies. I saw the original version of this lost film at a festival, on the big screen and guided by a life-orchestra of cello's and a piano. The film itself doesn't contain any dialogues and therefore this chilling music brought it up to an almost unbearable cult-experience.