It has to be one of the most irresponsible and confusing film choices to be included in a reverenced book, the classic "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die". Here's "Les Maîtres Fous" a pointless docufiction, the first ever created actually, whose scenes aren't sublime, interesting, positive, but it can make us disgusted, horrified for a few moments, and feeling that the director had nothing better to do with his and our time.
The "1001 Movies..." book only included this short film simply because (I believe) a new genre was created and as a matter of fact not much of a good one, since mixing both types of art (reality and fiction in a documentary) tends to be forced, always unrealistic, always acted and it's very hard to someone relate with it since how can one knows where fiction ends and reality begins? Too much abo about nothing!
Here we have wild Africans who appear in front of camera drooling, doing weird movements, possessed by some demon or something and they're being "healed" by allegedly exorcists called "governors", and their "healing" process consists of sacrificing animals (a dog has its throat sliced up with the blood drunk by the possessed, to later have its parts eaten). By the time the film reached this infamous part I was confused, quite shocked and I wasn't seeing any relevance to showing a culture being portrayed the way they weren't in real life. Also the fact about the black people making fun of white people, which caused some controversy at the time of its release but this is almost unnoticed. But what amazes me the most is the last minutes of its projection when we're able to look how wonderful actors these "possessed men" were when the director tells us what they do, showing them in their jobs, smiling and with no creatures inside their bodies telling what to do. Class acting!
It takes a few minutes but those minutes count in someone's lives. I could be a better person in half an hour instead of watching this; I could have been watching again the first half hour of my favorite film instead of this. You can do better and greater things than watching this silly movie, but if you, like me are going on a crusade after the 1001 movies, well, you can waste a few minutes away. It's not the worst film of all but it is the worst of its kind. The only people who likes this stuff are the ones who are easily impressed by the wilderness, uncivilized people and their acts. I like these themes when better developed, and when it states a point of view on our lives and the habitants living in the jungle. Godard and Deodato shocked us and they made more relevant things than this dull project of film. 3/10.
The "1001 Movies..." book only included this short film simply because (I believe) a new genre was created and as a matter of fact not much of a good one, since mixing both types of art (reality and fiction in a documentary) tends to be forced, always unrealistic, always acted and it's very hard to someone relate with it since how can one knows where fiction ends and reality begins? Too much abo about nothing!
Here we have wild Africans who appear in front of camera drooling, doing weird movements, possessed by some demon or something and they're being "healed" by allegedly exorcists called "governors", and their "healing" process consists of sacrificing animals (a dog has its throat sliced up with the blood drunk by the possessed, to later have its parts eaten). By the time the film reached this infamous part I was confused, quite shocked and I wasn't seeing any relevance to showing a culture being portrayed the way they weren't in real life. Also the fact about the black people making fun of white people, which caused some controversy at the time of its release but this is almost unnoticed. But what amazes me the most is the last minutes of its projection when we're able to look how wonderful actors these "possessed men" were when the director tells us what they do, showing them in their jobs, smiling and with no creatures inside their bodies telling what to do. Class acting!
It takes a few minutes but those minutes count in someone's lives. I could be a better person in half an hour instead of watching this; I could have been watching again the first half hour of my favorite film instead of this. You can do better and greater things than watching this silly movie, but if you, like me are going on a crusade after the 1001 movies, well, you can waste a few minutes away. It's not the worst film of all but it is the worst of its kind. The only people who likes this stuff are the ones who are easily impressed by the wilderness, uncivilized people and their acts. I like these themes when better developed, and when it states a point of view on our lives and the habitants living in the jungle. Godard and Deodato shocked us and they made more relevant things than this dull project of film. 3/10.