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Subconscious Cruelty (1999)
R2 - Austria - Sazuma Productions Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (12th February 2006). |
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The Film
 When one questions “What is art?”, you´ll get many varied answers. That question may be the most difficult of them all when it comes to any art form, but still there are people who say that something “is art”, and something “is not”, just like that. “Subconscious Cruelty” by Canadian director/writer/editor Karim Hussain can be put on the category of films that you could call “experimental”, “art house” or “art film”, but at the same time you could call it “controversial”, “shocking”, “sleazy”, and “offensive”. It´s one of those films where a group of young and angry filmmakers have taken the “no holds barred”-attitude, plenty of patience and time, a little money, a 16 mm camera, and created a series of grotesque, sometimes even sickening, images, that melt in visually almost like a painting with the imagery and surreal symbolism. The story on the other hand is very complex, resembling a “video art”, where you can take pretty much any series of pictures and scenes, edit them together, and leave the final judgement to the viewer. And of course it leaves the big question: “Was this art that I just saw?”, or better yet: “What was that I just saw?”. “Subconscious Cruelty” is very low budget “underground” filmmaking, which goes in different directions, but which pretty much leaves the final verdict for its audience. It doesn´t give any answers, at least not any obvious ones. As director Hussain says in his intro on this DVD, everyone will probably see this film differently, and it´s up to the each viewer to try and fill those gaps that they might not understand. And there may be plenty of those. The film has probably taken some influences from films like “Eraserhead (1977)” by David Lynch, and directors like Alejandro Jodorowsky and Peter Greenaway, but it´s going much further by adding shocking and violent images, which involves basically all “bodily fluids” that can come out from human beings. Birth, death, man, woman, insanity, religion, sexuality, masochism, violence, nightmares, just name it; all come together in this film. There are different “themes” included in one film; "Ovarian Eyeball", "Human Larvae", "Rebirth", and "Right Brain/Martyrdom”. A clearly insane brother and his pregnant sister are living in a house together, and the upcoming birth will ultimately lead to death. There are a series of images of how something new will be born from the mature nature, and where free spirited people are doing their “birth dance” of some kind, naked. There is also a very controversial sequence of a man watching some real hardcore footage, pleasuring himself at the same time, and in the end we´ll also see the images of the Christ himself, involved in a bloody carnage. There are also more. All taboo breaking, all messy and explicit, all disturbing. All in the name of art? Or exploitation? Or just offensive garbage? At least I can´t find the right word. Perhaps it´s all of them. “Subconscious Cruelty” is not for everyone, and even the strongest and the most curious ones need to have a strong stomach and a very open minded attitude. This film will stretch the boundaries of movie violence, but when it also involves religion and scenes like “child birth”, you can guess that this is very controversial stuff all the way. The strength of this film probably lies in powerful images, which are created with such a small budget. The film also uses music (by Teruhiko Suzuki) and sound effects (by David Kristian) in an effective way, since there is no dialogue or “production sound” (only music, sound effects, and narration). Hussain admits, that without the contributions of Suzuki and Kristian, this would have lost something of its power. No matter what angle I approach the film, it´s still hard to claim that anyone could actually “enjoy” this film - at least in a way that I understand the meaning of “enjoyable film”. It can be interesting at times and even artistic at times, but it´s not an enjoyable film, nor “normal film making” (when it comes to its structure and storytelling). Where it probably succeeds is that it´ll provoke you, not leaving you cold. It really breaks those taboos, in every living room and movie theatre where the film is shown. You probably feel uneasy all the way through it, but this seems to have been one of the goals by the filmmakers. But is it art? It could be. It could be anything you want it to be. Just remember that one thing is certain - it´s still only a movie.
Video
Austrian based “Sazuma Productions” has released probably a definitive 2-disc version of this film, which is called “Deluxe Edition”. And not just this film, since the disc includes also two other short films by the same filmmakers, and plenty of extras. You can watch “Subconscious Cruelty” in its original aspect ratio 4:3, or with non-Anamorphic 1.66:1, which is the theatrical aspect ratio. This film was mainly shown in different film festivals in 1.66:1, but I believe the 4:3-version is still the one to go for in this film. When you choose 1.66:1-ratio, the DVD will create a black bars (mattes) on the top and on the bottom, and no subtitles can be displayed when choosing this option. The film is fully uncut. Since the film was shot in 16 mm (and then blown to 35 mm when shown in film festivals), you´ve a certain amount of grain, some film artifacts, and some general “murkiness” throughout the transfer. This still looks probably very close to how it should be; low budget and rough. Basically the first half of the film happens indoors, where the settings are dark, with a lot of contrasts and certain different colours spicing up the picture. All these colours are strong (they probably bleed to some degree), as well as black levels. The bitrate is high, so the transfer is pretty much clear from the compression artifacts (some ghosting has been reported though). All in all, a good transfer. The film runs 80:26 minutes (PAL), and it has 18 chapters. The disc is coded “R2”.
Audio
Surprisingly, the disc includes English Dolby Digital 5.1 –track, along with English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. Since the film uses plenty of music and some violent sound effects, 5.1-track is justified, even for the low budget film like this. I have no big complaints about the audio on this disc, since it´s usually clear and without any distortion, and surround-channels really opens up the sound field (which is very important aspect to the film). A nice touch also is that this type of release includes optional English, German, and Dutch subtitles. English subtitles are not “HoH” though.
Extras
The 2-disc set is housed in a cardboard box (slightly bigger than a keep case), with each disc in its own holder on opposite sides of the box. All extras are in English (except "La Dernière voix" -short film), and also include optional English, German, and Dutch subtitles. Dutch subtitles are missing from the following extras though: “A Subconscious Cruelty Christmas” and “The Making of Divided Into Zero”. Note, that you can also turn the “Menu transitions” off, the option that would be nice to have in other releases also, at least in those which have a slow menu-structure. You can choose between an English or German language menu. Disc 1 The first disc includes the film, which starts with an “Introduction by director/writer Karim Hussain” -featurette, which runs 11:05 minutes. This is actually a good addition to watch before the film, since Hussain gives some background of the film, and also explains that the film was done by the young and angry filmmakers at the time when the certain “underground film”-movement was very lively. He also kind of “hints” that people shouldn´t watch this like they watch “normal movies”, since “Subconscious Cruelty” is not structured like that. He also points out, how the internet has changed the way of how we look for information, and also about the violent movies made today in a violent world. US trailer (2:58 min) is also included. Disc 2 The second disc includes loads of material for the people who are interested in underground-cinema (with an edge). It also focuses on “Divided Into Zero” -short film and its director Mitch Davis (who was also a producer of “Subconscious Cruelty”). - “A Subconscious Cruelty Christmas” -documentary runs 77:21 minutes. This documentary was made in 2001, and it covers pretty much everything about the movie and its long production (from 1994 to 1999). Karim Hussain and Mitch Davis are doing the main talking, but also some of the actors and crew get to reveal their thoughts about the film, telling interesting anecdotes. The documentary also covers most of the “special make-up effects”-work (yes, the stuff you see on the screen is fake). There were plenty of difficult situations and hard conditions during the shoot, and Hussain also tells of a spooky incident with the Canadian customs, who seized his film for a while. Nice stories (and footage) can be also seen from the films “world premiere” from a Spanish film festival. The documentary includes mainly interviews and “behind the scenes”-footage, and this is very detailed and informative documentary about the real “guerrilla filmmaking”. - “Divided Into Zero (1999)” -short film by director/writer/producer/editor Mitch Davis runs 33:59 minutes. It´s presented in 4:3, and with English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. The short film (shot between 1996-1999) deals with some controversial aspects if its own, since it tells about a child killer. The story is told in a non-linear way, so sometimes the person is 10 years old, sometimes 30, and sometimes 70. It has some similarities to “Subconscious Cruelty”, since again there is no dialogue, just narrator (and music), and it also uses different symbolic storytelling. Despite the dark story, the film is not very graphic, although a few disturbing images are included (it doesn´t go “that far” fortunately). The film is a combination of Super-8 and 16 mm -footage, so again the look of the film is rough, although the transfer is clean. Cinematographer of this one is Karim Hussain. - “Introduction to Divided Into Zero” -featurette by director/writer/producer/editor Mitch Davis is included before his short film, running 2:45 minutes. Here Davis say that the film is “meant to hurt” and the pace is intentionally slow. - “The Making of Divided Into Zero” -featurette runs 12:22 minutes, and is basically raw behind-the-scenes -footage, and it includes a few minutes of “music video montage” also at the end. It gives a fairly good picture of young people making their film. - “Divided Into Zero” trailer (3:59 min) is included. - “Mitch Davis” -text interview in English includes 35 pages. It´s conducted by Louis Vasquez and Daniel Schoessler, and it was originally released in the German film magazine called “Screenshot”. Here Davis gives a very honest and straight story of how his short film got off the ground, and the main idea came during the time when Davis was depressed and in bad shape. He says that the film tells about depression and addiction. I guess the old saying that “real art comes from suffering” can be sometimes true. - “Pre-Infliction Incubations” -reel runs 5:48 minutes, and it includes footage from the early short films (circa 1990) by Mitch Davis. Footage is originally shot on VHS, and it includes material from the films “A Day in the Life”, “The Dominant God” and “Reflections”. - “La Dernière voix AKA The City Without Windows (2002)” is the last short film on this DVD, and it runs 12:43 minutes. This French-Canadian film is co-directed with Karim Hussain and Julien Fonfrede, and their sci-fi tale is beautifully shot (by Hussain) and is a fine piece of work. It´s not as “rough”, nor controversial, as the other material on this disc (this is also shot in 35 mm), but the story is not very easy to understand in this one either. Some of the visual (it´s raining all the time) imagery reminded me of “Blade Runner (1982)”. The film is presented in non-Anamorphic 1.66:1 and with French Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. Like most of the extras, it has also optional English, German, and Dutch subtitles. - “Eaten by Trees” -audio track by David Kristian runs approx. 9 minutes, and it´s an unreleased track from “Subconscious Cruelty” from 1998. Part of this ambient-track appears during “The Ovarian Eyeball” -sequence in the film though. Track plays over the “menu”, which might first confuse some, who are trying to find the “play”-option. - One page “Motion Picture Purgatory” -comic strip by Rick Trembles is divided into 14 screens, and was originally released in “The Montreal Mirror” in April 12, 2001. This comic strip-version of the film is as graphic as the film, but in a different, comical way. - Photo gallery includes 61 photos from both “Subconscious Cruelty” and short film “Divided Into Zero”; stills and behind-the-scenes photos. - DVD credits rounds up the official extras. - One ”Easter egg” can be found by going to the “Divided Into Zero - Extras” menu screen, highlighting the boy on the right, and pressing “enter”. You´ll have excerpts from a text interview with Karim Hussain (in English). It´s conducted by Donato Totaro, and it was original released in the magazine called “Offscreen” in 2001. There you can also find a link of where to find the whole interview. - Case also includes a 16-page booklet, which includes 8-page “Transgression And Redemption?” -lines notes by Dr. Marcus Stiglegger in both English and German (with some photos).
Overall
You have two ways of looking at this DVD-release. The material included is in most parts highly controversial and explicit, not something that you would call “entertaining”. You may even hate it. Then again this DVD-package gives a very good, open, and wide picture of the two underground-filmmakers and their work. If that interests you and you´re open minded, this release might be just for you. But like the old phrase goes: You have been warned. This DVD is available at Sazuma.com.
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