Sunday 30 September 2012

Santa Sangre (MX/IT, 1989)

I tend to regard modern films or directors mentioned in the same breath as Lynch or Buñuel with high suspicion, because it'd be impossible to equal either, or even come close.

Until this. A unique movie, part sacreligious horror, part revenge story, part comedy, part circus/asylum freakshow, with almost other-worldly attention to detail.

It's a truly magic, masterful, colourful, visual feast, just made for the cinema, in places hilarious, and never has anything so unusual ever been carried off so naturalistically. Well up there with The Phantom of Liberty, Valerie and her Week of Wonders and Lynch at his best.

I repeatedly overlooked renting this movie because the DVD cover made it look too fanciful/theatrical. Duh...full marks and many thanks to QFT Belfast for putting the likes of it on. I wasn't expecting much from this on the basis of the trailer on YT, but it's the best film I've seen this year, or certainly in the top 2.

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