Begotten

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steve hyde
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Begotten

Post by steve hyde »

Elias Merhige's "The Begotten" might be the most innovative and controversial small gauge film ever made. It was carefully scripted, meticulously rehearsed,carefully filmed and edited. Merhige used a homemade optical printer.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101420/


I'll refrain from saying anything about it now, although I'd love to hear how others have reacted to the film. I'll leave you with a quote from the author:
"The idea of time working on the surface of the medium was important to me. I wanted to create a sense that the film was going though its own sufferings. The idea of ruins, of things falling apart - not because of the overt violence of one body against another, but through the subtle violence of time -has always fascinated me. I wanted Begotten to look, not as if it were made in the twenties, not even as if it were from the nineteenth century, but as if it were from the time of Christ, as if it were a cinematic Dead Sea Scroll that had been buried in the sands, a remnant of a culture with customs and rites that no longer apply to this culture, yet are somewhere underneath it, under the surface of what we call "reality".
Last edited by steve hyde on Sun Jul 17, 2005 3:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
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timdrage
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Post by timdrage »

I saw this recently, tho not the greatest quality copy; I think it's one of those films that you really need to see in the cinema rather than video...

Interesting anyway... some pretty 8O images though, not for the faint-hearted!!! Very odd. It's quite slow, almost deliberately boring. I appreciate it but it's one of those films where I prefer my idea of what it would be like from reading about it beforehand to the actual film when I saw it!

What was it shot on, 16mm?

He also made a video for marylin manson's track "cryptorchid" which is mostly (all?) footage from Begotten. For those with short attention spans it's probably more effective than the feature, tho you miss the nastier bits :) you can download it here - http://www.wickedland.com/manson/videos/
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Post by Evan Kubota »

A friend recommended this to me. Looks excellent, from the bits I've seen. Reminds me of the cinematics in "Silent Hill."
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timdrage
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Post by timdrage »

I think the evil video in Ring (japanese version) could have been slightly inspired by Begotten too...
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steve hyde
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Post by steve hyde »

I watched a "World Artists" DVD edition of it with a few "special features" that includes a booklet (where I pulled the quote) and some info on method. He says he shot it on an Arri S using B&W reversal. Some of the shots looked like 8mm, but maybe he zoomed in on the film in post. At times the images are more grainy than 8mm. Perhaps it is a post-effect. It sounds like they did a lot of re-photographing with an optical printer.

Here is another quote from the interview:
Raised the money? Well, first of all, I had twenty thousand dollars that my grandfather had left me for medical school. I decided to use it for this.
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timdrage
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Post by timdrage »

Hmm, lucky for some!
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