Ecstatic Stigmatic

ECSTATIC STIGMATIC starts strong and immediately fascinates. Through the narration of someone, probably a doctor, maybe a psychiatrist, we are introduced to Little Rose, a young woman who is institutionalized in a mental hospital. We are told that she becomes stigmatized because of an "hysteric ailment" and that she was the leader of a blood-letting cult. Then, a new narrator starts talking about Little Rose much less scientifically and much more respectful, almost as if holding a sermon for a saint. All the while, we see Little Rose convulsing on her bed in one of her fits of ecstasy, which are always accompanied by stigmata.

That's what happens in the first 20 minutes of the film. The film gets a little muddled or maybe just harder to decipher after that. There are several layers of flashbacks to Little Rose's childhood and her life with her parents, who were both performance artists.

ECSTATIC STIGMATIC is pretty interesting, occasionally even fascinating experimental film that came out of the New Yorker "New Cinema" movement. It's certainly worth seeking out for lovers of strange, trippy, experimental art-house film-making.

I was first introduced to the music and films of the art movement known as the No Wave when I saw the documentary Blank City (2010). For anyone interested in this most bizarre and utterly left-field movement this documentary is probably a must. What I took away from it though, was that these films might be a little too strange for the likes of me! Anyway, I finally got to sample one of them when a kind fellow IMDb user sent me a copy of Ecstatic Stigmatic. He added an interesting note that said it was 'the only film which led (him) to search online to find out if the director had gone insane'. Considering he had previously sent me a copy of the utterly nuts Greek oddity Singapore Sling (1990), I had to find out what it was that made him think this one in particular was so much stranger than that. Well, having just seen it I have to say…yeah this is properly bizarre stuff right enough. It's 'story' is quite difficult to understand and I am thankful for the other reviews here which helped me piece together what I had just seen. In summary, it's about a character called Rose F, who is the daughter of a tattoo artist and stripper. She has a few problems evidently and becomes a stigmatic and is confined to a psychiatric hospital. Later on there are flashbacks to scenes from her childhood.

As I say, this is highly experimental, avant-garde stuff. It's really low budget as these types of wilfully transgressive and strange films just about always are. It's pretty diametrically opposed to being comforting viewing, with strange imagery, full on voice-overs and very atonal music used throughout. Of the latter we have agitated jazz, extended use of wolf whining and lots of lo-fi music of the type the No Wave was famed for. Needless to say, this is not a film for everyone. Although this is a statement that probably doesn't even need to be said. It's one strictly for the most intrepid cinematic adventurers only.

One of the foremost classics of the original punk art-movement of the late 1970s. Created by Gordon Stevenson (band member of Lydia's Lunch's Teenage Jesus and the Jerks). The film includes acting by Mary Cervenka (sister of Exene Cervenka of the band X). This film really captures the dark and luminous delirium so prevalent during the upheaval of the punk art movement. Unfortunately, Mary died in a car crash in Los Angeles while traveling during the film's original tour. When Gordon Stevenson died a short time later, the film seems to have vanished into the forgotten corners of cultural history. I would love to see it again, as the memories of this visionary work have never left my mind since watching it several times in the late 1970s.