Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye

I went into this film not knowing what it was about. We had just finished seeing another independent film, which finished early and was great, so we went to this one since it was the next one playing. The ticket seller did say the movie was sexually explicit. In mind, that meant something like the deleted scene from Angel Heart. However, what we saw was hard core.

It is kind of sad to see what some people think of as art these days. This was a porno movie plain and simple. Just think, I can edit a porno movie and splice it with a dance number and a breech birth and can it an independent film. People just get over your repression and buy a real porno movie at least you'll see a ---shot as well.

many people would consider the writing of Georges Bataille pornographic. many people would consider the films of Richard Kern or even of Bertolucci to be pornographic. underground cinema always has pushed the envelope of our sensibilities and i think Story Of The Eye is no different. i think calling something porn has more to do with the way it is made than what exactly is being shown. pornography is cheaply produced for a buck. it is exploitative of its talent and its audience. this film is neither. the filmmaker is no hack, his imagery is subtle, symbolic, and often sublime. granted, subtlety is tossed out the window at times when penetration and bodily fluids take center stage, but those are jolts that intend to shock. i was shocked by this film, and i am so rarely shocked that it was actually refreshing. i've seen enough to not be shocked simply because the film is so explicit, but because it is so gorgeously photographed and interestingly designed AND so explicit. i highly recommend this for anyone interested in checking out a film that really goes there.

George Bataille's Story of the Eye is a nearly silent film with just music, drones and noise (the only dialogue is some voiceover at the beginning and the name `Jackie O' which one of the women mutters as a phrase three times about half way though the film), its shot on DV as if in Dario Argento Technicolor, the sound design rivals Eraserhead and, most unusually the film features hard-core sex acts (gay, straight and bi) which serves to illustrate the physiology of the film's characters.

The actors are all incredibly beautiful (the tap dancing girls are HOT!) and brave (no one seems to be faking anything) and the fluid camera studies them like a Victorian naturalist lost in an overheated, imagined Punked-Out Congo. It's dream-like and narcotic it its personality but also rather witty and dry and `English.' My girlfriend was really into the scene with the Sailor and the Black Leather Man but her best friend found it `really too weird and smutty' and left the room about 20 minutes into the film. I think it helps to know George Bataille's essays on sex, sensuality, spirituality and death or really like films like `Salo,' `The Pillow Book,' `Eyes Wide Shut' or `Romance.'

I've never seen a flick like this; a friend of mine lent me an advance video screener which might have been missing the final 10 minutes because the screen goes black and there is just chaotic sound then color bars.

I close my eyes and pictures from this movie flood my mind so clearly -- I can't wait to see this on the big screen. It's a big turn on for both the mind and body.

The first two scenes really set the mood of this, especially the one that is not often mentioned on these boards about the guy with the joy stick and the women on stage in the top hats. I was quite fond of the music and sound element in this flick, especially during the male/male scene. I like bondage porn and I like pretentiously artsy stuff, so this one was kind of in the bag for me, but I can see where it wouldn't cater to too huge an audience. I've never read the book, but it certainly made me want to. After reading it I expect to find that it was more budget limitations that kept this one so cut down from the amount and quality of content that the original author had in mind.

I do like how well it balanced an arousing pornographic element with art-house style experimental film. The lighting work and some of the camera angles did throw back to some of Kenneth Anger's work, also the somber classical piano in the male/male scene. The progression of the sex was not unlike most porn with the exception of the obligatory climax which I think is overrated, even in gay porn. Honestly, the scenes could have been like 3-5 minutes shorter each and I don't think we would have missed the erotic element (unless it takes you a while to get off) and had room for another scene, but again I would imagine that that is directly related to funds.

All in all, if you call it porn, it is by far the best porn flick I've ever seen. If you call it experimental or an art film, it wasn't as compelling as Anger or even as abstract or pretentious as "The Pig --cking Movie", but I still put it up in a class of one of the more interesting movies I've seen in some time.

93, --DH

There are a couple of mildly interesting ideas here but basically it just comes over as a string of tediously extended hardcore sex scenes performed by art students. Associating it with Bataille is ridiculous - the only link is the openness about sex. But in terms of aesthetic interest there's no comparison at all. In short: don't bother.