freddiemurfin

This remains one of the most confusing entries in Sergio Martino's filmography, because of there being around four different cuts still circulating around.

For context, the opening sequence was directed by Miller Drake. And the special effects here were completed by a certain Chris Walas, known for his work on The Fly.

Some might look for Martino's definitive cut ("L'isola degli uomini pesce"), before Corman acquired the US distribution ("Screamers") and began commissioning these changes, as the preferred version (especially for the Martino completionists), but I think the Walas contributions are incredible, and it's a shame we never really got to see what a master of special effects could have done alongside a director like Martino or Fulci.

Overall, it is not at the level of Slave of the Cannibal God, or The Great Alligator, which are definitely more accomplished, - but it is interesting to think as to what compelled Martino to turn to The Island of Dr. Moreau as an inspiration, amidst that Italian wave of cannibal films: I think that's what makes this a strange but interesting part of his filmography.

This is also I think the only Martino work which really struggles from pacing issues, - between the second and third act. I would not recommend this really to anyone other than those trawling through his available filmography.

This is a film that contains a mixture of realities, that of the traditional bildungsroman, and the resignation of de Gaulle in 1969.

That year in particular was noted as a time of malaise, where society had become saturated, wages stagnating, and mores in particular being gradually dismantled. It is in short a time of confusion.

Consider the scene from "Une vraie jeune fille" where the daughter helps the mother with removing the innards of a slaughtered chicken.

This idea of the confrontation of the interior with the exterior, the individual with society, these binaries, continually come to the foreground in the film, which is what makes it so captivating.

A 'post-Feminist' reading might give some credulity to this slaughtering of the insides with the outsides, and another reading, might assume that the thesis of the film is hinged on this idea of the bildungsroman genre remaining a conceit for exploring France during these grim years.

If the student revolts gave a theoretical impetus, it is that collective revolt anchored on the youth, ends up eating its own tail, ransacked of its inner potential.

And so, "Une vraie jeune fille" is an interesting piece here that explores these different spaces with these erratic shifts in context, which does challenge how we approach this material. This has in turn, the literary qualities of a certain Jelinek.

Another film I would place it alongside would be "Dans ma peau", which is interesting considering this film after being banned for decades, came back into circulation during the New French Extremity movement. There are clearly connecting themes here, which point to this film being a precursor to the likes of "Dans me peau" and "Trouble Every Day".

Someone has already mentioned Wakamatsu here, which I think is another appropriate reference for that merging of sexuality with the political.

It might seem reductive, considering that this is a deeply personal piece of filmmaking but there are shades in here of Clio Bernard, Andrea Arnold, Lynne Ramsay, Alan Clarke (who I think is the most direct companion to this work, from the at-time guttural sensitivity), with other works I'm reminded of including Naked, Mona Lisa, and Nil by Mouth.

This is a film that is difficult viewing for those that find themselves not necessarily refracted in the characters, but in the dynamics, tone, and mood, which can at times feel overwhelming.

The palliative care sequences were particularly gut-wrenching for me, and handled carefully.

The performances are almost feverish, as if dictated by, or caught in, circumstance,-and this does seem like a definitively unique contribution to filmmaking, that will over time, I imagine, be viewed with the same eyes as those that look back on a work like Nil by Mouth.

It seems slightly pointless to try to describe the story as a way into the film, since what this really feels like is delving headfirst into a study of complex dynamics that I don't think someone could have directed had they not gone through them.

There is a deep austerity to filmmaking rarely being done like this anymore.