AMER is an unusual film to say the least. While it appears to be a giallo on the surface, it sides closer to the artier, more self-conscious “modernist” Italian films, like those by Antonioni and Godard. That’s why a Halloween release is slightly suspect; people going in expecting something scary will end up leaving very disappointed. (Read The Arrow’s review right HERE.)
That said, it does have its moments, especially in the first half hour, which does bring to mind the work of Mario Bava (a personal fav). For that section alone, it might be worth a Halloween weekend view – if you’re looking for something that isn’t going to provide typical gross outs. However, you’ll have to be living in New York or L.A. to enjoy AMER, as it will only be screening at the Cinema Village in NYC and at the Sunset 5 in L.A. More theaters will be announced soon.
Ana (Marie Bos) is confronted by Body and Desire at three key moments of her life. Her carnal search sways between reality and colored fantasies becoming more and more oppressive. A black laced hand prevents her from screaming. The wind lifts her dress and caresses her thighs. A razor blade brushes her skin, where will this chaotic and carnivorous journey leave her?
A dream-like, eroticized homage to 1970s Italian giallo horror movies reimagined as an avant-garde trance film, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s pastiche tour de force plays out a delirious, enigmatic,almost wordless death-dance of fear and desire. Its three movements, each in a different style, correspond to the childhood, adolescence, and adulthood of its female protagonist. Drawing its stylized, hyperbolic gestures from the playbooks of Bava, Leone, Argento, and De Palma and taking them into a realm of near-abstraction, AMER has genre in the blood. Its bold wide-screen compositions, super-focused sound, emphatic music (lifted from original giallo soundtracks), and razor-sharp cuts make for an outrageous and intoxicating cinematic head-trip.
For more AMER goodness, keep your ears open to the AITH Podcast, because we’ll have one of the directors on as a guest in the coming weeks!