Wow. Although I had read numerous reviews nothing quite prepared me for the experience that is Pastoral: To Die in the Country. It is a film so rich in symbolism, themes and invention it threatens to overwhelm you. It is almost impossible to fully comprehend on a single viewing as you can only scratch the surface of such a dense and intense film that attempts to tackle such impossible subjects as memory, national history and time itself.

Shûji Terayama’s film is avant-garde filmmaking at its finest. So often surrealist cinema can come across as little more than a procession of incongruous imagery aimed at pretentious beret wearing intellectuals (and many may say this film is aimed at the same audience),…

Part of The December Project: Film #21

Woah.

Pastoral. To Die in the Country is definitely the kind of film I love. It's surreal and dreamy. You put it on, and you just flow with it for the complete running time and you let the madness wash over you. You don't necessarily try to make sense of it. That would ruin the purpose. Films like these are experiences.

But what lets Patoral. To Die in the Country stand on its own is how it uses this style to its advantage. The film is all about memory, and how the director investigates his own childhood and how art manages to corrupt that image. He explores many themes regarding childhood sexuality, love,…

I didn’t even know he existed until about three weeks ago, but reading a bit up on him, Terayama is an interesting figure. It is surprising that I did not know of him, not because I am a authority on anything at all, far from it, but because a) he seems to be considered one of the finest avante-garde artists of the last century and he was insanely prolific, so you’d think I would have seen mention of him before recently and b) his films appear to be quite available.

This is the first I am watching because it is the first to finish downloading. Throw Away Your Books to follow. It plays out as some kind of hybrid of…

Part of The December Project: Film #21

Woah.

Pastoral. To Die in the Country is definitely the kind of film I love. It's surreal and dreamy. You put it on, and you just flow with it for the complete running time and you let the madness wash over you. You don't necessarily try to make sense of it. That would ruin the purpose. Films like these are experiences.

But what lets Patoral. To Die in the Country stand on its own is how it uses this style to its advantage. The film is all about memory, and how the director investigates his own childhood and how art manages to corrupt that image. He explores many themes regarding childhood sexuality, love,…

Wow. Although I had read numerous reviews nothing quite prepared me for the experience that is Pastoral: To Die in the Country. It is a film so rich in symbolism, themes and invention it threatens to overwhelm you. It is almost impossible to fully comprehend on a single viewing as you can only scratch the surface of such a dense and intense film that attempts to tackle such impossible subjects as memory, national history and time itself.

Shûji Terayama’s film is avant-garde filmmaking at its finest. So often surrealist cinema can come across as little more than a procession of incongruous imagery aimed at pretentious beret wearing intellectuals (and many may say this film is aimed at the same audience),…