Sep 5 2011

Sci-Fi AMAD September: Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010)

There is a man. He may be a scientist or a therapist. He keeps a young woman locked in an antiseptic room and conducts experiments to test her emotional threshold. Many of these tests are incomprehensible, most seem to tax the woman on a level more spiritual than physical. Both the man and the woman occupy a stark and empty commune known as the Aboria Institute. The woman eventually escapes and the man gives chase. These are, more or less, the events of Beyond the Black Rainbow, the first film by new director Pan Cosmatos.

Who is the man? What is his purpose? Why does he so desperately want the woman, and why is she tormented? What exactly is the aim of the Aboria Institute? These are the kinds of questions we have been programmed to ask since grade school when we encounter a narrative. None of them are answered by Black Rainbow, which seems to exist as a kind of experiment (more likely an answer to a dare) by its director. We can pencil in a few details, but mainly this is an introverted and hypnotic film that exists to wallow in atmosphere without meaning or emphasis. I suppose it’s the kind of thing one might call ‘visionary’ if they were so inclined. The truth is that it’s a tiring and relentless exercise in style purposefully leeched of substance. There’s nary a scene that evokes anything resembling human emotion. It’s like a bad acid trip in front of dingy hospital walls.

Calling Beyond the Black Rainbow science fiction is being severely generous. It’s only link to the genre is the canned stylistic devices it uses. Trying a similar tactic as Ti West’s House of the Devil, Black Rainbow dresses itself up like a late 70’s/early 80s sci-fi movie, with sparse sets, trippy visuals, and austere dialogue and narrative. The production values are good and the film achieves the look it’s going for, but Cosmatos doesn’t have any ideas beyond the aesthetic veneer. The angular and kaleidoscopic set pieces, aided by a distinctly altered color palette, do cast the believable allusion that this film fell out of another time. What they don’t do is add any resonance to the proceedings. The imagery is meant to envelop, instead it drowns the tone and the audience simultaneously.

The quality of the acting is difficult to diagnose because its purpose and trajectory are impossible to predict. Michael Rodgers plays the man, Barry Nyle, first as a hard-to-read tragic soul—apparently he’s so connected to the Almighty that his head occasionally catches fire—and then in the second half, a one-note mad-men cum feral stalker. He’s in nearly every scene of the film, and more than half of those incorporate something off-kilter and surreal. I suppose the simple fact he manages to stay in character is some kind of achievement. He’s overreaching in the later scenes, mugging in a manner more fitting of an old Universal horror movie. Of course it’s highly likely that’s what Cosmatos is going for. Eva Allen as the female, Elena, is better but then she’s got only one garbled line of psychic dialogue and wanders silently through Cosmatos’ twisted wonderland.  Regardless of their inspiration or suggested direction, the actors and the characters come off as incidental; flesh and blood furniture that can freely move room to room and show off the scenery.

I may have given the impression here that because the film focuses its energy on sensory effects its pleasing at that level. Personally, I don’t find that to be the case at all.The attempts to illustrate Elena’s misery and torment come off as cheeky and antagonistic–a swirling light show of fun-house mirror distortions and canted angles. A sloppy black and white film reel explaining Barry’s genesis is jarring without being instructive. This is an ugly and irritating film that has been so tweaked and teased that every frame feels like its screaming at the top of its lungs. . Think about that for a minute. How long do you want to look/listen/feel anything at maximum impact for the length of a feature film? This is especially true when the voice in question has nothing to say.

Pan is the son of director George Cosmatos, who was responsible for effective genre films like Of Unknown Origin, Tombstone, and Leviathan.The elder Cosmatos may not have been a distinctive artist, but he knew his way around formulas and tropes and could deliver characters to care about and strong pacing for narratives. There are scenes in Black Rainbow that do show promise for the younger Cosmatos, but he’s trying too hard to be clever and experimental here. There’s nothing wrong with that goal, but his preparation doesn’t match his ambition. He’s made an entire feature without knowing what he wanted to say. I suspect he’s had a long think on the purpose of this film, but even if it’s meant to be an art installation of sorts, he’s still failed. Pan, go back to the films you drew inspiration from—hell, go watch some of your dad’s films—and then make one that uses its imagery instead of standing outside for a smoke, while visuals runs rampant on screen. A frustrating failure that does not lack sincerity, but proper care and creativity.

Tommorrow’s AMAD is the 2009 sci-fi spoof ‘Alien Trespass’ which will hopefully wash away the icky aftertaste of Black Rainbow. Check out the poster below, and then check out the previous AMAD entries for September.

September AMAD: Science Fiction:

Cargo (2009)

The Eliminators (1986)

By Nathan • Film, Films • 4 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,