THE BARON (O BARAO, 2011)

 ***(*) 

 4- 

             Prošlog septembra sam boravio u Beču, na SLASH festivalu fanta-horor filma. Tom prilikom sam imao zadovoljstvo da pogledam BARONA, koji će, kako izgleda, biti na prvom mestu moje godišnje liste horora, iako se radi o nekonvencionalnom i žanrovski svakako neuobičajenom naslovu (no, horora je u njemu ipak dovoljno da bude na toj listi). Evo, kao prvo, šta sam o njemu već napisao na engleskom za svoj blog TEMPLE OF GHOUL, a isti rivju objavljen je i na američkom sajtu Beyond Hollywood. 

Ispod ovog rivjua pogledajte još neke ekskluzive i zapažanja o filmu i njegovom reditelju koga sam u Beču takođe upoznao.

The Baron is a Portuguese film shot in retro-modern-scope, in glorious high contrast Black and White, boasting to be "a 2-D film by Edgar Pêra". One could say that it is modern precisely in its anti-modernity. It is almost impossible to describe this film without relying on comparisons: The Baron looks and feels like a weird re-enactment of a 1930s horror film through the arty lense of a very talented modern director –

 

- something along the lines of Almereyda's Nadja, Merhige's Begotten and Maddin's Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary. There are also droning soundscapes and grotesquely nightmarish non-sequitur situations in which humor and horror are disquietingly close reminiscent of David Lynch. 

The key overall effect is instability. Nothing in the world directed by Edgar Pêra is permanent: the images dissolve or overlap, the lights and darkness come and go, a huge room is suddenly shrunk to a black solitary cell... Nothing is stable. The same goes for his narrative, with only the vaguest respect to linearity and conventional logic. The events are governed by dream logic, and The Baron may easily be one of the most oneiric narrative films in recent times – or oerhaps since the days of Jean Cocteau.

For those yearning for plot, here's the essence: it all starts like Kafka's The Castle, with a frail-looking school inspector visiting a remote ("off the maps") village whose name he's forgotten. Unlike K. he is almost forced into the towering prison-like structure and brought to the powerful Baron who governs the region through fear. 

Just in case there's any doubt, he keeps repeating: "I'm the one in charge!" What follows after the inspector's arrival to the Castle is a series of increasingly nightmarish scenarios, although the terrors are rarely specific. As in the films produced by Val Lewton in the 1940s (humorously alluded to in the prologue), few are the scenes of direct horror, yet the sense of foreboding and doom hangs over all.  

The center of it, of course, is the Baron himself: as played by Nuno Melo, he is one of the most charismatic and memorable "gothic" villains ever since Klaus Kinski had his larger-than-life role in Nosferatu (1979). It is a performance which cannot be praised enough: the entire film hangs on Mr Melo's strong sholders and his commanding, scene-stealing presence haunts the screen even when he is not visible. 

His Baron is a force of nature and a joy to watch (from a safe distance, that is)! The other players are very fine indeed, but inevitably overshadowed by the iconic presence of Nuno Melo.

Of course, Edgar Pêra as the veteran avant-garde director, Luís Branquinho as his trusted director of photography and Fernando Areal as art director (with his sparse, heavily stylized sets) are equally prominent stars of The Baron. Their job in creating this world of floating shadows and vague nightmares of oppression (political and existential, almost metaphysical) is nothing short of amazing. This is a daring, original and highly memorable work of a true visionary and demands the audience ready and willing to be surprised by something unconventional and new. 

This, however, doesn't mean that the film is all about doom and gloom and slowburning terrors: it is also very funny in its own idiosyncratic and eccentric ways. Its playful absurdities are channeling Kafka's insight of the proximity between horror and humor, and its vision of the world is at the same time very dark, and somewhat tongue-in-cheek, too.

This review is based on the film's screening at Vienna's Slashfest, where Mr Pera was a delightful guest. His next film will be a very original adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's The Horror at Red Hook seen as a parable of racism. Let's pray to the Elder Gods that this happens soon!

Edgar Pêra, reditelj BARONA, vanredno je zabavan i duhovit čovek, i s njime sam se (ako ne računam Lilit-domaćicu) ponajviše družio na SLASH festivalu i oko njega; nažalost, on je tu boravio samo 3 dana, ali bilo je dovoljno prilika da se bolje upoznamo: pre i posle panela o subverziji na filmu na kome smo učestvovali, kao i prilikom dve zajedničke večere, u opuštenom i srdačnom okruženju i bez žurbe. Zabavno je reći da je na obe večere na kojima smo bili zajedno on uspeo da prolije čašu crnog vina po stolu – svakako, nenamerno, ali zezao sam ga da mu je to postao lični potpis. Jednom od te dve prilike sebi sam naručio ribu, a on je svojim aparatom uslikao ovo moje parodiranje lavkraftovske ihtiofobije.

Pre svega, Pera je neposredan, vedar čovek, stalno nasmejan, a njegov kez sa manekenski belim zubima umnogome me je podsetio na osmeh Hodorovskog. Iako važi za avangardnog reditelja nekakvih opskurnih, festivalskih, "umetničkih" filmova, on je strastveni čitalac stripova, kojih je gomilu sebi pazario i ovom prilikom, u nekoj bečkoj striparnici. Dakle, potpuni antipod sandensovskog, a kamo li pak srbskog reditelja "ozbiljnih" filmova. S njim sam napravio i usnimio zabavan intervju koji tek treba da sednem i transkribujem.

Uostalom, treba li šta dalje reći sem podatka da je veliki poštovalac H. F. Lavkrafta?! Razgovarali smo o adaptaciji priče "The Horror at Red Hook" koju priprema kao svoj naredni projekat. Njegov ugao je vrlo zanimljiv, pošto planira da nju upotrebi kako bi se pozabavio temom rasizma, implicitnom u toj, kao i u svim ostalim HPL-ovim njujorškim pričama. Poznato je, naime, da je Lavkraftov rasizam bio manje-više zauzdan i, što bi se reklo, intelektualan ("salonski") dok je boravio u pretežno belačkom Providensu, ali kad ga je ženetina odvukla u njujorški Vavilon, gde je na ulicama svakodnevno morao da se sudara sa grdnim crncima, Kinezima, Poljacima i ko zna kakvim melezima, to je u njemu probudilo gotovo patološko gnušanje prema tim "hordama" i inspirisalo neke od njegovih najžešćih tirada – u pismima eksplicitnim, a u pričama uvijenim u tanku oblandu fantastike (alieni = ribe i amfibije). 

Ovim aspektom HPL-ovog pisanja do sada se nijedan igrani film nije pozabavio direktno kako to Pera namerava. Ja sam pokušao da mu ukažem na svu složenost HPL-ovih opštih nazora, da unutar njih kontekstualizujem njegov rasizam, kako se ovo ne bi pretvorilo u previše crno-belo ocrnjivanje. A bojim se da za to postoji izvesna opasnost; tako mi se učinilo još tokom našeg razgovora, a u toj bojazni još sam čvršći kada mi je Pera kasnije poslao disk sa svojim filmom pod naslovom 88. 

U pitanju je odlično režiran film uvredljivo jednodimenzionalnog, plitkog i neubedljivog scenarija, a na temu detinjasto karikiranih portugalskih rasista i skinheda. Na nivou scenarija, to je sasvim u rangu ŠIŠANJA, i vadi ga jedino zaista sjajna režija o kakvoj Steva za sada može samo da sanja. Kazao sam otvoreno i bez uvijanja Peri šta mislim o 88, i on se složio sa mnom da je scenario bezveze, ali da je taj projekat, rađen za TV, prihvatio samo kako bi pokazao da ume da napravi i "normalan" narativni film sa relativno zauzdanim ekstravagancijama u režiji. Obećao je da će mi poslati scenario za RED HOOK čim bude imao englesku verziju, pa ću pokušati da sprečim da se to pretvori u još jednu površnu mikimausovsku parodiju na rasizam u onoj meri u kojoj Pera bude voljan da me posluša.

Imam na lageru još jedan njegov film, nažalost bez eng. titlova. Ostali mu nisu dostupni za skidanje, a to trenutno važi i za BARONA. On mi je ljubazno poslao DVD s filmom (otud ovako bogat izbor Cult-exclusive ilustracija), ali od piratizovanja toga nema ništa, pa mi to nemojte ni tražiti. Nedavno je imao veliku retrospektivu, čini mi se u Njujorku, pa bi trebalo da uskoro dobije verzije nekoliko svojih filmova sa eng. titlovima. Kad mi to pošalje, ako procenim da bi to bilo zanimljivo, napisaću još neki rivju, jer izvesno je da Pera zna znanje i da vredi daljeg izučavanja.