|
TARNATION Send This Review to a Friend
Writer-director-editor Jonathan Caouette’s startling “Tarnation” may spur a new genre of self-therapy home movies. The family at its center is so dysfunctional as to make viewing
emotionally off-putting, yet Caouette is so candid and creative that the film is very special, as attested to by is inclusion in both the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival.
Caouette began making home movies of himself and his family when he was 11 and a weird kid. Through the years—he’s now in his 30’s—he chronicled the life of his mother Renee Leblanc, his grandparents and life with his lover. The story of his mother is unbearably sad. She was subjected to repeated electroshock treatments which may have mentally scarred her beyond her diagnosed ailments. Her parents are shown to be increasingly out of it.
Caouette takes all of these elements and, with home equipment and minimal cost, fuses them into a pastiche of documentary clips, special effects, surrealist montage, interspersed with inter-titles of the short used in silent movies. The overall effect is striking, shocking and involving whether you want to watch this troubled family or not. One senses that the director has come through a more focused person as a result of looking at his turbulent life and expressing compassion for his mom. A Wellspring release.
|