Directed by: Helene Cattet, Bruno Forzani
Starring: Klaus Tange, Ursula Bedena, Joe Koener
Dan (Tenge) returns home to Belgium from a business trip, only to find his wife has disappeared. What puzzles him is how the door chain is still in place on the inside of their apartment door, meaning his wife either left by leaping, presumably to her death, from the balcony or she hasn't left the building at all. Investigating the building's other tenants, all previously strangers to Dan, he discovers a bizarre assortment of characters, themselves each relating their own odd stories. With little help coming from his neighbors or the police, Dan begins to question his sanity, becoming increasingly convinced someone living within the walls of the building is responsible for his wife's disappearance.
The Belgian duo of Cattet and Forzani are the film-makers responsible for 2009's 'Amer', a homage to the ultra-stylistic Italian "Giallo" movies of the seventies. That movie had critics split, praising its intense visual power while labeling it a case of style over substance. I found myself somewhere in between; for me, the style provided the substance. Their latest, the wonderfully titled 'The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears' will likely polarize viewers in the same way. It's a film with even more style than its predecessor, but also more substance, injecting something close to a straightforward narrative, even if it is clouded by Cattet and Forzani's somnambulist storytelling style.
The film plays like a demented feature length perfume commercial helmed by an arch surrealist; Emporio Argento or Bunuel No.5. From the opening close-up of Tange, an actor whose fabulous rubbery features recall those of his namesake Kinski, you realize every single visual detail has been obsessed over here. Aesthetically, the film is a pornographic laser show for fans of photography, architecture, interior design and the female form. The soundtrack has been given the same attention to detail, heightening every little whisper to terrifying levels and in one incredibly original scene a character interacts with the score itself in a truly unique way.
There are few film-makers who can pull off this sort of surrealist story-telling without coming off as frauds but this Benelux duo are the genuine article. If you're the sort of viewer who insists on having every little plot detail spelled out to you then don't waste your time with 'TSCOYBT'. This is a movie for those of us who prefer to engage with cinema on an emotional rather than intellectual level, as beautiful as it is nightmarish, both comforting and disruptive, like bathing in waters whose temperatures change without warning.
Their reliance on "borrowing" music from existing movies sticks in my craw but as visual spectacles go, Cattet and Forzani's films are proving unsurpassed by their peers. If they can increase the substance without decreasing the style, I shudder to think of the unhinged brilliance that may lie ahead for this duo.
8/10
Eric Hillis