Some directors, prolific, leaving behind an impressive filmography. Herk Harvey hardly thereof. A film, a single- Carnival of Souls made in 1962 - it opens wide the doors of posterity. Viewing, it includes the weight of the word masterpiece.
Three girls embark on a race car against some macho. The spirit of the 60s, beautiful shiny bodies and pretty girls drunk Emancipation, sets the scene. But the cars did not exceed one hundred feet, that charming take the plunge into the River. As police arrived on the scene in search of bodies, Mary, the blonde taciturn, fleetingly glimpsed during the opening sequence, above the water, covered with mud. The only survivor of the massacre, she leaves town and the memory that attaches deadly, and moved to Salt Lake City to ply his trade : A church organist. The diaphanous musician profession she considers outside any religious field, spends his time between his workplace (the church) and his home (a pension to the former). But a dark building, a former disused dance hall in the center of a no man's land reminiscent of a Coney Island dismal exerts a mysterious fascination, while hallucinations disrupt already fragile nerves.
Herk Harvey, with a ridiculous budget and timing of a sprinter ($ 30,000, three weeks), reveals with Carnival of Souls , his vision of horror, biberonnée of German Expressionism, which will nightmares Romero, Carpenter, or Lynch. The film, by its formal mastery, what did motivate careers. Shot in black and white (for Economic Affairs), stingy special effects (for the same reasons), Carnival of Souls immediately struck by his count, his sobriety. But very soon the limits set by the producers will release the treasures of staging. Built like a slow descent into the realm of madness, mixing anxiety, paranoia and fear, the film plays with the viewer, as reality Mary.
The first sets, full of symbolism both deadly (the dilapidated dance hall) and mysticism (the place of worship), contribute to distill fear and isolation. The church, where Mary officiates, functions as a sounding board (literally and figuratively). The power of music that comes out of these magnificent organs intimate a kind of deference to the man in front of the "voice of God." Extremes vertical, reinforced by planes diving, miniaturized Mary. Alone (for which she plays anyway?), His body seems lost in the immensity of the imposing nave. This near-invisibility a reality when violent outbursts during which Mary is no longer the eyes of others. While the image is distorted, and the sound suddenly disappears, the girl is confronted with nothingness. Passersby do not see it and hear it more. Panic, suggested once will not hurt, by the total absence of music reaches its climax during the umpteenth vision. The sound acts as a cursor of the real, the chirping of a bird ends this disturbing sequence.
Navigating between a doctor (rationalism) and a priest (faith) that it finally no assistance, Mary sees her ramblings grow. On the occasion of a musical rehearsal, while her fingers began a frantic sarabande it is no longer mistress, the pretty blonde goes into a trance. Splitting its division between reality and fantasy, Harvey oscillates between close-ups of ecstatic faces of Mary and sequences where the dead livid float to the surface of muddy water to join in a dance macabre. Plans on turning the chandeliers of the church couples twirling in a festive decor apocalyptic nightmare telescope reality, breaking the marks of the beholder. Expelled from the church, Mary trying by all means leave the city, like a mouse trapped but all his attempts are futile. His wandering leads inevitably to the place of its terrors: the abandoned dance hall. She attends absent from his own body, ballet delusional. The camera, embracing movement, enters the dance, it scrolls the wan faces and scary. Then Mary, eyes ringed with black, perfectly livid, appears in the field. Hysterical, horrified, she left the room darkened, fled to the outside light, death at his heels. Each plan shows the desperate one end, while a corpse appears in his back like a perennial reminder: no one escapes death. If
Carnival of Souls has gone virtually unnoticed at its output, its end is undoubtedly for many. Taking the wrong way audiences used to the logical conclusion of a story holding the film failed to say the least. The narrative thread, constantly oscillating between reality and fantasy, detached an accurate spatial and temporal context, is definitely stalled in the final seconds. Revisiting its scope and its symbolic connection with a twist (we will not reveal) that spectator of the twenty-first century will reach an audience of 1962 but may not have considered, the film ends as it began. On the banks of a river where the freedom-loving American youth came crashing to . Superbly
expressionist Carnival of Souls prints long on the retina and the viewer's imagination. Embedded in a ball and hypnotic horror, we are invited to observe what awaits us all, one last dance before expiry.
Wild Side, through its Vintage Classics, finally offers to Carnival of Souls output less confidential, which may be able to reach a wider audience. Only downside of this excellent initiative, lack of bonuses, which could indicate, for example the many influences of this film was left in the cinema. David Lynch quote himself "happy as a movie night ( Eraserhead bears the scars). Harvey showed him the path, one where the tangle of reality and dream (or nightmare) makes palpable the horrors lying in daily details, where the characters' psychology contaminates the staging, where his film experiences own material.
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