Surrealism in Film: The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928) & Deathbed: The Bed That Eats (1977)10/4/2017 Thanks to Sigmund Freud’s theories on the dark side of psyche, surrealism was born and used predominately in France. Surrealism often involves grotesque, often shocking imagery in a dream-like presentation. Life, death, and religion are common themes often associated with surrealism. It was the power to disorient the audience that draw in some directors, and for others, defining human reality. Surrealism is prominent in Germaine Dulac’s The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928) and George Barry’s Death Bed, The Bed That Eats (1977). The Seashell and the Clergyman is a rather disorienting film filled with endless shadows and contrasts, miraculous transitions, dissolves, and fades. A priest follows a general and lusts after his wife. He hallucinates running after this general and killing him in order to be with her. As he strangles the general for quite some time, he envisions sprouts of blood protruding down his face, a wicked smile forming on the priest’s mouth. Though there are multiple scores of the film, the restored version’s soundtrack was disorienting in its own way, from eerie to dramatic to chaotic. This causes the tone to be more hallucinogenic. After the strangling, the priest appears at the top of a cliff, where a man appears and the priest quickly launches him to the bottom. The priest imagines the general’s wife frequently. She stands demure yet beautiful and genteel. The priest rips open her skirt, and then her bra, revealing her breasts. The priest envisions a ballroom of people dancing swiftly, and the general and his wife sit on royal chairs together. There are little to no colors in the film, and darkness fills most rooms. The lights flicker endlessly. In the end, it is believed this priest is a lonely man that has sexual, murderous fantasies of women, most likely the people that come through his church. Death Bed: The Bed That Eats is a surrealism film that has dialog, in contrast to The Seashell and the Clergyman. The narrator describes how he has been captured inside a painting for sixty years since his death. The characters are darker and not exposed, even in daylight outside. Of course, this couple makes their way inside of the house and sit on a bed together, providing alcohol and sexual activity. While the two are locking lips, yellow bubbles and foam upsurge from the bed and eats the apple they place there. The wine bottle gets consumed as well. The door to the bedroom is suddenly locked. All the items get returned, eaten. The couple take a break to discover all of their items consumed. As the gentleman makes his way to second base, the eerie alien-like sounds overcome the room. The curtains slowly close on the two as they continue, and you can hear their horrid screams of despair. Blood drips from one of their hands, and you can hear their bodies being eaten. The trapped narrator criticizes the bed for being so powerful yet so stupid. Because of the bed’s greed in eating every visitor in the house, the bed is trapped in a cellar forever, alive. There have been thousands of disappearances, including the mayor, thanks to the bed that eats. After some time, 3 young women come to the house to investigate and immediately smell rancid death. The music to accompany the shots is the most disorienting element to the film. The lo-fi, disenchanting sounds are signs that something paranormal is going to happen, something surreal. Doors creak and drone-like noises radiate the backgrounds. As Diane, Susan, and Sharon come into the home, the narrator tells the bed that it has been quite some time since its last meal, why hesitate? The narrator explains that the bed fears one of the girls; that is why is has not eaten them just yet. As one of the girls are changing, the bed breathes rapidly, almost like a gorilla, implying sexual arousal. The bed has the power to break mirrors and give people nightmares, such as the girl being forced to eat dinner with bugs in it. The bed takes the covers off the sleeping girl, devours the flowers she brought, and then swallows a necklace she is wearing, slowly cutting into her skin. Blood covers the cross on the necklace, and slowly the girl is consumed into the bed. A man is heard laughing as the girl is left with just her skeleton and hair. Meanwhile the other 2 girls go picnicking and notice that the wretched odor has dissolved. The narrator recalls the bed eating a priest, an old woman, a young girl, a servant, and a doctor. Although both films display themes of realism, it is The Seashell and the Clergyman that remains most true to the realism elements. The film throughout protrudes a shadowy, haunting, and gothic tone and utter lack of narrative. Many scenarios are hallucinations of the priest’s mind, where he fantasizes about the general’s wife, going as far as killing the general in order to have her. The story follows the unconsciousness of the priest, what he truly dreams of deep inside. The film is shot with so many effects, dissolves, cuts, etc. to give personality to the hallucinations of the priest. There is no dialog to depict a story, only observations of how the priest may think. He holds a key and goes down hallways, just to find locked doors. He opens himself to new ways of thinking and observing the world, which is some incredibly intense, puzzling psychology. Death Bed: The Bed That Eats contains a unique theme of death, however there is more of a narrative structure behind it. The tone of this film is that of a 70’s lame horror film that an audience would watch for cheap entertainment. The extent of psychology here are the thoughts of the trapped narrator in the painting as he watches a bed devour people over the years. Though the music may be eerie, the film is not disorienting. One can follow a plot this simple all the way through without confusion, and that is where this film fails in the surrealism category. One may even find this film comedic in its own unique way. The action in these two films are polar opposites, whereas the priest in The Seashell and the Clergyman is often deep in thought, crawling, running, or sneaking about. He travels extensively in the dreams of his mind. In Death Bed: The Bed That Eats, the story must be static, as the antagonist of the film is a demon bed. All of the narrative has to take place at the location of the house. When the action gets supposedly intense, such as the bed eating something, the process is often incredibly slow, and the music does not reflect a horrific moment. One anthropomorphic effect that Death Bed: The Bed That Eats does well, is the sound of chewing the bed does when it eats something. The idea it gives off is grotesque, but the action does not put it into play well. An interesting observation to note is that the effects in The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928) are superbly better than those in Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977). Death Bed has nearly 50 years on Clergyman, and yet Clergyman’s hallucinogenic visuals provide a better film. It is obvious how much effort was put into the editing of both of these films. If Death Bed had put as much work into distorting the visuals perhaps, or focusing on a more psychological aspect, the film may have been more horrific. Furthermore, the soundtrack just did not do the film justice in terms of drama and intensity. It is astonishing that after close to a century since its release, The Seashell and the Clergyman is still a more influential film that a modern film. A film student looking to make a horror film should look more into the effects and editing of a surrealism-type film, and especially the content. Watching these two films should establish one question for a filmmaker: do I want to make a film about the murderous hallucinations of a priest or a bed that eats people? Regardless, it is still no question that surrealism of the 20th century can be grotesque, dreamy, and incredibly influential. |
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