Black Moon (1975)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Louis Malle

Writers:

Louis Malle (written by)
Joyce Buñuel (collaboration: dialogue)

Release Date:

24 September 1975 (France)

Genre:

Fantasy | Sci-Fi | War

Tagline:

An apocalyptic Alice in Wonderland!

Plot:

There is a war in the world between the men and the women. A young girl tries to escape this reality...

Plot Keywords:

Unicorn | Dead Woman On Ground | Alternative Reality | Dead Body | Snake

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Cathryn Harrison	...	Lily
Therese Giehse	...	Old Lady (as Thérèse Giehse)
Alexandra Stewart	...	Sister Lily
Joe Dallesandro	...	Brother Lily

Directed by
Louis Malle

Writing credits
Louis Malle		(written by)
Joyce Buñuel		(collaboration: dialogue) (as Joyce Bunuel)

Produced by
Claude Nejar	....	producer

Cinematography by
Sven Nykvist		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Suzanne Baron

Production Design by
Ghislain Uhry

Production Management
Paul Maigret	....	production manager
Roland Thénot	....	assistant production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Fernand Moszkowicz	....	assistant director

Art Department
Ferracci	....	poster design (uncredited)

Sound Department
Michèle Collison	....	post-synchronisation assistant
Nara Kollery	....	sound recordist (as Nora Kolery)
Jacques Lévy	....	post synchronization
Jacques Maumont	....	sound mixer
Luc Perini	....	sound designer: dream sequence

Special Effects by
Pierre Roudeix	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
François Catonné	....	assistant camera
Bruno de Keyzer	....	assistant camera

Editorial Department
Joëlle Barjolin	....	assistant editor (as Joelle Barjolin)

Music Department
Les Enfants de la Maîtrise de Radio-France	....	music collaborator
Sylvia Lindenstrand	....	music collaborator
Diego Masson	....	musical director
Anthony Roden	....	music collaborator

Other crew
François Nadal	....	consultant: Conseillers Animaliers
Robert Verbecke	....	consultant: Conseillers Animaliers

Thanks
Therese Giehse	....	in memory of (as Thérèse Giehse)

Production Companies

• Nouvelles Éditions de Films (NEF) (co-production) (as NEF - Paris)
• Bioskop Film (co-production)

Distributors

• Cinéma International Corporation (CIC) (1975) (France) (theatrical)
• Filmverlag der Autoren (1976) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (1976) (USA) (theatrical)
• Nightmare Video (1996) (USA) (VHS)
• Video Film Express (2007) (Netherlands) (DVD) (Louis Malle Collection Vol. 2)
• Vision

Other Companies

• Eastmancolor  filmed in
• Lax  titles
• Panavision France  camera and lenses (as Panavision)
• Paris Studios Cinéma  auditorium

Runtime:

France:100 min | France:95 min

Country:

France | West Germany

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:12 | Australia:M | Finland:K-18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16 (bw) | Brazil:16

Company:

Nouvelles Éditions de Films (NEF)

Quotes:

The old woman: [talking to someone over the radio] The girl? She just lost her bloomers and now she's eating the cheese.
[listens]
The old woman: Of course there was Christmas cheese!

Soundtrack:

Tristan und Isolde

A nightmare of the '70s

In the mid-70s when this film was made there was - in the real world - a 'battle of the sexes' with militant feminism in full swing (if not an actual 'war', there was a lot of bruised feelings and anger in the air - witness works of fiction like 'Who needs men?' and 'The Woman's Room'); the student riots of the late 1960s were a fresh memory, as were images of Vietnam (and for British viewers, the latest IRA atrocities). Black Moon may not 'make sense', but it's more understandable as a dream, from beginning to end (forget the idea that any of it is meant to be set 'in the near future'), by a pubescent girl, subconsciously worried by the apparent war between the sexes and disturbed by her budding sexuality (note the juxtaposition of the idealised vision of heterosexual love, presented by music from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde first heard on the car radio, quickly followed by the shocking images of war).

As mentioned elsewhere, this is beautifully filmed, and IMHO captures beautifully the quality of dreams where one event follows another in a 'stream of consciousness' manner (yet with certain obsessive themes), and the dreamer does everything as if it were the most rational thing to do (as one does in a dream). On first viewing I suspected this film to be a rather self-indulgent exercise, but there's a strangely compelling quality about both the narrative and the beauty of the actual cinematography. Highly recommended.