Landscape Suicide (1987)

In "Landscape Suicide" Benning continues his examination of Americana through the stories of two murderers. Ed Gein was a Wisconsin farmer and multiple murderer who taxidermied his victims ... See full summary »

Director:

James Benning

Writer:

James Benning

Stars:

Rhonda Bell, Elion Sucher

Cast

Credited cast:
Rhonda Bell	...	Bernadette Protti
Elion Sucher	...	Ed Gein

Storyline

In "Landscape Suicide" Benning continues his examination of Americana through the stories of two murderers. Ed Gein was a Wisconsin farmer and multiple murderer who taxidermied his victims in the 1950s. Bernadette Prott was a California teenager who stabbed a friend to death over an insult in 1984. Benning's distanced approach to such grisly material is as far removed as possible from sensationalism, however. Although the acts of murder are both bizarre and violent, Benning dwells on them only minimally, emphasizing instead the details of psychological motivation, which in both cases seem frighteningly mundane. Benning has created a script which is a masterpiece of understated colloquial writing, and the actors he employs to re-enact confessional testimony and incidents recounted in trial transcripts perform with a flatly convincing lack of affect reminiscent of Gary Gilmore. The two monologues are embedded in Benning's characteristic meditations of landscape: long shots of the ...

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Plot Keywords:

independent film

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 September 1987 (Canada)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Color:

Color

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