Litan (1982)

Nora and Jock arrive in the strange village of Litan during the Festival of the Dead.

Director:

Jean-Pierre Mocky

Writers:

Jean-Claude Romer (scenario), Jean-Pierre Mocky (scenario)

Stars:

Marie-José Nat, Jean-Pierre Mocky, Nino Ferrer

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Marie-José Nat	...	Nora
Jean-Pierre Mocky	...	Jock
Nino Ferrer	...	Le docteur Steve Julien
Marisa Muxen	...	Estelle Servais (as Marysa Mocky)
Bill Dunn	...	Cornell
Georges Wod	...	Bohr
Dominique Zardi	...	Le chef des fous
Sophie Edelman	...	Mlle Bohr (as Sophie Edelmann)
Terence Montagne	...	Eric Bohr
Roger Lumont	...	Le commissaire Bolek
Micha Bayard	...	Madame Mirral
Patrick Granier	...	Le policier
Catherine Jarret	...	La réceptionniste (as Catherine Jarrett)
Georges Lucas	...	L'hôtelier
Pierre-Marcel Ondher	...	Le prêtre du bal

Storyline

Nora and Jock arrive in the strange village of Litan during the Festival of the Dead.

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Plot Keywords:

town | river | festival | escape | death | 

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Genres:

Horror

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Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

24 February 1982 (France)

Also Known As:

La cité des spectres verts

Filming Locations:

Abbaye Royale du Moncel, Pontpoint, Oise, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Films A2,M. Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Noir comme le souvenir (1995)

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Soundtracks

Cantique
by Iégor Reznikoff

User Reviews

Surreal dream of the dead

I hadn't heard of the name Jean Pierre Mocky before. Taking a look at his filmography it seems he did extensively idiosynchratic cross-genre work that remains not merely obscure but fundamentally unseen. If Litan is anything to go by, I want to see more. This French film is like a distraught female protagonist running through the foggy cobblestone roads and patios of a small provincial town, now and then out of the fog strange masked figures emerge to peer at her, a brass band is playing marching tunes by the river, and the populace behaves in the grip of a demented festive amok. I like how the movie toys with the idea that the general hysteria may not just be part of the celebrating of a local festival, that something more sinister may be afoot, that this feels like a dream because it very well may be. The town hospital doesn't look like a hospital, it looks like the grotesque abstraction of a hospital someone would dream. The movie opens with fragments of images, then a woman wakes up feeling her husband is in peril. As the movie goes on we see those fragments play out as parts of larger pictures, like the dream is fulfilling itself. I also like how the movie doesn't settle conveniently on this point of predestination. All the while a doctor performs tests on a kid the victim of an accident, the kid seems to be clinically dead, yet it isn't. There's a reach to or from the beyond struggling to express itself here and the end may put some viewers off just as well as it may excite others. The only thing for sure here is that Litan is a cult curio that we're only now beginning to discover. It rightfully deserves a place somewhere between Lynch and Jess Franco of Venus in Furs.