Le poème (1985) User Reviews

Interesting imagey, poor meaning

[Polaris_DiB · 5/10 · 16 January 2010]

Surgery and autopsy footage has been a mainstay of experimental cinema since Stan Brakhage's The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes (and probably beforehand). This autopsy, where they remove an old man's eyelids, chest plate, heart, and brain, is certainly interesting to watch but perhaps not the most effective use of the material. A Rimbaud poem plays over the footage. Fine. Have you ever heard what an autopsy sounds like, bones cracking and skin splitting and organs squirting and stuff? Much more horrifying. Secondly, this is no fault of the director's, but having subtitles for the poem's translation provides distance between the subject and the viewer, so this movie is probably more effective in its native French. And honestly, I don't really know or care to know what is meant by the voice getting cut off when the body gets sacked. A bit too romantic for me, really (but then again, this is Rimbaud).

It ends with a quote from Nietzsche. Yes, a quote from Nietzsche. Honestly, some people just cannot handle the material nature of dead bodies.

--PolarisDiB

Disturbing

[Michael_Elliott · 27 February 2008]

Le Poeme (1985)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Arthur Bimbaud's poem "The Drunken Boat" is the background to this film, which shows a real autopsy while the narrator reads the poem. Yes, they show a real autopsy so this here will turn off most viewers but if you have a strong stomach then this short is really worth checking out. The film opens with the eye lids being cut off so if you can't handle that then you won't want to stick around until the end. This certainly crosses the lines of good taste but it is extremely well made and quite poetic in its own sick way. From Cult Epics Cinema of Death.