It’s really fucking time to dive in the wild world of José Mojica Marins again, after quite a lot of years away from him! I will try to watch all his classics, but I’ll start with The Strange World of Coffin Joe, a movie I’ve never seen before - which is weird, because I love Marins and I love anthology horrors! It wasn’t until me and Jason, when we recorded the last episode of The Human Centipod, I fully understood it was an anthology - but in the end we didn’t watch it, so I guess it’s time now. Marins is a true visionary, talented director who seamlessly mixes arthouse with exploitation - a difficult art if you ask me, and this gritty, but elegant, anthology is a good example of his talents.
First out is THE DOLLMAKER, a simple, but very effective story about a four robbers who finds out an old dollmaker stores all his money in his home...where he also have four beautiful daughters. The robbers decides to have some fun with the girls, but finds out the really gruesome way how the dollmaker can create such realistic creations… in OBSESSION we follow the adventures of a poor and very out-of-luck balloon seller when he finally meets the dead girl of his dreams and makes sweet love with her body. In THEORY a certain doctor Oãxiac Odéz (which, of course is Zé do Caixão backwards, aka Coffin Joe - or as he’s named in the Swedish translation, doctor Eoj Niffoc, not as catchy…) wants to prove that basic instincts such as hunger easily can beat that silly thing called love.
The Strange World of Coffin Joe is easily one of the more nihilistic pieces of cinema I’ve seen, on the surface a silly anthology film - but far more gritty and dark than most in the genre (I would say Jeff Burr’s From a Whisper to a Scream is another good example). The thing is that expect the first story, The Dollmaker, there’s no real twists. This is instead quite twisted morality tales which tells us there’s not hope for humanity, people are animals. The middle story for example is more of a dark, sad fairy tale about the lonely balloon seller finding some kind of love in death. The last one, probably the best, most Coffin Joe-esque story, is downright sadistic with an incredible downbeat ending.
What seems odd at first is the ending, where the bible is quoted - among other things - which kinda takes away the film its power, but this is - I learned a few hours ago - something Marins had to add to the film to fool the deeply religious censors in Brazil. It’s not the only film he had to do it with, but he kinda took revenge with his recent masterpiece Embodiment of Evil, where he once again claims back evil to where it belong: in the world, without any religious fool being able to do anything about it.
The Strange World of Coffin Joe is a fucked-up movie, but also a minor masterpiece. Sometimes corny, a black and white comic book in the vein of EC Comics, but often with a serious, deeply philosophical and cynic message of the human nature. The budget is often so low it borders to annoying, but if you - like me - can look beyond wobbly sets and fast camera set-ups, you’ll find real movie magic in this collection of gory, gruesome tales.
"It’s really fucking time to dive in the wild world of José Mojica Marins again, after quite a lot of years away from him!"
Never heard of him...I don´t think I´ve seen any of his films.
"The Strange World of Coffin Joe is a fucked-up movie, but also a minor masterpiece. Sometimes corny, a black and white comic book in the vein of EC Comics, but often with a serious, deeply philosophical and cynic message of the human nature."
Some horror anthologies can do that.....
"The budget is often so low it borders to annoying, but if you - like me - can look beyond wobbly sets and fast camera set-ups, you’ll find real movie magic in this collection of gory, gruesome tales."
I think I can....good review and thanks.
Posted by: Megatron | April 26, 2014 at 04:02