Story of My Death (Albert Serra) [Archive]

Stay Puft

01-07-2015, 10:50 PM

Just noticed this got released back in November. My reaction from TIFF 2013:

I like Andréa Picard's write up of the film, characterizing it as a clash between Enlightenment and Romanticism. I don't know that I could add anything to that. As per Serra's style, it's droll and often vexing, but it also achieves a wonderfully (and wonderfully disturbing) hypnotic quality as Dracula slowly enters the picture and death begins consuming the film. The music is amazing, and I love how it seems to regress to nothing more than heavy droning and percussion in the second part of the film. Some of the later passages, particularly the slaughter of the ox, are quite memorable for this reason. But the first part also has some memorable passages and amusing details, like a brief throwaway scene alluding to Casanova's never completed dictionary of cheeses. I probably prefer Birdsong to this (part of the success of Birdsong is its brief runtime, I think, whereas this one does meander a bit too much for my tastes), but Serra's cinema is in a world of its own and I'm glad it exists (if only to piss off unsuspecting audiences who keep turning up for it at TIFF).