Ulrich Seidl's In The Basement is the latest documentary from the divisive filmmaker that turns his attention to a place where insecurities are quickly erased away in the comfort of its familiar glow, the basement. Offering a portrait of people and their basements, Seidl has created another hypnotic, transfixing experience, that touches on the obsessions, wants, desires, and comforts of a host of individuals, each being more fascinating than the last. From sex slaves to nazi obsessed tuba enthusiasts, Seidl penchant for finding beauty in the strange or grotesque is certainly a major aspect of In The Bedroom, as the film meticulously explores the basements and cellars of middle class Austrians. Ulrich Seidl's desire to expose the strange, surreal, and absurd that exists in everyday life has always been something I appreciate about the filmmakers films, and with In The Bedroom he finds a host of new fascinating characters. I particularly found myself drawn to this woman who is obsessed wth life-like baby dolls - a character who treats them like real babies, as if Seidl is capturing an underlying truth of tragedy, where this woman's sole emotional attachment is to an inanimate object. There are a few different characters with fetishistic sexual desires, from a sex slaves to those who find pleasure in sadomasochistic, and In the Basement does a good job at never judging these characters in the slightest, offering the viewer a glimpse into their world as it attempts to understand where they are coming from. With Seidl's beautiful symmetrical compositions that effectively create a hypnotic feel, In the Bedroom is a documentary that defies conventional description, being a transfixing exploration of people and their wants and desires that is equally comedic and tragic at all once.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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