Prometheus Triumphant: A Fugue In The Key Of Flesh (Cinema Epoch DVD)
Picture:
D Sound: C Extras: B- Feature: C
A tribute
to the classics of silent horror like Nosferatu,
and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari,
Prometheus Triumphant seeks to replicate the bold visual style and haunting
atmosphere of these greats. It is both
compliment and disappointment to say that this film half succeeds.
Prometheus
boasts a plot that plays out like the unholy love child of Metropolis, Bride of
Frankenstein, and Werner Herzog’s remake of Nosferatu. While the story
is in no way revelatory, or even at all unexpected, few plots are these days.
The film
takes place in a small vaguely German town, probably around the turn of the 20th
century, where a plague is slowly wiping out the population. A young doctor named Janick presents an
experiment to the medical community in which he is able to seemingly reanimate
a dead arm. Why bringing people back
from the dead is a solution to a plague, I don’t know. But it certainly couldn’t hurt. Obviously, Janick is branded a heretic and
shunned. Meanwhile, Janick’s girlfriend
succumbs to the plague and dies. Soon
after she is buried, a masked figure digs her up and carts off her body. At this point anyone with half the intelligence
of a drunken mule knows that this mysterious masked stranger (labeled The
Creator) is Janick, but at any rate he proceeds to bring her back from the dead
in another woman’s body.
The
visual style of the film was obviously a major priority for the filmmakers and
the quality of the sets, costumes, and makeup indicate that the filmmakers had
either a decent budget or just really good connections. There are actually a few shots in this film
that are really well put together and legitimately approach the quality of the
classics. Especially impressive is the
scene where Janick has the woman in his “Chamber
of Life.” Unfortunately, the rest of
the film’s visual style is lackluster and verging on amateurish. Much of the picture washes together in grayscale
and would have been greatly improved by better lighting design and higher
contrast.
The
overall picture quality is lacking, probably on purpose to replicate the look
of aging film, but there are ways of achieving that look that don’t involve
grainy video noise. Overall, the picture
quality, like most everything else in this film, has a lot of potential and
great intentions, but ultimately ends up falling short.
The score
to the film is decent, but nothing special. At the very least it’s still better
than the re-release of Nosferatu a
few years back that was scored by the band Type O Negative. The audio is in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround,
but has an audible hiss throughout the entire film.
The
extras on the disc are actually fairly impressive with two commentary tracks,
two trailers, deleted scenes (all wisely cut, though I might have added one or
two more), and a Q&A session with the filmmakers shot at the premier. There is also an outtakes reel, which seems
rather at odds with the somber tone of the actual film.
Honestly,
I applaud the filmmakers for their ambition and their drive. They just have a few kinks to work out in the
execution. Also, a bit more attention to
detail might have quelled some of the nagging doubts I had throughout the film.
For example, it may have actually been a
good idea to shoot the film in full screen format because widescreen wasn’t
widely used in film until the 1950s to distinguish from the growing popularity
of television. Also, in homage to an era
during which showing a woman’s ankle was risqué, it seems odd that the female
lead spends almost her entire screen time nude. And finally, it really undercuts the haunting,
creepy aesthetic of the film when the main character, dressed in a Hot Topic
wet dream, can’t seem to get from one side of the screen to the other without
waddling.
- Matthew Carrick
