Rating: C-
Dir: Johannes Grenzfurthner
Star: Ethan Haslam, Johannes Grenzfurthner, Katharina Rose, Caroline St. Clair
This is the kind of film which simply has me staring at a blank screen, wondering what to say. How do I begin? It’s certainly a unique item, adopting a style which I’ve not experienced before. On the other hand, it’s not one I am in any hurry to experience again. The unnamed protagonist (voiced by Haslam, physical performance by director Grenzfurthner) has been suffering from tinnitus for three years, and it’s increasingly making everyday life impossible for him. He takes time off work and devotes himself to experiments, designed to find out what environmental factors affect the tone, pitch and volume of the ringing in his ears – the hope being to find relief from his condition.
That’s basically it. For one hour and thirty minutes. Almost entirely unfolding in voice-over, with occasional exceptions for his neighbour Dana (Rose) popping in. Hers is the only face we see throughout, save for on photos, computer screens, etc. Otherwise, it’s one guy talking about… things. Ranging from his philosophy of life through his fraught relationship with his parents, to the incident which triggered his tinnitus. The experiments begin with inanimate objects, then move to single-celled organisms, gradually moving from there up the evolutionary scale. He discovers that this does affect what he hears, and theorizes he is listening to the life energy of cells. Except he also discovers that death has an even greater impact on the situation.
Yeah. It isn’t going to end well, is it? Not much of a spoiler to say so, as he escalates from squishing ants, to putting salt on slugs, and snapping the necks of small birds. I was relieved to read in the end credits that “Contrary to appearances, one ant was the only animal killed in the making of this film. FX FTW.” That extended sequence in close-up of a dead mouse having its head sawed off was still a bit rough. It’s clear that the protagonist is gradually losing his grip on sanity and reality, his monologues becoming more rambling and deranged. His original devotion to the scientific method becomes more of a religious fervour, with Lovecraftian elements. The word “eldritch” crops up and is used without irony.
Given the deliberately spiky and antagonistic approach, I guess it’s laudable I stuck it out to the end. But I’m not going to lie: there were points where it was touch and go. Even while still sane, the “hero” (quotes used advisedly) is not the kind of person with whom I’d want to spend time, and things do not improve in this area as we go deeper into his imploding psyche. Grenzfurthner uses a slew of tight close-ups and crisp macro photography to emphasize the claustrophobic nature, his film largely unfolding in a single room. Despite the technical expertise, it never achieved emotional impact for me – unless you include a slight queasiness. It is increasingly a tale told by a loony, full of sound and fury, signifying…? I’ll get back to you there.