Begotten – 1991 – Purely Black and White

What is Begotten about? Well, God commits suicide and there’s born a woman from His body – Mother Earth. This woman then gives birth to a son who is dragged through the landscapes with a rope around his neck. Faceless and cannibalistic creatures torment him in various ways. I’ll admit that the synopsis is very sparse, but that’s more or less what it’s all about. And it’s not very clear at all. If the possibility of reading the story before watching it wasn’t available, I don’t think that I would have understood it myself. It’s very hard to get the storyline of Begotten! There are clues in the closing credits and the characters are stated to be as above.

Confusing

To further confuse the film’s cinematography is pure black and white, and I mean just that – black and white, there are no shades of grey at all. It’s very difficult to see what’s really happening at times and the impression of a gigantic Rorschach test comes across. The close-ups are extreme and I don’t think there’s any right or wrong when it comes to interpreting this film. There is no dialog whatsoever and the music is very sparse. But there is the use of sound within the picture that is very effective. It makes it exciting with nature sounds as crickets in the background which generates very exciting sound constellations.

It’s all about grotesque and morbid sequences, that much is clear, even if the details are very hard to figure out or even see! The quality of the picture itself can be compared to something from the silent movie era and is like a visual trip through symbolism and metaphors. I could write a review with a few thousand words about this movie but to claim that I have any of the answers would be a lie, and I’m very diplomatic at that!

I believe that each and every one will interpret this differently. You may hate it and you might love it but I don’t think there’s anything in between. It will affect all. I, personally, found a fascination for it even if I didn’t understand it in a way that I really would have liked. Therefore I conclude this review in a little different way than usual. Here is some shorthand I noted when I saw Begotten:

An intellectual challenge
Great Art
Beautiful
Macabre and grotesque imagery
Not revolting
A visual trip
Fascinating
Slow
Surreal
Astonishing
If you’re lucky you might find it for a couple of hundred bucks on eBay…