WE ARE THE FLESH or TENEMOS LA CARNE. (2016) WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY EMILIANO ROCHA MINTER. STARRING NOÉ HERNANDEZ, MARIA EVOLI AND DIEGO GAMALIEL. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
I think I've finally got a handle on
what the phrase 'arthouse cinema' really
is. It's just porn, that's
all! Full-on porn with flaccid willies, erect willies, boobies,
heinies, humping and ejaculation, all real and in full colour on the
big screen for your delectation.
Of
course, if you say it's arthouse, you
can totally get away with your film's being pornographic, haha. I
have a few home movies of myself getting' jiggy with an ex of mine.
If I say they're 'arthouse,' can
I show them at festivals and win awards too...?
Ah, you
guys know I'm only being tongue-in-cheek, don't you? (but I
never said which cheek...!) WE ARE THE FLESH is
a truly unforgettable Mexican arthouse-horror film that really pushes
those boundaries that film-makers are always banging on about.
In
fact, it doesn't just push them, it beats them black-and-blue and
then tells the neighbours that they fell down the stairs after
walking into a door, if I may indulge myself in a little black humour
for a moment. (Is there any other colour...?)
We're meant
to think that the action in the film is taking place in some sort of
post-apocalyptic society, the kind in which people forage for food in
bins like rats and construct makeshift homes wherever they can out of
whatever materials happen to be available.
Fauna and
Lucio are sister and brother. They find food and shelter with an odd
man called Mariano, but it comes at a price. Mariano is a strange
character indeed. His first demand of the teenaged siblings is that
they help him turn his abandoned building into a bizarre, cocoon-like
structure that resembles nothing so much as the human womb. Sounds
weird? Trust me, dear readers. You literally haven't heard the half
of it yet.
When the
womb-like structure is completed to Mariano's satisfaction, his
demands of the siblings becomes a little more twisted, a little more
deviant. Here, you see, in the flickering half-light of their surreal
construction, is an absolutely safe space in which to act out one's
deepest, darkest desires.
As if you
can't imagine what these might be...! Let's just say, we ain't
talking about stealing candy bars from the convenience store or not
washing your hands after you've been to the toilet. Sex is always at
the root of people's deepest, darkest desires, isn't it?
Mariano
has an urge to see the siblings copulate, just like crazy old Miss
Havisham once had a strange fancy to see children play amongst the
dessicated ruins of Satis House. Will the brother and sister comply
with Mariano's 'strange fancies' or
will they tell him to 'go f**k himself,' which
he also does with great gusto in the film...?
Let's
take a closer look at the siblings. Fauna, the sister, is beautiful
and lively. Ever heard the saying 'When the pupil is ready,
the teacher will appear?' Fauna
is more than ready to learn everything that Mariano wants to teach
her. She is positively ripe for the challenge.
She
wants to push herself
to the absolute limit and live as Mariano wants her to, like an
animal that only obeys the urges of its physical body and nothing else. Lucio, her
curly-headed brother, is more reticent but, as the old saying goes,
'a standing c**k has no conscience.' Do
you think he's gonna decline the offer of pure animalistic sex when
it's laid out for him on a plate? Not bloomin' likely. Sister or no sister...
The film is
gorgeously-shot, with endless images of and allusions to birth, the
womb, the birth canal, birth fluid, re-birth, sex and death. Almost
every taboo subject you can think of is in there, from menstrual
blood, masturbation, religious blasphemy and the expelling of urine to incest, rape, necrophilia and cannibalism. The
film even has a full-throttle cannibalistic orgy in it, for crying
out loud, and an interesting twist in the tale which you might enjoy.
The
only other film I've seen like this that wasn't an actual porno,
haha, is Gaspar Noé's
LOVE, which I watched
in the cinema in the Autumn of 2015. It's a film about a love
triangle between a man and two women that features real sex in every
conceivable (and non-conceivable!) position
that nearly blew me away with the shock when I saw it. I'm Irish, after all. We didn't even have birth control here till nearly the 'Eighties, for Chrissakes.
Gaspar
Noé
is acknowledged in the 'thank-yous' of
WE ARE THE FLESH and I
believe the good old Marquis de Sade gets a mention in there too for
his ideas and theories, some of which are reflected here in the film,
which by the way also has some scenes of rather unpalatable and disturbingly realistic-looking violence in
it.
This
utterly mind-blowing and unmissable Spanish-language film is out now
on Blu-Ray and DVD, courtesy of ARROW FILMS and
FETCH PUBLICITY. It
comes with a whole host of excellent special features, including
interviews with the director and the three lead actors.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA
HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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