The Other Side of the Underneath

The Other Side of the Underneath ★★★★½

There is definitely a lot to unpack here but this film is quite the overwhelming yet intriguing endeavor to sit through. The surrealistic visuals and soundscapes really created an atmosphere, I really felt like I was inside the heads of these patients  and also just the method of sound design was fascinating— the reoccurring cello playing and the reverb in sentences/words that comes after the women having  breakdowns. I really love directors like Jane Arden who were creating this radical kind of cinema (radical in a sense for the 1960s & 1970s)  in regards to the female psyche and abject body horror. I’m sure a lot of audiences were repulsed or outraged of how Arden was being so explicit on how she is able to create an visual/auditory representation of schizophrenia. I also felt like this film leaned into the territory of performance art in a way, my favorite shot by far is when two of the women are sitting across from each other on a bed with broken shards from a mirror scattered across the sheets reflecting their faces. I mean that scene really just says it all. Absolutely love!

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