Nature Morte

Salvation Films

R0 PAL

Nature Morte is a surprising, innovative and impressive Giallo gothic film exploring the boundaries of sex, violence and death. While it clearly has been made on a limited budget it is really quite impressive how much Paul Burrows has been able to squeeze out of digital video, a fascinating plot and a dark vision to create quite a stunning and unique work.

The film opens powerfully with a leisurely visit to the studio of John Stephenson. There is a superb ambiance to the scene (and indeed to the whole film) created through a mixture of creative cinematography and a moody and evocative soundtrack. Stephenson’s studio is slowly explored by the camera and we see he has company, a young beautiful lady. He seems to be planning a simple seduction, but as the scene evolves we realize he has a much darker agenda. For Stephenson pain, torture and death are an integral aspect of his artistic expression. He needs to torture his subjects, so he can capture their suffering on canvas. His is a highly celebrated figure in the art world and thrives on his double life as an artist and serial killer. Abruptly after his tenth work he kills himself.

Oliver Davenport is a writer and art historian; he is celebrated in his field and has produced various books on John Stephenson. While exploring the Stephenson case, he is asked by Georges Albert of the French Police to become part of their investigation. It seems a new set of paintings have been appearing on the market from an artist in Thailand and they seem to be identical to the Stephenson works.

Davenport with Georges in tow travels to Thailand to meet the artist who has created these new works. He finds Lec, a strange and eccentric painter and erotic explorer and through Lec enters a strange world of drugs sex, torture, lust and death. The depiction of Davenport’s descent into all manner of drug induced sexual excess is superbly evocative yet at the same time quite restrained. Through Nature Morte there is a careful balance between what is shown and what is inferred, it could have easier slipped into being a simple “sex and gore” flick but by using careful editing, inference and suggestion, it offers a mood of sexually charged violence without becoming “torture porn”. It has a very “European” mood and hence exudes a sophisticated approach to its subject in comparison to the flood of sex and horror films presently on the market.

So what is the connection with Lec and Stephenson ? Is he the real killer or a brilliant forger. The intriguing thing about the plot of Nature Morte is soon as you think you have a handle of where it is coming from, it takes you another step deeper into the mystery. Without giving away too much, the secret of the small painting which leads from Stephenson to Lec and ultimately to Davenport and beyond is central to the tale. It also allows an exploration of the dark side of anyone who comes to possess it. I have read some press which has argued the plot is too convoluted; I think that this observation ignores the influence that Italian Giallo has had on Nature Morte. In many ways it is a film which brings together the psycho-sexual themes found in Jess Franco and French eroticism with the unusual crime tales which were ever so popular in Italian cinema especially with filmmakers such as Bava, Argento and Fulci.

Nature Morte is a dangerous film, it is edgy, violent, erotic and transgressive. It has some truly memorable scenes of quite nightmarish quality. The power of Nature Morte is the way it mixes eroticism and violence in such a way that you are both attracted and repulsed, the line between victim and perpetuator is blurred and the relationship between sex and death is provocatively explored. In Nature Morte all relationships “are power relationships” and sex, death, love and pain are intertwined in a highly original and stimulating manner.

As a relatively low budget film I found Nature Morte quite astonishing. The soundtrack by Arban and Steven Severin (of Siouxsie and the Banshees) is inspired and with filming in England, France and Thailand, the film has a truly international feel which further extends the exploration of its contraband subject matter. Each of the locations offers something different and combined with the various plot changes make Nature Morte quite an accomplished thriller as well as an unusual exploration of eroticism and violence.

The Salvation DVD includes some nice extras such as deleted scenes with Director’s comments , a blooper reel, a stills gallery and various Redemption oriented items.