Black Moon (1975)

Very well executed

Sorry, this movie sucks

Don't Believe the Hype

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Designed as a Deep, Disturbing, Coming of Age Allegory, this is a Bizarre, Enchanting Film but is at Times Very Unsettling and Nightmarish.Animals, Including a Unicorn, Speak. Insects Communicate and are Ever Present. Snakes are Inhabiting Her Virgin Sensibilities and an Old Lady is Central to the "Plot" and is just Disgusting.There are Naked Children (Cherubs), Mythological Manifestations, and Breast Feedings from Hell. The Movie uses Cinematography and Sound Effects in Eerie Compositions and Intrusions (alarm clocks), although the Color seems Lifeless.There is a "Sub-Plot" of a Futuristic War of the Sexes and Although it is a Minor Story Arc, when it is On Screen it is Visceral. This may All be a Dream, and it Probably is. The Final Scene is the Most Profane of All.Recommended for Fans of the Avant Garde, Surreal Cinema, Art-House Movies and Lovers of the Strange.

Liking or disliking this film appears roughly to be about a 50/50 split. In order to write a review that might add something useful to the many already written, I will try to point out some elements that could affect your enjoyment of this movie thereby helping you decide if you want to spend the time watching it, to wit:First off, it's not sci-fi. It is a fetishistic, pseudo-erotic fantasy that will not be particularly arousing to most people in the mainstream. There were several scenes that collectively made me decide to take "Uncle Louis" (Louis Malle, the director) off of my "A" list of babysitters.Secondly, while there are a few vague similarities to Charles L. Dodgson's (Lewis Carroll) "Alice in Wonderland", this thing is not even close. Dodgson's masterpiece combination of comically bizarre characters, charmingly absurd situations, wildly imaginative scenery and brilliantly logical dialogue remains both treasured and unmatched in all of history's known literature. On the other hand, this muddled romp through Louis Malle's rather...er..."peculiar" mind has all of the charm of a full-for-5-days, fish offal bin, on a hot August afternoon.The reviews that allude to this film being allegorical and/or composed of a parable(s) and/or containing deep "messages" regarding war, social inequity, animal rights, etc., etc., ad nauseum must have Malle rolling on the floor, laughing hysterically. A more realistic interpretation is that Malle decided to knit together a bunch of idiotic scenarios that had formed in his head while he was thinking about the silly and/or contentious issues of the day (radical feminism, the Vietnam war, etc.) mixed with the black sludge contents of his own psyche. The end result being "Black Moon". The point is that there is no point to this movie and it is likely deliberate!So, if you like watching films that are well-produced, well-photographed, artless euro- bourgeois, jumbled stream-of-consciousness, incoherent, pseudo-socially mindful, plot- free, products of Louis Malle's contemporary (to 1975) musings and possible masturbatory fantasies, then "Black Moon" is for you! Otherwise you might want to consider a good action-thriller and a tub of buttered popcorn (you'll have waaaaay more fun)!Best Regards, OtherView

Another Louis Malle film that's not much like any other Louie Malle film. A kind of Carroll-esque dreamworld where a young lady flees from a literal war of the sexes and takes refuge in a farmhouse with three strange inhabitants, a flock of naked children and numerous animals. The movie is light on dialogue (the most significant conversation includes a unicorn) but heavy on surrealist, symbolic imagery. And it's a big borefest. I have no objection to non-narrative films, but something has to hook me. Otherwise it's like someone describing his dreams to you -- dreadfully dull. The few intriguing elements of the film aren't even worth mentioning, the rest is an exercise in sexually-charged non sequitur. The photography by Sven Nykvist is nice, too bad it's not in the service of more engaging (or less annoying) material.

In the mid-70s when this film was made there was - in the real world - a 'battle of the sexes' with militant feminism in full swing (if not an actual 'war', there was a lot of bruised feelings and anger in the air - witness works of fiction like 'Who needs men?' and 'The Woman's Room'); the student riots of the late 1960s were a fresh memory, as were images of Vietnam (and for British viewers, the latest IRA atrocities). Black Moon may not 'make sense', but it's more understandable as a dream, from beginning to end (forget the idea that any of it is meant to be set 'in the near future'), by a pubescent girl, subconsciously worried by the apparent war between the sexes and disturbed by her budding sexuality (note the juxtaposition of the idealised vision of heterosexual love, presented by music from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde first heard on the car radio, quickly followed by the shocking images of war).As mentioned elsewhere, this is beautifully filmed, and IMHO captures beautifully the quality of dreams where one event follows another in a 'stream of consciousness' manner (yet with certain obsessive themes), and the dreamer does everything as if it were the most rational thing to do (as one does in a dream). On first viewing I suspected this film to be a rather self-indulgent exercise, but there's a strangely compelling quality about both the narrative and the beauty of the actual cinematography. Highly recommended.