The Horror Show
The Strange Color
of Your Body’s Tears
(AKA L'étrange Couleur
des Larmes de Ton Corps)
by Helene Catte and Bruno Forzani
Sometimes I stumble across visually stunning movies that are a cinematographer’s wet-dream. However, beautiful films have a tendency to lack substance. I know that isn’t always the case but this particular instance is one. The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears seemed like a promising recommendation from Netflix but it dried up relatively quickly.
Please stay with me a moment because this movie was a mess to actually follow. Dan arrives home from a business trip to find his wife missing, but strangely the door is still chained. He confides in his neighbor and she tells him about the disappearance of her husband. A detective responds to Dan’s reports and recounts the time he was hired by a client who was afraid of disappearing. Dan finds a man in his apartment but he manages to slip through Dan’s fingers. Then something happens about sex, broken glass, some weird blue drug, and screeching music. I apologize, the movie gets really unclear from here on, so I’ll do my best to give an accurate summary. Dan’s wife’s head turns up in his bed. Then, he dies a bunch, then discovers the killer is himself, but it was all a dream. He discovers secret passages throughout the whole building. Then the landlord is reading a diary of this Laura girl and her nightmares. There’s some more sex and more people die. Uh, something about a room with an ‘L’ on the door and a painting of a woman. Lastly, what I assume to be a serial killer’s photo album.
Alright, that’s probably not the best summary I’ve ever given but what do you expect? That plot was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to piece together. It was like trying to put together a puzzle but not only do you not have all the pieces, you also have pieces from an entirely different puzzle, and the box is wrong. There were several reasons this happened, first being that The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears tells a fragmented story. It jumps from one character’s story to another’s with little to no warning. Jumping back and forth between past and present constantly. The film expects the viewer to just understand what’s going on at the drop of the hat. There is very little dialogue between characters so there are very few moments explaining the plot. The lack of dialogue, especially in the last few minutes, is sooooooo beyond confusing. What am I supposed to get from the mysterious ‘L’ room that shows a mysterious-woman-in-a-flashback-like-glowing-white-room-thing that fades away to a room with a painting of a woman? Seriously, what is that supposed to mean? Lastly, it’s near impossible to tell the difference between what is really happening and what is a dream. Seriously, the whole thing with waking up from a dream and revealing that also to be a dream is old. They show Dan waking up and dying probably like forty times. It seemed way more important than it really was. It was a super long scene that had no payoff. If the film decided to stick with one of those three elements, like any sane film maker would do, it would have been a much more legible movie. All three though, it was just a mess of trying to actually understand the plot. Which, I’m not entirely sure there was one.
On the other hand, this was probably one of the most beautiful movies I’ve ever seen. Nearly every shot is extremely well composed and visually interesting. Normally, a desktop shot of a man organizing a desk would be incredibly boring. The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears actually made it quite pleasing to look at especially when it was spliced with needless green screen usage. Sure the green screen was unnecessary but it was a cool effect of a man putting away a hat box. They also make use of bright vibrant colors that are very drawing to the eye. Especially the colors red, blue, and green for some reason and I’m not entirely sure why but whatever, it was cool. The detective’s story for instance, the woman’s eyes would change from blue-to-red-to-green based on the jewelry she was interacting with. There were also several cool scenes that were done in a black and white stop motion style. My only concern was that it probably wasn’t true stop motion. It looked very much like they clipped frames from film to make it just look stop motion. I can’t say this was fact, but it’s what it looked like. I was even in love with the Art Nouveau paintings and the stained glass in the backgrounds. Any visual aspect of the movie was perfect.
I think the main thing is that this movie is too psychedelic for my taste. It reminded me a lot of Beyond the Black Rainbow. These movies sound better when reading the description, but are actually quite boring. It could be that they both built up slowly, but they both put me to sleep. I managed to eventually get through The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears. When you think about it, it’s a weird title and I’m pretty sure that didn’t even get its explanation. It’s like the filmmakers just sat down and tried to find a way to make everything about this movie utterly confusing. I envision Helene Catte and Bruno Forzani are either trying to be super artsy or the world’s biggest trolls. Neither idea honestly excites me. Like any good giallo film there is a ton of violence and sex. I would say there were countless numbers of boobs and stabbings to the head. There was a long, grueling scene showing an uncircumcised penis. Lastly, one moment of straight vag, not just the front, but open vag. I think I’ll just give a warning there because I was certainly surprised. That may entice some of you but not everyone. I can truly only recommend this movie if you’re completely okay with tons of style but no substance. I can only imagine how much better this movie would have been in an actual theater and not just on my crappy laptop. Oh well.
Billy Wayne Martin, HMS
The Horror Show Menu.