Begotten

Rating:
Summary: Could've been....uhh...
Review: Maybe it could've been a good short film. If you don't grainy, deliberate "art" films, don't even bother. If you do, you will still probably find this "film" overlong and tedious. It had an interesting style and a pretty good opening, but absolutely dies after 5 minutes! Oh well. If you like intentionally psuedo-spiritual weird cinema, try finding Alejandro Jodorowsky's "Holy Mountain" or Werner Herzog's "Even Dwarves Started Small" instead. Cheers!

Rating:
Summary: Would have been great as a short film
Review: This is one weird movie -- and by no means in a bad sense. The strangeness is the film's greatest strength: the bizarre wordless narrative, the deranged assortment of noises on the soundtrack, and the arresting speckles and graininess of the cinematography.

Had the film managed to sustain the intensity it built up during the first ten minutes, it would have deserved all the accolades it received. Unfortunately, the movie devolves into a pretentious film-school mess after its promising start. Pacing and shape are all but lost as we watch the Epileptic Jesus character being dragged around while spitting up raw meat for several hours (or so it seems).

Those with no interest in avant-garde filmmaking should run away screaming from "Begotten." And even those like me who enjoy dark and disturbing film fare should be prepared for a hefty helping of boredom along with the good stuff.

Rating:
Summary: what the...?
Review: well, this is movie IS what people say it is. its bizarre, strange, weird, blurry, stupid, etc...all in one. for those people that like action, fast-paced and easy to grasp movies, this aint for you. and for those who are artistic, analytical, and interested in the grotesque...youve found the right movie. this movie explains the birth and death and birth of life itself. in this movie, every scene (or whatever you want to call what you see) has a meaning. nothing in this movie is meaningless. even the sounds give meaning to the movie. watch it. itll leave you thinking.

Rating:
Summary: The ultimate semi-unwatchable student film
Review: Yes, this is a very interesting looking movie. And the soundtrack is great. The sound effects really add a lot to the movie as well; in some scenes (if you choose to call anything in this movie a "scene") it is totally necessary to rely upon these effects if you hope to have any clue whatsoever what is going on.
And yet there is no way I'd watch Begotten again, and it's not because it's a haunting vision that tore into the fabric of my soul or anything. I would never watch this again because it's pretentious and, frankly, rather boring.
It really is a great-looking movie. The opening few minutes with God Killing Himself doing what his name implies, and the subsequent birth and impregnation of Mother Earth, is quite compelling. Then the movie slows...to...a...crawl. This is also around the time Elias Merhige begins to throw in student film conventions like shots of clouds passing and the sun (moon?) setting. And this is also about the time he decides that every scene must last FOREVER. Actions such as stabbings/clubbings go on and on, with nothing to keep up viewers' attention. The editing is absolutely leaden. Any of the infrequent quick cuts provide a brief moment of excitement (so those of you expecting a music video should look elsewhere). There's other problems. While establishing shots of windows may make sense in a more conventional film, they accomplish very little in such an overtly symbolic work. I fail to see what numerous shots of the walls of the house where God Kills Himself have to add to the movie.
In the end, this really comes off as the ultimate student film. Merhige clearly loves German Expressionist cinema (as further evidenced by his recent film Shadow of the Vampire). He copies the chirascuro visual style and the heavy symbolism, but I really don't feel like he had anything to say, other than something totally hackneyed like "man kills himself and his environment." And yet the resurrection ending doesn't correspond with this message, unless Merhige is saying something equally banal like "history repeats itself." Oh well, at least he's trying to say something.
I'd recommend checking out some classics of German Expressionism instead (Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis, and Nosferatu, for example). You'd have to be very patient or stubborn to enjoy this movie, though I don't doubt there are those who loved this. Try finding one of them that owns this and then convince them to let you watch the first twenty minutes. That's all you need.

Rating:
Summary: Be marked !
Review: as Richard Corliss said: nobody will get through BEGOTTEN without being marked.

I found this a funny addition to my review below.

Thanks for paying attention.

Rating:
Summary: Watch it !
Review: BEGOTTEN is without any doubt one of the most radical and fascinating experimental films ever to appear on the screen. Repeated comparisons to David Lynch's dark masterpiece ERASERHEAD are, in my opinion, only partially right, because besides the fact that both movies are shot in b&w they have only the great and carefully designed soundtrack in common. BEGOTTEN takes place in a whole other ballpark and there's no Lynchian touch in Merhige's work at.
At the beginning we witness in a very insistent scene GOD KILLING HIMSELF with a razorblade (he looks a little bit like Marylin Manson, no joke !). The result of this suicide is the birth of MOTHER EARTH who is then wandering around the earth and giving birth to her SON OF EARTH - FLESH ON BONE. Only a few moments later the two find themselves being kidnapped, raped and tortured by a bunch of disguised creatures (wearing coats like the Sandpeople in "Star Wars" !) and finally MOTHER EARTH and her SON got killed and all life on the planet stands still and flowers wither. But then there grows new life and we see MOTHER EARTH reborn and once again on her way to her journey with new hope.
Well, this is my try of a synopsis of the film. Edmund Elias Merhige who not only directed but also wrote, produced, edited and photographed the film delivered a tremendous piece of art which is both enthralling and highly poetic. He spend nearly four years only to create this nightmarish visual style with the effect of grained images and stylized footage that often reminds me of old silent pictures or documentary footage from WW2.
The soundtrack is, as mentioned above, made with great meticulousness. For example: in the scenes where God is killing himself we only hear waterdrops (or something like that) and the heavy breathing of the creature as well as the sound of the razorblade cutting through the flesh (very exiting and haunting !). Later on when MOTHER EARTH is travelling around we hear naturally sounds like windblowing or chirping and footsteps and breathing of the various participants onscreen. Some synthie sounds intensify the cruel atmosphere in the torture scenes and creat a state of melancholia in the scenes of the rebirth.
The transfer of the movie is well done. The extras on the DVD are a little bit of a letdown: no audio commentary, a dissapointing and unnecessary still archive (just push the "pause" button on your remote and you'll get the same effect !), and a really weird trailer. The booklet though is great: it contains not only a helpful introduction to the movie by Scott MacDonald but also an interview with director Merhige as well as a short biography of the latter.
Being one of the most important films of the last twenty years BEGOTTEN is highly recommended and is definitely a must-see !

Rating:
Summary: Isolated and weird.
Review: Elias H. Merhige, who has recently branched out into more accessible material with Cannes favourite 'Shadow of the Vampire', began his directorial career in 1991 with this little known and uber pretentious peice of religious symbolism Unashamedly avant-garde and unconventional, it both intrigues and entices certain viewers through technique that will undoubtedly alienate and turn off others. Filmed in black and white chiaruscuro the film is visually effective in that images are so often hard to define, whites and blacks running into one another or blurring completely and thus giving the impression of a rorschach ink blot in motion. Yet its lack of sound and leaden pacing will do nothing to convince viewers unfamiliar with what is going on on screen. Essentially an interpretation of various creation myths focusing on death, rebirth, the patterns these find in nature and in religion, the film follows the path of an immolated god reborn through his offspring.

Interpretations are going to be fairly free and numerous, depending upon the angle the viewer sees the film from. Religious parallels to pagan myths of death and renewel, and various biblical ideas of creation, destruction and the rebirth of god into humanity are all potential explanations. In this Merhige has perhaps created a blank canvas onto which we can paint with our imaginations a true coloured image of what is happening on screen, entrusting part of the filmmaking process to his audience every time they view.

On the other hand, it could be just a load of ridiculous, over stylised, unwatchable tosh.

Rating:
Summary: What the Hell?
Review: I put this film on when I want my company to go home. I guess it's a great, stunning visual experience, but then what do I know...really?. I think I had to take dramamine when watching this so as not to vomit as a result of the hard to watch visuals. I honestly don't know how anyone in a correct state of mind can discern how a God is born in this film. If the artsy fartsy folks hadn't read the box I think that they would think what I thought...Ahhhhh I'm thinking in black and white and it's all blurry...where are my glasses? Oh no something like a shakey little wierdo is being drug around in the dirt by the Jawa's from StarWars. Anyway I better go watch some Evil Dead in order to cleanse myself of this...whatever it is.

Rating:
Summary: A true metaphysical splatter film
Review: There are no words spoken in the film and it is fitting that one can say that no words can truly describe this film. A truly metaphysical terror film that has to be seen to be appreciated. Easily one of the most unique films you will ever see. Much like Eraserhead but even more bizarre.

Rating:
Summary: "ORIFICE, WILD - OPEN"
Review: "When Gaia met Uranus at Bare Witch Valley, Dancing with Weirdos until Kronos called 'TIME! Slightly Gilgamushy, but nary an Edda!"

E. Elias Merhige - you are astounding....

This vision brought back memories of Merchant Ivory's "Savages" - a nod to Peter Brook's "Lord of the Flies"; possibly the opening sequence of "The Trial" [Wells].

Your "Shadow of the Vampire" [more later] promises!

Thank you for this ecstatic poem!