|
In a Glass Cage review
:. Director: AgustÃn Villaronga
:. Starring: Gunter Meisner, David Sust
:. Running Time: 1:48
:. Year: 2003
:. Country: Spain
|
When In A Glass Cage opens, we see a naked boy hanging, being tortured by Klaus (Gunter Meisner), a former Nazi doctor; a scene that clearly sets the tone for a film with a controversial theme. Once this difficult and disgusting sequence has passed, the film unfolds as a psychological, claustrophobic and sadistic drama, rather than as a voyeuristic piece of celluloid sleaze.
Spanish director Augustin Villaronga, who wanted to explore the darkest nature of human beings, chose to update the story of Barbe Bleue (Gilles de Rais), a lieutenant of Joan of Ark who was known for having killed hundreds of children for some satanic rituals. Reminiscent of Bryan Singer's Apt Pupil, the modern transposition, involving the enduring Nazi taste for atrocities, is certainly not unrealistic with countries like Brazil providing a haven for ex-officers of the Third Reich.
Klaus's former victim Angelo (David Sust) unexpectedly reenters his life years later, becoming a nurse for the old man who now lives, prisoner of his room, with an iron lung. The young man slowly takes over the house, getting rid of the wife (Marisa Paredes; High Heels, All about my Mother), dangerously turning into a monster himself, abducting little boys, putting barbed wire over the house and dressing like a Nazi. Angelo also develops a strange friendship with Klaus' little girl, Rena (Gisela Echevarria), the only pure character in the movie, but her fascination with him will end up channeling his dark impulses.
Haunted by sado-masochism, homoerotica and pedophilia, In A Glass Cage shows the transmission of evil, from the torturer to the victim, as an irremediable rite of passage close to vampirism. Villaronga's interpretation is particularly clear in the final scene, where Rena emerges from a blue light as a Nosferatu-like figure.
The horror is omnipresent, enveloping the spectator into a psychological and perverse universe, rather than trying to go for some cheap thrills. The filmmaker knows how to create a suffocating atmosphere and the cinematography is particularly stylized for such a provocative picture, making In A Glass Cage not an exploitation piece but a true cinematographic nightmare.
Fred Thom
 New Reviews of Cult Films
Cult Films: 1998 - 2011 Reviews
|
|
