Mild Peril Video Club : Katalin Varga
The fabric of the world is woven with magic, and familiarity causes it to fade from view. Through art we can be reminded of its presence. I've been thinking about this a lot while watching films recently.
I wasn't immediately certain when this was set, but even when rubber tyres, late 20th century appliances, and then suddenly a mobile phone came into view, it didn't really matter. The best films, or at least those that I feel communicate something of this magic I refer to, are not tied to a particular year. Often they appear to take place in a kind of 'smeared' time, a memory. Film should be like memory I think, and perhaps that's true of all art.
Something lurks throughout the film. In one sense this is the incident that is referred to from the outset and then fully revealed at the end, but I also felt it was something else. Something formless, nameless, the essence not just of that incident but the path that it sends Katalin on throughout the film, and of all other dark deeds.
At one point Katalin stares, terrified, into a forest, one that is incredibly black within but also one that doesn't seem to be particularly deep (which is notable as there is plenty of huge forest cover in every wide shot, spread all over the mountains). I was struck by how effectively film can 'change the rules' - I believed that she was terrified, I believed that the wood was terrifying. Again, later it is revealed exactly why she reacted to the forest in this way, but that wasn't required, I still believed the truth of the film in that moment.
The scenery is beautiful, there are countless shots of fields and forested mountains that I would frame and hang on the wall. The score is eerie and I was pleasantly surprised to see Stephen Stapleton / Nurse With Wound was responsible for several pieces. As the films draws to a close you might feel one or two points are a little convenient/contrived, or character reactions unrealistic, but I took this to be a nod to the sort of 'art trash' that we know Peter Strickland is fond of from his later work. This is not a horror film but it feels like it takes some influence from that direction.
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