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Released by: Cult Epics
Released on:September 2, 2003.
Director: Agustin Villaroga
Cast: Guntar Meisner, David Sust, Marisa Paredes, Gisele Echevarria
Year: 1986
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The Movie:
Every once in a while a film will come along that deftly mixes horror and art to create something so disturbing that it can never really have the mass appeal of more palatable box office fare from within the genre. Pier Paolo Passolini's Salo - 120 Days Of Sodom is a perfect example of this, as is, more recently, Gasper Noe's Irreversible. Difficult and unsettling to watch? Definitely. But there's no disputing how well made the films are. Spanish filmmaker Agustin Villaronga's 1986 masterpiece,
Tras El Cristal (known to English speaking audiences as In A Glass Cage), is another such film.
The story revolves around a Nazi doctor named Klaus (Gunter Meisner of Wim Wenders Faraway, So Close) who worked in an execution camp and had a fetish for young boys. As his perversion and sadism grows, he becomes more and more daring with his exploits but eventually he grows to feel the overwhelming guilt his actions cause him and he jumps off a roof in hopes of killing himself.
The bulk of the story though, takes place many years later, and Klaus has gone into hiding in Spain along with his wife, Griselda (Marisa Paredes), and their daughter, Rena (Gisela Echevarria). Because of his jump, he is paralyzed from the neck down and confined for the rest of his life to an iron lung. When the burden of caring for him becomes too much for his wife and daughter to handle, Griselda decides to get a nurse.
Enter Angelo (David Sust), a strange an somewhat introverted young man who, for reasons unknown to Griselda and Rena, Klaus insists should be hired. Things take a turn for the macabre though, as soon we find that Angelo has uncovered Klaus' war diaries that detail his past exploits from the concentration camps, and Klaus begins to relive his past vicariously through Angelo, who is in fact far more than a random stranger looking for a job.
An extremely impressive film visually speaking, In A Glass Cage makes full use of it's setting and of light and shadow, creating an uneasy and dark atmosphere. More effective for what it doesn't show than what it actually does portray graphically on screen, it's a disturbing film that will stay with you long after it ends.
Performances, likewise, are very strong as you find yourself questioning just who you should have sympathy for and why in the film. Everyone is guilty of something in the film and no one, except for maybe Rena, is innocent, which is something that the director makes very clear as the cycle of abuse is passed on throughout the film.
At times both horrifying and very sad, In A Glass Cage is a very thought provoking and masterfully directed work. It's harsh, it deals with some extremely unpleasant and disturbing subject matter but is able to do so without really crossing the line into exploitation territory and instead uses a mature story and wonderful cinematography to tell it's repulsive story in a way that few films ever manage to do.
Video/Audio/Extras:
While it's great that the film is presented in it's original 1.85.1 aspect ratio, unfortunately there are some time compression/PAL conversion issues that result in compression artifacts and poor black levels. Subtitles are removable and easy to read and the print itself is pretty sharp, but there are a few instances in the darker scenes where it's a little messier looking than it should have been.
In A Glass Cage is presented in its original Spanish language with clean and clear removable English subtitles in Dolby Digital 2.0. Overall, this is a nice audio track with very little in the way of background noise or hiss creeping in. The ominous and atmospheric musical score comes through well balanced and never reduces the clarity of the dialogue that is taking place at any given time during the film.
The director is given a chance to speak in an all new video interview in which he details some of the issues he had working with child actors on such a project as well as some of the controversy surrounding the film. There are also interesting liner notes provided by FAB Press regular, Stephen Thrower, (author of Beyond Terror) which reprints his review of the film from his book, The Eyeball Compendium (which features an image from the film on it's cover). Sadly, Cult Epics did not include the trailer off of the old Cinevista VHS release.
The Final Word:
While it's not a perfect release, Cult Epics has finally brought the film to DVD and thankfully it is uncut. In A Glass Cage is an intense and challenging film that is recommended for those with a strong constitution.