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Released by: Camera Obscura
Released on : 5/22/2009
Director: Thierry Zeno
Cast: Dominique Garny
Year: 1974
The Movie:
Considered by many to be the fringiest of the fringe, Thierry Zeno and Dominique Garny's 1974 Belgian arthouse oddity Vase De Noces (also known as One Man And His Pig but better known in tape trading and bootleg circles as The Pig Fucking Movie) has a reputation that precedes it. Before the pair teamed up to unleash the 1981 'mondo' film Of The Dead (unjustly classed as crass exploitation when in fact the picture is quite a reflective piece on the fragility of mortality), they made this gritty little treatise on loneliness and isolation. Often talked about as some sort of nasty bestiality epic, the film actually has quite a pertinent and somber tone to it and, when watched in the superb quality offered on this DVD, its artistic merit becomes all the more apparent - though it remains strong stuff to be sure.
Shot entirely without dialogue and set to a genuinely unnerving score, the film tells us the odd tale of a farmer (Dominique Garny) who lives alone on his farm. His loneliness overtakes him and eventually he falls in love with a sow that is in his care. He decides to take their relationship to the next level and consecrate things in a freakishly compelling scene in which he mates with her, and low and behold, she gives birth to some very unusual piglets. He then realizes what has happened in his life and deals with the consequences…
A common complain levied against this film is that the unnamed farmer has no motivation for his actions. Why would this man cut the heads off of dolls and put them on birds? Why would he display dead animals in the way in which he does? And why on earth would he fuck a pig? The answer is so obvious, so painfully clear to anyone open to receiving the film rather than prejudging it based on content (without regard to context) that it's almost silly to reiterate it, but it's simple - he's lonely. No one questioned Tom Hanks in Castaway when he talked to a ball. They accepted it because he was lonely.
The fact that our farmer comes into contact with not a single solitary being should be clue enough but regardless, the film has earned a reputation as a shock film, a picture made to rub the viewers' faces in the one of the nastiest sins imaginable. In one regard, it does do that, as the scene in question leaves little to the imagination (though it stops short of any penetration shots, thankfully) but watched with an open mind the loneliness with which our 'hero' wrestles becomes increasingly overpowering. The film never attempts to justify his actions, only to make a case for humanity's more desperate moments. We're never asked to pity the farmer, though we are asked to at least make an attempt to understand him - a not unreasonable request at that.
Is the film twisted? Absolutely. Deviant? Yes and no. Yes in deed, if not in intent. But does it make an impact? Is this a film that actually sticks with you? Definitely. It's classier than its sordid history would lead you to think (if that's possible - this really is a movie about a guy who does fuck a pig), and it has this moving and affecting sense of pathos to it that doesn't necessarily force you but at least coerces you to pity this man so alone he feels the need to 'fuck pigs.' How bad does life have to be when you'll literally slip it to a sow? This is extreme cinema, let there be no doubt, but to dismiss this work of morose solitude as trash is doing the film a grave injustice. It's certainly not a picture for all tastes (those with an aversion to animal violence would do well to keep a healthy distance) but as a work of provocative art, as a picture meant to disturb and scratch at the norm, it works really well.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Anyone who has only ever seen this film by way of the horrible low quality bootlegs that have made the rounds over the years is in for a surprise as Camera Obscura's DVD is of very nice quality indeed. The 1.33.1 fullframe black and white image features plenty of detail and very nice contrast. There are no mpeg compression artifacts to speak of nor is there any edge enhancement. Some minor print damage and film grain is visible but it's never distracting or irritating generally we're left with a clean, strong, and stable image.
Vase de Noces doesn't have any dialogue to subtitle so the Dolby Digital 2.0 track is pretty much universal. The audio quality here is on par with the video in that it's clean, clear and it sounds quite good. The musical score, which has a lot of chanting and a lot of choral singing, used throughout the picture has some welcome resonance to it and the various animals noises that appear constantly during the picture are clear and audible.
In order to keep the bit rate as high as possible, the first disc contains only the movie and some menus. The second disc, however, has got some pretty great extras on it. Along with a brief introduction (0:38) and an equally brief 'outro' (0:13), director Thierry Zeno appears alongside star and co-writer Dominique Garny for a seventy-two minute documentary entitled Of Pigs And Men (1:12:30, anamorphic widescreen).Directed by Federico Caddeo and presented in French with English or German subtitles, this documentary allows the pair to talk about how they came up with the idea for this film and how they go into filmmaking before launching into a discussion on the political and social subtext of their project and the influence of various experimental films like Woman In The Dunes and the films of Wim Wenders and Werner Herzog. They cover the difficulties of working with the many animals that appear in the film, how the film was shot in a specific order, and the importance of anxiety when it comes to delivering good work. They then proceed to explain and elaborate on much of the symbolism that appears in the film and of course elaborate on what it was like shooting some of the film's more infamous and unsettling scenes.
No stone is left unturned in this excellent and impressively comprehensive documentary - from the realities of pig farming to the justification for building a library of excrement to the reactions that the film got during theatrical screenings - and you definitely leave with the impression that these guys had a very deliberate strategy and technique in mind when they made this movie, and that includes the infamous scene where Garny's character copulates with the sow.
Aside from that, there's also an interesting featurette entitled DVD Vs. Internet Download (3:15) that shows the differences between this beautifully restored version of the film and the subpar bootleg versions that have popped up on various torrent sites. Using the angle button on your DVD player's remote, you can switch between the restored version and the old version and really the differences are like night and day.
Both DVDs in this set, which is limited to 2000 copies, feature menus in English or German. Camera Obscura has also done an excellent job on the packaging for this release. A study slipcase, containing text in both German and English, holds the keepcase and inside you'll find a glossy booklet containing a pair of essays on the film (sadly, both in German only).
The Final Word:
Often talked about but rarely seen, Vase de Noces is a fascinating if sometimes rather disturbing work of experimental filmmaking. It's beautifully shot and at times rather poignant, and while it certainly won't be for all tastes, Camera Obscura has done a remarkable job on this release. The film can now be seen in excellent quality and with an accompanying documentary that puts it all into context and which makes a very good case for the picture's artistic merit.