Baby Doll

A work of spiritual pornophany whose viewing provokes a retinal trance.

The staging is simplistic: a doll, a man and some tools. All these elements are brought together in a basement lit by several spotlights. The Man is a body and a conscience. His role is the infinite potential of sadistic will. The sexual drive, fueled by alcohol and drugs, is so strong that it erodes the carnal envelope, from the epidermis to the nerves. The doll, a model for medical simulations, is nothing but plastic. Plastic, but icon, symbol and, consequently, marked by unheimliche. A man possessed by a libidinal frenzy and a doll with feminine forms.

Much more interesting is the wordless Serge de Cotret's "Theocordis" (2007), a creepy and atmospheric Canadian exercise in religious iconography as the Super 8 camera prowls around a church intercut with disturbing juxtapositions of Christ images and a victimized woman.

A short avant-garde film by Canadian filmmaker Serge de Cotret.