Thanatopsis (1963) User Reviews

Meditation on death

[ackstasis · 7/10 · 3 September 2009]

Particularly after the dull 'George Dumpson's Place (1964),' Ed Emshwiller's 'Thanatopsis (1962)' took me completely by surprise. An intense soundtrack of industrial machinery and heartbeat – a chilling construction of sound editing that predates Lynch's 'Eraserhead (1977)' – highlights Emshwiller's exploration of a brooding man's psychosis. The director himself described the film as follows: "The confrontation of a man and his torment. Juxtaposed against his external composure are images of a woman and lights in distortion, with tension heightened by the sounds of power saws and a heartbeat." More specifically, I was left with the impression that Emshwiller was drawing the portrait of a serial killer's mind (the title itself, derived from Greek, literally means "meditation on death"). The man (Mac Emshwiller) sits alone in a dark room, rational reality fluctuating around him. A mysterious woman (Becky Arnold), gleaming in white, dances around the room, but so hideously distorted is her form that she more closely resembles a demon, twisting and writhing in apparent agony, her pain placing evil thoughts in the man's mind. Sex and violence merge into a singularly disturbing image of obsession and inner torment. The film ends with the indistinct silhouette of the man walking through a city, the distorted neon lights representing his warped and fractured view of reality – a chilling reminder that men like this are stalking our streets all the time.

dynamic visual poetry

[elag · 10/10 · 17 December 2002]

This is one of my favorite experimental films. Emshwiller has created a dynamic visual poetry in graphic black and white. It is a dance of emotion and anguish. The sound track is equally dynamic: an audio collage of power saws and heartbeats which create great tension as well as excruciating beauty.