(“The Cannibals”)
Production: Portugal, 1988
Director: Manoel de Oliveira
Category: Cannibal/Fairy-Tale
A grotesque, operatic 18th century fable that depicts the wedding of a beautiful young woman to a viscount. All goes well until the wedding night, when the bride finds out that her new husband is a multiple amputee who has to unscrew all his appendages and hang them on the bed-rail. Recoiling in abject horror, she topples from the bedroom window and dies. Cursing his fate, the viscount bitterly hurls his prosthetic limbs, one by one, into the fire… Next morning, a delicious roast is found in the fireplace, and the bride’s father and two sons devour it with relish. When they later discover they have eaten the human remains of the viscount, the cannibals shrug it off and carry on with their partying, determined to pursue luxury despite the dead bride and groom. In a final twist that takes the film into the realms of pure fairy-tale, the men are punished for their transgression by turning into animals; the bride’s father becomes a pig, and his sons two ravenous wolves who quickly eat him up.
Posted by Captain Nightshade