One Man and His Pig

Director: Thierry Zéno
Year Released: 1974
Rating: 1.5

This transgressive cult picture's plot line - which features a deranged young man having sex with and impregnating a pig, caring for the piglets before hanging them, eating his own feces and then killing himself - sounds a lot more shocking than the movie turns out to be, which is droll and monotonous. Zéno, no doubt studied on the technique of the art-film, somehow manages to take the punch out of the aforementioned plot details, eliminating dialogue, shooting it in black-and-white and making sure the camera lingers on various aspects of nature (the mud, the other animals, the man flying a kite or eating): I suppose this partially 'desensationalized' approach is an accomplishment in itself, as one might figure that any picture commonly referred to as "The Pig Fucking Movie" (not an exact translation) to be much more graphic. You can hang whatever meaning you want on it - that it's about the hazards of isolationism and properly channeling sexual desire, about the indecipherable world of the mentally ill, or maybe even a take on the saying that a cat looks down at you, a dog looks up at you while a pig looks you right in the eye - but I'll just say this movie is a joke and leave it at that.