Perfumed Nightmare
Director: Kidlat Tahimik
Year Released: 1977
Rating: 3.0
An oddity in every way: a low, low, low budget quasi-essay film that questions the price of 'progress' - and the American influence on the 'Third World' - made by a graduate of the über-prestigious Wharton School of Business. It's cheery and irreverent in tone - scratchy surface, out-of-sync soundtrack, hilarious dubbed voices, puns, stock footage - but also quite concerned with man's future: Tahimik takes his makeshift 'story' - about a jitney driver who dreams of being an astronaut but settles on stocking gumball machines - from the poor, 'backwards' Philippines (where eating ice is a treat) to 'glorious,' 'First World' Paris. It's an independent, original vision - a celebration of the DIY aesthetic (of making 'art' using any bits and pieces) and the flexibility of the medium.
