The Rose King
Director: Werner Schroeter
Year Released: 1986
Rating: 1.5
Schroeter's Hammy Symbolism Goes to 11, with a traditional filmmaking elements (story, dialogue and character development) coming in a very, very distant second to his all-consuming obsession with (oftentimes luscious) imagery and clunky metaphors: it's so gratuitous it would have made Jarman weep. A doting, obsessive mother (Magdalena Montezuma) moves to Portugal with her rose-garden-tending son (Mostefa Djadjam), who develops a strong - technically sadomasochistic - connection with a "friend" (Antonio Orlando); since the 'connection' between the characters has no direct connection with actual humanity, it doesn't really matter what happens to any of them any more than what happens to the poor cat that gets shot and crucified. If it weren't for the compositional beauty, this is strictly amateur hour.
