Litan

This isn't really a horror film per se so much as a surreal waking nightmare in which a married couple visiting a rather Gothic town are increasingly sucked into irrational goings-on. They quickly become fugitives, though exactly why (or from what) is murky. There's a sort of Day of the Dead celebration going on, so people are already wearing masks and fake blood-making it hard to tell there's anything wrong when real accidents, fatalities and supernatural events occur. (Also, an increasing percentage of the population seems to be getting reduced to a catatonic state.)

The whole place seems to be a kind of shadowy laboratory, or perhaps a madhouse, in which (naturally) the inmates have taken over. The conventional thriller-protagonist performances of the leads (Marie-Jose Nat, director Mocky) as they constantly flee or pursue various phenomena, and the conventional early 80s suspense music (with a bit of Goblin influence) doesn't really help this vision cohere as horror, allegory or eccentric fantasia. But its sheer eccentricity holds attention.

Nothing here makes a great deal of sense, nor is it supposed to, and frankly the very prolific director's approach to this kind of semi-fantastical material (not his usual thing--he usually made acerbic comedies) is so matter-of-fact, there's not a lot of atmospheric seduction, let alone terror or uncanniness, despite frequent striking imagery. It's definitely an offbeat film, but it's hard to make out just what the intended point is. There are some arrestingly odd ideas, like experiments on dogs that apparently give them human voices, darting glow-rays in water, crimes that occur without anyone nearby seeming to notice or care...even if few of them actually lead the story anywhere in particular.

Of course, you could argue that the story isn't supposed to "go somewhere," really-it is, like the village itself, a kind of labyrinth without formal beginning or end. And "Litan" is indeed arresting as an alien environment mixing Olde Europe charm/creepiness with hints of sci-fi, horror, and a little "Eyes Wide Shut"-type perversity. It's not quite like anything else (unless you count similar surreal one-offs like Louis Malle's "Black Moon," Moctezuma's "Mansion of Madness," etc.), and thus worth seeing even if there's not much to hold onto beneath the busy, inventive surface.

I have watched a film in a language I do not understand, without subtitles and still managed to follow it and I have dropped off for a section of film and still managed to make sense of it and I have watched films that only partly made sense but this is the first film in which absolutely nothing, from beginning to end, seemed to make any sense whatsoever. The captivating look, complete with masked villagers, a hillside village with tottering buildings and underground caves, is visually entrancing and the constant chasing, being chased, attacks, killings and survival help maintain a level of interest even if we know not why. There are hints and pointers toward dream and the afterlife and of the uselessness of the bureaucratic administrations, the hospital looks more like a prison and the inspector believes nothing and nobody. I notice that the director plays the hero, if that is what he is, at least he is still standing at the end.

A maverick of the French cinema ,Mocky is an acquired taste indeed;he retains a small but strong cult over here.

It was not the first time he had tackled the fantasy and horror genre :in the sixties,his fans remember "La Grande Frousse" ,from Jean Ray's "La Cité De L'Indicible Peur".

"Litan " was awarded the critics prize at the Festival D'Avoriaz ,but reportedly booed in the theater;it was a big flop at the box office :anyway ,Mocky's approach is too oblique to gain a wide popular audience.

"Litan" is more painstaking than usual:here Mocky really creates an atmosphere ,with impressive pictures:probably influenced by the fetes he attended when he was a child in the east of France ;the movie begins with a nightmare and ....continues in a nightmarish area ,in The village of Litan (the spelling of which is close to that of Lithan ,spirit of evil);in fact,Nora is the only person in the whole movie to find the village she moves in eerie,maleficent,and threatening.Even her partner Jock tries to communicate,to react to events whereas she almost never does.That's why I sometimes wonder whether everything does not take place in her mind and/or whether she has gone crazy ...because Jock might be dead ,and as they sail on the subterranean river (the Styx?),both in the same coffin (which might remind one of Hergé whose dreamlike pictures are disturbing in" TinTin and Les Cigares Du Pharaon" ).The last sequence -the only one which is not pagan- shows Nora ,in mourning ,and in her eye ,we can spot a "vision" of her (lost?) love .

You have to search your memory to find something vaguely close to "Litan" :apart from Mocky's movie I mention above,we can feel,perhaps,some influence of indie American works such as "carnival of souls" or " seconds" and of his French peers' weirdest efforts ,stuff such as Chabrol's "Alice Ou La Dernière Fugue " and Malle's "black moon" .

The nightmare scene is particularly successful ,with these masked figures,this man standing on a wire with a motorcycle,and this sinister-looking guy who's doing a very strange work;these elements reappear as Nora's fear increases .

Marie-José Nat is ideally cast as this woman lost in a world she does not understand;Nino Ferrer,cast as the head of a research center,wrote a baroque ,but effective score which enhances this strange feast in this heathen town.

For all that,in spite of pictures which can put the viewer into a trance ,or at least mesmerize him,"Litan" ,in some respects ,is a botched job ,the weakest link being ,as it is too often the case with this director ,a desultory screenplay ;hence the commercial failure .

Although not accessible enough,"Litan" is part of the handful of Mocky's movies you should watch.

"Litan" takes place in a strange French town Litan full of masked citizens and off-beat characters.The coffins are flowing in the stream,the cemetery crosses are on the rocks and the funeral orchestra of silver masks is playing some weirdo music.Add also a lot of running and screaming and some bloody murders and you have a winner."Litan" is a surreal and dreamlike assault on viewer's perception.The script is utterly outlandish as it mixes black humour with some fantasy and horror elements.I'd like to spend some time in Litan among crowds of masked weirdos.I have seen other French surreal horror movies from early 80's like "Devil Story" or inept "Mad Mutilator",but "Litan" wipes the floor with these two.8 out of 10.

1 more month until the first death anniversary of the legendary Mocky, it's been a year already and just 3 days back was his birthday. I decided to revisit my favourite films of Mocky and "Litan" will be the best followed by "Love Hate." This movie is a surreal Gallic folk-horror fantasy set during a peculiar town's Festival of the Dead in the city of Litan which works as a cross genre hybrid like one-part Lovecraft one-part Jean Rollin/ Alain Robbe-Grillet. A couple is on vacation where the traditional mask festival is taking honoring the dead like Mexico's "Día de Muertos." But soon it can be observed that there are numerous deaths among the inhabitants, behind which there appears to be a mysterious power. Meanwhile, a premonitory nightmare, mysterious disappearances and the inhabitants begin to act more and more strangely. The mist-shrouded passages give it a Wicker Man-meets-Don't Look Now atmosphere. Director Jean-Pierre Mocky has showed a good eye for atmospheric pictures and sceneries Amidst doing the role of Jock in the film. The swift editing, the pig masks, the Nietzschean metaphor avoiding intrusive showmanship in favor of subtle surrealism is also the highlights of the film. You will experience a highly unusual film, which also reveals once again what diverse cinema is commonly referred to as "horror", with "Litan" so much more than just "just" a horror film. The movie does not step too deep into "the usual" horror tropes and what is going on in "LITAN" is impossible to describe in words, you must look at it yourself. Highly Recommended for the fans of Harry Kümel's Malpertuis (1971), Dario Argento's Profondo Rosso (1975), Lucio Fulci's The Beyond (1981), and Janusz Majewski's Lokis (1970). RIP Jean-Pierre Mocky.