LET THE CORPSES TAN (2018)

2/25/19 - Let The Corpses Tan (2018) - 6-/10

A bizarre surreal crime thriller with spaghetti western, experimental grindhouse, and 60/70’s exploitation designs. An ether filled lounge in the Italian/French sun, as beautiful visions of carnal pleasures and elicit violence groggily shimmy through your perception. Catet and Forzani are dark conductors for strange trips in the sensual and macabre. For this voyage, their style was a malevolent sorcerer, sacrificing elements of total film-making on the crimson alter of “cool”.

Similar to their previous sensual journey through the oblivion The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears, Let The Corpses Tan is a beautiful and unique film. It also shares a style over substance problem, It is a singular journey with so many interesting elements, but the narrative is disjointed, the editing somewhat confusing, and the desire to enrapture is stronger than to engross. I liked this one more, slipping gleefully into its strange, nostalgia and sweat filled kinbaku binding. The experience is a sublime one, even if it can’t reach a more grounded overall high level.

LTCT is a solid paring with a Mandy or even a more provocative Tarantino effort. They are all reveling in the oddity, the extreme, and the brilliance of color/light/shadow; they are experiences. Such experiences are special ones, and I feel as though I can rely on Catet and Forzani to deliver something, limited as it might turn out, still exquisite and playfully invigorating. A caveated recommend always.