Fondly referred to as "The Pig Fucking Movie" (with good reason), this Belgian-lensed art-dirge is one of the most foul and pretentious pics ever made. It's so damned bizarre that simply detailing the plot can't even come close to conveying the unique combination of utter disgust and absolute boredom you register while viewing it. One thing is certain -- director-writer-photographer-editor Thierry Zeno is a certifiable maniac. This stark, ultra-crude b&w nightmare is almost devoid of dialogue and is set on a secluded rural farm. Dominique Garny stars as a middle-aged guy who's already pretty strange at the outset, attempting to put plastic Baby Doll heads onto pigeons. But that's pretty minor once you realize he also has a thing for pigs! It's at this point where Zeno begins to lose his audience. You see, it's lonely all by yourself, with nobody but you and your all-too-willing farm animals. And Miss Piggy has such firm nipples (yeah, you actually see him fondling 'em) and such a delectable "Oink". Plus, the two have so much in common. He eats, he shits. The pig eats, the pig shits. Hell, it's a match made in heaven. Thankfully, Zeno never gives us any close-up penetration -- just the farmer leaping into the sty, grabbing onto the pig's love handles, and thrusting his naked body against her backside (and if you think about it, isn't that really enough?). I just hope that Zeno wasn't trying to say anything profound, because although it's dead serious and sick as hell, I couldn't stop laughing at all this bold-faced ridiculousness. For ten minutes we get this moron stumbling about his pathetic spread, doing his chores. And then suddenly, he's fucking the livestock! Eventually the sow has a litter of piggy babies, and after watching Mr. Green Genes play with his offspring for about 20 minutes, he decides to strangle the babies and bottle their remains. This causes Mama Pig to fall over dead, and the finale is particularly touching, when the bloke goes even squirrelier and starts eating his own shit. Now, if I've made this movie sound at all entertaining, then I've failed in my review, because despite its truly repellant subject matter, it's also one of the most monotonous movies ever made. Even the Fast Forward button didn't help. Though the movie occasionally approaches an ERASERHEAD-like effect, with its subversion of normal reality in favor of one's darkest fantasies, that would be giving it too much credit. Complete with shrill sound design and unrelentingly grim mood, I can only assume Zeno was trying to corner the market in sluggishly-paced art films for people who enjoy sodomizing swine. Congratulations. He succeeded.

© 1994 by Steven Puchalski.