Marina Antunes [Celluloid 09.14.12] thriller



Italian directors Luca Immesi and Giulia Brazzale are pushing the envelope. The duo have completed work on their feature length film Ritual: A Psychomagic Story, a movie that's interesting for a number of reasons including the fact that it's the first Italian film shot in 5K on the RED Genesis camera. But there's more to this story than just some fancy new tech: Immesi and Brazzale's story comes from an enclave of Alejandro Jodorowsky's teachings which aren't particularly popular in North America. Yes, teachings because you see, Jodorowsky, who studied psychology for a few years before dropping out of school, has devised a new approach to psychology.

It's pretty hefty stuff (there's an entire book on the subject) but the basics are quite simple: it's a marriage of psychology and traditional cures and the idea that even if something doesn't work, believing in it makes one feel better. If you're still confused, there's a great interview from a few years ago where Jodorowsky goes into a bit of detail on the system. Since Jodorowsky is the father of this movement, it only makes sense that he appear in a movie with "psychomagic" in the title which brings us back to Immesi and Brazzale's project.


I can't decipher what's going on in this trailer but I love it. There's sex, unhappy people and random strangeness that results in some gorgeous images, not to mention one of the best renditions I've ever heard of NIN's "The Fragile." The basic story follows Lia (Desiree Giorgetti), a woman suffering from a deep depression and tries to snap herself out of it by visiting her aunt Agatha (Anna Bonasso) who lives in a "creepy 18th century villa." As for Jodorowsky's role... we'll have to wait to figure out what part he plays in the entire thing.

No details on distribution yet but we'll be keeping an eye on this one.

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