Beau Is Afraid (2023)
Directed by Ari Aster
Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic odyssey back home.
53 connections found
View:
53 films that influenced Beau Is Afraid
What critics say influenced Beau Is Afraid
The film feels inspired by everything from Kafka to Albert Brooks to Charlie Kaufman’s postmodern masterpiece, Synecdoche, New York , but never derivative.
It recalls films as eclectic as The Ninth Configuration and Jacob’s Ladder in its use of symbolism, tone and imagery and Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York in the way Aster plays with ideas of artifice – particularly the overtly theatrical scenes in the forest and the sound-stage setting of the final “trial”.
Sospeso allora tra Synecdoche, New York di Charlie Kaufman e The Truman Show di Peter Weir, con un tocco di inconcludenza alla Under the Silver Lake di David Robert Mitchell (la nostra recensione) o alla Southland Tales – Così finisce il mondo di Richard Kelly, Beau ha paura manca di una chiave di lettura univoca che ci permetta di definire, quantomeno, una prospettiva da cui interpretare ciò che viene messo in scena.
Waarbij Aster met Beau is Afraid dus ook wel z’n meest ‘grootse’ film maakt, want op dit moment schiet zelfs Charlie Kaufmans Synecdoche, New York door m’n hoofd heen.
Charlie Kaufman’ın 2008 yapımı Synecdoche, New York filmini andıran Beau is Afraid filminin son katmanı düşsel olduğu kadar yıkıcı bir yana da sahip.
Elsewhere, Aster’s references are just as obvious: the entire first episode plays like a more aggro retread of Eraserhead (complete with noisily defective elevator), and the film’s denouement, with its atmosphere of hypermediated surveillance and cosmic judgment, is directly cribbed from Albert Brooks’s Defending Your Life .
In addition to the themes in Aster’s first two films (“Hereditary’s” plotting mother, decapitation and horrors in the attic; “Midsommar’s” horrible parental death relayed by a phone call from a stranger, rural rituals and drug use), one can see the influence of such films as “A Serious Man,” “The Truman Show,” “Defending Your Life” and numerous monstrous mother movies.
In addition to the themes in Aster’s first two films (“Hereditary’s” plotting mother, decapitation and horrors in the attic; “Midsommar’s” horrible parental death relayed by a phone call from a stranger, rural rituals and drug use), one can see the influence of such films as “A Serious Man,” “The Truman Show,” “Defending Your Life” and numerous monstrous mother movies.
In fact, “Beau is Afraid” aligns itself more with the likes of “The Truman Show” and Tennesse Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” than most horror pictures.
It would also make one remiss in their cinephilic tendencies to overlook The Truman Show as a major influence on this particular work.
Sospeso allora tra Synecdoche, New York di Charlie Kaufman e The Truman Show di Peter Weir, con un tocco di inconcludenza alla Under the Silver Lake di David Robert Mitchell (la nostra recensione) o alla Southland Tales – Così finisce il mondo di Richard Kelly, Beau ha paura manca di una chiave di lettura univoca che ci permetta di definire, quantomeno, una prospettiva da cui interpretare ciò che viene messo in scena.
Elsewhere, Aster’s references are just as obvious: the entire first episode plays like a more aggro retread of Eraserhead (complete with noisily defective elevator), and the film’s denouement, with its atmosphere of hypermediated surveillance and cosmic judgment, is directly cribbed from Albert Brooks’s Defending Your Life .
Aster retoma mucho de aquellos miedos masculinos de Cabeza Borradora ( Eraserhead , 1977), de David Lynch, el sarcasmo alucinógeno de Terry Gilliam, las minucias del teatro del absurdo modelo Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco y Tom Stoppard, el costado más neurótico del primer Luis Buñuel, la frialdad y parsimonia de Stanley Kubrick, las sátiras surrealistas recientes del griego Yorgos Lanthimos, el ardor carnavalesco por antonomasia, el grotesco circense de Federico Fellini y Ken Russell, la misantropía estándar de Lars von Trier, los latiguillos de las road movies existenciales, el encadenamiento fantástico de Las Aventuras de Alicia en el País de las Maravillas ( Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , 1865), de Lewis Carroll, la animación elegíaca artesanal de idiosincrasia indie -hoy condensada en el estupendo segmento de la obra teatral entre la arboleda, a cargo de los chilenos Cristobal León y Joaquín Cociña, aquellos de la experiencia lúgubre en stop motion La Casa Lobo (2018)- y la parano…
Advertisement
Bevor sich der Film zu einer Reise durch das Leben der Hauptfigur, ihre Zweifel, ihre Enttäuschungen auswächst, zu den Wurzeln einer Hassliebe zwischen Mutter und Sohn vordringt, schiebt Aster eine Passage ein, die von Rob Reiners Stephen-King-Verfilmung Misery inspiriert sein könnte.
When he leaves the office, he walks home, and through a long tracking shot Aster reveals a dystopian city — with chaotic violence, rampant drug use, stray animals and children — that could’ve been lifted right out of Paul Verhoeven’s “Robocop” (1987).
It’s a glorious reference to the shot in Psycho when Norman Bates spies on Marion Crane.
While Beau is in no way a “career killer,” as some have assumed, it carries the same devil-may-care, “this one is for me” repudiation of conventional taste that eventually made Richard Kelley’s Southland Tales and David Rober Mitchell’s Under the Silver the Lake beloved cult artifacts.
These highly distinctive, one might even say pretentious, epics seem like something every horror auteur needs to get out of their system, with it cut from the same cloth as Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales and David Robert Mitchell’s Under the Silver Lake .
Beau is Afraid , c’est la version réussie de Southland Tales et Under the Silver Lake , deux oeuvres vaines et prétentieuses, sans queue ni tête, que le public avait maudites.
Advertisement
As I said before, I do not mind being confused and baffled from the beginning to the end (I am a big fan of David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” (2001) and Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” (2008), for instance), but, boy, its bloated artistic self-indulgence during no less than 3 hours is too much for me, and I do not think I will revisit it soon for any more possible understanding or appreciation.
Per citare David Lynch, sembra che Aster abbia seguito le orme del maestro intoccabile con il suo Mulholland Drive (2001) imboccando la via della meditazione trascendentale per indurre lo spettatore a fare i conti con le paure che angosciano la psiche umana.
El director David Lynch abandera esas propuestas, con películas como Mulholland Drive , pero no pude evitar comparar el Beau tiene miedo de Aster, con el Inland Empire de Lynch.
Clutching his first vacuum-wrapped Blu-ray off the shelf in the hallowed ground of Criterion’s Closet Picks library, Ari Aster holds 1966’s Closely Watched Trains up for the camera, and announces: “This and Beau have in common that they are about a man who really needs to come.”