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Petite Mort, La |
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Written by Ray Casta
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Friday, 19 November 2010 |
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Directed by: Marcel Walz
Written by: Marcel Walz
Produced by: Thomas Buresch
Cinematography by: Andreas Pape , Marcel Walz
Music by: Michael Donner Special FX: Olaf Ittenbach
Cast: Manoush, Inés Zahmoul, Anna Habeck, Andreas
Pape, Annika Strauss, Magdalena Kalley, Thomas Kercmar
Year: 2009
Country: Germany
Language: German
Color: Color
Runtime: 72 min |
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How exactly
can a film like "La Petite Mort" fail? Presented by Ryan
Nicholson (creator of "Torched", "Gutterballs" and
"Hanger"), "La Petite Mort" is directed by the
sick, demented mind of "Tortura" creator, Marcel Walz and
features special effects by one of the ultimate masters of gore,
Olaf Ittenbach!
The film follows three friends, Dodo (Anna Habeck), Simon
(Andreas Pape) and his blind girlfriend Nina (Inés Zahmoul) as
they set sights on Mallorca, Spain for their summer vacation.
Unfortunately, their flight gets delayed. To kill time, they
decide to sightsee throughout Frankfurt, Germany. After they
get mugged, they stop at a downtown club called "Maison de la
petit mort" for a drink. The club appears to be dreary, drab
and sleazy. To her disgust, Dodo makes her outright distaste of
the club known. She happens to offend two women who help run
the establishment: Dominique (Annika Strauss) and Angelique
(Magdalena Kalley), the twisted daughters of Madame Fabienne (Manoush),
who owns the place. However, this is absolutely not your
average club or bar. It is a front for a profitable torture
business. Madame Fabienne's methods are cruel and torturous.
Under her rule, Dominique and Angelique help inflict
excruciating pain and suffering against Dodo and her friends for
making a mockery out of them and their sexuality.

"La Petite Mort", the title of the film, is a French translation
for "the little death" -- a metaphor for orgasm. As a
"spiritual" release comes with orgasm, sex and death are
linked. Marcel Walz uses the title to its full advantage,
implying the sex and death theme to its extreme. These victims
do not understand the world in which Madame Fabienne and her
daughters occupy. Like the Nina character, they are "blind" to
pain and pleasure. In a sequence where Madame Fabienne does her
own form of "acupuncture" to a helpless victim, she ponders how
another can judge a person by their sexual desires and
preferences. In her world, she is in total control. Therefore,
she cannot understand what it is like to be submissive -- a
victim like Dodo whom she welcomes to her house by penetrating
her arms with sharp needles. Dodo and her friends are now in
another world. No rules apply. They have no control over what
will happen to them. Their nasty degradation and torture is
filmed, such as the "Maskhead"-esque sequence where the
daughters put on costumes themselves are dress up Nina as a
mouse, and put a mouse trap on her tongue.
What happens to the victims in "La Petite Mort" ultimately
satisfies the gorehound in us. Although the movie is not as
major of a gorefest you may hope for, its graphic violence stays
sadistic once the tone is set. With Olaf Ittenbach's incredible
gore effects, no CGI is needed and nothing is kept from us as
the victims are brutally tortured and dispatched for the
pleasure of sadists. Madame Fabienne is perfectly played by the
fabulous Manoush, who is in complete control of her character
throughout. This is only business for her, and she runs
everything like a high-powered executive at a booming
corporation. Her daughters are played by the beautiful Annika
Strauss and Magdalena Kalley -- and they will do anything their
mother says. They are loyal servants, and can be every bit as
cruel as their mother. The victims make us feel the pain
they're experiencing as they re-enact every bit of fear and
terror effectively. A standout of the cast is the most
over-the-top role, played by Thomas Kercmar. His perverse
character Freiherr von Breitenau is a regular, a high paying
customer of Madam Fabienne. Maniacal, he is like a kid in a
candy store as his fantasies come to life.

Not without
its share of flaws, "La Petite Mort" could have surely
done without the erratic jumping images which occur primarily
throughout the scenes of violence. The cinematography is too
good for this method to be applied during these particular
moments, which come across as overdone and unnecessary. It
makes it seem as if the filmmakers were rushing too quickly to
wrap everything up. At a brief 72-minutes, the movie truly
deserved a more satisfying conclusion.
Despite its shortcomings, it is quite difficult for a horror
film like this to fail. With extraordinary talent at his
disposal, Marcel Welz follows up "Tortura" with a movie
that accomplishes what it initially set out to do. Depraved and
nasty, "La Petite Mort" is precisely the type of film
that we gorehounds like! |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 19 November 2010 )
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