Arrebato - RAPTURE
Ivàn Zulueta - 1980
(a film seen through the eyes of the silver screen)
More than any other art form, film seems to be surrounded by a cloud of the occult, of the perverse and seductive. Kenneth Anger's dark rhymes or Pier Paolo Pasolini's SALO have been subject of fascination and repulsion over the years, drawing as many admirers as haters. It seems as if film is capable of hypnotizing the viewer, making him its tool, at times draining him of all emotion and life that's left in his body. It was this idea of film as a living, breathing, occult entity that fascinated David Cronenberg in VIDEODROME and Hideo Nakata in RING as much as it inspired Ivàn Zulueta's ARREBATO.
(If there's nothing on TV, the dead will walk the earth)
When Ivàn Zulueta died on the 31. december 2009, he had only directed two feature films. In the last three decades, he worked as a poster designer for Pedro Almodovar, directed various short film for television and supposedly composed a small number of short films. Arrebato was released on DVD twice - as a free gift for a spanish daily newspaper (in a very bad quality) and as a limited restored edition that quickly was sold out. It is still widely unavailable, and even though it finally will get released by the Bildstörung-label in the very near future, maybe its obscurity is for its own good, as the ideas presented here could very well make some aspiring filmmakers quit their jobs and force them to social isolation.
(my mother only let me play with scary puppets, so I became a filmmaker)
As the film opens, we are introduced to José - a B-movie director who can't help but create helplessly bland horror films. As he comes home after making some inspired cuts on his newest work, we get to know our protagonist a little better: José is a heroin addict, and he's in a difficult on-off relationship with his ex girlfriend, who's just let herself into his apartment and now takes up most of the space of his bed. He's at a point in life where his addictions have outgrown his emotions - his dedication to direct a film has been replaced with a thirst for recording (even if it is just a bland work he's shooting), his lust for life has turned into self destruction. It's in this state when he receives a mysterious package. Inside the package he finds a tape and a film reel.
(Nobody ever sends me something fun)
The tape soon proves to be a voice recording of a friend - a young man called Pedro. However, his voice on the tape is altered, reduced to a haunting growl (something Pedro claims is a result of his "personal change" that he has documented). After Pedro recalls the first moments of their friendship, he insists on José to watch the film he included in the package. As the film starts rolling for the first time, we are confronted with a series of dark, surreal imagery, not unlike the haunted tape in RING. Pedro claims that the film holds the key to his "change", and as José and his now awoken girlfriend try to make sense of the pictures, the voice on the tape slowly unravels a macabre tale of the uncanny.
(Some uncanny ectoplasm)
More than anything, ARREBATO is a film of obsessions, of addictions and of a seduction. As the throbbing, beating film that was inside the package progresses, we are ourselves sucked into the film, both spectators of and participants in an occult session to summon something from beyond the screen. In this aspect, the film is maybe closest to the writings of H.P. Lovecraft (consisting of the ravings of madmen, their last words as they scribble down their inner terror before taking their life, the horror they have seen overtaking all their sanity in a rage of otherworldly fear), but it's curious to see how close the film is to such films as VIDEODROME, RING or POSSESSION - all films allegedly made with their directors unaware of the beast that Zulueta unleashed.
Single handedly, he has crafted a film that re-defines genres, creates an aesthetic of its own and comes up with a haunting thesis: that film has a life, a heartbeat, breath and a voice of its own. And just like José, we are visitors to its realm, witnessing its gurgling, croaking "I am alive!" from beyond the screen.
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