[MacBlayne]

A PAGE OF MADNESS

Do you ever get that feeling when you're about five minutes into a film, and you know you are about to watch one of the best films ever made? Well, that's how I felt when watching this 1926 Japanese oddity.

A Page of Madness is an incredible visual horror experience developed by an avant-garde theatre group. It expands on the German Expressionism movement, and employs other experimental techniques. Rapid intercutting, dolly movements, interpolation - A Page of Madness is a freewheeling exercise of terror.

The plot is extremely simple - a man becomes a janitor at an asylum where his wife is being held, and tries to break her out. However, she doesn't want to leave. That much I know. There is more, but due to the highly surrealistic nature of the film, being from a pre WW2 Japan, and the lack of intertitles, I can only guess as to the other elements.

However, this is to the film's benefit, as it resembles somebody recalling a bad dream. Details are missing, context is ill-defined, but it works at creating a terrifying ordeal. The final shots are magnificent, and make you wonder what is real anymore.

I loved, LOVED this film. It is horror cinema at its most purest.

NOTE: A Page of Madness is currently streaming on Mubi. This is the restored version with the Alloy Orchestra score.