Eden’s Curve
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: D Main Program: C
Set in 1972, Eden’s Curve (2003) tells the tale of
Peter (Sam Levine), who leaves for a college in a place called Eden (he’s
blonde and sunbathes nude in the beginning on the roof, but Peter was a better
name than Adam? Calling Dr. Freud!) and finds himself in homosexual
relationships. His parents do not know
this and he is unaware of the already existing conflict at the school where the
era of free sex and drugs complicates matters more. Unfortunately for us, this interesting situation is rendered
predictable and problematic when it could have been about something more
significant.
Anne Misawa is the director, videographer and writer of
this project, and she brings in some odd problems. For one thing, all the guys cast who are going to be interested
in each other are too “pretty” to make this a believable situation, except for
the intellectual junkie, who is not ugly, but looks real versus like a
model. The few women are looking good,
but do not always get lit as well.
Also, in trying to capture the early 1970s, she is clueless about what
this era was really about. This never
looks or feels like the era and being shot on a newer videotape format is no
excuse. She also does some very
obnoxious things to be clever and they backfire badly.
It is in the way she tapes the nudity and eroticism. Of course, this does not need to be hardcore
and it is not, but she films surfaces to look like other surfaces in one series
of teases to the audience, then films full nudity either form a great distance
or cut-up when the camera gets closer.
What gives? Why he
self-censorship and mockery of the audience?
It cannot be the lack of definition that her video format would offer of
nude males and females. It is certainly
the antithesis of the era and shows some real personal issues with people and
the body in general. By the time the
program runs its course, we are told that this was based on a true story, more
than ever these days a sorry excuse to cover up for artistic failure.
She said this was about friends she knew. Well, this is no way to honor their memory,
especially with this visual Neo-Conservative self-censorship straight out of
the 1980s and is the dream of police states all over the world. There is no boldness or guts here. Except for some good performances, Eden’s
Curve does not make the grade, feeling more like a sexually oppressed
exploitation film (like May Morning) than something we can appreciate.
The letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image was with a Sony PD-150 PAL
camcorder and it shows. The PAL format
has about the same frame rate as sound film (25 vs. 24 frames-per-second), but
it still has PAL’s limits and is presented here directly from a PAL source, not
a film print. Anamorphic enhancement
would not improve anything either. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is basic at best and offers no surround
information. There are no extras, but
enough was enough.
- Nicholas Sheffo
