AT THE LATE-NIGHT DOUBLE FEATURE PICTURE SHOW: (In the back row!)–movie reviews. In chronological order.

“CLOSET LAND“: This is a movie about torture, starring Alan Rickman and Madeleine Stowe. What I’ve said just now is either enough to convince you that you need to find this movie now, or that you want to avoid this movie at all costs.

There are things about this movie that shudder toward greatness. The movie is highly stylized; the sets are anti-realistic, genre-movie sets. There are stark pillars and big movie screens. The victim character has several terrifying lines, toward the beginning, in which she insists on her rights: She wants to see her lawyer. She wants to know what the charges are. She has some sense that the system ought to protect her. She still thinks she lives in a country that makes sense.

And there are things about the portrayal of her tormentor, as well, that work. For example, the scene in which he empties his pockets into her lap. (The sexual nature of torture is at the forefront of this movie. It was made in 1991. In case you were wondering whether Francis Fukuyama was right about the end of history.)

I highly recommend this movie. Nonetheless, I think it’s got some major flaws. It conflates personal or familial trauma and political torture, in a way that obscures rather than illuminates, I think. (There are a lot of ways in which all sexual abuse is the same. But I don’t think you can show those similarities by actually making political torture simply a subspecies of personal abuse.) And, as with V for Vendetta, its hopeful notes are utterly vague and unconvincing in the face of the horror of its central situation.

There are autobiographies that prove that torture does not necessarily destroy the victim’s personality: that there is hope. Wei Jingsheng’s Courage to Stand Alone is the only such memoir I’ve read myself, but I know there are many more. (Wei’s book is astonishing, by the way: fierce and funny and utterly human, in the face of ultimate inhumanity. You should read it.) But “Closet Land” doesn’t convince. In the end, its depiction of hope is no match for its depiction of horror.

“YO, LA PEOR DE TODOS“: This is a biopic of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, a Mexican nun and author. It’s odd that I watched it right around the same time I watched “Therese” (see below)–I can’t remember which one I watched first. Both dealt with religious sisters; and both (not sure why) included powerful lesbian subtext. YLPDT was the one that taught me the least. It’s basically the story of a strong woman who wants knowledge, she owns an orrery, de blah de blah, the bad males of the Church won’t let her express her inmost self, knowledge is the enemy of faith, the Church hates women, etc etc. It’s saved from being an utterly predictable movie by the powerful performances of the lead actresses, Assumpta Serna and Dominique Sanda. They kept me enthralled when the central storyline told me nothing I couldn’t get on the op-ed pages of the NY Times.

“THERESE“: This, on the other hand… this is like a dispatch from another world. “Therese” is a ferocious, febrile movie, suffused with bridal mysticism and with an implacable otherness. Again, the lead actress carries this movie; but in every other respect “Therese” could not be more different from “Yo, La Peor de Todos.” “Therese” gives no quarter to the world’s standards, focusing on those aspects of Carmelite life which would be most frightening, shocking, even repellent to contemporary Americans.

In doing so, of course, “Therese” also underscores how much we contemporary Americans need the uncompromising challenge Christ and the Little Flower represent.

YLPDT didn’t make me want to do anything in particular, except maybe see which other movies the lead actresses had starred in. “Therese” made me want to pray.

“THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE“: This is an extended meditation on the sentence, “Radix malorum est cupiditas.” What’s so amazing is that it’s beautifully paced, despite its length. Any Catholic film series would do well to consider this movie, as it’s compelling and morally relentless. There are obvious “echoes” or influences on other stories, e.g. “The Shining.”

“SUSPIRIA“: Oh my stars and garters! This Italian horror flick is like, every horror movie you ever loved raised to the power of 100. Distilled freakiness. Sometimes that means it’s really cheesy. Sometimes the spaghetti-horror made me cringe and flinch away from the grisly screen. But in general, this is horror distilled. The opening sequence is not to be missed: Brilliant direction, including a justly famous soundtrack. Even if you don’t think you can take the gross-out moments later on, please do watch the opener, with the dance student in the rain. The interiors, the revelations: This is the ultimate, the B-horror raised to A-plus level. I watched with mouth hung open.

“DIABOLIQUE” (1955, Clouzot) : I just don’t believe the plot of this would work. When it happened in Christie, I believed it, because of the setup; here, not even the tension between the women could salvage the plot for me. …I hope that was vague enough not to spoil.