'The Forbidden Room' A Review

The Forbidden Room is a French Canadian silent movie/early film inspired montage comedy-drama. Book-ended by an odd commercial like sequence "How To Take A Bath" the film then moves into a submarine, a sailor on the sub tells a story, someone in the story has a dream, on and on spinning off into various loosely connected vignettes eventually circling back to the submarine for a series of climaxes to bring a semblance of resolution to the non-narrative piece.

Tonally the film is a collage of styles, at points silent with title cards, alternatively allegory, farce, melodrama, and parody. The over-the-top comedic performances seem totally incongruous with some of the heightened and dramatic situations, incompatible with the care and singular visual quality of the film. The various sequences are almost all monochromatic and the shots and cuts create an ethereal dream-like quality. The film is so packed with ideas and technique it walks the line between beauty and indecipherable mess.

The artifice and creativity of the film is unarguable, as far as conception it is incredibly unique. There is however a glaring and disheartening misogyny on display. Of the thirty plus cast members the majority of the men are past middle age and the majority of the women are in their twenties. The majority of the women in the film appear fully nude at various points. All the women in the film fill one of three roles- mother, wife/girlfriend, or object of sexual desire. This could be through some specific intention of the filmmakers, if so it is not apparent. The portrayal of women in the film is antiquated and offensive. The film not only utilizes silent film craft but has parroted the gender dynamics of that bygone time period.

Artistically layered, socially bankrupt.

Don't See It.