PARAPHILIA > NOTES
Paraphilia picks up on an aspect of The Night Man that I always wanted to explore more thoroughly; the idea of a man trapped in a room and beginning to lose his grip on reality. In the earlier film, this was conveyed by stark realism matching the character’s sheer boredom and anxiety. Here, the same basic problem is dealt with the opposite way; a wilder, mind-bending style that mirrors the hero’s increasing delirium. Not only the film’s style but its premises are heavily – and shamelessly – ripped off from Ken Russell, David Cronenberg and Terry Gilliam. As in their films, frame-bending lenses and other effects go hand-in-hand with plot elements like experimental drugs and devices, flirtations with the occult, and frightening lapses from sanity and personal identity. |