dirk de bruyn reviews the dead man 2: return of the dead man
D-Light + MM2 = Dutch Experimental Film
by Dirk de Bruyn
Ian Kerkhof’s Dead Man 2: The Return of The Dead Man (1994, 26 minutes) moves us directly into the spotlight of the eroded, fraying human psyche. The title likely refers to the Georges Bataille short story, The Dead Man given Kerkhof’s stated debt to Bataille and the physical, degrading nature of the work. It makes Nick Zedd and Lydia Lunch seem positively middle class. The stark opening hardcore scene sets the tone for the rest of the film’s viewing and ups the ante on transgressive cinema. It takes place in a bar. We see two men strapped up in S & M gear, they verbally abuse and provoke one another until one spews into the other’s mouth. This very real but perverse moment releases us into the rest of the film, into the mesmerising landscape of the bar. Lucas populates his bars within the Star Wars trilogy with weird looking alien types. Kerkhof opts for a circus of striking and debasing behaviours. A catatonic middle-aged man searches for something lost, through imparted golden showers and other despicable acts. Dead Man 2 plays both as metaphor and evidence for the decline of the west.
Kerkhof’s features Nice to meet you, please don’t rape me (1994) and Naar de klote! / Wasted! (1996) have been similarly confronting. Naar de klote! / Wasted! follows two twenty-somethings into the drug and club scene in Amsterdam. It was originally shot on digital video and has been an audience hit in the Netherlands.
Dirk de Bruyn has been involved with personal film making as a practitioner, curator and writer in Melbourne and overseas for 30 years. He is currently teaching Digital Filmmaking at Deakin University.
originally published by senses of cinema
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