Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

punishmentpark A priest sits at a table, pouring a little bit of liquid (from a large seashell) into a laboratory flask (similar to an Erlenmeyer), then throws the flask to pieces on the floor, and repeats this ritual seemingly endlessly (what, in fact is he doing?). Then enters an army general, who moves in peculiar ways (over the ceiling, for instance) through the room. He takes the seashell from the priest and (with his sword) destroys it. It takes many a strange and absurd scene until the priest regains this shell, which holds his reflection (his soul?) inside it.'La coquille et la clergyman' may be an experimental film in many aspects, it dóes have a (complex) story with a beginning and an end, even if it is said about that that it takes places in the subconscious of the priest's mind... Well, I just saw this one only once, and I am far from making my mind up about what it truly is - apart from what it is meant to be (note that this film is the vision of director Dulac, and that it is assumed that writer Artaud was not content with the final result - in what way exactly, I don't know).So, what cán I say? This is simply a great film, and it amazed me to be made as early as 1928. There is a likeness with the German expressionism (for instance when the use of light and shadows), the actors do a great job (especially Allin), and it is full of wonderful film techniques, settings, ideas and camera angles - how refreshing, even, or especially, in 2013. And then there's some adult material in there which I simply did not expect - bravo! Oh, I saw a (the?) forty minute version, what a treat: 9 out of 10.

Polaris_DiB Wow, that was some serious repression that clergyman was wrestling with! Narratively speaking, this movie isn't really all that clear (or meant to be), but basically, a general and a clergyman get in this fight (it seems like the general starts it), and the clergyman, cowed, follows the general on his hands and feet until he observes the general talking up his girlfriend. At that point the movie spirals into insanity as the clergyman violently and desperately wrestles over his inflamed sexual attraction and his combined guilt and jealousy over the other man.Decadence is taken on too as the clergyman mentally transitions from place to place and is horrified by the actions and glamour of those that surround him. One particularly good sequence involves the clergyman's coattails as they grow and grow, dragging him down and holding him back from the object of his desire.Another thing worth noting is the visual effects in this movie. Mental and emotional space is created via the well-established techniques of double-exposure, dissolves, irises, pull-focus, split-screen effects, and so on, all done before but never quite like in this movie.--PolarisDiB

bcurran05 Germaine Dulac was not really making a film which was ahead of it's time. surrealism was being used throughout the film makers of Europe and even being experimented with by those in the united states during this time period. Those that have studied that time period will agree that there was a lot of drug use back then and a lot of the directors were doing experimentation along these lines. Personally i don't believe that Germaine Dulac was using drugs but she was really interested in the surrealistic approach to film making.I have watched this short several times and am still having a difficult time getting my head around what is going on, i cannot decide if the priest is suppose to be having a dream or on some kind of drugs or what, or if she made the film just in truest sense of the surrealistic tone of this movie to make the viewer question and wonder about it.We may never know.

amjad qureshi The predecessor of Un Chien Andalou and directed by the lone woman filmmaker of her time, La Coquille et le Clergyman is one of the most celebrated of French avant-garde movies of the '20s, partly because Antonin Artaud wrote the script, partly because the British censor of the time banned it with the legendary words 'If this film has a meaning, it is doubtless objectionable'. Artaud was reputedly unhappy with Dulac's realization of his scenario, and it's true that the story's anti-clericalism (a priest develops a lustful passion that plunges him into bizarre fantasies) is somewhat undermined by the director's determined visual lyricism. But the fragmentation of the narrative and the innovative imagery remain provocative, and the film is of course fascinating testimony to the currents of its time.