Freaks (1932)
Country: USA
Dir: Tod Browning
Genre: Drama, Cult-horror
Rating: 7.0/10I had seen a photo of a scene from this movie in a book I had bought recently about Film Directors. I was amazed to see the cast members in the photo which is almost unimaginable in today's cinema: siamese twins, cretins, pinheads, a bearded lady, a dwarf, and a "human torso". These were genuine circus and carnival sideshow performers. This was the way director Tod Browning envisioned and realized Freaks on Celluloid.
The story involves a terrible revenge by a group of deformed people, part of a circus, upon a normal-sized trapeze beauty. A midget named Hans, already in a relationship with Frieda (another midget), falls in love with a trapeze artist Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova). Cleopatra discovers that Hans is heir to a fortune and thus lures him to marry her, all the way planning to bump-off the midget and run away with a fellow artist-a strongman named Hercules. Soon she reveals her inner animosity towards the freaks during the wedding when midgets and pinheads from the group start chanting "one of us" ritualistically showing that they accept her. What she doesn't reckon is that by vilifying them, she has broken their code of honour: "offend one, offend them all".
The opening sequence introduces the grotesque looking 'freaks' in a long shot as they relax in an open space amidst the woods, gradually moving the camera closer to delay the shock so as to allow our thoughts to settle down by insisting us to view on their humanity rather than their hideous outlook, as they cope up with the trials and tribulations of everyday life by trying to supress the traditional equations of health and physical beauty. Browning's knowledge of the milieu and the dynamics of relationships in Freaks reflects his understanding and compassion towards human oddities as he himself had worked in a circus for fifteen years before making his venture into Hollywood. Although at times very melodramatic, especially the scenes involving Hans and Frieda, the relationship characterizes the vulnerablility and to some extent the innocence of the people involved. Browning shows that a midget like Hans can indeed fall in love with a fully grown woman like Cleopatra (or atleast dream about it), but the real issue in question is 'can a fully grown woman truly love a midget?'. And soon it becomes clear to us the feelings and intentions of Cleopatra.
Freaks is all about love, deceit, voyeurism, and retribution, some of which were considered too blatant to be discussed in public especially in the early 1900's. Well at least portraying things like debauchery and voyeurism on celluloid were held with contempt and it seems that the reaction to this film was so intense that browning had trouble finding work and this in effect brought Browning's career to an end. The film was considered too horrifying and outrageous at that time and created a huge stir and as a result the movie was banned in the UK for almost thirty years and also in some parts of US.
Neverthless, even today the movie remains a cult-horror classic and a major landkmark in the history of moviemaking, as the prologue at the beginning of the movie states: "Never again will such a story be filmed, as modern science and teratology is rapidly eliminating such blunders of nature from the world."
Prasad Bhat.
The story involves a terrible revenge by a group of deformed people, part of a circus, upon a normal-sized trapeze beauty. A midget named Hans, already in a relationship with Frieda (another midget), falls in love with a trapeze artist Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova). Cleopatra discovers that Hans is heir to a fortune and thus lures him to marry her, all the way planning to bump-off the midget and run away with a fellow artist-a strongman named Hercules. Soon she reveals her inner animosity towards the freaks during the wedding when midgets and pinheads from the group start chanting "one of us" ritualistically showing that they accept her. What she doesn't reckon is that by vilifying them, she has broken their code of honour: "offend one, offend them all".
The opening sequence introduces the grotesque looking 'freaks' in a long shot as they relax in an open space amidst the woods, gradually moving the camera closer to delay the shock so as to allow our thoughts to settle down by insisting us to view on their humanity rather than their hideous outlook, as they cope up with the trials and tribulations of everyday life by trying to supress the traditional equations of health and physical beauty. Browning's knowledge of the milieu and the dynamics of relationships in Freaks reflects his understanding and compassion towards human oddities as he himself had worked in a circus for fifteen years before making his venture into Hollywood. Although at times very melodramatic, especially the scenes involving Hans and Frieda, the relationship characterizes the vulnerablility and to some extent the innocence of the people involved. Browning shows that a midget like Hans can indeed fall in love with a fully grown woman like Cleopatra (or atleast dream about it), but the real issue in question is 'can a fully grown woman truly love a midget?'. And soon it becomes clear to us the feelings and intentions of Cleopatra.
Freaks is all about love, deceit, voyeurism, and retribution, some of which were considered too blatant to be discussed in public especially in the early 1900's. Well at least portraying things like debauchery and voyeurism on celluloid were held with contempt and it seems that the reaction to this film was so intense that browning had trouble finding work and this in effect brought Browning's career to an end. The film was considered too horrifying and outrageous at that time and created a huge stir and as a result the movie was banned in the UK for almost thirty years and also in some parts of US.
Neverthless, even today the movie remains a cult-horror classic and a major landkmark in the history of moviemaking, as the prologue at the beginning of the movie states: "Never again will such a story be filmed, as modern science and teratology is rapidly eliminating such blunders of nature from the world."
Prasad Bhat.
posted by Prasad Bhat at Sunday, October 23, 2005
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