Georges Bataille’s Story Of The Eye

Despite the title, this arty piece of punk porn belongs less to Bataillewhose elegantly transgressive 1928 novel supplies only a few snippets of dialoguethan to Philadelphia-based underground video maker Andrew Repasky McElhinney (A Chronicle of Corpses). It’s beautifully lit and shot, making fine use of color, and critics as discerning as Dave Kehr and Bill Krohn have praised its challenging, dreamlike mix of hard-core sex (gay and straight) and fantasy rituals staged in an abandoned house. I was intrigued by one extended sequence in which a ravaged woman in a slip continually climbs the same staircase, but much of this seems disappointingly familiar for a work so bent on shock. Maybe seeing it in public would be a more confrontational experience. 81 min. (JR) Read more