{"id":25199,"date":"2012-04-09T12:14:15","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T19:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=25199"},"modified":"2021-01-18T16:32:40","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T23:32:40","slug":"duet-for-cannibals-1969","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=25199","title":{"rendered":"Duet for Cannibals (1969)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;About her, I know even less. I don&#8217;t understand what is between them.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Duet-for-Cannibals-Poster2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Duet-for-Cannibals-Poster2-217x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"217\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-25202\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Duet-for-Cannibals-Poster2-217x300.jpg 217w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Duet-for-Cannibals-Poster2-92x128.jpg 92w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Duet-for-Cannibals-Poster2.jpg 741w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 217px) 100vw, 217px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA young man (Gosta Ekman) takes a job helping to organize the papers of a renowned philosopher (Lars Ekborg), and soon finds himself inextricably embroiled in Ekborg&#8217;s troubled marriage to a seemingly insane wife (Adriana Asti); when Ekman&#8217;s frustrated girlfriend (Agneta Ekmanner) appears at their house, relations get even more surreal and complicated.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Marital Problems<\/li>\n<li>Scandinavian Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nIt&#8217;s no surprise that noted philosopher\/essayist Susan Sontag&#8217;s directorial cinematic debut &#8212; a Bergmanesque psychological drama housed within a Bunuel-ian\/Godard-ian surrealist framework &#8212; has nothing to do with actual flesh-eating cannibals; what&#8217;s disappointing, however, is how ultimately derivative and pointless her experimental vision is. While we&#8217;re kept intentionally in the dark about various characters&#8217; motivations, it&#8217;s immediately clear that Ekborg and his wife are manipulative narcissists desperate to ensnare gullible subjects in their troubled marital web; the real question (for those involved enough to care) is why Ekman and Ekmanner allow themselves to become part of such a farcically dysfunctional drama. When trying to read a bit more about Sontag&#8217;s possible intentions with the film, I stumbled across the following quote in an analytical essay, in which <em>Duet&#8230;<\/em> is described as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecrimson.com\/article\/1971\/3\/15\/radical-film-duet-for-cannibals-at\/\">&#8220;a film that punishes you vindictively for threatening its existence by trying to interpret it away&#8221;<\/a> &#8212; in other words, viewers should be forewarned that any director who previously published a collection of essays entitled <em>Against Interpretation<\/em> (1966)<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Against_Interpretation\"><\/a> is <u>not<\/u> likely to create a movie that allows for easy or straightforward analysis. Ultimately, this one is exclusively for diehard Sontag fans; all others should be forewarned. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Occasional moments of head-scratching surrealism<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Duet-for-Cannibals-Surreal2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Duet-for-Cannibals-Surreal2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"432\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-25200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Duet-for-Cannibals-Surreal2.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Duet-for-Cannibals-Surreal2-128x86.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Duet-for-Cannibals-Surreal2-300x202.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo; this one will only appeal to certain constituents, and isn&#8217;t worth seeking out by all-purpose film fanatics. Listed as a film with Historical Importance in the back of Peary&#8217;s book, though I&#8217;m not sure why. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0062916\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1969\/09\/25\/archives\/the-screensusan-sontags-duet-for-cannibals-at-festival.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.allmovie.com\/movie\/duett-for-kannibaler-v90120\">All Movie Guide Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;About her, I know even less. I don&#8217;t understand what is between them.&#8221; Synopsis: A young man (Gosta Ekman) takes a job helping to organize the papers of a renowned philosopher (Lars Ekborg), and soon finds himself inextricably embroiled in Ekborg&#8217;s troubled marriage to a seemingly insane wife (Adriana Asti); when Ekman&#8217;s frustrated girlfriend (Agneta Ekmanner) appears at their house, relations get even more surreal and complicated. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Marital Problems Scandinavian Films Review: It&#8217;s no surprise&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=25199\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25199"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64255,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25199\/revisions\/64255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}