Tarnation
( Tarnation )
- Colour, 35 mm
- USA, 2003, 88 min
- Section: Sundance at Karlovy Vary
- Director: Jonathan Caouette
- Screenplay: Jonathan Caouette
- Dir. of Photography: Jonathan Caouette
- Music: John Califra, Max Avery Lichtensten, Stephin Merritt
- Editor: Jonathan Caouette, Brian A. Kates
- Producer: Jonathan Caouette, Stephen Winter
- Sales: Wellspring Media, Inc.
Synopsis
New York, March 2002. Thirty-two-year-old Jonathan finds out that his mentally ill mother has overdosed on lithium. After five years, he returns in the company of his boyfriend to the places where he grew up in the suburbs of Houston, Texas. That just about wraps up the plot of one of the most original films of the last five years. This autobiographical feverish dream is made up of documentary excerpts, staged sequences, home videos, amateur films, photographs, answerphone messages and the like. Through a psychedelic dramatisation of a life of trauma, Jonathan tries to come to terms with the wrong done to his mother, who was needlessly subjected to more than 200 electric shock treatments. Edited with iMovie software, a standard component of any Apple Computer, the film became a hit among viewers at both the Sundance and Cannes film festivals. A stirring cinematic “exorcism” as well as a highly intimate avowal of a son’s love for his mother.
About the director
Jonathan Caouette (b. 1973, Houston, USA) has been making movies since the age of eight. He is the author behind the short films
The Ankle Slasher (1987),
The Techniques and Science of Eva (1988),
Pig Nymph (1990),
The Hospital (2001) and
Fame (2002). As a stage actor his repertoire has included the schizophrenic John the Baptist in
Salome and the homosexual Judas in
Jesus Christ Superstar. Among others he has acted in advertisements, MTV spots and student films.
