Martyrs

[valido]

Oh and I dont care if he is on the forum but... 'Do you think this is an important film or just gory?' - There are no stupid questions just stupid people, no wait take that back, that was a bloody stupid question!

As far as Q&As generally go I was actually quite impressed that this was the only stupid "I know better than you" non-sense question in five days... really, amazing job guys!

[streetrw]

Over hyped, Also I didnt see people walk out so I really doubt people were throwing up outside

i went to the toilet and saw three people running past me about to be sick

.............and only witnessed by a 1 post person

We were all one-post persons at one time....

Mind you, I've never had the urge to chuck in a cinema or watching a DVD.

[kaiju]

I think deep down im just dissapointed that i wasnt disturbed by this film.As quite a few people have said the 1st half was well paced and quite shocking and i felt quite strongly about lucies situation.then there was a 4min piece of exposition and the rest was annas beating torture,the fact that this section didnt shock or disturb a lot of people i spoke to may say more about the audience than the film,im not sure.but it just didnt have the impact on me i thought it would.
I quite liked it overall and will buy it when(if) its released here,but i was just expecting more.

[dhrupick]

two posts now.

i'm new to frightfest this was my first one. made the sat, sun and mon. definitley back next year as i am still buzzing from this years.
i admired martyrs but couldn't say i enjoyed it, but have just ordered inside and the girl next door on your reccomendations

[MaxRenn]

two posts now.

i'm new to frightfest this was my first one. made the sat, sun and mon. definitley back next year as i am still buzzing from this years.
i admired martyrs but couldn't say i enjoyed it, but have just ordered inside and the girl next door on your reccomendations

Oh god! Brace yourself hock:

[voor]

SPOILERS

I think 'Martyrs' was by far my favourite film of the festival - perhaps not because it was brutal and horrific but because of the interesting (and slightly theological) questions it raised at the end.
i have to disagree with this ever being in the same league as something like 'Hostel' - the violence we witnessed in 'Martyrs' seemed to stem from an integral necessity - Anna's process of turning into a 'Martyr' also was a process of Anna finally having to confront what Julienne and the other 'Martyr' had to go through: her disbelief was not suspended by her discovering the truth but having to experience it: the film being as much of a journey for us as for her.
The implications of the ending still buzz around in my head - there is not one definitive answer that can tie the whole thing in a neat knot - if anything the film beautifully explored the idea of a 'mArtyr' as a concept not religious but from its' truest sense: as someone who is a witness - someone who is called to bear witness - whilst in a traditional sense a martyr would endure torture because of what they were bearing witness to : value, religious belief whereas here the endurance of the individual gave them the ability to bear witness.
So what did Anna see? Heaven? Hell? Nothing? A demented vision? Whatever it was, it was enough to make 'Madame' strip herself to her bare bones, to her core as it was, the removing of the eyelashes , the make-up, even the clothes , and take her own life in order to witness it herself to to avoid it.
What an amazing, thought-provoking film!

Sincerely yours

voor

[MaxRenn]

SPOILERS


....and take her own life in order to witness it herself...

That motive for her actions never even occurred to me Voor. Seems such an obvious reading I can't believe it passed me by I was thinking of guilt, but that is much better.

Great to see this film provoking such a huge range of responses, I really NEED to see it again.

[Tragedygirl]

Going to write this before reading everyone elses too

This was the whole movie over the whole 5 days that I was worried about seeing ... we all like to push and test our horror boundries, but what i didnt want was to see a film that I wished I hadnt and for it affect me in a negative upsetting way.

Anyhow, I decided to go for it ... that if the worst happened I could just walk out. I even brought my scary teddy Sheldon from home (LOL) to comfort me I was THAT worried!!

Luckily (or unlucky depending on how you view things) this film didnt push any of my taboo buttons and I really "enjoyed" it. It really is a film of two halves, and the first half did have me twitching and hugging Sheldon as I have this HUGE fear of creepy long haired foreign looking women who like to crawl and slither about (Ju-on is to blame). once I realised (quite quickly) where this woman in the first half came from I calmed down a bit ... and then as we know the film changes quite a bit.

The second half was awful with the revalation as to what was going on and the unveiling of Anna's fate. It was mezmerising in a strange way what was happening to her and the last 15 mins or so was like "oh my god" to think there could be people or organisations out there with the obvious resources to pull something like this off is truely frightening.

As to this day I am not sure why i liked the film or what I really think of the out come. I was totally engrossed in the film and I have to say that in a lot of the other subtitled films I had a lot of trouble reading them but for some reason i dont remember any trouble with this film ... the 100 min of this film just flew by for me, i dont think i once twitched in my seat with a numb arse or was aware of any reading difficulty!! That alone speaks volumes to me and how i liked the film.

I am surprised to hear some of the extreme negativity towards this film and havent witnessed ( ) any myself. I am very glad I saw this moive and didnt chicken out.

I'm sure this film will be discussed for quite a while to come

[AdeBrown]

i went to the toilet and saw three people running past me about to be sick

.............and only witnessed by a 1 post person

We were all one-post persons at one time....

Mind you, I've never had the urge to chuck in a cinema or watching a DVD.

There was this one time I was being sick all night,
so I put on a horror DVD to watch.

[Team Banzai]

i promise - myself, alan and pascal upon returning to the cinema before the end were greeted by a handful of folks running to the bathrooms. pascal attempted to talk to them and he apologized!

we have no reason to lie about things

and i'm not a first time poster

[The Soapmaker]

i promise - myself, alan and pascal upon returning to the cinema before the end were greeted by a handful of folks running to the bathrooms.

If I was one of those folks, I was only taking the opportunity for a piss because I was bored with the torture scenes.*

I didn't hear anyone being sick, but there were a lot more people in the toilets than there usually are during the films.


(* I'm not claiming "I'm hard me, I can take anything" - I actually blacked out during Ichi The Killer when the bloke cuts his own tongue off. But Martyrs didn't have the same effect.)

[mamawaldi]

Thought the first half of this was terrific. Visceral and emotional. Our sympathies conflicted with the destruction of the archetypal family unit by someone we see as a victim themselves.

Once the film changed tack it kind of left me behind. Surely a martyr has a cause that they and others believe in? They can't just be created from a series of ferocious beatings by a silent heavy?

So I didn't engage with the whole secret society bit, but for an hour this film had me.

(The ending actually reminded me of that Radiohead video with the guy lying down on the pavement. A whispered secret that leads to a shocking conclusion - the viewer left wondering).

[dangerous_jamie]

Who was I chatting to about wishing it was the wrong family?

Was it Payne?

[soulmining]

I think Martyrs had the most impact on me... I can still see that final image of Anna, skinned and with that look in her eyes, it's seared onto my retinas. I'm still thinking about the ending... I like the fact its open to different interpretations and that it provokes a reaction, regardless of your religious stance.

I too had seen the long trailer before it got pulled so I knew how it was going to start (and I did think it might turn out to be the wrong family) but was taken by surprise when Lucie was killed off half way in - I really expected her to remain the focus throughout. The brutal beatings were tough to watch but I was just thankful the torture was less graphic than I'd been expecting... and I'd agree that The Girl Next Door had more impact in that regard.

I still think Inside is a better film but Martyrs is a truly powerful piece of work and I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays at TIFF next month.

[grzegorz]

Oh and I dont care if he is on the forum but... 'Do you think this is an important film or just gory?' - There are no stupid questions just stupid people, no wait take that back, that was a bloody stupid question!

just signed up

as i see it - the amount of controversy it got in Cannes... I was expecting something profound and really disturbing, but this conspiracy plot, secret society trying to find out what's beyond - that is just lame.

first half of the movie was really good, but then with all the religious bullsh*t - c'mon! i do believe that gore can say something about human condition, be a comment of existential issues - "Martyrs" was just stupid excuse for some astonishing scenes (my jaw dropped on the floor when it was revealed that the woman was flayed). cos i didn't buy all the crap about how people take all the suffering in search what is out there, blah blah blah...