Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life (1995)
Jakob arrives at the Institute Benjamenta (run by brother and sister Johannes and Lisa Benjamenta) to learn to become a servant. With seven other men, he studies under Lisa: absurd lessons of movement, drawing circles, and servility. He asks for a better room. No other students arrive and none leave for employment. Johannes is unhappy, imperious, and detached from the school's operation. Lisa is beautiful, at first tightly controlled, then on the verge of breakdown. There's a whiff of incest. Jakob is drawn to Lisa, and perhaps she to him. As winter sets in, she becomes catatonic. Things get worse; Johannes notes that all this has happened since Jakob came. Is there any cause and effect?
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Best movie of this year hands down!
Why so much hype?
A Disappointing Continuation
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
it is really beautiful. fragile, cold and courageous. because it is little more than art film. or adaptation. it may be a dream fresco, a puzzle or a form of poem. it is special meeting with a delicate meeting front with profound world in which Expresionism art, Kafka lines, Surrealism and Oniric circles are frontiers of this work. crumbs of magic, dark questions confuse desires, memories from past for East European people and shadows of characters. and flavor of many nuances of acting. paper ash colors, gray feelings and strange forms of life. a parable about basic values and hole of emotions. version for a Gloomy Sunday and exploration of a trip without end.
...especially Alice Krige! The directing, however, I would have liked more without its over enthusiastic surreal demeanour. The story and essence of the picture as well as its atmosphere and its meaning in reference to the real world fall much to short. What a waste of attitude and art as the ideas of presenting and most acting were captivating. But in lack of a coherent story the movie became what it is...art, with a meaning somewhere to find (Dalí meets a narcissistic form of Kafka) - instead of a beautiful and moving picture with deep meaning. All just for art's sake? e.g. why is she speaking Dutch and other languages several times? Why overdoing it? Why this shabby and in a way arrogant symbolism?Didn't read the book by Robert Walser (Jakob von Gunten) - but now I'm interested and hope it's better.
From the Quay Brothers, all that you might expect in their first feature film but less than you would hope for. The photography is quite beautiful, uniquely so, and some of the sequences are stunning; unfortunately the surrealism often comes off as forced, and the focus of each scene seems too often misplaced.The actors do a fine job one and all, with particular kudos to Alice Krige. There's a dark humor to the piece which often helps its cause. But it all too often seems like a music video which lacks even a good beat to carry you along.It reminded me of "Eraserhead", Bergman, Terry Gilliam, and Alan Resnais, but on each count not enough.Better luck next time....
The first time I saw this movie, I fell asleep--but I don't blame the movie at all. I was tired. Before I fell asleep, I found it frustrating and oblique. But when I woke up, suddenly the dream logic of the movie seemed to make sense. Then I saw it again.Often compared to Eraserhead, I think this movie has much, much more to offer than Lynch's first feature. Institute Benjamenta doesn't have any kind of decoder...in fact, it refuses any. Filmed in a hazy, drowsy black-and-white, with scenes of flat, if surreal, simplicity, interspersed with dreamy, nonsensical interludes, it must be accepted before it can be enjoyed.