Shocktober 2024: A Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926)

Dreamlike, Japanese psycho-horror-drama mostly set in a mental institution, where terror and chaos are never far away. An elderly man — possibly a former staff member? — tries to save a female patient who is plagued by psychoses. But how will he rescue her, and why? And is she even real? Is he?

The fact that it’s a silent movie (without any intertitles despite plenty of dialogue), and experimental at that, frequently makes A Page of Madness difficult to follow — I simply have to be honest! — to the point that I needed to check in with Wiki to get the big picture. Wiki’s summary of the plot is almost laughably straight, completely at odds with how opaque the film is. Which is fine — it’s so much more concerned with vibes than with a traditional narrative anyway. It’s thick with ambiance, ghostly apparitions, confusing flashbacks and bizarre visions — all of which might be figments of the protagonist’s imagination.

Directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa and made by an avant-garde group of Japanese artists, it was considered lost until Kinugasa found a print in 1971 — which unfortunately was missing a third of the original content. Reminded me of directors like Guy Maddin and Bill Morrison. Dr. Runtime approved (71 mins).