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Product Description ------------------- BEGOTTEN is the creation myth brought to life, the story of no less than the violent death of God and the (re)birth of nature on a barren earth. Astounding and baffling critics and audiences alike, BEGOTTEN was named one of the Ten Best Pictures of 1991 by Time Magazine. Time's Richard Corliss wrote: "Nobody will get through BEGOTTEN without being marked... BEGOTTEN is a spectacular one-of-a-kind (you wouldn't want there to be two), filmed in speckled chiaroscuro so that each image is a seductive mystery, a Rorschach test for the adventurous eye." In production notes for the film, director Merhige commented, "Each in the film went through hours of preparation to achieve the look you will experience when viewing... the etheral "pulse" that hypnotically permeates the film. It took over ten hours to re-photograph less than one minute of selected takes." The BEGOTTEN DVD special features include: a souvenir booklet; interactive menus; scene access; the original theatrical trailer; and rare, never-before-seen stills and color production photos. USA, 1991, 78 mins., black & white, digital sound, full format. Unrated. Suggested retail $29.95. Review ------ "A sort of metaphysical splatter film... ferociously visual... inexplicable weirdness." -- J. Hoberman, Premiere "A triumph of lyrical grotesquerie." -- Robert DiMatteo, Film "Fascinating... seductive... monstrous like some perverse child's dream, nostalgic like a flickering flame -- an altogether unforgettable experience." -- Berenice Reynaud, Village Voice "Intense." -- Janet Maslin, New York Times "So off-putting and cryptic that it's shocking how successfully it walks its own unique line." -- A.S. Hamrah, Utne "The result is a thing of beauty, where realistic images are turned upside down by the grotesque and flowers are trampled by the darkening clouds of a nightmare." -- Drew Stepak, Film Threat "Wildly surreal... unorthodox... bizarre. Merhige is a promising new artist." -- David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); From the Contributor -------------------- "Whatever happened to Search and Discovery in the arts of today? Artists must behave like archaeologists if the guts of visionary filmmaking can happen. They will have to return to the depths of the collective unknown to find out what we're all about. From that universal dream our most individual and forceful voices can emerge." (E. Elias Merhige) About the Director ------------------ E. Elias Merhige was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1964. In 1985 he founded Theatreofmaterial, whose work became the springboard for BEGOTTEN. His work both as a painter and a filmmaker was deeply influenced by primitive and tribal art: the monoliths of Stonehenge; burial sites of Indian mound builders; Dream Paintings of the Aborigines; and sacred ceremonies of African and Oceanic man. He was also influenced by expressionist artists like Bosch, Goya, Courbet and Munk, while the work of Kirsanov, Eisenstein, Lang and Bunuel contributed to his development as a cinematographer. Poetry and environmental theatre occupied a definite creative place for Merhige. Then, frustrated by the limitations of language, he turned to filmmaking. From the Back Cover ------------------- "ONE OF THE TEN BEST PICTURES OF THE YEAR. Nobody will get through BEGOTTEN without being marked. In this nightmare classic by Edmund Elias Merhige, a godlike thing dies giving birth to a quivering messiah thing; then the local villager things ravage and bury them, and the earth renews itself on their corpses. It is as if a druidical cult had re-enacted, for real, three Bible stories -- creation, the Nativity and Jesus' torture and death on Golgotha -- and some demented genius were there to film it. No names, no dialogue, no compromises, no exit. No apologies either, for Begotten is a spectacular one-of-a-kind (you wouldn't want there to be two), filmed in speckled chiaro-scuro so that each image is a seductive mystery, a Rorschach test for the adventurous eye." --Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine See more ( javascript:void(0) )