Rating: 2.5/5
There are more things in Lithuanian forests than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
19th Century Lithuania Professor Wittembach, a priest, prays to God for protection from sin and temptation at his journey’s start. He is going to a remote village, where he will observe and document their customs.
He stays with Count Michał Szemiot, who opens his library to Wittembach. In it are rare books — some that Witrembach thought did not exist.
The Count has sequestered his mother, The Countess, to an isolated part of the castle, saying she has gone mad. Wittembach witnesses the live-in physician, Doctor Froeber, dipping the mother in a cage into the lake to tire her out.
The doctor relays the story of how the Countess went mad because of a bear attack that killed her husband and traumatized her. After she gave birth to the Count, she became convinced that the Count was not human.
The village believes the Count is a half-human child of the bear that attacked the Countess.
The movie is a slow burn, feeling close to a Hammer gothic film but less tense.
I appreciate the overall ambiguity of the story, but it reached a point where it either needed to end sooner or make a choice. It did neither.
In the right frame of mind, I could enjoy this more, but I found this a little too lacking for me to love.
** Stray Thoughts / Spoilers **
- Cool credits with everything out of focus except through the glasses sitting on the train window, giving only a glimpse of the passing landscape
- “Tea without milk is poison!”
- Everyone keeps saying his behavior is bear-like, but I don’t see it
- Did the swamp lady glide over the water?
- He woke up growling in his sleep. The most bear-like thing I’ve seen.
- Doctor being a creep and peeping on some bathing women
- Finally, with 25 minutes left in the movie, Wittembach goes out and observes customs
- And then he comes right back for a wedding
- The doctor is not good at the organ
- The guy coughing during the wedding