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18 hours ago · Baybayin ( ᜊᜌ᜔ᜊᜌᜒᜈ᜔, [a] Tagalog pronunciation: [bajˈbajɪn]; also formerly known as alibata) is a Philippine script. The script is an abugida belonging to the family of the Brahmic scripts. Geographically, it was widely used in Luzon and other parts of the Philippines prior to and during the 16th and 17th centuries before ...
18 hours ago · Latin ( lingua Latina, Latin: [ˈlɪŋɡʷa ɫaˈtiːna], or Latinum, Latin: [ɫaˈtiːnʊ̃]) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Considered a dead language, Latin was originally spoken in Latium (now known as Lazio ), the lower Tiber area around Rome. [1] Through the expansion of the Roman ...
18 hours ago · Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Hebrew letters. Yiddish ( ייִדיש, יידיש or אידיש, yidish or idish, pronounced [ˈ (j)ɪdɪʃ], lit.'Jewish'; ייִדיש-טײַטש, historically also Yidish-Taytsh, lit.'Judeo-German') [9] is a West Germanic language ...
18 hours ago · Glee (stylized as glee) is an American musical comedy-drama television series that aired on Fox in the United States from May 19, 2009, to March 20, 2015. It centers on the New Directions, a glee club at the fictional William McKinley High School, that is located in the American state of Ohio, which competes as a show choir while its disparate members deal with social issues, especially ...
- Plot
- Themes
- Influences
- Production
- Release
- Reception
- Legacy
- See Also
- Further Reading
- External Links
Inside a small shack, a robed figure – dubbed "God Killing Himself" in the film's credits – disembowels himself using a straight razor. After removing some of his internal organs, the character dies. A woman, Mother Earth, emerges from his mutilated remains. She brings the corpse to arousal and uses his semen to impregnate herself. Time passes and ...
Critics have identified several major themes in Begotten. In interviews, Merhige himself has acknowledged that he intentionally incorporated these themes into the film, while also inviting viewers to form their own interpretations of the film.
Merhige was informed by the theories and ideas of Antonin Artaud and Friedrich Nietzsche, which in his opinion had not been developed on film to the fullest extent. His key cinematic influences included Munk, Eisenstein, and Buñuel. In a 1993 interview with art historian Scott MacDonald, Merhige also listed Georges Franju's documentary short Blood ...
Development and pre-production
Begotten was written, produced, and directed by Merhige, with development for the film beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, although some sources list the date as 1984. Merhige had studied at New York State University, and soon developed an interest in the theater after attending several performances while in Manhattan. Merhige would later state in an interview that he had been drawn towards the use of performers creating a highly visualized form of storytelling through dramatic movement to pr...
Filming
Principal photography took place in the mid-to-late 1980s, over a period of three-and-a-half months[Note 3] in several different locations. Merhige filled multiple roles in the film's production, including work on cinematography, and special effects, the latter using a 16mm Arriflex camera on black-and-white reversal film. He had previously worked on several short film subjects before developing Begotten. The opening sequence depicting the robed figure (listed in the credits as "God Killing H...
Post-production and visual effects
Before Begotten, Merhige had worked as a special effects designer for various companies, including a brief job for a Disney television series that involved rotoscoping. These jobs had provided him with the technical knowledge—and savings—he needed to handle the film's post-production and visual effectson his own. The visuals have a decayed look, as if the film itself were an artifact that has been damaged and degraded over vast stretches of time; Merhige said Before and during the film's shoo...
Distribution
Once editing for Begotten was completed, Merhige spent two years trying to find a distributor willing to market and release it. Merhige screened the film to possible distributors but most refused to release the film as it did not fit into a specific genre, making it difficult to bring the film to market. Merhige later recalled, "When I first went looking for distribution, everyone laughed at me, saying 'We don't know what this is...'" Merhige then took it to a number of museums in hopes of ev...
Theatrical screenings
Unable to find a distributor, Begotten did not attain either wide or limited theatrical release. However it became a popular underground film, as a film released outside of conventional commercial channels, especially one with subversive or transgressive content. Lacking a standard theatrical release, Merhige booked one-off screeningsat various film festivals and art museums. The earliest public screening took place at the Goethe-Institut in Montreal on October 24, 1989, as part of the Montre...
Home media and bootlegging
Begotten has received very limited home media distribution after its theatrical release. The film is out of print and difficult to acquire in secondhand markets.Initially, Merhige did not intend for the film to be released on home video at all, stating in an interview with Scott MacDonald that he had previously hated the concept of home video as a medium. Merhige eventually changed his mind and felt that the original soundtrack mix, with which he had not been completely satisfied, could be en...
Critical reception
Begotten has received little to no attention from film critics, with most mainstream reviewers ignoring the film entirely. Merhige was initially afraid that audiences would misunderstand parts, or the entire film altogether, "When I finished the film, I felt sure it would be misunderstood and consigned to the underground again. I see it as a very serious, very beautiful work of art, but when it was first finished, I was always thinking, 'What if everybody just laughs? What if they don't see a...
Begotten has gradually developed a cult following over the years and is considered by some to be the director's masterpiece. It was listed in the 2011 book 100 Cult Films by Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik over Mendik's objections, as he felt its following was too small to merit inclusion. However, it ultimately made it in because, to Mathijs, its...
Louv, Jason (April 17, 2018). John Dee and the Empire of Angels: Enochian Magick and the Occult Roots of the Modern World. Inner Traditions/Bear. ISBN 978-1-62055-590-3 – via Google Books.Thacker, Eugene (April 24, 2015). Tentacles Longer Than Night: Horror of Philosophy. John Hunt Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78279-888-0 – via Google Books.Tucker, Betty (2001). Confessions of a Movie Addict. Hats Office. ISBN 978-1-58736-085-5 – via Google Books.White, Armond (1995). The Resistance: Ten Years of Pop Culture that Shook the World. Overlook Press. ISBN 978-0-87951-586-7 – via the Internet Archive (registration required).Begotten links
1. Begotten at AllMovie 2. Begotten at IMDb 3. Begotten at Rotten Tomatoes 4. Begotten at the TCM Movie Database
Din of Celestial Birds links
1. Din of Celestial Birds at IMDb 2. Din of Celestial Birds at the TCM Movie Database
18 hours ago · The Justice League as seen in Zack Snyder's Justice League. From left to right: Cyborg, Flash, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman. The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on superhero films and other series starring various titular superheroes produced by DC Films / DC Studios, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, and based on ...
18 hours ago · A maximalist hip hop song also based in electronica with varied elements of electronic music, it relies on a slowed vocal sample of Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". Described by West as an emancipation from his previous mistakes, the song's lyrics are themed around self-empowerment.
