Thursday 1 August 2013

Testament du Docteur Cordelier

(1959)

RATING:60%
FORMAT:DVD

[Experiment in Evil;
Doctor’s Horrible Experiment;
Testament of Dr Cordelier]

Jean-Louis BARRAULT is brilliant here while everyone else is either over- or underacting. A crudely-made tv-movie with the same fascinating premise as Shelley’s Frankenstein and Stevenson’s Jekyll & Hyde. Its comic treatment of a child molester brings a whole new dimension to the tired story-line in his being shown as a clown in outsize clothes.

Ultimately, an updated (if rather meandering) attack on science as a panacea to very human, millennial problems (the search for a drug that can cure evil) and the idea that science can replace religion - both without the inevitable political consequences. The scientist here forgets that drugs cannot permanently control free will; while the film propounds what we secretly believe: Civilization is a control-freaks’ veneer covering unresolved emotional hang-ups.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
Posted by Frank TALKER™ at 16:41
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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.



Albert Camus… (1913-60), French-Algerian writer & philosopher. The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt: New York: Vintage Books, (1984; page 182.)