Woman in the Dunes (1964)

“The certificates we use to make certain of one another: contracts, licenses, ID cards, permits, deeds, certifications, registrations, carry permits, union cards, testimonials, bills, IOUs, temporary permits, letters of consent, income statements, certificates of custody, even proof of pedigree. Is that all of them? Have I forgotten any? Men and women are slaves to their fear of being cheated. In turn they dream up new certificates to prove their innocence. No one can say where it will end. They seem endless. ” – Niki

Number of Times Seen – 1 (3 Sep 2018)

Brief Synopsis – A man doing research on a beach is lured by the locals into living in a house buried in a sand dune where a young widow lives.

My Take on it – I have never been a fan of films that are more allegorical instead of narrative and this film falls clearly in the former category.

The idea is quite strange and ventures too much into the realm of existentialism and makes little sense to me.

This makes it even harder for me to try and enjoy a film like this because of the way that the story is presented.

I’m quite aware that the taste of the Academy members is quite different than my own and therefore they chose to grant this film two Oscar nominations (in subsequent years) for Best Director and Best Foreign Film even if this film wasn’t able to win either of those accolades.

Bottom Line – Very strange film and idea that is too existential for my own personal taste.  The film is filled with lots and lots of allegorical messages yet fails to have a straight forward storyline that makes much sense. Not even close to the kind of film that I can enjoy at all.  That being said, it makes a lot of sense that the Academy would love a film like this and give it nominations for both Director and Foreign Language film (in subsequent years) , even if it didn’t manage to win either of them.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – For this film, Hiroshi Teshigahara became the first Japanese director to be nominated for a Oscar for directing. (From IMDB)

Rating – Razzie Worthy (2/10)

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