Black Moon is an odd film to say the least. You know that sequence in Ghost World where they view the weird art film? Yeah, this movie feels like that. As my good buddy Derek is fond of saying, this film is full of blue cupcakes. I mean the first few moments consist of a badger wandering across the road till…yeah, it gets ran over. The driver, a woman, gets out and off in the distance we hear the sounds of a battle. A bit later we meet the combatants and it appears as though a literal war of the sexes is going on. A group of female prisoners is executed. The driver of the car is exposed as a woman but escapes.
Eventually she abandons her car and after seeing a group of women beating a prisoner takes off running through the woods. The film becomes a kind of nature special at this point, as the girl observes various insects and a unicorn of all things. She meets a woman on horseback and chases after her…then sees a group of naked kids running with a large hog. She enters a farm house and encounters a piglet sitting in a baby’s highchair. She finds a woman upstairs having a conversation with a large rat. This woman then describes everything that has happened to this girl, telling us its all in her imagination.
The girl wanders around the house then returns to the old woman’s room and starts throwing alarm clocks out the window as each one goes off. She sees a soldier choking the woman, the woman choking herself and then the woman begins to choke the girl. The girl slaps her and she dies. She hears a man singing opera, runs out to tell him the woman is dead but he spends most of the time touching her face and neck. The girl randomly tells us her name is Lily...and that the man's name is Lily and the woman on horseback is also Lily. Though no one is talking to her she is having a one sided conversation with someone.
Turns out the old woman isn’t dead she’s just hungry. And…uh…the woman on horseback from earlier…breastfeeds her. Yeah. Lily gets locked in with the old woman and starts tearing the room apart. She demands to know what is going on and her panties keep falling down as the woman laughs hysterically. The girl manages to keep her bloomers on, eats an old piece of cheese covered in ants and sees the unicorn again. She escapes out the window and chases after it. Following a trail of blood she finds to a dead soldier being picked at by chickens.
As they bury the dead soldier the unicorn walks by and spouts Shakespeare. She catches up with the unicorn and they get into an argument. The unicorn eventually gets frustrated and leaves. As Lily wanders around she sees the breastfeeding woman serving dinner to mute opera guy and the naked children. Lily finds the old woman crying and tries to comfort her. The old woman tells us the rats name is Humphrey and they had an argument and then states she is hungry. So again…we have another weird breast feeding sequence. After feeding the old woman Lily finds the naked children, who begin to clap for her. Lily sits down at the piano and plays. The music sequence really does carry on for far too long and really adds nothing to the film.
Once the music ends mute opera guy starts chasing a falcon around the room with a sword, eventually killing it. Breastfeeding woman fights mute opera guy in the front yard as Lily looks on. Finding the old woman gone Lily climbs into bed and watches a snake crawl up her skirt. Outside, the front yard is full of sheep and turkeys for no reason at all. Lily wakes up to find the unicorn in the room with her...who apparently asked to be fed. Lily prepares to breastfeed and the film ends.
Its difficult to review a movie like this, much less try and give a concise synopsis. As the saying goes, it can not be described only experienced. It feels like a weird art film. Weird for the sake of being weird, which is the definition of blue cupcakes. Other times the movie is interesting and has some unique imagery or dialogue. This film is often described as a bizarre take on Alice in Wonderland. That is actually a fairly good description. Lily spends the whole film going from place to place, always finding something uniquely odd.
I guess you could say the film leaves it up to you to determine what the film means. Is everything we see really a delusion experienced by Lily? Is this really some weird future where a war between men and women rages? If you like odd art house films then Black Moon is something you should experience. If weird for the sake of being weird is not something you like then stay away from this film. One bit of trivia; this film is directed by Louis Malle who also directed Au revoir les enfants. Working at a video store, when a young Quentin Tarantino suggested Au revoir les enfants to a customer he was told, 'I don't want no Reservoir Dogs!' What is it with unicorns? I feel like Deckard should be running around looking for replicants as Lily is freaking out.
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