Tarnation

Jonathan Caouette has been filming himself since he was eleven. His mother Renee had an accident as a girl and her parents sent her for years of electroshock treatment; she was never the same again. Jonathan grew up with his grandparents, spent time in foster homes, acted out scenes alone and recorded all of it. The film is made from those recordings; home video, answering machine messages, photographs and short films. The narrative moves through the years to where his mother is now. Jonathan Caouette directed and edited it and appears in it. It is an American production. The film was cut on a home computer, in the free editing programme that comes with a Macintosh. The first version cost two hundred and eighteen dollars and thirty two cents; music rights and preparation for release came later. Gus Van Sant and John Cameron Mitchell are among its producers, and the film became known after it screened at Cannes. It took more than a million dollars, a figure recorded as a record against its budget. The matter it treats is mental illness carried across generations; the film blames nobody and clears nobody. The image keeps breaking up, colouring and layering over itself, and that form carries the feeling of the story. The narrative proceeds through written titles and uses no voiceover. The ending brings no solution. Its limit is intensity; the narrative is suffocating, the images tiring, and the distance very narrow. Who it is for: viewers who like personal documentary and experimental editing. Who it is not for: it is suffocating, scattered, and the ending bitter.