Sleeping Beauty

> *"I didn’t know if I’d like it. I didn’t even know what it was about. But I ended up trapped in this icy nightmare — unhurried, invasive, settling precisely where discomfort lives."*

**She** is perfect. So *petite*, so soft, so absent. Not an empty absence, but a deliberate retreat — stepping aside to let her body speak. Because that’s what happens: **her body becomes the protagonist**. Watched, dressed, drugged, sold. And we watch too. We can’t look away.

[spoiler]The scene with the bald man disturbed and aroused me. I won’t deny it. That cocktail of obscenity and ritual, desire and revulsion, left me untethered. And I *crave* that. To feel confused. To feel powerless. My hand almost moved on its own — how he touched her, what he whispered, the slow drag of his tongue… *chilling perfection*.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]The ending? Not fully understood, but it left me trembling. Her scream isn’t just about the corpse beside her. It’s something deeper. Herself, suddenly *remembering*. A body reclaiming its history.[/spoiler]

The photography is impeccable. Clinical. Nothing out of place: symmetry, sterility, pale pink and white. Silence hangs heavy. No score to guide you — you’re alone with what you see.

Will I rewatch soon? Unlikely.
Will I remember it forever? **Absolutely.**

This is indeed a very interesting view into a "secret society" I believe exists in some form or another among the "elite", and I really like the intrigue of the set-up, but I do I feel the ending could have been more satisfactory. The somewhat 'open-ending' also lends it's mystique to the whole story though, so the fact that I have the option to play out the rest in my head is often a good sign, but here it's somewhat lacking in hints at what comes next. Browning is excellent, and there are a few other actors that gives this movie life, but the casting isn't always the best, and that sort of jolts you out of the storyline here and there, but overall I think this is a good movie, and I wish there were more like this!

I mainly put this on my watchlist because I read the score was done by Ben Frost and mostly forgot about this. Given the recent release of the OST I was reminded of this and thought I would give it ago, knowing that it is artsy and not too many people dug it. While it isn't anything superior I found it intriguing during it's runtime. It's like a fusion of arthouse and a softer Tokyo Decadence. I also had a strong desire to listen to "El Tren Fantasma" afterwards instead of Ben Frost lol.

The second half of this film lost the plot...

It feels like it is trying REALLY hard to be artsy and edgy and like it want's to be a commentator on a secret society but it loses any real attempt at a story you would be interested in. Not really worth a watch IMO. It is one of those movies that as you're watching it the whole time you keep thinking it's a slow build up and that it's about to get good but then it ends and you're left with a "that's it?" feeling.