Caniba (film)
| Caniba | |
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_US_Poster.jpg) American release poster | |
| Directed by | Véréna Paravel Lucien Castaing-Taylor |
| Produced by | Véréna Paravel Lucien Castaing-Taylor |
| Starring | Issei Sagawa |
| Cinematography | Véréna Paravel Lucien Castaing-Taylor |
| Edited by | Véréna Paravel Lucien Castaing-Taylor |
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Running time | 92 minutes |
| Countries | France United States |
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Caniba is a 2017 French documentary film produced, filmed, edited and directed by Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, capturing the notorious Japanese cannibal Issei Sagawa late life as a free man.
The film had its world premiere in the Orizzonti section of the 74th Venice International Film Festival on 4 September 2017, where it was awarded the Special Jury Prize.
Reception
Caniba won numerous awards at film festivals, but received a mixed reaction from critics, with many critics made highly uncomfortable by the film's detached, amoral examination of its deeply mentally disturbed subject. The New York Times found the film to be "an exercise in intellectualized scab-picking" and its subject "repellant".[1] Variety described Caniba as "a film made for post-screening debates on the liberal-minded documentary circuit, though what, if any, commercial potential distributors might see in it is another question."[2] RogerEbert.com stated that the film was "undeniably fascinating", but had some reservations about its approach: "Victims too rarely get to tell their stories. I don't know that what we need right now is to sympathize with monsters."[3] Slant Magazine, in a three-out-of-four-star review, praised the film's "fundamental openness toward its subject by creating free space for engagement and contemplation", but felt that it "broaches ethical questions that it lacks the resources to address" and that "With no push to either interrogate or contextualize the man, the cool ethnographer’s detachment of the film comes to take on a sensationalistic tenor."[4]
References
- ^ Glenn Kenny (18 October 2018). "Review: In 'Caniba,' a Killer Tries to Make His Case". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
- ^ Guy Lodge (19 September 2017). "'Caniba' Review: An Offbeat Cannibal Portrait In Unrelenting Closeup". Variety. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
- ^ Scout Tafoya (14 October 2017). "NYFF 2017: "Caniba," "Ismael's Ghosts," "Let the Sunshine In"". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
- ^ Peter Goldberg (15 October 2018). "Review: Caniba - Slant Magazine". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 18 April 2024.