In the Realm of the Senses
Nagisa Oshima (1976)
49 min 30 sec
“The mouthed the beginning or, if one prefers , the prow of animals; in
the most characteristic cases . It is the most living part, in other words ,
the most terrifying for neighboring animals. But man does not have a simple
architecture like beasts, and it is not even possible to say where he begins. He
possibly starts at the top of the skull, but the top of the skull is an
insignificant part, incapable of catching one’s attention; it is the eyes or
the forehead that play the meaningful role of an animal’s jaws …….And on
important occasions human life is still bestially concentrated in the mouth:
rage makes men grind their teeth, while terror and atrocious suffering turn the
mouth into an organ of rending screams. On this subject it is easy to observe
that the overwhelmed individual throws back his head while frenetically stretching
his neck in such a way that the mouth becomes, as much as possible , an
extension of the spinal column, in other
words , in the position it normally
occupies in the constitution of animals .As if explosive impulses were to
spurt directly out of the body through the mouth, in the form of screams. “
Georges Bataille “Visions of Excess (selected
writings, 1927-1939)” page 59
“,as we returned to the
first row of the arena. ……., there in broad sunlight , on Simone’s seat , lay a
white dish containing two peeled balls,
glands the size and shape of eggs, and of a pearly whiteness, faintly
bloodshot , like a globe of an eye : they had just been removed from the first
bull , a black-haired creature , into whose body Granero had plunged his
sword.”
Georges Bataille ‘Story of the Eye’ (1928 ) page 28
