MovieChat Forums > Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2014) Discussion > Does anyone else really hate the 'Eurosh...

Does anyone else really hate the 'Euroshlock' genre?


I have to say, I really don't, and never have, had much respect for the 'Euroshlock' genre. The term 'Euroshlock', which comes from TV Tropes, refers to these European arthouse films full of graphic violence and sexual content, namely: 9 Songs, Anatomy of Hell, Antichrist, Baise-moi, Fat Girl, I Stand Alone, The Idiots, In a Glass Cage, Irreversible, Last Tango in Paris, Man Bites Dog, Nekromantik, Nymphomaniac, The Piano Teacher, Romance, Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom, A Serbian Film, Sweet Movie and Vase de Noces.

Disagree with me if you will, but to me, these films are essentially glorified exploitation films that utilize "art" as pretense for portraying obscene sex and violence. The most likely audience of such films, I fear, is not film critics, students or scholars, but instead much the same audience of the Saw or Hostel movies, namely; adolescent boys looking to get a kick. When I read that the director of A Serbian Film said that the film was about the "plight of the Serbian people", or whatever, all I could do was roll my eyes. At least The Human Centipede series has enough humility to admit to being what it is: shlock.

reply

The TVtropes article say that one should contrast Euroschlock to Exploitation films, so apparently they are not the same?

I would tend to agree that in Eurosclock there is probably more sentimentality, irony and humour than in Exploitation films which are more morbid and violence focused. Perhaps therefore Euroschlock movies are often morality tales, in the mode of medieval fairy tales (which in their original forms, before they were sanitized for children, were often quite explicit.)

I have not seen all the movies that you mentioned except the Von Trier ones and Man Bites Dog. Nymphomaniac concludes that sex without love is pointless, and Man Bites Dog argues that TV documentarists at some point become guilty partitioners in the violence they 'objectively' seek to cover (perhaps a comment on war reporters?)

However, would you say that Cannibal Holocaust belongs in the Euro-Schlock genre, and Exterminator I & II belong in the exploitation genre? If so there is a certain 'maudlin' or sentimental tone (especially in the score) to Cannibal Holocaust despite the graphic sex and violence where the audience's sympathy gradually shifts from the culturally insensitive anthropologists towards the cannibals who are exploited and begin to defend their culture. Meanwhile it is hard to find any moral point to the vigilante revenge flick Exterminator, and the violence seems to not really serve any point. We see graphic images of a POW being beheaded by Viet-Cong, a gang member being executed by a flame-thrower, and last but not least a mafia boss being slowly executed in an industrial meat grinder. I cannot really see what the moral here is, but maybe someone else can?

So in that sense I too would argue that Euro-Schlock and Exploitation are two different animals, and not even of the same species.

Edited to add: Fun factoid. The leading actress in Deodato's first Cannibal flick - the Burmese Me Me Lai - is also the lead in Von Triers first movie - The Element of Crime.

reply

It's not a "genre". European countries are much more likely to have government subsidized art films. While these films can certainly be pretentious and annoying, they are also often not as shamelessly pandering and commercial as most Hollywood films. Many of these films have sex in them, but that's often because Europeans regard sex like adults that actually have sex themselves sometimes as opposed to hysterical prudes or immature teen virgins. There's nothing wrong with that and it doesn't necessarily mean they're "exploitation".

I actually like TRUE European exploitation/Euroschlock films like Jess Franco films or Italian gialli or the German schulmadchen-report films. But ironically WHY like them I is they're a lot less boring than, say, American-made XXX porn movies because they have something BESIDES sex in them. Still, except for extreme stuff like "A Serbian" film, this kind of filmmaking has regrettably vanished.

Like a lot of clueless Americans though, you're trying to conflate two kinds of European films, and they're simply not the same aside from having a more free sexual content (and both being better on average than the over-budgeted Hollywood superhero movies made for teen virgins).

Von Triers makes art films. He sometimes puts sex in them to be provocative (but not always--consider his previous film "Melancholia"). You don't have to like him, but he's a very different kind of filmmaker from the late Jess Franco. Perhaps any European film with some sex in it simply offends your virginal American sensibilities, but that doesn't mean all European films can be lumped into one catch-all category. That's just ignorance.

"Let be be finale of seem/ The only emperor is the Emperor of Ice Cream"

reply

I never head of the term "euroshlock genre", but whatever. If you don't like it. If it doesn't appeal to you. Then simple solution. Just don't watch it. FWIW I think there are enough people out there and there are all kinds of tastes from films that there is place for film makers like Von Tier just as much as there is a place for Nolan and Spielberg.

Can this really be the end..to be stuck inside of mobile
with the Memphis blues again.

reply