I was first introduced to the music and films of the art movement known as the No Wave when I saw the documentary Blank City (2010). For anyone interested in this most bizarre and utterly left-field movement this documentary is probably a must. What I took away from it though, was that these films might be a little too strange for the likes of me! Anyway, I finally got to sample one of them when a kind fellow IMDb user sent me a copy of Ecstatic Stigmatic. He added an interesting note that said it was 'the only film which led (him) to search online to find out if the director had gone insane'. Considering he had previously sent me a copy of the utterly nuts Greek oddity Singapore Sling (1990), I had to find out what it was that made him think this one in particular was so much stranger than that. Well, having just seen it I have to sayyeah this is properly bizarre stuff right enough. It's 'story' is quite difficult to understand and I am thankful for the other reviews here which helped me piece together what I had just seen. In summary, it's about a character called Rose F, who is the daughter of a tattoo artist and stripper. She has a few problems evidently and becomes a stigmatic and is confined to a psychiatric hospital. Later on there are flashbacks to scenes from her childhood.

As I say, this is highly experimental, avant-garde stuff. It's really low budget as these types of wilfully transgressive and strange films just about always are. It's pretty diametrically opposed to being comforting viewing, with strange imagery, full on voice-overs and very atonal music used throughout. Of the latter we have agitated jazz, extended use of wolf whining and lots of lo-fi music of the type the No Wave was famed for. Needless to say, this is not a film for everyone. Although this is a statement that probably doesn't even need to be said. It's one strictly for the most intrepid cinematic adventurers only.

A young woman who is institutionalized in a mental hospital suffers fits which are accompanied by stigmata.

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Ecstatic Stigmatic

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