The Mountain

„Eine verzweifelte Frau. Wir werden ihr helfen!“ Das ist die Formel, unter der in THE MOUNTAIN ein Lobotomist sein Werk vollbringt, begleitet von einem jungen Helfer, dessen Mutter schon Opfer der grausamen Prozedur wurde. Bis in die 1950er Jahre galt die mutwillige Zerstörung von Neuronenverbindungen bei schweren Psychosen und Depressionen als fortschrittliche Methode der Psychiatrie. Ein Stahlmesser löschte alle Empfindungsfähigkeit einfach aus. In Alversons kunstvoll verlangsamtem Film wird die Prozedur zur Metapher einer Welt, in der weiße Männer ihren Machtanspruch mit allen Mittel verteidigen. (Robert Weixlbaumer)

In Anwesenheit von Rick Alverson.

“A desperate woman, we will help her!” Such is the credo of Dr. Wallace Fiennes, a lobotomist who performs in psychiatric wards. The psychosurgeon is supported by a young helper, whose mother has already fallen victim to the cruel procedure. Until the mid-1950’s the deliberate destruction of brain tissue was considered an advanced method of psychiatry in cases of of severe psychosis or chronic major depression. A steel knife, pushed through the eye socket into the neuronal tissue of the frontal lobe, simply extinguished all sentience. The neurologist Walter Freeman (1895–1972), clearly the model for Goldblum’s character, operated on more than 3.500 patients. THE MOUNTAIN is an artfully slowed- down film that uses lobotomy as a metaphor for the ambitions of American men, “adamantly blind for their ramifications” (Rick Alverson).
While THE MOUNTAIN is creating a more and more dreamlike and anesthetized atmosphere, the film also offers an encounter with the figure skater ballet of Udo Kier, bewildering pin-up collections, and a hypermanic artist, whose grown-up daughter seeks an escape route out of her misery. THE MOUNTAIN is ready to follow her all the way. (Robert Weixlbaumer)

In the presence of Rick Alverson.