Breathing Under Water (1991)
Directed by Susan Murphy Dermody
Genres - Fantasy |
Sub-Genres - Fantasy Adventure, Feminist Film, Psychological Sci-Fi |
Run Time - 78 min. |
Countries - Australia, United States |
MPAA Rating - R
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Synopsis by Clarke Fountain
In this myth-driven, highly allegorical feminist fable, Beatrice (the guide for Dante in the last two books of his Inferno trilogy) travels the world with her daughter Maeve, gathering experiences in landscapes that evokes everything from medieval primitivism to post-nuclear holocaust, and everything in between. Along the way, she tucks various things into her shopping bag and occasionally interacts with a man called "Herman," a symbolically inferior knock-off of feminine beings (her-man) -- who is also a somewhat androgynous being whose purpose is to travel and communicate (Hermes-man). "Daytime" logic and storytelling are deliberately submerged into a flow of images emulating the free-associative workings of the unconscious.
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Keywords
androgyny, journey, junkyard, mortuary, museum, mythological-legends, post-nuclear-holocaust, storytelling, taxi, time-travel