This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Admirable film.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Blistering performances.

As battle sounds boom in the distance, moody blonde teenager Cathryn Harrison (as Lily) accidentally hits and kills an animal while speeding on a lonely country road. Avoiding capture by men – inexplicably at war with women – she drives off to an estate filled with various animals. What she sees first are mostly sheep and naked young children. Three adults are also present. Babbling and bedridden Therese Giehse (in her final film, as "Old Lady") lives upstairs. Her closest animal companion is a very large rat. A young man and woman, both looking like fashion models, are more mobile; they are Joe Dallesandro (as "Brother Lily") and Alexandra Stewart (as "Sister Lily"). Strangest of the animals is a talking unicorn, who is well-read enough to quote Shakespeare. You might consider this an apocalyptic version of Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"..."Why did Lily throw clocks out the window?" Well, to see time fly, of course...Writer-director Louis Malle is behind "Black Moon". Possibly, the title refers to a moonless phase as there is little moon or sunlight in the film. The most artistic quality of this "art film" is the lovely cinematography, by Sven Nykvist. Other than that, there isn't much beyond whatever is going on in Mr. Malle's mind. One interpretation is as good as any, so here's mine. In her sexual "coming of age" years, young Ms. Harrison (daughter of Noel Harrison and granddaughter of Rex Harrison) is provided with large glasses of milk. Consider, also, the old woman likes breast-feeding (on Ms. Stewart's breasts). Watch as Malle directs Harrison to progressively unbutton her shirt as she begins to act more "motherly" to Ms. Giehse. You wonder if Harrison will eventually offer her nubile breasts to the old woman. Stay tuned for the answer to this question and a surprise bonus...*** Black Moon (9/24/75) Louis Malle ~ Cathryn Harrison, Therese Giehse, Joe Dallesandro, Alexandra Stewart

Liking or disliking this film appears roughly to be about a 50/50 split. In order to write a review that might add something useful to the many already written, I will try to point out some elements that could affect your enjoyment of this movie thereby helping you decide if you want to spend the time watching it, to wit:First off, it's not sci-fi. It is a fetishistic, pseudo-erotic fantasy that will not be particularly arousing to most people in the mainstream. There were several scenes that collectively made me decide to take "Uncle Louis" (Louis Malle, the director) off of my "A" list of babysitters.Secondly, while there are a few vague similarities to Charles L. Dodgson's (Lewis Carroll) "Alice in Wonderland", this thing is not even close. Dodgson's masterpiece combination of comically bizarre characters, charmingly absurd situations, wildly imaginative scenery and brilliantly logical dialogue remains both treasured and unmatched in all of history's known literature. On the other hand, this muddled romp through Louis Malle's rather...er..."peculiar" mind has all of the charm of a full-for-5-days, fish offal bin, on a hot August afternoon.The reviews that allude to this film being allegorical and/or composed of a parable(s) and/or containing deep "messages" regarding war, social inequity, animal rights, etc., etc., ad nauseum must have Malle rolling on the floor, laughing hysterically. A more realistic interpretation is that Malle decided to knit together a bunch of idiotic scenarios that had formed in his head while he was thinking about the silly and/or contentious issues of the day (radical feminism, the Vietnam war, etc.) mixed with the black sludge contents of his own psyche. The end result being "Black Moon". The point is that there is no point to this movie and it is likely deliberate!So, if you like watching films that are well-produced, well-photographed, artless euro- bourgeois, jumbled stream-of-consciousness, incoherent, pseudo-socially mindful, plot- free, products of Louis Malle's contemporary (to 1975) musings and possible masturbatory fantasies, then "Black Moon" is for you! Otherwise you might want to consider a good action-thriller and a tub of buttered popcorn (you'll have waaaaay more fun)!Best Regards, OtherView

Weird for the sake of weird, which is great if you're into that. I am, most certainly, and I found this oft-dismissed take on Alice in Wonderland endlessly beautiful and fascinating. Frustratingly esoteric, yes, but if you just appreciate it for what it is and don't get lost in the symbolism, it can work. Cathryn Harrison (who co-starred in Robert Altman's Images a few years prior) plays a young woman named Lily who is trying to escape from an apocalyptic war zone (it seems that the battle of the sexes has come to its culmination, and men and women are slaughtering each other willy-nilly). She soon discovers a chubby, brown unicorn which she follows (as Alice does the white rabbit). It leads her to an out-of-the-way mansion in the middle of nowhere, and it's populated by a dying old woman, her twin grandchildren (an androgynous set of male-female twins, both named Lily, just as the heroine) and an unspecific number of always-nude children who run around the farm driving various sheep and swine. The rest of the movie has Harrison wandering around the farm and mansion, observing the odd behaviors of the inhabitants. Basically, it's just a bunch of completely weird stuff, but it's always gorgeous, hypnotic and dreamy. And often very funny, too. Many will find the film dull, but if you like this kind of thing, it's a must-see. Luis Bunuel's daughter Joyce collaborated on the screenplay.

I had missed out on this on French TV a few years ago – the film is so obscure that I had never even heard of it back then!; eventually, I caught up with it while in Hollywood on bootleg DVD-R in an English-dubbed version (as was this current edition, albeit a slightly out-of-synch one!).Best described as a plot less apocalyptic surreal fantasy on "Alice In Wonderland" lines, it actually precedes Claude Chabrol's own superior modernized take on the children's classic (ALICE, OR THE LAST ESCAPADE [1977]). For the record, writer-director Malle had previously only breached fancy with the anarchic ZAZIE DANS LE METRO (1960) and, with Luis Bunuel's daughter-in-law Joyce contributing to his script here, it could well be that the use in the film under review of Wagner's music – also heard in the elder Bunuel's L'AGE D'OR (1930) and WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1954) – was a deliberate nod in his direction. The leading lady of BLACK MOON is a beguiling Cathryn Harrison, granddaughter of Rex; also in the cast are Alexandra Stewart and Joe Dalessandro as incestuous siblings (neither of whom ever utter a single word, though he likes to express himself in baritone!).The film's war-torn landscape is undercut by a plethora of entomological detail, beginning with a raccoon getting crushed under the heroine's car's wheels and ending with a snake slithering up her skirt!; there is also a giant rodent – with which the eccentric old lady of the central setting, a dilapidated country-house, frequently engages in gibberish conversation (for whatever reason, she also keeps a control center by her bedside!) – and a squat talking brown unicorn, which seems to particularly intrigue Harrison!!The elderly woman – who died before the picture was released (in fact, it is dedicated to her memory) – occasionally takes the semblance of death even here and, when she comes to again, finds herself craving milk: Stewart and, eventually, Harrison oblige her in this regard – the film, then, ends on a shot of the heroine about to feed the afore-mentioned horse in the very same manner! Harrison, too, seems fond of milk – which she repeatedly drinks out of a very tall glass set at table, always with a pig nonchalantly looking on!; besides, a brood of wild naked children are continually seen chasing a hog all over the place.In the end, the film proves too obscure and personal for complete success and, yet, it is certainly not to be ignored by way of its intrinsic strangeness and undeniably haunting quality.