This is an Israeli re-interpretation of Eugène Ionesco’s 1959 play Rhinoceros, a noteworthy example of the Theater of the Absurd school, a significant theater movement in France and England in the 1950s and 60s that portrayed mankind as being lost and disoriented in a meaningless, confusing existence.
You know, cheery stuff.
The most famous play to emerge from the movement was Waiting for Godot (1953), but Rhinoceros was equally famous for a time. The London run starred no less a luminary than Laurence Olivier himself, then considered by most to be the greatest living actor. While Rhinoceros lacked the staying power of Godot, it endures as a highly significant representative of that literary movement.
In the play, something transforms humans into rhinoceroses. Once the condition is widespread, many unaffected people transform themselves voluntarily, hoping to belong to the majority, presumably symbolizing those who will sacrifice their individuality to conform blindly to an ideology, a system, or the whims of a leader. This premise is used in Skikun as a metaphor for Israeli society.
The whole film unfolds as if were still a stage play, with long monologues and minimal visual variety. “I’m afraid of turning into someone else,” says Irène Jacob again and again … and again … and again, as she rants and paces for many minutes, apparently trying either to shed her skin or avoid doing so. At one point, somebody ties a horn to her forehead.
You get the picture. It’s … well …
absurd.
Irene Jacob is a seemingly ageless screen legend who has appeared here in many recent productions, and has a nudography that traces back for decades. Here’s she is in The Double Life of Veronique (1991)
She still looks pretty much the same, more than thirty years later.
There’s something jaunty about the tits-and-a-whistle look. Maybe the anti-ICE crowd could pick up on this, it’s bound to be lower-maintenance than a frog suit. Better wait til spring though
I remember the earlier film version of Rhinoceros which reteamed Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder after their brilliant turn in The Producers. The result wasn’t very good.
By 1974 the Theater of the Absurd had run its course, so they tried to market it as a comedy. After all – Bialystock and Bloom!
I just looked up the tag line: “The comedy that proves people are still the funniest animals.”
I understand their inclination to find a hook to sell tickets, but it’s not funny, which sort of seems like a prerequisite for comedy.
WOR-TV used to run it on Saturday afternoons from time to time. I remember watching it for the first time and thought I must have missed something important during a bathroom/snack break, so when it came on again I made sure to watch it all the way through. Still no dice. I tried to explain it to some friends to see if they had some insight as to what I was missing since it was Gene Wilder (who was established as a great comic actor after The Producers, Willy Wonka, Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles by that time, the latter two coming out the same year as Rhinoceros) and had to be good, and they all looked at me like I was out of my mind. I think he must have lost a bet or owed someone a lot of money to be in it.
She’s still got it!
Absolutely one of the most gorgeous women who’s ever lived
Irène Jacob as author. See here.