Irene Jacob topless in Shikun (2024)

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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.


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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)


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She still looks pretty much the same, more than thirty years later.

The Nudity in Lilith Rising (2024)

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Burning from the core of the feminine divine we unravel.. uncoil.. undulating from where the patriarchy had us firmly wrapped up, silenced, burnt and buried beneath the sand, the earth, the blood soaked desert once lost in a mirage, lost in what we told ourselves as children was a far away dream, or nightmare, depending on how sharply you felt her claws caress you. The beguiling landscape of the Arizona desert forms the backdrop of the film, in which Lilith fights for the rights of marginalized minorities, be it the stereotype of the “wild” woman, the witches who were burned; the sex workers, the queers, POCs, transgender people, people with physical and mental disabilities. Lilith Rising is a tribute to all those we have lost on the way to claiming our rights.

“What does that actually mean?” you wonder.

Beats me.

It’s basically just 75 minutes of ritual dancing and quite explicit lesbian sex, often filmed in weird lighting. It is self-described as “feminist porn.”

Anyway, here’s a gallery.

And here’s their official Instagram page.