In a Glass Cage (1986) -
This is definitely the most controversial film to be nominated in this thread. There's already been a lot of discussion on this film. Both positive and exceedingly negative. I wasn't looking forward to this film going into it, but while it was definitely a hard watch, I did enjoy a decent bit about it.
To get it out of the way, yes, this film is a hard watch. While I don't think certain things should be off-limits from being portrayed in movies (pedophilia is a real thing which goes on in the world, so I think it's completely fine for media to portray it), the way the film handled this was nauseating. During the pedophilia scenes, the film didn't use stunt doubles, camera techniques, etc. so that the child actors wouldn't actually experience the pedophilia. The young actors were, in fact, disrobed and sexually touched onscreen by an older man. These scenes were disturbing and I ended up looking away from the screen during those scenes. After researching it, I saw that a child psychiatrist authorized the film during production, but this didn't make those scenes any easier to watch for me.
Given this, I don't think I'll rewatch this film. However, there are some genuine strengths I'll like to address which I think the film deserves credit for.
For one, the film offers a compelling dynamic between abuser and abused, specifically how an abuser's behavior can be contagious for their victims. This dynamic largely applied to Angelo as, due to the abuse Klaus treated him with many years prior, Klaus's personality transferred over to him. Angelo then attempted to replicate the same behavior that Klaus treated him with. While the pedophilia scenes were hard to watch, this undercurrent of cyclical abuse made them disturbing for thematic reasons, not solely for visceral reasons. This dynamic also applied to Rena as she acted naïve throughout the film, occasionally treating Angelo as her lover and underreacting to the heinous acts he committed around her. The ending was a compelling culmination to her arc, in particular.
I also appreciated the visuals and production design of the film. The entire film was shot with a blue tint. While colored filters normally don't do much for me, I think this look worked since it contrasted with the blood in the film, making Angelo's murders, while hard to watch for reasons mentioned above, all the more shocking. I also liked the gothic look of the house, especially when Angelo modified it in the latter portions of the film to make it more creepy (starting a bonfire inside the house or putting up a wire fence around the staircase). Regardless of what one thinks of the objectionable elements of the film, there's still this aspect to enjoy, at the very least.
Overall, this film was incredibly disturbing and it's unlikely I'll watch it again due to the pedophilia scenes, but I also don't think it was a waste of time by any means. Its themes on the cyclical pattern of abuse and its visuals and production design impressed me quite a lot.
Next up: La Dolce Vita