Woman in the Dunes (1964)

Directed by Hiroishi Teshigahara. Starring Eiji Okada and Kyoko Kishida.

There are many films that are beautiful to look at, but most of them hold you at a distance with their images, much like a painting one stands back and regards but doesn't approach, for fear of losing the intent of the image. Teshigahara's film is a masterpiece in many regards, but perhaps most importantly because its images are so perfectly tactile. In scene after scene we see the man and woman with their bodies covered in sand and sweat after a long day's work, and all we can think of is what it must be like to touch the sand-covered skin. The film's story deals with a man from the city (Okada) who visits a small town, spending the night in the home of a woman (Kishida) who lives at the bottom of a sand pit. After he wakes up the next morning, he makes the shocking discovery that he can't climb out. On the one hand, the film feels like a nightmare, in which a man is held captive against his will and is powerless to escape; on the other, it's an erotic fantasy, in which a man and a woman are trapped together, apart from anyone else. Mostly, it's about the characters' isolation, as they gradually form a kind of makeshift arrangement with each other, and work together simply to avoid being swallowed by the sand (and really, doesn't everyday life feel like that sometimes?). Ultimately, the man finds himself re-evaluating his priorities based on his predicament, and likewise we in the audience can't help but marvel at how strange and sudden occurrences have a way of putting our efforts into perspective.