Landscape Suicide (1986) by James Benning
Sunday, September 27, 1987, 8:00 pm
Landscape Suicide
By James Benning
James Benning’s newest film (1986) presents sinister, parallel portraits of the American landscape and its presumable, causal connection to the lives of two murderers: Ed Gein, the Wisconsin farmer who in the 1950s cannibalistically mutilated his victims, and Bernadette Protti, a 15 year-old California girl who stabbed a fellow classmate who was more popular. Benning says: “I discovered a matching form of isolation in both the cold, landlocked landscape of Wisconsin and the suburban car-dominated non-communication of California.” He juxtaposes long, static shots of these landscapes with riveting re-enactments of actual police interviews with the murderers, hauntingly uncovering the illogical and frightening aspects of two individuals who, in their homes and everyday environments, isolated themselves so completely.