Wow, that was some serious repression that clergyman was wrestling with! Narratively speaking, this movie isn't really all that clear (or meant to be), but basically, a general and a clergyman get in this fight (it seems like the general starts it), and the clergyman, cowed, follows the general on his hands and feet until he observes the general talking up his girlfriend. At that point the movie spirals into insanity as the clergyman violently and desperately wrestles over his inflamed sexual attraction and his combined guilt and jealousy over the other man.
Decadence is taken on too as the clergyman mentally transitions from place to place and is horrified by the actions and glamour of those that surround him. One particularly good sequence involves the clergyman's coattails as they grow and grow, dragging him down and holding him back from the object of his desire.
Another thing worth noting is the visual effects in this movie. Mental and emotional space is created via the well-established techniques of double-exposure, dissolves, irises, pull-focus, split-screen effects, and so on, all done before but never quite like in this movie.
--PolarisDiB
Decadence is taken on too as the clergyman mentally transitions from place to place and is horrified by the actions and glamour of those that surround him. One particularly good sequence involves the clergyman's coattails as they grow and grow, dragging him down and holding him back from the object of his desire.
Another thing worth noting is the visual effects in this movie. Mental and emotional space is created via the well-established techniques of double-exposure, dissolves, irises, pull-focus, split-screen effects, and so on, all done before but never quite like in this movie.
--PolarisDiB