Extra star for R-rated explicit violence, the overall exploitation quality of the movie, the black movie trailers that aired before it, and a scene that seems like it was written by Denzel Washington to the audience.

"...reflective men often find themselves at a place removed from the realities of life. In any case, we should all prepare a place where we can accommodate all the tragedies that sooner or later will come to our lives. But this is an economy few people care to practice."

I don't usually make note of short films on Letterboxd, especially ones that aren't even five minutes long. But SELF-MUTILATION exerts such immense force I need to remember it.

An art performance shot in 1965 on silent black-and-white film, this short unspools the horror of corporeal discomfort with disturbing, rapid cuts, more effective than a hundred bad B films. We don't simply see a distorted face writhing in pain, but the performer's stunted efforts to correct his malady with clusmy, mechanical implements.

His attempts to normalize only change the quality of his out-of-sortness.