Twentynine Palms

One night i was up late watching TV, i checked to see what was on the sundance channel. Twentynine Palms was playing, i originally heard about this film in 2003 when it came out, it is a french film by Bruno Dumont (i later learned he is a french philosopher), i had originally heard about it because it was considered "extreme cinema" a genre that i often enjoy, and it was compared to many films i had previously enjoyed; such as "i stand alone", "man bites dog", "audition", "ichii the killer", park chan-wook's revenge trilogy, "trouble every day", and it was frequently compared to "brown bunny" since they both came out in 2003, were both road films, and had explicit sex.

When i turned to the channel it was in the last half hour of the 2 hour movie. The first scene i saw is shown with the first photo and i decided to take some photos of it because the screen was very digitally pixellated and it seemed interesting and ironic for some reason cause it was blurring the explicit real sex. The reason it was so digitally pixellated was discovered a few days later when a cable guy came to solve the problem and discovered that we had a total of 9 splitters on the single cable signal coming into the house, we only have 5 televisions, so he removed several of the splitters and the signal improved. i took the photos of the first pixellated scene then the couple in the film drove around a bit, i switched the channel but set the movie to record. A few days later i got around to fast forwarding through the movie to see what else happens in the film and found that the basic plot was the couple have sex, drive around Joshua Tree National Park, have more sex, then drive around some more, which made me glad i missed the first hour and a half. Then i got to the last 5 min. i then decided to take photos of the rest of the film, cause it will be better to see it rather then i just tell you about it, and i am trying to do more photographic series rather than just random photos of things.

Here is the plot summary of the film from imdb: David, an independent photographer, and Katia, an unemployed woman, leave Los Angeles, en route to the southern California desert, where they search a natural set to use as a backdrop for a magazine photo shoot. They find a motel in the town of Twentynine Palms and spend their days in their sport-utility vehicle, discovering the Joshua Tree Desert, and losing themselves on nameless roads and trails. Frantically making love all the time and almost everywhere, they regularly fight, then kiss and make up, with little else going on in their empty relationship and quite ordinary daily life--until something horrible and hideous brutally puts an end to their trip.

then they drive around, and not talk
they eventually stop, walk around, then katia drives for a bit
then they go back to the hotel,





the next day they drive around some more
a view out the window, they continue driving around all day, sometimes they stop and walk around but i never see David with a camera or take any pictures, apparently when he scouts out locations for his photo shoot he doesn't need to take pictures or notes he can just remember where he wants to come back too.
later that night they start fighting i am not sure about what,
then he chases her onto the street in front of their hotel,
and they have sex in the middle of the road.
the next day they are driving around again,
all of a sudden a white pickup truck rams their hummer from behind,
and force them off the road.
3 guys get out, and pull David and Katia from the truck.
one of them rips katia's clothes off
then he goes over to david and starts hitting him with a baseball bat
the assailant as he hits david with bat
katia struggling to get free
Katia being held and made to watch
after the guy stops hitting david in the head with the bat the other guy pulls down david's pants,
and starts raping him. Katia helplessly watches
David's pixellated face mid rape
David's non-pixellated face mid rape
the raper
the raper finishes,
the 3 guys leave,
and katia crawls over to david
they go back to their hotel and snuggle
the next morning
the first thing katia says to david
the second thing katia says to david,
and the last line of the film

katia walking back to their room with a pizza
katia sits down on the bed
David runs out of the bathroom, his hair is all cut off, with his face and scalp bleeding, he has a knife
he jumps on her, and begins stabbing her
over and over
he sits on her dead body
a police officer finds David's body in the desert
the end.

i then researched the film a bit to see what i missed in the first hour and a half, and to find out what david and katia could possibly have done to these 3 guys to make them want to rape david. To my surprise, nothing, they never met before that scene, the 3 guys are in no other scenes, and apparently these 3 guys just randomly ran david and katia off the rode, and raped him for no reason. So there you have it, now hopefully you don't have to put yourself through watching this, i hope this was a better way to see this film. Ohh and just so you know there are some spoilers in this post, so don't read if you still want to watch the film.