Killing Priscilla

What makes this documentary so intriguing is having seen both "Eye of the Beholder" and "Priscilla". One cannot dspute the fact that Priscilla was a terrific film. It was hilarious and touching in equal measure. This is important because it justifies the absolute dedication to the preservation of one's artistic principles that is so clearly on display here. It is equally important to note, however, that "Beholder" is an almost unwatchably bad film. Inasmuch as you might find the idea of watching a documentary about a mediocre director making a poor film to be boring, you would be entirely mistaken. "Killing Priscilla" gives us wonderful insights into the workings of Hollywood (from distributors who have never seen the film, to financial backers who want to make a soft-core porn out of the film) and its utterly fickle ability to ignore the passion of artists in favor of the big cash-in.

That said, however, the truly fascinating part of the film is the singlemindedness with which the director views his project. Not only does he not see that "Beholder" is incoherrent and laughable, he actually believes that he is creating a visual masterpiece. Instead of scoffing at his naivety, however, I actually began to root for him and admire his dedication to his vision. This film almost succeeds as an expose of an artist's battles against the shallow studio system. The only problem, of course, being that the execs were justifiably upset by the fact that "Beholder" is such a god-awful film. The film succeeds almost accidentally, however, as an insight into the creative mind of the artist, and how dedication to one's vision is just as alive and well for the bad artists and hacks as it is in the work of the true visionaries.