Les souffrances d'un oeuf meurtri

A surrealist saga in four parts: 1.) The credit sequence in which title cards show successively larger fetuses pulsating on the screen until the baby is born and cries. 2.) Etoile—directly referring to Cocteau, Lethem shows an adolescent sucking a starfish and then giving birth to a smaller starfish. A statement of inadequacy. To give birth involves an emasculation and a loss of vitality. 3.) Corps—two images of a man on a couch groping for each other, watched by a mysterious peeping Tom. As the two superimposed images come together, the heavy breathing subsides… the statement that the birth of desire is a self-realisation. 4.) Hymen—The decaying body of a girl is shot through green filters, and the final image reveals her vagina crawling with maggots and overlain with a crucifix. A representation of Catholicism preventing the free expression of desire.