I was first introduced to the music and films of the art movement known as the No Wave when I saw the documentary Blank City (2010). For anyone interested in this most bizarre and utterly left-field movement this documentary is probably a must. What I took away from it though, was that these films might be a little too strange for the likes of me! Anyway, I finally got to sample one of them when a kind fellow IMDb user sent me a copy of Ecstatic Stigmatic. He added an interesting note that said it was 'the only film which led (him) to search online to find out if the director had gone insane'. Considering he had previously sent me a copy of the utterly nuts Greek oddity Singapore Sling (1990), I had to find out what it was that made him think this one in particular was so much stranger than that. Well, having just seen it I have to say…yeah this is properly bizarre stuff right enough. It's 'story' is quite difficult to understand and I am thankful for the other reviews here which helped me piece together what I had just seen. In summary, it's about a character called Rose F, who is the daughter of a tattoo artist and stripper. She has a few problems evidently and becomes a stigmatic and is confined to a psychiatric hospital. Later on there are flashbacks to scenes from her childhood.As I say, this is highly experimental, avant-garde stuff. It's really low budget as these types of wilfully transgressive and strange films just about always are. It's pretty diametrically opposed to being comforting viewing, with strange imagery, full on voice-overs and very atonal music used throughout. Of the latter we have agitated jazz, extended use of wolf whining and lots of lo-fi music of the type the No Wave was famed for. Needless to say, this is not a film for everyone. Although this is a statement that probably doesn't even need to be said. It's one strictly for the most intrepid cinematic adventurers only.

Since hearing about the "No-Wave" movement in music in connection with Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation and Unwound's stunning Leaves Turn Inside You,I was surprised to recently discover that "No-Wave" had also become a film movement during its shortly active period.Seeing the credit list for the film display some strong to connection to one of the most well known US Punk bands of that period (X,Lydia Lunch),I felt that this movie would give me a chance to see the experimental No-Wave waves.The plot:Due to having an illness where she experiences an intense feeling of ecstasy whilst becoming a stigmata,Rose F. is put in a constant medical inductive coma,and only given a diet of the centre of a raw chicken egg being injected into her.During one of these medical inductive coma's Rose starts to think back to the troubles she faced in her childhood,and also begins to struggle in knowing where her nightmares end,and reality begins.View on the film:Having the first ten minutes of the film be narrated by a robotic voiced woman,whose vocal deliver really grated my nerves,director Gordon Stevenson, (who sadly died of Aids a year after making the movie)thankfully replaces the narration with a terrific strange,screeching No-Wave Jazz soundtrack which helps to build on the eerie feeling of the film,as Stevenson uses a man with two faces to show the two battling personality sides of Rose's psych,and also cleverly use school cloths to shows Rose's attempt to cling on to her troubled childhood.Complimenting Stevenson's weird directing,Mirielle "sister of Exene "X" Cervenka" Cervenka, (who died shortly after filming had finished in a horrible hit & run) gives a wonderfully on the brink,wild performance as Rose,in an interesting film,which displays the great,original skills of two new comers,who still had so much more to offer before their untimely deaths.

Ecstatic Stigmatic is an early product of the New York Cinema of Transgression movement which was active during the late 70s to late 80s. Directed by Gordon Stevenson (bass player for the seminal No Wave group Teenage Jesus and the Jerks) and starring his wife Mirielle Cervenka (little sister of Exene Cervenka of the band X), Ecstatic Stigmatic is the bizarre tale of Rose F., a stigmatic who is confined to a psychiatric hospital.The film opens with a reading from Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis which happens to include an entry on Rose F., a stigmatic who was formerly the leader of a dangerous blood-letting cult. We are then introduced to Rose at her current residence, a home for the mentally ill where she lies around in the crucifixion pose convulsing in ecstasy and speaking in tongues while bleeding from her hands, feet and mouth and refuses to eat anything but the Eucharist (this is all explained via narration).Inter-cut with the hospital scenes are flashbacks to Rose's childhood where we see young Rose (Mirielle Cervenka now wears pigtails and cute little dresses) interacting with her Father, a deranged preacher / tattoo artist and mother, a tattoo-covered performance artist. One night, while backstage at one of her Mothers performances poor little Rose is molested by a hilariously creepy and facepainted Arto Lindsay (of DNA "fame"). There also multiple visuals of religious imagery, gay pin-ups, tattoos of the crucifixion.As it goes on, the film gets increasingly harder to follow but is mainly made up of scenes of Roses parents, Rose convulsing and being drip-fed raw egg, Arto Lindsay doing his facepainted multiple personality act, and plenty of other oddities.It appears Ecstatic Stigmatic was shot mostly silent and then overdubbed with overly dramatic sound effects and a soundtrack of alternately screeching violin, No Wave-esquire rock, Jazz and short bursts of white noise. Sadly the picture isn't too hot as the only available copy of this film is a nth generation VHS dupe.All in all Ecstatic Stigmatic is a highly experimental film that manages in turn to shock, confuse and at times even amuse. Sadly it was Stevenson's one & only film as he died not long after from AIDS. A few years later, his wife and leading lady Mirielle was killed in a car crash.I'd highly recommend fans of transgressive, experimental and art-house cinema to seek out this obscure little flick. 7/10

ECSTATIC STIGMATIC starts strong and immediately fascinates. Through the narration of someone, probably a doctor, maybe a psychiatrist, we are introduced to Little Rose, a young woman who is institutionalized in a mental hospital. We are told that she becomes stigmatized because of an "hysteric ailment" and that she was the leader of a blood-letting cult. Then, a new narrator starts talking about Little Rose much less scientifically and much more respectful, almost as if holding a sermon for a saint. All the while, we see Little Rose convulsing on her bed in one of her fits of ecstasy, which are always accompanied by stigmata.That's what happens in the first 20 minutes of the film. The film gets a little muddled or maybe just harder to decipher after that. There are several layers of flashbacks to Little Rose's childhood and her life with her parents, who were both performance artists.ECSTATIC STIGMATIC is pretty interesting, occasionally even fascinating experimental film that came out of the New Yorker "New Cinema" movement. It's certainly worth seeking out for lovers of strange, trippy, experimental art-house film-making.