Amer is an example of pure cinema if ever there was one. It's a movie with extremely little plot and very minimal dialogue. While on one level it's a homage to the Italian giallo film, it's at least equally an avant-garde experimental piece. If you could imagine a collision between Suspiria, A Lizard In A Woman's Skin and Meshes of the Afternoon you wouldn't be too far off the mark. It's similarity to the latter Maya Deren film is where it might be problematic to those who think they are in for a true homage to the giallo, as this is a movie that is more of a mood piece than anything else. Admittedly it's a pretty dark mood but nevertheless this is first and foremost an experimental work. Your tolerance level for narrative-free avant-garde cinema will be the deciding factor in whether you like this or not.

It's about a girl called Ana. And it's divided into three sections: childhood, adolescence and adulthood. The first part is the most impressive; it's a deeply creepy segment about the child at a highly traumatic moment in her life, involving her dead grandfather and her witnessing her parents having sex. It's full of surreal nightmare imagery that recalls some shots directly lifted from Suspiria, with the requisite intense colours – greens, blues, reds – with a creepy soundtrack of sighs that also recalls that famous old film. The second part loses the momentum a bit; it switches to a sunny outdoor locale and has the teenage Ana accompany her mother in a trip to the local town, where she seems to experience some sexual awakenings. The final part has Ana arriving at the run down family home again; this part incorporates some of the fetishistic giallo motifs that you might expect.

Amer is a highly stylised film. The cinematography is constantly inventive and artistic. There is a preponderance of close ups; in particular eyes and skin. The compositions are beautiful and the use of widescreen is excellent. When you see a film like this it does make you shake your head sadly when a film such as The King's Speech is nominated for best cinematography at the Oscars ceremony. As fine a film as it is the cinematography in that film, and most winners of this category in the Academy Awards, is solid yet so safe and unremarkable. This little film from Europe wins hands down against any contender from this year's Oscars in that category. But films like Amer are never nominated for Academy Awards and never will be. Rant over.

The film features a purely retro music soundtrack from the likes of Bruno Nicolai, Ennio Morricone and Stelvio Cipriani; the opening piece being from the Sergio Martino giallo film The Case of the Scorpion's Tail. And I suppose that opening would make you think this film is going to be a straight homage but as I have said it really isn't. Amer is most certainly not a film for everyone it has to be admitted but if you like gialli and avant-garde cinema then I think you would do well to at least give it a try.

You know, the films of Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani kind of frustrate me. I want to love The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears and Let the Corpses Tan, but they felt like they were at times more concerned with their own style, particularly the former. But man, I must have been in the right mood because Amer worked just fine.

We follow the life of Ana, whose life-long search for carnal pleasures is also haunted by the specter of death itself, symbolized as a black lace hand that holds her screams inside her body. There are three different stories and three different versions of our heroine as she grows from a frightened child into, well, a frightened woman played by three actresses: Cassandra Foret, Charlotte Guibeaud and Marie Bos.

The Variety review of this claimed that this film has "virtually no plot to speak of, and repeated use of shock zooms, jump cuts, monochrome filters and hissing sounds." So, basically a giallo, right?

The soundtrack shines, as all manner of 70s Italian murder ballads play, including songs from The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (Bruno Nicolai),What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (Stelvio Cipriani),Black Belly of the Tarantula (Morricone),Killer Cop (Cipriani),The Great Kidnapping (Cipriani) and Adriano Celentano's "Furore," which played over the opening titles of Bava's The Girl Who Knew Too Much, which totally fits into this film.

Sadly, we won't ever live in the glory days from 1970 to 1975, when films like this were playing. But we can dream, can't we?

Watching "Amer" at some point preferably sooner than later was more than just an option for me; it was practically a necessity. There aren't too many genre movies being made in my beloved home country of Belgium, so us fans have to encourage every single attempt. And "Amer" is, in fact, an even more impressive accomplishment for Belgium because this film is much more than just a genre movie on itself; it's a downright elegant and upper-class homage to the Italian genre film of the 1960's and 1970's! I met the writer/director's duo Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani at a mini film-festival in Brussels were they presented their film to fellow admirers of unusual cinema. They're a young and admirably modest couple who are clearly obsessed with gialli and the particular filming style of certain Italian directors like Mario Bava, Dario Argento Massimo Dallamano and others. Over a period of less than ten years the couple made a handful of short films, but they clearly just served as "exercises" for their ultimate masterwork entitled "Amer".

The script pays tribute to the giallo movie without actually being a genuine giallo. The movie doesn't feature any sadistic murders (except for one notably grisly moment near the climax) or explicit sex sequences (although a lot of sensuality) and the plot doesn't necessarily revolve on the manhunt for a deranged knife-wielding maniac. Instead, "Amer" pays its respects towards the stylistic trademarks and design of the giallo. The film is a non-stop smörgåsbord of cinematographic elegance (imaginative camera angles, specifically focused close-ups, POV shots…),experimental photography (delusional color schemes, intentionally rough editing…) and recognizable giallo soundtrack classics (with Stelvio Cipriani's theme song of "What have they done to our Daughters" as a mesmerizing highlight). There are hardly any dialogs in "Amer", and yet all your senses – particularly the hearing – will nevertheless be tantalized.

"Amer" slowly unfolds in three almost equally hypnotizing chapters, centered around three important key-moments in the life of a beautiful girl named Ana. The first chapter is about childhood fears. Ana lives in a ramshackle old house with her continuously arguing parents (her mother is a furious Italian wench) and her recently deceased grandfather in his bedroom. The creaking doors, the echoes inside the exaggeratedly large mansion and the constant peeking of voyeuristic eyes through the keyholes leave a vast impression on the young and petrified girl. In the second chapter, Ana has grown into an incredibly beautiful adolescent. Not a whole lot happens during this part of the film, as Ana and her mother simply walk across the little rural village and receive a giant number of envious looks from the townspeople, but it's definitely my personal favorite chapter. Thanks to the music and lewd photography, this part of the film is the most perfect homage to the Italian 70's. The second chapter of "Amer" might as well have been cut straight out of films like "In the Folds of the Flesh" or Dallamano's "Venus in Furs". It's guaranteed one of the sexiest pieces of film you'll ever see. The third and final chapter has the now adult Ana returning to her parental mansion, only to be confronted again with her childhood fears and imaginary pursuers. This chapter particularly plays as an ode to suspense and psychedelic trips. The three chapters glued together form a nearly impeccable wholesome, but of course you need to have some affection and feeling towards the era of the giallo. Watch it, if you can!