Vibrations

Joseph Sarno – 1968 – USA

The great thing about Vibrations is that, even though it’s a Joe Sarno film, you’re tempted to interpret the title symbolically or metaphorically, but no, it’s a Joe Sarno film and the title literally just refers to a vibrator and nothing else. When an aspiring novelist moves into a new apartment, she quickly learns that her next-door neighbor spends most of her time “vibrating,” which makes it hard for her to think, work and sleep. It’s kind of like a Bergman film with horrible actors; a chamber drama featuring artistic compositions mixed with incongruous cinema-verité shots of contemporary New York City. There’s a wonderful moment at the end when a woman is being “vibrated” and her face keeps going out of focus, and I am still uncertain if this is just an instance of low-budget incompetence or a deliberate stylistic choice. I hope for the latter, but I suppose it doesn’t matter since the effect is the same. The film also features Geri Miller in a small part, who appeared in Paul Morrissey’s Flesh the same year; one of the greatest of all underground/skin flick crossover films.