GeronBook/Ch13/data/aclImdb/train/unsup/18932_0.txt

A short art-house movie, beautifully photographed and edited, with dark stage-like sets, leaping and leering effete young men wearing eye-makeup, jeering townsfolk, biblical intertitles, and jarring modernistic music. The decadence of the city seems to reside in its airborne or writhing gay dancers, and in the opposition to Lot and his visitor the Angel. A problem arises with Lot: he is the only old person in Sodom, apparently, and he looks a lot like an anti-semitic caricature of an old Jew, both in costume and makeup—he's got a great hooked nose and deepset eyes—and gesture. Lot's wife is neither ancient nor stereotyped, nor is his daughter especially notable except for a tranquil beauty. Some cinematic effects work—the montage is both visually attractive and symbolic, and the fiery rain is okay, too—and others don't (a jagged white lightning streak down the centre of the screen during the opening is headache-making). The story ends with the transformation of Lot's wife into a pillar of salt—Lot is nowhere to be seen. The movie is more like a ballet than a story, interesting and sometimes beautiful but quite uneven.