If.... (EOTWS)

End Of The Week Shorts #46 extract: If.... (1968)

Wow... what can be said about this? 

If.... is a blurry and surreal (more Buñuel than Vigo in my view) montage film, one that blasts through insanely provocative sequences and images without a care for understanding and one clear aim: impact. I went in without a clue, initially thinking this was just a film about an English boarding school. As it devolves into chaos and anarchy, I started to get the sense that maybe I was wrong. 

I can't say I gathered anything particularly coherent from this first watch, but the enraged rebellion and dissension maybe doesn't need to be made sense of. Tradition, decency, religion, education, morality, life, none of it is safe, and nor does it seem to matter. 1960s counterculture screams out at you without pretence, just nihilism, and the spectacle is certainly impressive. Recommended.