''Landscape Suicide'' is a 1987 American crime and drama film directed and produced by James Benning. The film stars Rhonda Bell and Elion Sucher in the lead roles.

Background

Prior to the release of ''Landscape Suicide'', Benning had already built a reputation for his exceedingly long, stationary camera shots of landscapes and industrial scenes. ''Landscape Suicide'' sought to combine his structuralist approach with documentary filmmaking.

Plot

The film recounts and parallels two murders that took place 30 years apart. The first half of the film is based on the

murder of Kirsten Costas Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...

, who was stabbed by her high-school friend Bernadette Protti in

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

in early 1984. The second half is devoted to the infamous homicides and taxidermies committed by Ed Gein in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

in the 1950s.

Reception

In a contemporary review, ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' film critic

Dave Kehr David Kehr (born 1953) is an American museum curator and film critic. For many years a critic at the ''Chicago Reader'' and the ''Chicago Tribune,'' he later wrote a weekly column for ''The New York Times'' on DVD releases. He later became a c ...

awarded the film three and a half stars and wrote: "It's part of Benning's project in ''Landscape Suicide'' to reclaim these deaths from the realm of popular fiction and place them again in a real world. His method is, alternatively, both to refuse to look (the killings, made familiar and even banal by their endless cinematic representation, are not depicted) and to look harder than anyone else. ... The prosperous California suburb is linked to the depressed Midwestern farm town through a shared sense of isolation, desolation and quiet despair. We finally come to understand that both of these towns are located in the same place, somewhere in the dark recesses of the American Dream."

Cast

* Rhonda Bell as Bernadette Protti * Elion Sucher as Ed Gein

References

External links

* * 1987 films 1987 crime drama films Films directed by James Benning Cultural depictions of Ed Gein American crime drama films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films {{1980s-crime-film-stub