Beyond the Black Rainbow, or: Hypnotizing the characters...and the viewer

Beyond the Black Rainbow (2011)

Directed by Panos Cosmatos

***SPOILERS***

Moving past the religious and political overtones, Beyond the Black Rainbow is a study in hypnotic visuals. However beautiful to observe, the ephemeral hues flooding director Panos Cosmatos’ directorial debut are more academic and poignant than celestial. In the course of developing the characters at hand—both exposing why Barry (Michael Rogers) is so power hungry and why Elena (Eva Allan) so desperately desires freedom—Cosmatos necessarily establishes the hypnotism controlling the said characters. Barry’s hypnotized state receives a hazy, revealing montage, but otherwise such bewitchment is integrated into the story at hand through those striking visuals and colors, exposing the altered state of mind experienced by Barry, Elena, and, in turn, the viewer.

The audience is directly addressed from the get-go, with an introductory video into Arboria stating their operation is, “A state of mind. A way of being.” A man looks directly into the camera and begs the audience to, “Join us, and find out for your…self.” The word “self” being substituted for “yourself” is crucial, indicating one’s “self” exists beyond what one sees in the mirror. It’s a full-circling idea that rounds out Barry’s warped state of mind, but it also creates a necessary untouchable aura around Arboria’s experiments. For in the end, Arboria turns out to be nothing more than a drug-infused hoax, equivalent to a cult with divine aspirations. Arboria has a vision and a plight, and for the audience to accept the supernatural proceedings of such a delusion, we must be led to believe Barry and Elena are part of something great. Thus, creating the hypnotized state of Barry and Elena is essential to our participation—in a sense, Cosmatos hypnotizes us at the same time.

Strangely enough, Cosmatos leaves plenty of breathing room, allowing the audience some free will. For as well as hypnotism works on Barry, Elena displays an impressive amount of resistance to Arboria’s cruel methods. It speaks volumes of how hypnotism’s effect relies on the psyche and will of the individual at hand, subsequently challenging the viewer to deny or accept Arboria’s divine mission as genuine. Thus, exploring both Elena and Barry’s descent into the world of Arboria is a form of hypnotism itself, attempting to warp the viewer’s mind, but still allowing free will through its humanization of both Barry and Elena.

Intent on warping Elena’s mind, Barry employs various visuals to administer Elena’s hypnotism. Images are blended with the characters, expanding the idea of finding one’s “self,” but also revealing Barry’s (and Cosmatos') tactics. The prism Barry uses to control Elena fades from its secluded room into Elena’s eye, representing its centralized “power” over Elena. The shifting colors do more than shift scenes, bringing Elena in and out of drug-induced states and self-awareness (her eventual escape). The shift from white to blue to red brings Elena into an interrogation room, where Barry tampers with her psychologically. Barry is free from any mirror images, completely secluded and shrouded in emptiness, while Elena’s other half is neatly on display on a glass wall. A trend to be repeated, there’s a scene where Barry stands against a pillar, with the right side of the frame empty, while Rosemary (Marilyn Norry) sits against a mirror, with her other self neatly propped against her own back. In both cases, the sense of “self” emerges, revealing Elena’s ability to alter the transition between her drugged and clean states. Barry, without a reflection, has become one with his “self,” as seen in a shot where Barry looks into a mirror: no dual image is paired alongside, but instead the menacing smile of the hypnotized Barry blends into the drugged one in the reflection, revealing Barry has completed his self-discovering journey—a journey he’s been (unsuccessfully) administering to Elena since her birth.

We’re never asked to like Barry as a person, but we’re attached to his psyche, and (depending on the viewer) unknowingly accepting of Arboria’s otherworldly plight. The flashback displays Barry’s initiation into Arboria, which serves two purposes: explaining Elena’s back-story, and revealing Barry’s first steps towards his loss of humanity, aka "discovering his true self". In both cases, we are shown how willingly Barry is manipulated, through drugs and a predestined sense of meaning. It’s apparent throughout the film that Barry is power hungry—eventually resorting to removing Elena from her “divine” status in Arboria’s mission to claim such power for himself—so it seems fitting that Barry would so readily accept Elena as the human race’s savior. He's ready to "birth" Elena into the new system through Arboria's sick initiation process, which is put on display in the film's sole flashback. Barry’s gasp for air as he emerges from the black muck and airily floats about an endlessly white room displays a man who is intoxicated by Arboria’s mission, yet strangely somewhat at grips with humanity. This is his own "birth" into this strange world. Demolishing such an attachment occurs off-screen between the initiation ceremony and Barry’s current state, where Barry rolls his eyes at Mercurio’s (Scott Hylands) tender comments about nature and gleefully toys with Elena’s psyche.

Elena’s resistance to the sedatives administered by Barry is indicative of her strong personality, possibly a metaphorical parallel to one’s resistance to religion’s farfetched teachings. Regardless, such a strong will leads to a separation from humanity between Elena and Barry, which ultimately becomes the deciding force in hypnotism’s effect on the individual. Barry is clearly jealous of Elena—displayed through incessantly tapping his pen on a clipboard to rouse her or leading her to believe she’s capable of making people’s heads explode with her mind.

He attempts to break her greatest virtue through a picture of her mother. Exquisitely timed and executed, Barry initiates a sequence of events that creates a sense of hope in Elena, only to crush it, leading her to believe she owns psychic powers she must learn to harnass. Margo (Rondel Reynoldson) crushes the picture of Elena’s mother, and we see a smile spread across Barry’s face as Elena turns to stare. He initiates the force that causes Margo's body to implode, both squashing Elena’s attachment to her mother and any sense of normalcy. The music swells as Elena retrieves the picture of her mother, only for Cosmatos to abruptly cut to Barry standing in a silence-filled room, disgustingly looking upon Elena and displaying two states of being. Elena, shrouded in innocent white clothing, has hope, able to resist Barry’s hypnotism. But Barry, cloaked in red, has a warped state of mind, as suggested by that disgusted look, revealing his bewitchment has not only led him to believe in Arboria’s plight, but also exaggerated his role in such a cause, believing he must take over the stubborn Elena’s role and eventually leading to his sporadic killings, displaying the true horrors of hypnotism. In one truly revealing statement, Barry claims to have a vision, leading to his final stage of murderous and self-destructing mission:

“I looked into the eye of God, like a vector through everything. It was so beautiful, like a black rainbow. It chokes me…it chokes me.”

Going beyond the black rainbow proves to be Barry’s ultimate goal. Elena is meant to be the savior of the human race, and Barry isn’t content with merely looking into the eye of God. Addressing both Barry and the audience, Mercurio asks the question:

“The trappings of the mortal world are but a distraction, wouldn’t you say?”

I would say: Barry feels this way. Tenfold. It speaks to the audience, begging them to believe Arboria owns a sacred mission. This is what makes the final escape sequence so crucial. As Barry and Elena travel beyond Arboria, we realize there’s nothing supernatural about their world. Barry dies by accidentally smashing his head on a rock, but not before brutally killing two men oblivious to Barry’s interrogation about Elena. So absorbed in his own world, Barry’s hypnotism ultimately becomes his demise, stripping Arboria of its cloak of invincibility. Hell, Arboria barely owns a durable suit of armor. Barry and Elena’s integration into the real world—where Barry is a mere mortal and Elena finds a house with a glowing television—Cosmatos isn’t wagging a finger at the audience, but sort of winking at them, asking: “Did you fall for my tricks?”