As often happens, I contrived to close a marathon on a whimper rather than a bang and it was certainly the case with this "Halloween Challenge": not only is the film a total rarity (I only recently became aware of it) and very marginally related to the genre I was celebrating (in fact, I only included it because the site from where I acquired it labeled the movie as such) but it also proved to be quite a chore to sit through (despite lasting for a mere 55 minutes)!
I have often said that Surrealism works better when treated as entertainment: Luis Bunuel was its undisputed master in cinema (which is why he is my absolute favorite auteur) but, apart from the occasional attempt to shock an audience (notably his first two films), he learned to transmit his subversive messages (while always denying he had any!) in a subtle, indeed sophisticated, manner in order to reach a wider audience! Not so other noted directors whose work, however, leaves me cold to a considerable extent, namely Federico Fellini, Marco Ferreri, David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Fernando Arrabal.
Tellingly, the latter turns up here as an actor – but he is actually the best thing about the film, as an intellectual seller of traps (hence the title), and it is amusing to watch him demonstrate the practicality of a variety of traps from his ever more unwieldy stock to a prospective buyer! The latter subsequently invites a couple of women to his house ("Nouvelle Vague" stalwarts Bernadette Lafont, a Claude Chabrol regular, and Bulle Ogier, who actually co-starred in Bunuel's greatest film i.e. THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE {1972}) – who, for no very good reason (since nothing comes of it thereafter) are made out to be nuns in the throes of devil worship! When they arrive, even though properly invited, they do not enter through the main door but opt to go in as burglars! Once inside, they try to cut through the safe with a blowtorch while giving vent to their anarchy by smashing everything that comes in their way. They cause a veritable mess – Lafont stomach-churningly plays around with assorted eggs, whereas the more child-like Ogier grimaces and moans incessantly! They paint their faces, disrobe down to their underwear, engage in a S&M routine, but only ever get to meet their host at the very end (even if he had actually been spying on the girls throughout their rampage!)...when the whole place blows up!
The point of it all is obscure and, frankly not worth unraveling; if anything, the film may owe a bit to Vera Chytilova's DAISIES (1966; which I own but have yet to watch), while looking forward to Jacques Rivette's 3-hour plus CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING (1974; which I am familiar with and reasonably enjoyed). For the record, TRAP (an oft-used title, by the way, numbering among these a few interesting and versatile works) is the only film I have watched from this director and am only vaguely familiar with a trio of others from his not-so-vast filmography (comprising 6 shorts, 5 documentaries and 13 features made in the space of 55 years!). I generally admire the two actresses on hand, but this film certainly gives experimental cinema (with respect to both form and expression) a bad name – in retrospect, it is worth noting that, while the film was made in 1968, it was only first shown after having sat on the shelf for some 2 years...
