Phantom Love

A memorably surreal psychodrama, Nina Menkes' PHANTOM LOVE is a striking evocation of female dreamscape in which violence and trauma are steadily percolating, just beneath the surface. The lead character is Lulu Marina Shoif: a very beautiful, but angry and isolated woman, who lives alone, and works in a casino in Koreatown, Los Angeles. Lulu's relationship with her much younger lover is charged but emotionally disconnected, and her younger sister is in the midst of a psychotic breakdown, caused in part by prescription medication. PHANTOM LOVE positions an alienated woman against a harsh, inhospitable landscape. Structured like Chinese boxes, with each scene opening onto another, PHANTOM LOVE is a powerful erotic-fantasy that explores a woman's sexuality through her dreams. (Facets Cinematheque)