In response to JRH:
“the viewer is in need of a relief from oversaturated color palates.”
I wasn’t. I didn’t notice them much, which, realizing this now, is a bad thing, because they probably played a more important role in the film than I had thought.
“I am in disgust and annoyed by the obvious subtext of sex and violence as essential counterparts.”
I don’t think there was anything “sub” about the connection between sex and violence. That was overt. Also overt, but harder to grasp, is the connection between sex/death and cinema as myth — through cinema, we create our myths, and the connection between sex and violence is stamped all over the film myths we have created. This (I think) is what the film is exploring, why it is that, since the very beginning, we have connected sex with death. Your disgust is thus not with the film but with humans, who have so enthusiastically imprinted this connection into their worldview.

I loved this film. Recommended to everyone who gets the chance to see it.