16th October, 2008 Login • Register
Search This Site
WR: Mysteries Of The Organism (1971) DVD Review
WR: Mysteries Of The Organism (1971) DVD Credits:
WR: Mysteries Of The Organism (1971) Directed by:
Dusan Makavejev
WR: Mysteries Of The Organism (1971) Written by:
Not available at this time
WR: Mysteries Of The Organism (1971) Cast:
Milena Dravic, Ivica Vidovic, Jagoda Kaloper, Tuli Kupferberg, Zoran Radmilovic
WR: Mysteries Of The Organism (1971) Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
1
WR: Mysteries Of The Organism (1971) DVD Release Date:
18th June 2007
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD
WR: Mysteries Of The Organism (1971) Synopsis:

A dense film that cuts up footage of a primary plot of two young Yugoslavian girls, one a politico and the other a sexpot, and an affair with a visiting Russian skater. Mixing metaphors of Russia's relationship with Yugoslavia, intercut with footage and interviews with Wilhelm Reich and Al Goldstein of Screw magazine. The film applies Reich's theories of Orgone energy and analogies of Stalinism as a form of Freudian sexual repression. Also known as W.R. The Mysteries of the Organism in English subtitled version. Was banned in Yugoslavia shortly after it was made.

WR: Mysteries Of The Organism (1971) DVD Review:

The opening title cards explain that the film is partly in response to the life and teachings of Dr. Wilhelm Reich, a man who was studying the orgasmic reflex as Sigmund Freud’s first assistant. Reich was prosecuted by the American government for his ‘Orgone’ Theory. This theory about energy love and healing brought him to create machines which were being used experimentally to heal cancer among other things, but soon the government was seeking injunction against interstate sales of these machines. He was a free man until his death, but he was brought to trial with rumors of insanity surrounding him.

Part of the film is interviews with the small-town Americans he came into contact with during his life. He made a strange impression on most of the people in his town, often scarring them because of his strange habits and beliefs. A highlight of the films is an uncomfortable interview with a deputy sheriff who was also Reich’s barber. Although nobody seems to have anything extremely negative to say after his death, he struggled a great deal, using a gun a great deal for someone trying to promote love as a way to save the world. As well as documentary sequences about Reich, there are two competing storylines, however incoherent they may seem at times. The film uses many mediums and both Belgrade and New York as settings for staged acts of sexual liberation and rebellion, Belgrade tying communism into direct relation with free love.

This is a difficult film to categorize, mostly because of the eclectic combinations of various stories, segments and styles, all carrying the same theme of sexual liberation and communism. There is real footage of people being given electroshock therapy as well as a scripted sequence about a woman promoting liberation and communism while seducing a famous ice skater. This quickly moves back and forth with other various sequences such as a man in New York dressed as a soldier of some kind, running through the streets with a fake gun. This sequence is particularly uncomfortable to watch now, knowing it could never happen again.

Communist filmmaker Dušan Makevejev made this film in the early 1970s and it was quickly a film which was asking to be censored nearly everywhere it would be shown. Part art film, part shocking exploitation, WR: Mysteries of the Organism is a strange Yugoslavian film which is difficult to describe and even harder to recommend to anyone who isn’t interested in remarkably untraditional filmmaking. The DVD includes a newly restored high-definition digital transfer and this is the first time that the film has been released on DVD. There is an audio commentary which was compiled from the book written by Raymond Durgnat about the film. There are also interviews with the director as well as a autobiographical short film by Makavejev.


Our Rating: Extras Rating: User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD

WR: Mysteries Of The Organism (1971) DVD review written by: Ryan Izay

Content Management System provided by P J Thomson - Freelance Web Design - PHP/MySQL Development