W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism

W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism

DVD cover of the movie
Directed by Dušan Makavejev
Produced by Dušan Makavejev
Written by Dušan Makavejev
Music by Bojana Marijan
Cinematography Aleksandar Petković
Pega Popović
Edited by Ivanka Vukasović
Release dates
  • 1971 (1971)
Running time
 85 min.
Country Yugoslavia
West Germany
Language Serbo-Croatian
English

W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (Serbian: W.R. - Misterije organizma, W.R. - Мистерије организма) is a 1971 film by Serbian director Dušan Makavejev (born 1932) that explores the relationship between communist politics and sexuality, as well as exploring the life and work of Austrian-American psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957).

Narrative and documentary elements

The film intercuts documentary footage with, predominantly, a narrative about a Yugoslav woman who seduces a Soviet ice skater. Despite different settings, characters and time periods, the different elements produce a single story of human sexuality and revolution through a montage effect.

The song that Vladimir sings in Russian after Milena's murder at the end of the movie is called "François Villon's Prayer" by Bulat Okudzhava.

Milena violates her proletariat convictions (and rejects the sexual advances of a worker) by pursuing the Joseph Stalin-like ice skater who represents both class oppression and corruption from the West into communist beliefs. This concept is at the central themes of the film: the degradation of pure communism, the Western-like repression of free sexuality, and the ignored applicability of Reich's theories of human sexuality to personal freedom also in economic and political realms.

In classes given at New York University Department of Cinema Studies in 1975, Makavejev alluded to his frustration that idealistic communism had become corrupted in practice in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union because it had abandoned free love and open sexuality as a way of freeing economic and political oppression. These ideas are central to this film as the Soviet ice skater can not cope with his huge and healthy sexual hunger and converts that energy into a murderous rage.

A couple of scenes in the film are re-stagings of scenes from Sergei Eisenstein films, to allude to a moment of more pure (truthful) film making in the Soviet Union.

Episodes

Tuli Kupferberg Poet and performance artist Tuli Kupferberg of band The Fugs, dressed as a soldier, parodies war and the sexual nature of man's fascination with guns by stalking affluent New Yorkers on the street and masturbating his toy rifle. As part of the climax of the film, the gun masturbation is intercut with other orgasmic sequences. This segment highlights Reich's ideas that sexual frustration and violence are connected.

Artists Artist Betty Dodson discusses her experiences in drawing acts of masturbation, as well as her discussions within consciousness raising groups about female sexual response. The Dodson sequences are relatively straight forward documentary interviews; Dodson's large scale drawing of a man masturbating dominates the background of the shots. This segment illustrates a more free attitude toward sexuality.

Nancy Godfrey is an artist who makes a cast of Jim Buckley's erect penis as a documentary part of the film. This scene was a point of contention for the censors. On UK video prints Buckley's penis is covered with psychedelic colors added in editing (the cinema version was unusually passed fully uncut). Godfrey proved her sexual contact with a famous man by casting his erect penis, and is among a loose group of practitioners called Plaster Casters.

Jackie Curtis Jackie Curtis, one of Andy Warhol's entourage and occasional film star, is shown on the streets of New York enjoying an ice cream cone with a partner. Curtis' appearance highlighted Reich's theories of gender and sexuality.

Screw Screw is an "underground" magazine that often focused on sexual issues. The film only shows one scene of Screw magazine, where editors work in the nude.

Alexander Lowen The film also features a rare on-screen interview with neo-Reichian therapist Alexander Lowen, the founder of bioenergetic analysis, during a therapy session, including scream treatment.

Reich's daughter appears on camera, speaking about the high accuracy of her father's work and the sickness of contemporary life.

The Orgonon, Reich's last home and lab near Rangeley, Maine, USA, is seen with brief shots of the interior and exterior, including a cloud buster.

Shots of the incinerator in which Reich's books were burned in New York City are included.

Cast
  • Wilhelm Reich as Himself (archive footage)
  • Mikheil Gelovani as Joseph Stalin (archive footage)
  • Jim Buckley as Himself
  • Betty Dodson as Herself
  • Nancy Godfrey as Herself
  • Dragoljub Ivkov
  • Nikola Milić
  • Milan Jelić

See also

External links

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