WR • Mysteries of the Organism (1971, Dušan Makavejev) (Patreon)

46/100

Second viewing, last seen at NYU in 1995. (Don't remember which class—I actually watched a lot of films that were screened for classes I wasn't even taking—but do recall the teacher noting that there'd be a woman handling an erect penis and asking us to please be adults rather than adolescents when that scene occurred.) Like most of Godard's post-'80s work, this ostensible film of ideas registers to me primarily as a big ol' indigestible mess; Makavejev is less gnomic and allusive and (somehow) cryptically didactic, and seems genuinely interested in minds other than his own, but I still find the free-associative approach much more maddening than exhilarating. Had previously logged the title with an em dash between WR and Mysteries, but onscreen it's actually an interpunct, which I'm noting here rather than cordoning off in my surely much-loved Anal-Retentive Title Corner because it's structurally germane: The movie's first half (WR) is an eccentric but still reasonably straightforward documentary exploring Wilhelm Reich's work and legacy, while its second half (Mysteries of the Organism) creates a fictional narrative within which to interrogate Reich's oddball ideas as put into practice. Admittedly, there isn't a clean divisor between the two, but certainly doc footage dominates for a long time before giving way to primarily scripted scenes. And while I enjoy a fair bit of WR, and appreciate that Makavejev takes an unconventional approach to his subject, Mysteries of the Organism pretty much loses me with its seemingly random pivots from political satire to sex positivity to clips from a Soviet propaganda film that I generally wanted to be watching in lieu of this one. Even when I can discern why I'm looking at something, the lack of any coherent flow—of any fundamental shape to the film as a whole—drives me kinda nuts. Same's true, as I dimly recall, of the other two Makavejevs I've seen (Man Is Not a Bird and Love Affair), both of which got similarly blah ratings, so evidently he's just not my thing. I'll try again soon with Sweet Movie, which Criterion issued at the same time, but don't feel hopeful.