Erin StapletonForced Labour in the Fashion Mines
September 8th 2008 09:47
"Otto; or, Up with Dead People" Bruce LaBruce 2008
Any film which describes a character's career as "many years of forced labour in the fashion mines..." gets my vote. Bruce LaBruce has done it again. He's bitch-slapped more or less every other film at the festival right out of orbit. 'Otto' is so fabulous, self-conscious, witty, profound in the most whimsical and non-preachy way. And clever, so so clever - a little bit smarmy, but not enough to put you off. It's beautifully shot, with changes in filters, colour saturation etc throughout, everything is perfectly designed so that it's both aesthetic and basic. Sigh. So good.
Basically, Otto (Jey Crisfar - a first time actor) is, or believes he is (and what is the difference, really) a zombie. He totters about, exploring the world as a zombie (or, as the narrator says, a metaphor) and falls into the clutches of an independent filmmaker, Medea Yarn, and her girlfriend Hella Bent. This is one of the many fabulous points about the film, Hella (played by Susanne Sachsse who was Gerda in 'Raspberry Reich) is stuck in a silent movie. Permanently. LaBruce overlays a grainy sepia on her whenever she's in the frame. And no one can seem to hear her speak except Medea. The audience is granted intertitles during their exchanges. So funny.
Meanwhile, Otto has been eating roadkill and so forth, because, as he vaguely remembers, he was a vegetarian in life. Although, he does briefly get a taste for human flesh, he's generally a very compliant, sweet little zombie, who can't understand why people don't realise that he's really a zombie. Aw.
One point - there was way less sex in this film than Bruce La Bruce's other films, which I guess makes it more able to be distributed, at least through the film festival circuit. It's not porn, so much like his other films, although that doesn't really make it any less subversive. And there's a wound-fucking scene which would guarantee a ban in many countries, one would have thought. It makes the one in Cronenberg's 'Crash' look extremely tame.
Anyway I appreciated the kind of Bataillean aspect of the film, you know, the sex, the death, the blood, and so on, but I also enjoyed it as another near-perfect satire from a hero of mine. (What I'm trying to say is that you'll probably like it even if you're not completely twisted.)
9/10
Any film which describes a character's career as "many years of forced labour in the fashion mines..." gets my vote. Bruce LaBruce has done it again. He's bitch-slapped more or less every other film at the festival right out of orbit. 'Otto' is so fabulous, self-conscious, witty, profound in the most whimsical and non-preachy way. And clever, so so clever - a little bit smarmy, but not enough to put you off. It's beautifully shot, with changes in filters, colour saturation etc throughout, everything is perfectly designed so that it's both aesthetic and basic. Sigh. So good.
(still from Otto; or, up with dead people - Otto eating the roses)
Basically, Otto (Jey Crisfar - a first time actor) is, or believes he is (and what is the difference, really) a zombie. He totters about, exploring the world as a zombie (or, as the narrator says, a metaphor) and falls into the clutches of an independent filmmaker, Medea Yarn, and her girlfriend Hella Bent. This is one of the many fabulous points about the film, Hella (played by Susanne Sachsse who was Gerda in 'Raspberry Reich) is stuck in a silent movie. Permanently. LaBruce overlays a grainy sepia on her whenever she's in the frame. And no one can seem to hear her speak except Medea. The audience is granted intertitles during their exchanges. So funny.
Meanwhile, Otto has been eating roadkill and so forth, because, as he vaguely remembers, he was a vegetarian in life. Although, he does briefly get a taste for human flesh, he's generally a very compliant, sweet little zombie, who can't understand why people don't realise that he's really a zombie. Aw.
(Otto and Hella at the dump)
One point - there was way less sex in this film than Bruce La Bruce's other films, which I guess makes it more able to be distributed, at least through the film festival circuit. It's not porn, so much like his other films, although that doesn't really make it any less subversive. And there's a wound-fucking scene which would guarantee a ban in many countries, one would have thought. It makes the one in Cronenberg's 'Crash' look extremely tame.
Anyway I appreciated the kind of Bataillean aspect of the film, you know, the sex, the death, the blood, and so on, but I also enjoyed it as another near-perfect satire from a hero of mine. (What I'm trying to say is that you'll probably like it even if you're not completely twisted.)
9/10
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