WR: Mysteries Of The Organism (1971)

W.R. - Mysteries Of The Organism - 1971
Directed by Dušan Makavejev
Release date 1971
Running time 85 min.
1.16GB .avi file

W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (Serbo-Croatian) is a 1971 film by Yugoslav director Dušan Makavejev that explores the relationship between communist politics and sexuality, as well as exploring the life and work of Wilhelm Reich. Was banned in Yugoslavia shortly after it was made.

The film intercuts documentary footage with, predominantly, a narrative about a Yugoslav woman who seduces a Russian 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 main elements juxtaposed throughout the film: Milena is a metaphor for the Yugoslavian working class's struggle for liberation against the totalising influence of the Russian communist state. Milena is killed when her sexual encounter with Vladimir Illych (the representative of Russian communism) goes awry. (To make the parallel more obvious, the Russian artist is a full namesake of Lenin (Lenin's proper Russian name was Vladimir Illych). Also, during his speech on the abandoned ship's deck, he assumed a position typical of the way Lenin was depicted in numerous statues of him.) He, unable to fully experience his orgasmic urge, beheads her with his skate which is the film's metaphor for revolutionary theory. Makavejev dooms self-determination of the Yugslav people, and the struggle of people worldwide for true freedom, to the fate of being totalised by Russian state communism, and the quest for sexual freedom to be overshadowed by "red fascists".

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.

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.

Nancy Godfrey is an artist who makes a cast of Jim Buckley's erect penis on film. This scene was a point of contention for the censors: on UK prints Buckley's penis is covered with psychedelic colors added in editing.

Jackie Curtis, one of Andy Warhol's entourage and occasional film star, is shown on the streets of New York.

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.

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

----------------

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. 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.

Half-documentary about Wilhelm Reich, scientist who tried to bring together teachings of Freud and Marx and was persecuted by Hitler, Stalin and McCarthy. The movie deals with the scientist and with the people who try to put his teachings into practice.