Blue Movie

Director: Alberto Cavallone
Year Released: 1978
Rating: 2.5

Bizarre, obscure film from Italian director Cavallone about sexual politics with ideas borrowed from Dusan Makavejev, who was a pioneer in the field of the pastiche-film. There is no real plot to speak of, and the basic setup (that of a photographer and his slave-assistants) exists to string together all the surreal moments (the eye ball under the key, the 'person' in the closet), paraphilias (coprophagia, voyeurism, mysophilia, etc), symbolism (the nude dolls and toys, the 'menstruating' bathtub) and incorporated stock footage of war atrocities (all of these elements were key features in 1974's Sweet Movie). The home-movie atmosphere and the use of Bach on the soundtrack are definite pluses (the amateurish acting and 70's-style zooming in and out enhance the mood rather than detract from it), but it's still on a level below Sweet Movie, since Cavallone doesn't have the cinematic sense, intelligence or all-important humor of Makavejev. Experimental transgressions like this are all but missing in cinema, which is most unfortunate; fans of low-budget 'euro-trash' will want to seek this notorious picture out.