Review of WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1971) by Danijel J — 03 Dec 2011

"Comrade Communists, fuck freely", shouts the narrator at the beginning of Dusan Makavejev's hilarious 1971. satire about sex and politics behind, but also, to a smaller extent, in front of the iron curtain. The film's destiny, it's safe to say, was already determent at the time of its release: it became an instant art house classic, retained a cult following even in these sexually more liberated, ideologically not so colorful times and it also marked a seventeen year hiatus from a targeted country for its creator. He eventually came back; the dream of communism is dead, as is his country for that matter, but WR: Mysteries of the Organism remains a great testament to the audacity of its creator and to the moment of time when the sixties started making their breakthrough to the east.

The film is based on the teachings of Wilhelm Reich, a student of Sigmund Freud, whose controversial ideas about the role of sex in people's lives brought him to trials in the mid fifties. He died in 1957. but left a number of followers who continued to explore his ideas. Makavejev used some of them in this film, the structure of which is not so easy to explain. It is a combination of fact and fiction, where the documentary content consists of interviews with Reich's family members and experts in his philosophy, who conduct a number of experiments to prove their theories. That part, set in the United States, is intercut with a fictional story about a beautiful Serbian Milena (Milena Dravic) who propagates philosopher's views in the communist Yugoslavia. While her randy roommate Jagoda (Jagoda Kaloper) mostly has sex or can be seen naked in the background, Milena preaches free love to the tenants of her building more passionately than any speech Yugoslav leader Tito ever gave. When she meets and becomes attracted to a sexually repressed Russian ice-skater Vladimir Iljic (Ivica Vidovic, obviously named after Lenjin), the whole east block becomes the target of Makavejev's biting humor.

The sole construction of this picture is a pleasure to watch, not surprisingly, considering it comes from probably the weirdest and most original director of the late sixties and early seventies. His juxtaposition may be influenced by the cinema of Godard, Eisenstein and Bunuel, but the style has Makavejev written all over it. Just see few other of his films, especially Innocence Unprotected, and you'll see what I mean.

The biggest mistake one could make is to call this exploitation due to the heavy sexual content. It's not, that's clear to anyone familiar with the nature of communism and with a small insight into Reich's work. What makes it exceptional is that Makavejev took the philosophy which was controversial even in the "liberal" West and applied his radical view of it on the conservative communist society, even if the society in question was the "the most liberal communist country". It's easy to see how this would trigger controversy upon its release.

If you choose to find one single meaning here (I won't, nor does Makavejev, I'm pretty sure of that), you will find this to be a cautionary tale, without the intention to shock, but to worn. By doing this, you could find the main idea to be the one about the dangers of dedication to any ideology that puts abstract ideas and ideological riddles in front of the individuals and their freedoms. But, for anyone who has seen it, it is clear that the reduction of this kind would be an unnecessary, and probably untrue, simplification.

I realize that everyone won't like WR. It doesn't have a structure of, what you'd call, a normal picture. But if you refuse to restrict your self to standard TV film narrative you might try with Makavejev, one of the directors whose work represents the most radical challenge to that convention.