WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1971)

What does the energy harnessed through orgasm have to do with the state of Communist Yugoslavia circa 1971? Only counterculture filmmaker extraordinaire Duan Makavejev has the answers (or the questions). His surreal documentary-fiction collision WR: Mysteries of the Organism begins as an investigation of the life and work of controversial psychologist and philosopher Wilhelm Reich and then explodes into a free-form narrative of a beautiful young Slavic girls sexual liberation. Banned upon its release in the directors homeland, the art-house smash WR is both whimsical and bold in its blending of politics and sexuality. Product Description

We Have Just Started

Director: Dusan Makavejev
Duration: 85 minutes

When Yugoslavian director Dusan Makarejev's film WR: Mysteries of the Orgasm debuted back in 1971 it received both critical acclaim and scorn. Extraordinarily popular in France, it won top honors at Cannes, and in New York, it was outright banned in Makarejev's homeland as well as the Soviet Union as a film that was anti-Communist and anti-Soviet. Yet, it is also called anti-America and a heaping slag of defamation of the psychologist Wilhelm Reich, who early in his career had been Sigmund Freud's assistant and later, at the end of his life, imprisoned by the American government for some of his medical procedures. So what is this film? Is it anti-American, anti-soviet, anti-morals, anti-cinema? Yes, it can be all these things, or it can be viewed as a filmic voyage to embrace the id without society's, be it the Soviet Union or America, moralistic encodings strapping one down to act a certain way.

The film is supposedly a "documentary" of Wilhelm Reich and of how his experiments not only ended up with him in prison, but his works ordered destroyed by the American government. However, the film turns into a series of vignettes primarily revolving around a Yugoslavian woman named Milena and her younger, dark-haired nymphomaniac friend Jagoda who "liberates" herself constantly through sexual intercourse with handsome soldiers. Milena is a bit more restrained than Jagoda, but when the Soviet ice skater Vladimir Ilych makes his appearance; her own desires come to the fore to be blocked by Ilych's communist rhetoric.

I am not quite sure what to make of this film as a whole, but I must say that it is definitely an interesting experience. Also, the appearances of various artists and editors such as Betty Dodson and Jim Buckley, both of whom were involved with sexual works in the underground, make for a remarkably coherent, thought provoking mess of a film. February 18, 2008

Colllage satire at its best...

I was lucky enough to see WR for the first time at a film festival run by the Institute for Sexual Research (now the Kinsey Institute) at Indiana University when I was an undergraduate there. I saw it for a second time in Albany, NY at a New York Writer's Institute showing complete with the presence of the director himself, the great Dusan Makavejev. The film has stuck with me ever since.

Yes, its not a Hollywood film with a nice little o so fake narrative tied up in colourful ribbons and bows. Yes, its not a documentary of Wilhelm Reich and shouldn't be viewed as such; only a true believer could mistake it as such or condemn it for not treating the totem figure with an aura of sacredness. What it is is the best collage satire (Vertov meets Bunuel if you need a label you can get a handle on)I have ever seen. Though Sweet Movie has garnered more viewer comments for me WR is Makavejev's high water mark.

By the way, I seem to remember the film as having more scenes than what the Criterion release does. Does anyone else have this sense?

November 29, 2007

Organization and sponteneity

This is the best subversive political film I've ever seen. It is the only film that puts sexuality in the political equation, much like Reich himself.
Throw surrealism, chaos, comedy into the mix and you have one hell of an experience.
The film starts out as a semi-documentry concerning the suppression of the life and works of Herr Reich, here in America, mostly, where he died in an American prison. It might be me, but it never really tells what his conviction was. Maybe, I'll watch it again. Obviously, because of his radical ideas and his past association with communism. The land of the free and the home of the brave, I guess.
There are many more sub-plots and characters dispersed throughout, but the film leaves the viewer with the impression that our society will never be truly free, and yes, Communism is held in as much contempt as Capitalism. Especially when tyrants are in power.
If you are a fan of artsy cinema off of the beaten path, you owe it to yourself to own this movie.
Features are wonderful and so is the film transfer and cleanup. Documentry and interview focus is on the director, as it should be. Highly recommended viewing experiece for discriminating adults September 11, 2007

A thouroughly strange and interesting experience in film

wr: mysteries of the organism is above all else something of an experiment in narrative structure.. the movie begins curiously as a pseudo-documentary and ends as an absurd fictional account of a relationship in a communist country (hard to describe actually)... The film is also to my way of thinking highly comic.. there is a certain bunuel like surrealism particularly in the last scenes which almost explodes accross the screen in high contrast with the first part of the movie..
Criticisms abound for this film.. one being that it is a gross distortion of the theories of wilhelm reich.. My reaction to this is.. so what?? It is clear that this is going on and that this is a juxtaposition done for a larger purpose.. I mean do you think he structured the film the way he did for his own ideas of wilhelm reich? - perhaps - and is this subjective rendering artfully done - absolutely.. I see this as being a very thought provoking approach to making a movie.. and please do not discount the comic elements of the picture.. August 13, 2007

very weird.

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

WR: Mysteries of the Organism made in Yugoslavia as W.R. - Misterije organizma is documentary film about sex and how it relates to the Austrian psychaiatrist Wilhelm Reich whose initials are the basis for the film's title.

The film is a mixture of Soviet bloc politics and sex. It contains dialogue in both Serbocroatian and English and was filmed in Europe and America.


The special features are interviews with the film's director Dusan Makavejev, Makavejev's autobiographical film, Hole in the Soul, and audio commentary.

The film has graphic sexual content and is inappropriate for minors July 19, 2007

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