Film Still

WR: Mysteries of the Organism

Dušan Makavejev

Yugoslavia

1971

85 minutes

Color

1.33:1

German, Russian, English

389

Synopsis

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

Cast

MilenaMilena Dravić
Vladimir Ilyich Ivica Vidović
JagodaJagoda Kaloper
U.S. SoldierTuli Kupferberg
Radmilović Zoran Radmilović
HerselfJackie Curtis
Yugoslav Soldier Miodrag Andrić

Credits

DirectorDušan Makavejev
CinematographyPega Popovic and Alexander Petković
SoundLudwig Probst and Dušan Aleksić
EditingIvanka Vukasović
Art directionDragoljub Ivkov

Disc Features

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Dušan Makavejev
  • Audio commentary assembled from Raymond Durgnat’s 1999 book on the film
  • Hole in the Soul, Makavejev’s 1994 tragicomic autobiographical short film, originally made for the BBC
  • New and archival video interviews with Makavejev
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum

From the Current

WR, Sex, and the Art of Radical Juxtaposition

by Jonathan Rosenbaum Jun 18, 2007

Between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s, it was generally felt among Western intellectuals and cinephiles that cutting-edge, revolutionary cinema came from Western Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Among the touchstones were Jean-Luc Godard’s films in France, Newsreel’s agitprop documentaries...

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Available Editions

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DVD

1 Disc

SRP: $39.95

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$31.96