WR: Mysteries of the Organism

Dusan Makavejev brings a surreal combinatory style and radical sexual politics to a docu-fictional exploration of Wilhelm Reich and his implications for world revolution. The stated aim of this seriously ideological work is amusement; it comes described as “a fantasy on the Fascism and Communism of human bodies, a summary of information about the political life of human genitals, and a proclamation of the pornographic essence of any system of authority and power over others.” In a new twist on old Eisenstein, juxtaposition is the key to Makavejev’s bold and funny construct, which offers Tuli “Kill for Peace” Kupferberg as urban terrorist; a session with a plaster-caster; documentation on Reich and the hysteria this Eisenhower voter provoked in book-burning America; Stalin’s ghost, popping up at inopportune moments; and a narrative fiction about a Yugoslav beautician and free-love advocate (Milena Dravic) who “loses her head” over a sexually repressed Soviet ice-skating champion, confirming one of Reich’s theses on Stalinist puritanism. Makavejev declared, “If you don’t leave the cinema after five minutes of this film, you become the film’s accomplice.”